[Hope]

TJ,
Here are a few quotes from a previous post. Any bold phrases are from me.

Please quote my bitter accusations against you so I can see what you are talking about. No I don’t see how what I have done is the same. You’ll need to explain how.

I do not find a bitter tone or resentment. These are comments made about the actual event that actually happened.

Obviously the most glaring thing of importance was the very abuse that you went through--abuse which was nothing less than a psychological and spiritual gang rape, and this was done in front of your parent's who sat there silently watching. Words fail me.

but the fact is that any other response to your story is not normal. I am sorry you had to have insult added to injury by having your story questioned. It made me think of someone who finally is able to come forward and report a shameful crime who finds themselves being questioned like they were the criminal.

In this case it seems that the prime directive quickly became minimizing your story or finding a way to make it go away. BlessD, I am sorry for this treatment. You didn’t deserve it.

I can see how this offended you, however, I wasn’t talking to you directly and it was not meant to be hateful to you. It was meant to be kind to BlessD. I made a choice between taking care of how you might feel and how she might feel. I chose to take care of her. I would do it again. I do not hate you at all. I just don’t like how you have been behaving on this thread.
There is no question that you have never harmed me in any way. I also have no intention to harm you.

I am now aware you are offended and I am sorry that I offended you. I am willing to go the distance with you to clear up the offense. If you need me to be more specific, then I will need more specific explanation of what you want me to apologize for.

Above are a few quotes from your post. I have no desire to get into a “prove it debate.” Over the past months, you have basically taken a mode of “be on the alert to put down whatever Don says since he was once an elder.” But I was never an elder related to you nor did I ever have any interaction with you in that capacity.

I knew you as a very intense person and have assumed that many of your posts and choice of language were only a reflection of your personality and that I was sometimes caught in the crossfire due to my alleged position in the Texas churches. I have always kept in my mind an image of you as I knew you and John when we were in Houston together. You both were first and foremost dedicated lovers of Christ with a heart for people in the Kingdom of God and a desire for those who were not that they could be saved. Because of your statement, “I just don’t like how you have been behaving on this thread” I now realize that the sharpness and put down of recent language had nothing to do with Benson, Ray etc but reflected how you desired to treat me in the current context. I will let that go and accept whatever you choose to do. You have enough on your plate without needing to take on an old man.

I desire only the best for you and John. I am certainly the better off for knowing you when we were in the church in Houston together. I am sorry that our fellowship was interupted due to past events, events that I was 98% in the dark about until you sent out a blanket letter sometime in the 1980s.

I prefer to drop my request rather than get into a “prove it” exchange.

Yours in Christ Jesus,

Hope, Don Rutledge