Carolyn, I am sorry for bearing false witness against you.
The Background:
They sometimes call it eating crow. And I suppose I would say that I find crow a rather tasty dish. Not that I look forward to it - -but that I welcome correction. Who wants to go through life being wrong, being shown you are wrong, and never admitting it? Think of the trouble it would cause to refuse to admit driving in Chicago is a different matter than is driving in Torquay! What if you grabbed the salt instead of the sugar for your coffee and refused to admit it now tasted vile? To be more serious, how would your friends view you if you accused one of them of having an affair with your husband when what you overheard was an innocent phone call planning a surprise birthday party for you?
We should be thankful for the chance to correct our wrongs. To repent to God for our sins, and to apologize to our neighbor for bearing false witness against him.
Carolyn Custis James spoke at CBEs 2003 conference in Orland, Florida. CBEs policy, in previous years, had been to require all conference speakers to be members of the organization. I know that as late as 1999 this requirement was definitely in place because a friend of mine was required to join before she could act as a replacement speaker for a mutual friend of ours. I had no information indicating that they had ever changed that requirement. This morning, I placed a telephone call to their offices to ask if the policy was still in place and was told by their conference coordinator that now all they required was for someone to sign a statement of faith. She did not know when that policy had been changed.
I placed that phone call in response to this exchange. As readers of this blog know, I have significant disagreements with what Mrs. James writes in her books and on her blog. So significant that, even if the charge of CBE membership were true, it wouldn't add much to the disagreement.
Addendum: Please also note that CBEs book service carries all four of the books authored by Mrs. James. their selection criteria are here: CBE Full Review Evaluation Form
I've never had to eat crow, Kamilla - ;) - but I understand it tastes like chicken.
ReplyDeleteWell, interestingly enough, I've been waiting two months for Mrs. James to tell me where Kristof and WuDunn express any criticism of Chairman Mao and no response from her. Not even after I asked her again on the Western Sem blog where our recent exchange re: her CBE membership (or not) took place.
ReplyDeleteI've just checked both the spot of our recent exchange and the post on her blog where I originally asked the question two months ago, and still no response.