As many of you know I have a rare bone disease in my
wrists called Kienbock Disease (KD) — I was diagnosed
with it about 11 years ago. It’s one of those diseases that
basically no one has ever heard about. It’s estimated that
one out of every 250,000 people has KD. About 8 years ago,
when the internet began to become popular I posted a
single page website titled “Looking for others with
Kienbock Disease”. After a few months I heard from
around 20 different people who, like me, felt rather alone
because they weren’t able to find anyone else with this
disease. I began to forward messages between the various
folks who replied to me and after a few weeks decided to
create an internet emailing group for folks with KD. I’ve
been operating the list since 1997 and it’s grown to over
300 members world wide.
In the beginning most folks got along just fine, but you
always have a few trouble makers, so I’ve created some
rules for the list. One of the problems that seems to arise
with such a variety of folks is religion. There are many
people of many faiths on the list and in an effort to prevent
any sort of argument I’ve asked that religion not be
discussed. I have seen MANY email lists self-destruct over
religious arguments.
As expected, most folks don’t have a problem with this rule
and are happy just to have a place to talk about Kienbock
Disease with others. But you always have a handful of
folks who can’t stand not to spew their religion onto others.
What is interesting is that on the mailing list these people
are ALWAYS Christians. I have never had any trouble
from any of the Pagans, Moslems, Hindus, Atheists (there
are a number of them!) or other religions. It’s always the
Christians who scream about “Freedom of Speech” and
how I am denying them their “rights”. These people
simply refuse to stop making offensive religious statements
like “You can’t know love unless you love the Lord”, “Only
those who love Christ will have everlasting life” and so on.
Recently, a number of folks simply refused to abide by the
no religion rule and after several warnings, they were
kicked off the list. For the past couple of months they have
continued to send me rather unchristian-like emails. I
prepared and sent a response to them. It’s been about two
weeks now and I haven’t heard a word from them. Maybe I
got through to them? What follows is the message I sent:
After the incident the church leaders would ask
you to not do that again. You tell them you have a
“freedom of speech” and have every right to say
whatever you want where ever you want. The
church leaders try to remind you that there are
300 other folks who are trying to enjoy the
services and you are violating their rights to a
calm and quiet service.
A few months pass and once again you want to
practice your “freedom of speech” and once
again stand up in the middle of church services
and start shouting offensive things. Now
everyone is upset again and the church leaders
have no choice but to ask you to not come back.
You tell them that you have a right to “freedom of
speech” and they are unjustly banning you from
church. They try to explain to you that there are
300 other people who have a right to a calm and
quiet church service, but you refuse to listen and
start sending offensive letters to the church
leaders demanding they let you do whatever you
want to in church.
There are many “freedoms” in this world and
they only work if you respect the freedoms of
EVERYONE. Sometimes this means you have to
give up your “freedom of speech” in certain
places so other “freedoms” can be had. As the
old saying goes “You can’t yell fire in a crowded
theater” because you could start a panic and
someone could get hurt. Freedoms are only good
if they are respected by everyone.
The rules of the Kienbock list say that religion
(and a few other things) are not to be discussed.
This is done in interest of preventing arguments
and distractions. If someone continues to violate
a rule we have no choice but to kick them off the
list. We have 300 other people’s “rights” to
consider and the good of the many outweigh the
needs of the few (or in this case the one).
You can’t stand up and shout offensive things in
the middle of a church service, and you can’t
discus religion on the Kienbock List. It’s just that
simple. I don’t know why you, or anyone else,
has a problem understanding this concept.
I hope that will be the end of the “debate”!
Lets say you go to a church and there’s about 300
people there. You’ve been attending this church
for a while so you know what’s expected and
what rules the people there think are important.
One day, during services, you decided to stand
up and begin shouting offensive things. I bet the
folks there would get pretty upset. Some would
“shush” you, others would ask the folks in
charge to do something, and there would
probably be some who wouldn’t care and would
ignore you. I bet the incident would be talked
about for some time.
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Angela C. Byers
Copyright © 1996 - 2006 Angela C. Byers