Friday 9 July 2010

Clerical Coiney Ducks Issue, Trying to Fly Below "Heretic Radar"

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Coin fondling and publicity-loving pastor Scot Head comments on his blog ('New Lows for Academia') on an old post of mine:
I've finally shown up on Paul Barford's heretic radar. Mr. Barford has launched a scathing diatribe against my post about the realities of ancient coin collecting, and has made sure to point out the moral foundations that he perceives to be shaken by my coin collecting, since I happen to also be a pastor. His evoking of Christian ethics as the foundation of his argument are quite humorous [...]

The pastor fails to note that Christian ethics are not by any means the "foundation" of my argument, I made an entirely different case. Certainly nothing "heretic" there. A case which the reader will note Pastor Scott M. Head totally fails to answer, preferring to speculate on my aims and character.

Pastor Head identifies himself as a collector of coins, has a blog on ancient dugup coin collecting in which he tells other people "how to do it" in some detail. It seems perfectly reasonable in any discussion of the collecting of ancient artefacts, whether "academic' or not, to take such a document as a case study and discuss what it reveals about lies behind it.

Pastor Head is equally at liberty to show in his blog (or a comment on this one) why what I write about the probable origins of the coins he and his fellow collectors collect (and the people at least some of their money is most likely supporting) is untrue. He can explain why he thinks from his Christian point of view buying what most probably are in many cases items stolen from "source countries" is OK. He is quite OK discussing morals and ethics and suchlike on his christiany blog , so why not on his coiney blog? That, actually, Mr Head is not a rhetorical question. Can he actually answer the points made, instead of criticising me for raising them?

UPDATE:

I see from the comments on his blog that Mr Head and his attitudes towards dugup coins on the US market have a lot of supporters, including one who claims to be a professional archaeologist, who seem to disapprove of me taking specific examples of discussions of artefact collecting written by artefact hunters and discussing them on my blog. I am sure they would rather the subject was left alone, which is probably why (though I cannot say I have bust a gut looking), there seems to be nothing much by those who actually wrote their names under their messages of support for Pastor Head on the topic. Mr Head of course will continue to avoid answering the point I made, and this will disturb none of his fans. As for "carol", whoever you are, maybe you would like to give an example of where I allegedly "avoid discussions??". As for your: "Paul Barford sidesteps every real issue like the ballerina that he is" (actually since you say "every real issue", you'd better give a few).

Vignette: Ravenna, Apollonaire Nuovo at Ravenna St Peter and the cock.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I did post a comment on his blog indicating your views had much support in Britain but he didn't publish it.

On the other hand, he DID publish negative comments from a British archaeologist in disguise (whose identity was obvious from the trademark style) and a British metal detectorist (recognisable by the trademark spelling).

I guess that tells you all you need to know about him.

Paul Barford said...

" On the other hand, he DID publish negative comments from a British archaeologist in disguise (whose identity was obvious from the trademark style) and a British metal detectorist (recognisable by the trademark spelling)."

Well, I think there is a LOT of hiding in the antiquity collecting world, both of identities and uncomfortable issues-which-are-not-to-be-talked-about but very little coming out in the open to face the wider issues.

 
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