James R. White Misrepresents Again - PART II

[Guardian]

Mr. James R. White is in a continual down spiral of honesty. Today on his blog, found here, Mr. White responds to my post on his misrepresentation of Augustine, found here. Mr. White would like his ignorant followers to believe Augustine stated one continual flowing thought that showed evidence that he did not believe in transubstantiation. However, one knowing the Early Father’s writing, knows immediately that Mr. White cut and pasted two separate sayings of Augustine and stuck them together, completely out of context. This is all addressed in the post.

However, today Mr. White doubles his error, to the point where I can not give him the benefit of the doubt for accidently losing the citation because he was rushing. As Mr. White states:

“No, of course not. Instead, when I had added some quick quotes from my IRC popup files at the end of a single blog article the reference to one of the quotes from Augustine got deleted–the quote was perfectly accurate, it just didn’t have the proper citation on it (similar to RyanL putting the wrong source for one of his allegations of ad-hominem on my part).”

“…BUT, if I lose a line in copying from a popup text file while rushing to post a blog article so I can try to get things wrapped up before doing the DL and packing and heading out of town, well, THAT is enough to disprove everything I’ve ever said!”

Now either Mr. White will have to conclude that he does not have the integrity to do honest quotations of the Early Fathers in context, or he will have to conclude that he is in too much of a rush to do honest quotations of the Early Fathers in context.

The reason I say this is because Mr. White has consistently made this error over the years, the EXACT same error no doubt.

On December 1, 2000 he misrepresented Augustine, in the exact same way, here.

On August 8, 2006 he misrepresented Augustine, in the exact same way, here.

On September 21, 2006 he misrepresented Augustine, in the exact same way, here – which he now updated and cited, yet still takes out of context.

Coincidence? I think not. Mr. White, in all honesty, quit the misrepresentation. It’s obviously intentional…you know it, we know it.

 

[PhilVaz]

It’s called sloppy. I forgive him. He’s tired, he got a cold. Apparently he hasn’t double checked that quote (or mangled quotes) for a few years. Time to get the cobwebs out of the Church Fathers quotes found on his hard drives.

As for what the Donation of Constantine or the False Decretals have to do with St. Augustine on the Eucharist or the Liturgies of the early Church, you got me stumped. (Referring to his latest blog entry).

St. Augustine on the Eucharist

St. Augustine on the Papacy and follow the links

Phil P

 

[Guardian]

Three times he has lost the citation? Three times he was rushing too much? Three times he was too busy trying to wrap up the DL? Three times he failed to cut and paste correctly, in the exact same way?

Trying to portray this misrepresentation as an isolated incident due to his circumstances is simply dishonest.

 

[PhilVaz]

guard << Three times he has lost the citation? Three times he was rushing too much? >>

Well one logical explanation is that he originally typed in that quotation wrong (or mixed up two quotes together), and has never been called on it until yesterday. So yeah, for 6 years he’s had a inaccurate mangling of an Augustine quote on his hard drives or whatever. Sloppy yeah. He’s getting older, he’s no longer "a man barely out of his twenties."

Phil P

 

[josephlilac]

Well White&Co. has also misrepresented the facts by claiming that I am the one who had pointed out his most recent errors. When I sent him the email, I directly quoted Guardian and did not pose it as my own words…so much for accuracy from White&Co.

Also, White&Co. consistently misses the context of things. That quote was not sent as a refutation of his positions on the Church Fathers, but to make light of his arrogance regarding his own personal scholarship.

 

[teajay]

guard << Three times he has lost the citation? Three times he was rushing too much? >>

Well one logical explanation is that he originally typed in that quotation wrong (or mixed up two quotes together), and has never been called on it until yesterday. So yeah, for 6 years he’s had a inaccurate mangling of an Augustine quote on his hard drives or whatever. Sloppy yeah. He’s getting older, he’s no longer "a man barely out of his twenties."

Phil P

Phil that doesn’t gel with his explanation. I think that is Guardians point. JW says “…if I lose a line in copying from a popup text file while rushing to post a blog article so I can try to get things wrapped up before doing the DL and packing and heading out of town…”. This indicates that the source he ‘cut’ from was complete and included the relevant citation and that it was his rushed attempt to cut and paste that saw it unintentionally deleted. But if he had the original quote already messed up in the source he cut from, he can hardly claim to have ‘lost’ a line in copying from a file while rushing to post the blog article can he? Perhaps it would be humiliating for him to just say “well I like to cut and post quotes from my hard drive without looking at the originals, and this one looked handy so I used it…several times”.

To have an “inaccurate mangling of an Augustine quote on his hard drive” and use it three times would be merely sloppy. To claim that it was his recent rushed attempt to include the quote that caused the line to be lost in this instance would be dishonest.

This doesn’t ‘prove’ he is bad, or deceptive or wrong in all of his claims. It simply proves that he did do something wrong here, and if he simply admits that and apologises for this instance of dishonesty, everyone can move on from this. I think Guardian is correct and that his charge of dishonesty on JW’s part has been proven - JW will earn more respect by admitting his error and his dishonest explanation of it than he will persisting with his current claim.

 

[PhilVaz]

teejay << Perhaps it would be humiliating for him to just say “well I like to cut and post quotes from my hard drive without looking at the originals, and this one looked handy so I used it…several times”. >>

Well that’s clearly what he did, and its been incorrect for at least six years. The one citation was missing and he combined two quotes as you guys uncovered. But I’m curious to go back to his debates with Sungenis on the Eucharist (from 1999 and 2003) and see if he brought up those same quotations from Augustine with proper citation during the debate. But anyway, at least sloppy sloppy sloppy for a “man barely into his forties.”

Phil P