Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Affordable Cohousing (was "Failure")

[CHRISTINE COE (CHRISTINECOE1]

Dear Cohousing List--

Allow me to echo James Kacki's reply to Fred Olson on the quality of postings 
to the list, in light of what could have been a flame-out session.

I am part of the Bartimaeus Cohousing project in Bremerton, WA 
(www.bartcommunity.org<http://www.bartcommunity.org/>), and by virtue of being 
a "Christian" like this Stambler guy claims to be, I can only apologize for his 
rambling "indictment" of cohousing, which was in fact a matter of concept 
confusion, prejudicial analysis, and arrogant hubris.  

I have found the "voices in leadership of the U.S. cohousing movement" to be, 
in the vast majority, fair-minded, open and honest.  My hat's off to the rest 
of the list for not letting this degenerate into a similarly over-generalized  
"indictment." 

Interestingly, the first time anyone was called a "Christian" it was a 
derogatory term, for followers of a leader so "successful" that he was executed 
on a Roman cross as a criminal.  Always be wary of anyone who's too eager to 
use that term in a "triumphal" sense.  In the best sense, it always means 
someone who's willing to suffer ignominy (or worse) for the values which Jesus 
stood for.  

That's a completely different thing than calling it down upon yourself for 
being disrespectful and snide.  Let's hope, in Stambler's case, it's "only" a 
mental health problem which could be partly addressed by the caring 
ministrations of a genuine community.

With Care,

--Guy Coe