Posted on 01/18/2004 9:39:13 AM PST by Polycarp IV
There are specific reasons I posted this previous thread the way I did.
I've received and shared some good FReepmails regarding this thread, despite the fact that it was prematurely locked, from folks who understood where I was headed with it.
It was posted to make a point:
We all believe the fundamentals of the Christian faith, essentially belief in the Trinity, Inerrancy of the Bible, The virgin birth and deity of Jesus Christ, The doctrine of substitutionary atonement, The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, The bodily second coming of Jesus Christ.
Everyone posting here who falls within this framework appears to be a committed Christian with a personal relationship with the Trinity.
Unfortunately, some Christians insist upon trying to convert Catholics under the presupposition that Catholics are not Christian, or they frequesntly attack Catholic threads in the most imprudent or uncharitable manner.
This kind of truly bigoted bashing has been the worst I've seen in 4 years over the past several weeks. The last time it was this bad, Jim Robinson posted a thread prohibiting this kind of behavior, and purged several dozen of the worst anti-Catholics from Free Republic. Fortunately, most of the moderators here have improved greatly in their response to these concerns. There are however blarring exceptions.
I'd hoped the earlier YOPIOS/YOPPST thread would have been permitted to run its short course.
Its a lesson for our separated brethren to illustrate constructive engagement and evangelization versus non-constructive and counter-productive engagement and evangelization. My blarring example was an illustration of the latter. Regardless of my own beliefs, the way I posted that thread was inflammatory. Already, one of the members of the Catholic Caucus had posted a comment implicitly stating just that, in a charitable fashion. They refused to be associated with or involved with it. Several non-Catholics weighed in bemoaning the obvious, with one stating, Haven't I seen you guys all wonder about NC's not correcting other NC's for ridiculing Catholic's. They must have missed the import of Barnacle's post. If the thread had not been locked, other Catholics would have publicly or privately taken me to task for such a tactless thread.
Every day, multiple times per day, Catholics here have to witness the most ridiculous posts from anti-Catholics, posts that obviously are not or could not possibly be intended to evangelize but only to insult and denigrate Catholics. Even if the poster truly believes what they are posting, they must realize what they are doing is counterprodictive.
After our separated brethren point out the obvious regarding this thread, I was simply going to point them to many recent anti-Catholic posts that went without comment by them, and ask them to police their own.
We have a huge battle waging in this world. Abortion, homosexuality, abortifacient contraception, homosexual marriage, persecution of Christian, judicial destruction of our rights and freedoms...the list goes on and on!
What the heck are committed Christians doing wasting their time and efforts trying to convert the converted, insult the committed, and generally abuse their fellow committed CDhristians in the Catholic Caucus.
We all need to reexamine why we are doing what we are doing.
Anyone who has followed my posts here over the last 4 years knows that this is something I have said repeatedly and loudly.
I have tried to avoid this internecine warfare this time around, but I find myself getting drawn into it already.
We should all be ashamed of ourselves for ignoring, participating in, or encouraging this internecine warfare. In this internecine warfare, Jesus is not served! Only Satan wins.
So once again, I renew m,y request to all of you:
Leave this Religion Forum Ghetto with all its petty infighting among committed Christians, and go out and fight the real enemy.
Yes, I still despise the banishment of religious discussion on Free Republic from the News Forum to the Religion Forum Ghetto. What I am criticizing in this essay is why. It was the foregone conclusion to ghettoizing faith on a "conservative" news forum.
Lets get out and fight the culture wars, and ignore the anti-Catholic trolls who are popping up on our threads without intervention from some mods.
I like the news aspect of the religious threads... it's a great way to keep up with what is going on in other dioceses, get great insight into different issues, see other Catholic responses and read the beautiful meditative bible readings of the day (thanks, Salvation and several others!).
I am not interested in petty fighting and I don't take part in it.
I fight the real enemy by living a Christian life and raising Christian children. I am not interested in leaving "Religion Forum Ghetto," thanks.
Thanks for your comments.
"There are not many people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church, but thousands of people who hate what they mistakenly believe the Catholic Church to be."
Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
Why waste the time?
I have the sense of deja vue... these type threads seem to be posted in cycles for some reason.
I like the religion forum ... I laugh! I cry! ;-)
FWIW here's my 2 cents worth. If that's what you're called to do then go for it. I for one feel there is a need for Catholics to maintain a presence on the Religion Forum Ghetto. We can probably agree that we do not change the mind of those who are posting however, there are many lurkers out there who follow these threads we may be able to reach.
Although I'm not a regular poster anymore I still lurk and from time to time I feel compelled to respond to some of the more absurd posts regarding Holy Mother Church. It's a dirty job but somebody has to do it:-)
Maybe it's because I live in Massachusetts but I've noticed that I do that "dirty job" more and more often outside of the Internet. It ain't pretty!
I'm originally from Massachusetts ( Beverly) so I feel your pain:-).
I know what you mean about doing the "dirty job" outside the Internet. My brother and is a "born again" Southern Baptist and our theological discussions can be rather heated. The way I look at, if we can't defend our faith then we should leave it. And I will NEVER do that.
God Bless!
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