[crakjak]

Originally Posted by Neckstadt

I will post 3 threads.

First an email dated 12/12/2007 addressed to Nathan Eckstadt from Thomas Fudge.

The 2nd will be a letter addressed to brothern ouside the UPC on the symposium from 2004.

The third being the actual letter he sent to the UPC panel of men that were on the panel in 2004.

These are Thomas Fudges' Words.

I find him being a person that will not shy from his writings.

Here is the email he sent me today on his recollection of the 2004 symposium:

This email has not been edited in anyway.

Stay tuned for Part 2 and 3 the letters to the brethren:




Email to Nathan Eckstadt 12/12/2007
From Thomas Fudge:

Dear Nate,

The meeting occurred on the campus of Gateway College in Florissant, MO in March 2004.

The UPC holds an annual conference which they regard as scholarly
and people get together and run a conference.

At the 2004 affair they scheduled a panel discussion of my book which had appeared a year earlier.

The session lasted about 90 minutes and there were five panelists:
David Bernard, David Norris (who gave the main
response), Kenneth Bass, Robin Johnston, and J.R. Peyton.

Mark Jordan, superintendent of the Ohio district was the M.C.

I flew from Oregon to St. Louis to attend this session and did show up unannounced with a friend of mine who lived in the St. Louis area.

We timed our appearance to coincide with the start of that session and Mark Jordan was at the microphone calling the room to order when I walked in and sat in the back row. It was a fairly large room.

I had met Bass in Texas about 5 months earlier.

He is just now completing a PhD in New Testament at Baylor University.

He is Oneness but not UPC.

He recognized me and there was surprise on his face and in his body language.

While Norris was speaking Bass must have mentioned to someone else
that I was there and soon there were people straining to catch a glimpse of the heretic.

Necks were craning and whispers were going round the room.

Once Norris finished and was alerted to the presence of an unexpected guest he came down to where I was, shook hands, introduced himself, and asked if I'd like to reply. Initially I said "no".

Immediately, I realized this might be construed in a regrettable fashion (i.e. his argument had silenced and shamed the heretic) and so I agreed to do so if he wished.

He hesitated. Then he said he'd ask Jordan. Mind you while these exchanges were going on the session was still in progress.

Norris returned with the answer that the chair had a problem with me speaking.

The hilarity was exacerbated when questions were raised from the floor like "well, where does Fudge go to church?"

Much hem-hawing went on amongst the panelists none of whom were able to say anything.

Of course after the session I hung around and all of the panelists made a point of meeting me.

Jordan did not come near. I must have sent a copy of Norris' paper to several friends for I have here a form letter mentioning the conference.

Additionally, and this may be of some interest, I drew up a short paper on
accusations of calling the UPC "radical" in my book.

I'll attach both.

The other thing I recall is that afterwards someone from Missouri contacted me to ask if it was true that..I had been at the conference and denied the right to speak.

I wrote to him but that letter is among my files in Washington.

They held the session I think to provide an official response to the book.

After all, when was the last time someone wrote a 400 page book on the UPC?

Silence on their part might suggest I had completely proven my point or that they could think of no rebuttal.

They surely did not anticipate my appearance believing I was in New Zealand.

You might like to contact Kenneth Bass his email is XXX.

He and I have become friends.

Ask him about the symposium.

He's pretty upfront and he and I have talked about the conference on different occasions since.


Blessing,

Thomas

OK, Nate let's have the rest of them!