Fr. Robert Hart Again Accuses Me of "Slander"

Well, once again he shows that he is ignorant of the difference between libel and slander, on which I instructed him here.  But no matter.  If he's incapable of being educated, so be it.

Now, I had intended not to blog about this recent kerfuffle between us.  I was content to let it die privately. However, he's now forced the issue by posting this at The Continuum blog.  Here's the pertinent excerpt:

"On Friday (Nov. 1) I received several emails from a priest (?) who has written several slanderous "hit pieces" about me over the years on his blog, all of them deliberately misrepresenting me and demonstrating something of an obsession that makes me wonder of I need to hire security - not that I could afford it. They were about a comment that I never posted on Facebook that used an impolite (to say the least) word, apparently on a Facebook page of yet a third clergyman whom I have never met and frankly, because he violates the unwritten but generally understood ethical norm of not trying to be both a priest and a publicly known political pundit, hope never to meet (I do not approve of clergy appearing at political rallies to endorse candidates, especially a rally that included some of the most vile and slanderous hate speech ever to shock the nation for a second time since 1939 at Madison Square Garden. It is a shame that it has played host to such a scandalous spectacle now twice in our history). In the emails sent to me on Friday, was included a screenshot of the comment with the obscene word, and it looked exactly as if it had been posted from my Facebook account. He also mentioned "other [comments presumably]" which bothered me. Well, it is an old trick to create a fake Facebook account using someone's name and picture. This method has been used, as we all know, by people inviting us to "friend" people who are already on our "friends" lists, I suppose for some purpose to do with hacking. However, the priest (?) who was sending me the emailed screenshot has been blocked from seeing anything I post on Facebook since February of 2023. In other words, the fact that he was able to see it is only because I did not post it; it did not come from my account: Everything I post there is hidden from him because I had already blocked him."

This has to do with a comment Fr. Hart made, and subsequently deleted, at a post on Fr. Calvin Robinson's public Facebook page, but not before Fr. Robinson got a screenshot of it.  Fr. Robinson is the "priest and a publicly known political pundit" Hart disparagingly mentions in the quotation above.  The first photo below is of the Hart's comment.  The second photo show him "liking" the negative comment of Alice Linsley, showing his interest in the comments:

Hart claims that "it is an old trick to create a fake Facebook account using someone's name and picture."  That's true, but unfortunately for Hart, that "like" he clicked on Mrs. Linsley's comment links straight to his actual Facebook account, not a fake account, and I can prove it.  One of the things I asked him in our email exchange is why a hacker would post something and then delete it, as if he had second thoughts.  Hart is simply lying through his teeth.

In a pathetic attempt to further bolster his defense, he writes:

"However, the priest (?) who was sending me the emailed screenshot has been blocked from seeing anything I post on Facebook since February of 2023. In other words, the fact that he was able to see it is only because I did not post it; it did not come from my account: Everything I post there is hidden from him because I had already blocked him."

As I explained to him and have stated here, the image comes from a screenshot Fr. Robinson made, and then shared in a private group of which I am a member.  What's more, even though he has blocked me on his page and I can't see his posts, there are other ways of seeing them, as everyone knows.  Fr. Robinson's screenshot combined with my ability to do an end run around Hart's blocking me revealed that he posted that comment at Robinson's page and then deleted it.  (The subthread at which Hart made this comment has been deleted by its author, but I have both photographic and videographic proof that it was there.)

Hart complains that this is just another "slanderous" attack from me (he means "libelous"), similar to the ones I have made previously here at the Old Jamestown Church.  Well, those "attacks" came in response to his vile and vitriologic language which he had been directing against the objects of his political ire, mainly Donald Trump and his supporters.  You can read all about that past exchange in the Robert Hart archives.  Hart simply cannot find the resolve to repent for such unseemly behavior.  Or for lying.

Here's what I predict will happen if and when Hart sees this blog post.  He will rail against me, with implicit threats of ecclesial and legal prosecution.  He'll try to seize the high spiritual ground, as he does in the quotation above.  He'll rant and rave for awhile, but just like he did last time, he'll return to his basement with his tail between his legs and return to spewing his TDS comments at his own Facebook page and others.  It's pitiful.

And, as always, his bishop will do nothing about it.