Thursday, April 21, 2005

Shaun Pierce Responds

Shaun Pierce, WORD-FM's Roman Catholic producer of the talk show of former and fired host, Marty Minto, has responded to yesterday's blog entry, and so I thought I would offer a few comments by way of response.

For the record, I would expect anyone belonging to any denomination to whole heartedly believe that theirs is the true Church. If you do not, you are wasting your time. I am not ashamed of my faith. I also do not seek to force it upon those who disagree.
First of all, my comments yesterday were not directed to Shaun Pierce--they were directed to the gutless postmodern hypocrites of WORD-FM, particularly the GM, Chuck Gratner. As a committed Roman Catholic, Mr. Pierce, of course, has every right to believe and propagate what he does. The hypocrisy is on the part of WORD-FM, who allows a Roman Catholic in their hire publicly to make the kinds of statements Mr. Pierce makes on his PUBLIC website, but fires an Evangelical who makes similar comments--but from the perspective of biblical truth rather than the papal error.

I do wish to make one thing perfectly clear. This site is my own personal site. I represent no one but myself. It is not owned, edited, run or even approved by the company I work for. It is very important that you understand what are my words and the words of others. I always try to make that clear.

Until I posted my entry yesterday, Shaun Pierce's "Powerblog" purported to be a forum that would allow listeners of the show to continue the discussion of topics raised on the show. Yesterday, he changed the description of his blog to this:

Welcome to Powerblog! hosted by Shaun Pierce. Feel free to read and post your comments. Opinions expressed herein are exclusive to Powerblog and are not do not represent the views of of any employer, organiztion or outside entity. Content remains private property and may not be published, copied or broadcast with written consent. All rights reserved. PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO CLICK ON OUR SPONSORS. You will help support this site! Thanks to all who help spread the word about POWERBLOG!
The misspelled words in the new description are a dead give-away: they betray the fact that Mr. Pierce threw up this new disclaimer posthaste. Moreover, how does Mr. Pierce's new disclaimer exonerate him from liability, when in fact Marty Minto's show regularly made this same kind of disclaimer on his own show; namely, that the views he expressed do not represent the views of WORD-FM? Again, hypocrisy raises its ugly head.

But make no mistake: Mr. Pierce's blog was indeed advertised as a forum for listeners to continue discussions from the show, and he certainly used that to his advantage directly after Marty's firing when making his unsubstantiated innuedos that there is "more to the story" that he is not at liberty to divulge. He repeats that innuendo in his response to me:
It is unfortunate you do not know the entire story and I am not at liberty to share it with you.
Mr. Pierce, the issue is not currently about you, but that can change. It is a disgraceful thing for you to make this kind of breezy, unsubstantiated charge. Either have the courage and fortitude--and commitment to the truth--to back up your innuendo, or restrain yourself from poisoning the well by suggesting something sinister in the minds of your readers. If you are not at liberty to elaborate on the details, then neither are you at liberty to suggest there are other details.
It is my hope that despite the differences we have, all of us can return to the single belief that unites us all as Christians and that is the saving message of Jesus.
If we were "united" in a belief regarding "the saving message of Jesus," there wouldn't have been a firing, now would there?

I welcome you and invite you to join the discussion. Together we will discover the Truth. Not my truth, or your truth, but THE TRUTH.
Well, thank you for the invitation, Mr. Pierce, but when you are in the truth you don't need to discover it.