What’s Wrong with the World

I respect you and commend you to the care and protection of Our Lady. I look forward to reading more of your work at the other places.

There is neither harm nor shame in growing weary with the same old slog, and certainly no room for sorrow however modest.
Good luck to you Mr Beckwith and God bless.

Blogger fatigue hits everyone at some point. Enjoy a break. I doubt you'll be able to stay away for good :)

Frank you do realise that your leaving us to the mercy of Ed and Lydia don't you? :) Best wishes from England
Jack

Francis, I've enjoyed reading your posts here and will miss them. I don't comment here very often, but have more than once appreciated your take especially on some recent political matters.

God bless!

Thanks for the notice, I have now added Return to Rome to my google reader. :-) God bless you, Dr. Beckwith.

Sorry to see you go, but I hope it's for the best. I came to find this blog because of some of your works that I was exposed to in some of my classes and thought very favorably about them. Just being directed here was a huge contribution to my life, and had it been only that it would have been plenty, but I've also greatly enjoyed reading your posts. We'll suffer a loss no doubt, locally, but if not having the obligation of this forum holding you down, perhaps it will be that much more beneficial to you in other areas, which would be a gain for all of us. Thank you.

Dear Dr. Beckwith,

Thank you for your presence and for the writings you have contributed for our edification. May the Lord continue to bless you and your work in other, more tangible venues.

In His grace,
Albert

Though some of your posts really annoyed me, you are a decent person I fully respect.
I've just read your short but admirable text "What's the debate about" on abortion. The article reflects that you always keep in mind the fact that your intellectual opponent is a human being, not a demon or a monster.

This contrasts so drastically with Lydia's awful fanaticism and Ed's unbearable self-righteousness (paired with his manic tendency for self-advertisement: "as I wrote in TLS", "TLS", "TLS" ...)) that your step seems just inevitable to me. Bravo!

Dr. Beckwith,

I attended your dialogue at Wheaton, I am reading Return to Rome, and I have just lately become acquainted with your blogging here. I am so sorry to see you depart. I hope I will be able to catch up with you at the above mentioned blogs.

I am very much enjoying the book.

Dear Prof. Beckwith,

I am mortified at the thought that anything I said in the blog post you deleted might have caused you to leave this blog. I never meant to wound you in any way. I respect your opinions very highly and look forward to them. Please, consider returning at some time in the future. Your voice is sorely needed and appreciated.
I realized after I made my comments in one of the posts that you deleted that I said things in a way that made them too personal. I, too, have been stung on one blog that I post on regularly and it caused me to seriously consider leaving, as well. I appreciate the hurt that blogs can cause, as well as the good they can do. I did not leave the blog because I felt, in balance, after some rest, I could, possibly add a perspective that was different and perhaps needed. I did have to stop commenting when certain people would show up to post comments because I knew they would remind of the past hurt. I am, I am certain, one of the people who has caused you hurt in at least one of these past blog posts and for that, I apologize and ask your forgiveness. Believe me when I say that you add a needed voice to this blog and I ask you to reconsider leaving. Take some time off, if necessary, but please consider returning. When I announced that I was leaving the blog I regularly post on, one of the reasons I came back was because many people asked that I return. May I be the first to ask that you return to this blog. I hope others would also make their voices heard, as well.
Again, you have my apologies and my support.

The Chicken

Dear "The Chicken":

Don't worry yourself about this. You've done nothing wrong. In fact, your posts were exemplary in how one can disagree without being disagreeable.

As I stated in my post, there is no one thing that persuaded me to move on, though the recent attacks on my character--so deeply vicious that even I was shocked--forced my hand.

Thank you for your kind words.

Frank

It's sad to see you leave, professor. Good luck and thanks for all of your excellent work.

Frank, you will be sorely missed. Please, please do stay in touch. I and the others will do our best to hold down the fort, and I'll try to hold up my end by continuing my awful fanaticism (cf our charming commentator Grobi, above). I'm a sucker for flattery.

It was not my intention to hurt you with recent remarks, but it seems they were hurtful and for that I apologize. I think that you're a decent person and hope you realize that my comments from earlier were not meant to suggest that you are anything less than that.

Hi Prof. Beckwith,

I don't comment that much but I just wanted to say that I mainly found this blog because of following your posts and online articles. I'll really miss reading your contributions here.
But I know exactly what you mean.... I can't consistently deal with mean-spirited exchanges either (and I think that's a good thing). Thankfully for me, my name and photo isn't out there. It's alittle easier to shake off the insults when their directed to a random name I picked.

Take care and God bless.

What Lydia said. Godspeed, Frank, and don't be a stranger.

Oh, almost forgot: TLS, TLS, TLS, TLS, TLS....

Dr. Beckwith,

You are a hero in my book and thank you for your wit, sense of humor, love of the game, and teaching us all to be happy conservative warriors. I will miss you and started reading this blog because of you and found Lydia, Feser, and others along the way. Thank you and you are in my prayers. You were my favorite, but the Kingdom lives on.

James R. Allen

Dr. Beckwith,

I rarely comment here, but I'm a regular W4 reader, largely because I follow your work in general (though I've come to like very much the other contributers as well). You'll be missed very much here, though I will continue to read your work elsewhere, both in print and online.

Thank you for your contributions to our Christian intellectual tradition (and your humor!).

Peace be with you,
Tobias

Dear Frank, You will be sorely missed. I hope you will be able to return at some point.

Thank you Dr. Beckwith for your writings here and to you and the others hosting this interesting site for making them available for folks like me to read.

Also, thank you for your post The Classroom Without Reason by which - via the comments it elicited - I discovered Dr. Feser's works.

Thanks, Frank.

Not for leaving (if that wasn't clear), but for your work here and your admirable defense of the Faith in general (even if you are a Papist). I know you'll never give up the latter.

I'll miss you Frank (except for the Dylan posts). :-)

Oh, and I'm eternally in your debt for introducing me to "The Formationator!"

Sorry to see you go, Dr. Beckwith. I've enjoyed your posts here. God bless!

P.S. I happen to appreciate "Lydia's awful fanaticism and Ed's unbearable self-righteousness" so I'll keep reading.

Frank,

I enjoy all your posts - the passionate, the quirky, and the controversial. Because you are so engaging, you risk taking it in the chin one in a while. You will be missed (especially by those of us who share your passion for the faith but not your ability to articulate it). I hope you find another outlet for your creative side...

Best,

MarkC

Dr. Beckwith:

Thanks for your posts here. I've learned a lot from them.

Kristor

I add my thanks for your contributions, and I express my hopes that any ill-will accumulated in controversy is forgiven and forgotten.

Thank you for all your great posts here; I understand completely. People can be bizarre when they leave comments on a blog. I try to think charitably that they are like wild drivers who are mild-mannered outside the car -- subject to temporary insanity. But it is not always easy to do.

Aww, but I just got here, now I'll have to mine the archives. Doesn't seem fair.
People don't think of people on the internet as anything but imaginary creatures, characters on TV or in fiction. I've never heard any one in person, no matter how mean or petty or self-absorbed, talk to an adversary the way I see them "talk" in comments and on forums. Seems like people feel free to be impolitely frank when anonymous, but I think it's more than that, I think people are pushed by something almost compulsive to go farther and farther past where they ever really meant to go. Maybe in the real world when people get twisted up like that someone eventually hits someone and it's over. Sorry you are worn out by it all, glad I got to read some of your work here.

What's Wrong with "What's Wrong with the World":

#1 "Return to Rome" is not on the blog roll.
#2 Golf posts

I only visit this site to read Prof Beckwith. While I don't always agree with him I always learn a thing or two from his work. When I was 15 Frank taught me that you always "debate the subject" and never attack the person. When I read why he was leaving this blog I realized again the first rule in debate he taught me was so very important.

Frank is an intellectual with guts. You have to admire his originality, dedication and tenacity. Can you imagine if our universities had more Prof like Frank? Dr Beckwith pushes the boundaries and is not afraid to go into uncharted territories. His books are always great because they mimic his life; DR Beckwith is not afraid to take chances. His favorite musician and songwriter Dylan is not afraid to change directions and neither is Frank. I will miss his witty blogs. I must confess I loved to read his stuff and see if I could create counter arguments. Sometimes I could and sometimes I couldn't. But, I enjoyed the challenge!