Growing exasperated, and maybe just a little sad

There's this online discussion forum I've been a part of for awhile. Mostly it has to do with worship, but a couple days ago I joined in a discussion on the theology forum. I've been trying to craft a well-nuanced argument regarding one theological issue. And a couple of the guys on there, having misread me, have decided I'm a heretic. So they have attacked, and attacked, and attacked. At this point they won't even deal with the case I'm making. Instead, they picked up on a couple buzzwords, interpreted them through their "heresy-detector" grids, and have decided I'm "dangerous" to the Body. The harder I try to explain my case, the more scriptures they throw at me, claiming that I'm in the same line as all those heretics who came before. One or two people have actually jumped to my defense, correctly interpreting what it is I'm trying to say. But the rest have already decided they know what I'm saying, and are ready to banish me from the Kingdom.

It's all so irritating. Mostly because they refuse to listen to what I'm saying. But also because I grow so tired of self-proclaimed "Guardians of Orthodoxy" who feel the need to point out every perceived heresy and run it into the ground. These same folks have announced that Brian McLaren is the biggest danger to Christianity today, and that the Emergent Movement is actually a New Age Gnosticism that needs to be fought to the end.

And what is always so frustrating is that they are relying on 16th century theology rather than the biblical texts themselves. But, they've grown so close to their theology that they think it IS the biblical text. So to say "that's not really what the text says," is, in their minds, to actually deny the text. Does that make sense?

I think I'm staying closer to the biblical message then they are, but since I'm denying Calvin (the final arbiter of all things theological, I guess) they assume I'm denying the Bible.

Makes me glad, again, to be in the Covenant Church, where people can actually have discussions without automatically being labeled heretics. Makes me glad I left the fundies behind a long time ago. But it makes me sad that, at least on this message board, I can't have a voice without the thought police coming after me.