The Slicing of Slice
So I was notified this morning that Slice of Laodicea is no more. As Heather from Deconstructed Christian wrote to me (and you can read the full comment HERE ):
And now it’s gone…. Slice has passed from the internet world and exists only within the worrying mind of Ingrid herself and the nightmares of those who have scarred their retinas by accidentally clicking on a link somewhere. A silly mistake by a webmaster, a clever hacker, the work of the devil, or the hand of God? You decide.
Good comment Heather. You can read Ingrid’s farewell letter HERE. I must say, after having read her letter, that I wasn’t sure how I felt. I just want to make a few points:
- Why didn’t she back up her files? This is an easy function for Wordpress users. This would have prevented such a crisis. This is what backups are for!
- The server people sound kind of sketchy to me, if Ingrid’s account is accurate. Someone should be held accountable somewhere. Ingrid’s site was well-read and therefore had tons of traffic. For the servers to just say, “Oops!” just doesn’t cut it.
- I was a little amused by the fact that she felt victimized by personal insults from people, mostly men, who didn’t agree with her. I received some pretty harsh treatment from her critique of me and nakedpastor. I thought that if you can’t take it, don’t give it.
- But having said that, I think Ingrid was sincere in her motivation and efforts to reform the church that she believed had “gone off the rails“. I don’t believe she was trying to be mean-spirited. She herself was alarmed and hurt by the “cheap shots… it can be devastating“. And these cheap shots, she contemplates, was on a personal level from men who “claim to love Jesus“. She’s right there. When you get down to it, we are all the same on both sides. We are both sides of the same coin. There is no difference.
I’m sorry Slice is gone. We live in countries that allow free speech and freedom of expression. Even though I feel Slice had the slight aroma of a violent, irrational fundamentalism, I think it did serve a purpose. It certainly made me examine myself to see if I was indeed all those things I was accused of. Everything serves a purpose. For some reason, I feel like a formidable foe has fallen. And I’m sad about it.
The fine art photograph is the creation of my friend Mark Hemmings, and is from his Mannequin series.
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Very kind words for someone who attacked you ruthlessly. Of course, you are a rational person, from what I can tell, and can stand above the attack and look at things for what they are.
It is very sad.
I believe that Ingrid’s intention is sincere in reforming the church, but somewhere somehow she got lost on what is right or wrong? Or who really is good or bad?
We can’t tell to ourselves that we are on the right track and Ingrid is not. What if she is right and we are lost?
I feel sorry for everything.
If Ingrid really is serious about recovering her articles, it’s all available at the good old “wayback machine” at http://www.archive.org/web/web.php
That’s what I thought too Rainer, someone, somewhere, just didn’t really want to do much work to make Ingrid’s site re-appear. I’m not that much of a techno-geek but even I could have put most of it back together. Seems like a weird story to me.
I loved her description of “hateful comments” based on what she has said about NP and others. But of course, she’s right so that makes it worse.
hmmmm… ingrids site was useful for educational reasons… i won’t miss it though. i perversely enjoyed what she and others brought to this site for a while… but only for a while if i’m honest. at the end of the day i need communication and debate and sadly that was not possible with the slice crew. that’s what made me sad.
It’s just so tempting to say “God works in mysterious ways”.
DH said “I feel like a formidable foe has fallen. And I’m sad about it.”
Agreed. It’s healthy to have our cherished opinions challenged on a regular basis. And that, in brief, is the fundamental difference between Ingridism and Jesus: one seeks to unleash and empower the radical freedom of Spirit unique to each person and tribe, while the other seeks rigid theological conformity.
Sorry my friend but Ingrid has a ‘personal’ site that now is becoming more ’slice-like’. I would share the link but I fear someone may actual visit and read it.
actually, if you go her new site to her “about” page, she is contemplating revising slice with old files that friends have found for her. it’s not over till it’s over.
“…I feel Slice had the slight aroma of a violent….”
“Violent.” Give me a break.
Violence is a Muslim Mullah telling the people to go blow up the innocent.
Violence is a baby ripped out of a womb.
Violence is a little girl raped and buried alive.
Violence is gangs running the streets beating their next victum.
Violence is a pit bull tearing up a child.
I do believe I detect a “slight aroma” of thin-skinned on NP.
fishon
fishon: violence is not just in actions, but in words. no? let’s go even further… it’s not just in words, but in thoughts. and i don’t think i’m thin-skinned at all. thick-headed though.
NakedPastor - I completely agree with your assessment of Slice closing shop (or at least kind of closing shop). I will not miss being occassionally targeted by them myself.
For myself, it just saddened me to see the passion that Ingrid had for God, go the direction that it did. Then again, maybe God wanted it to go that way. The civil rights movement would have been quite different if MalcolmX did not have the gun in one hand, and Martin Luther King Jr had a dove in the other. Who would you go to? I think by having that voice out there helped people decide. When you see the attrocities of facist tyrants like Pol Pot, or Hitler. It makes it easy to say, “Hey, I think that is not for me.” Her site accomplished a lot of that decision making.
I sent her a letter with condolences, and well wishes for the future. With an offer of spiritual support if needed.