are you still haters?

so i was reading some Clark Pinnock back before Christmas and was about to Tweet and/or post as my Facebook status "Reading some Pinnock today"
...then i changed my mind because i didn't feel like getting a lot of HATE comments and hate mail and HATE TWEETS that day. i just wasn't in the mood.

and then i had a question...

do people still HATE on someone after they're dead?

Clark Pinnock actually passed away over a year ago. i remember reading about it when it happened HERE and all over the web.
i was bummed because i think his thinking contributed a lot to the conversation.

i started reading Pinnock back in college. because of a certain 50 page research paper i wrote back then on a topic that he was in the thick of - i REALLY had to wrestle with what he was saying. back then i disagreed with him but could appreciate where he was coming from. no way was he crazy... probably more brilliant than all the rest of us.

so, i've continued to read some Pinnock ever since.

...to the disgust of pretty much everyone i know :)

in fact, at my 1st job out of college, i remember reading a then recent Pinnock book. i made the mistake of showing it to my friend and co-worker in the office next door and he promptly THREW the book across the room to me and said something like "get that away from me."

wow. just a book, man.

(but it's always been crazy to me how people can actually HATE a person because of their views. but that's a blog for another day.)

so i was just curious - do you still hate on someone after they're dead?
i was curious that day... could i have Tweeted that i was reading Pinnock and would the haters still come out of the woodwork?
OR
does all that change when the hated upon dies?

i don't think i've ever been a hater, so i wasn't quite sure how it works...

anyway, didn't matter because i didn't tweet it, but now i'm writing about my curiosity.
and maybe it will enable me to find out the answer to my Q

and just in case any of you are wondering why i would even dare continue to read Pinnock... maybe because of stuff he writes openly and honestly like this:

"So I do not apologize for admitting to being on a pilgrimage in theology, as if it were in itself some kind of weakness of intelligence or character. Feeling our way toward the truth is the nature of theological work even with the help of Scripture, tradition and community …. A pilgrimage, therefore, far from being unusual or slightly dishonorable, is what we would expect theologians who are properly aware of their limitations to experience."

wow. 

Right. on.

we would expect it to be a pilgrimage, wouldn't we, Clark?

i hope i can engage on a lifelong one like you did and like most aren't willing to do.

hopefully they won't all hate on me like they did you... but i bet you'd say it's worth it.