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Posted on 01/22/2004 6:34:29 PM PST by Sidebar Moderator
The bad news is that I am the newly designated moderator of Free Republic's Religion Forum. The good news is that I am the newly designated moderator of Free Republic's Religion Forum.
First, let's discuss why this is bad news.
I have no doubt that everyone who participates in this forum is aware of the general posting guidelines of Free Republic; they've been in effect as long as Free Republic has been in existence. Just for clarity, here they are again: "NO profanity, NO personal attacks, NO racism or violence in posts."
Having spent the better part of a week reading as much as I was able to get to on the Religion Forum, which includes virtually every currently posted thread, I can say that I've seen no profanity (should be a given on a forum devoted to religion), and only one or two posts which could be construed to contain violence. On that score I commend you all.
Unfortunately, however, personal attacks are rampant. Protestants attack Catholics, and vice versa. Within these two major Christian families, Calvinists attack Arminians, and tit-for-tat. Traditional Catholics attack New Age Catholics, and back it comes. Self-professed Christians of all flavors post gratuitous insults and jibes directed toward Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses frequently. Threads are posted for the obvious and sole purpose of flaming "the opposition", whoever that might be in any particular instance. I could go on and on with further examples, but from many of your posted comments it is clear that all of you are aware of these facts, and seemingly, accept them as the order of things.
It is not the order of things, and it will no longer be tolerated.
Sadly, a forum devoted to perhaps the highest endeavor of the human mind and soul, that of the religious expression of faith, has become an embarrassment to Free Republic. All too often the discourse appearing in the Religion Forum resembles that found in those threads devoted to the War on Drugs, less the profanity, of course. Consequently, the question whether the Religion Forum will remain much longer as a feature of Free Republic, at least in its present format, is very much up in the air. How that question is answered depends entirely on the response each and every one of you make to this announcement in the next few weeks.
Therefore, from this time forward, the Free Republic rule of " NO profanity, NO personal attacks, NO racism or violence in posts.", will be more strictly enforced. Furthermore, you are all reminded that this is a religion forum; that is, all practitioners of any recognized religion, provided they also follow the rules, are welcome. However, since a large majority of posters to this forum are self-professing Christians, of one flavor or another, some additional rules will be imposed. You should all be quite familiar with them, even though some of you seem to pay them no heed at present.
These rules are:
"The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'." [Mark 12:31 (RSV)]
"But I say to you that hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you." [Luke 6:27 (RSV)]
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." [John 13:34 (RSV)]
"If you love me, you will keep my commandments." [John 14:15 (RSV)]
Or, if the commandments of our Lord Jesus are insufficient (paraphrasing Paul) speak the truth in love.
For now, enough of the harsh words. There really is good news.
First and foremost, all that has passed prior to today is forgiven. However, my forgiveness, unlike that of God, is continuing but not unlimited. After all, I'm a sinner, too. Transgressions of the rules will be met with three warnings, followed by three progressively lengthy suspensions, after which unrepentant posters will be, shall we say, cast into the outer darkness. Totally outrageous violations, of course, remain subject to the ultimate penalty immediately, as always.
However, I am also aware that love, in the Biblical sense, is not the Hollywood kind of love we hear about all around us these days. Spirited debate is a hallmark of Free Republic, and is welcome. Sometimes the truth (at least as we understand it, through a glass darkly) sounds rather harsh, but even harsh truth can be couched in terms that allow the Christian love of the speaker to come through.
Further, no matter how you read the tenor of this announcement, I am not a martinet. I can be persuaded to change my mind by reasoned discourse. On the other hand, sinful nature that I have, I do not suffer fools gladly. Directing complaints to me over some action I have taken is fine; doing so with insulting language will not achieve the results you desire, and in fact, will probably result in something far worse. And, as always, I am not the ultimate authority regarding any decision I make; anything I do can be appealed to one higher court - Jim Robinson, by whose direction I am here as moderator.
There are some things I will not do. I will not arbitrate theological disputes. I will not resolve questions of church polity. Nor will I render judgment on interpretations of Scripture. Those are all issues for legitimate debate, and I do not propose to take part as just another poster on this forum. Naturally, I have my own opinions on all these issues, but my opinions are my own and I will keep them to myself.
You should also know, I suppose, that I was selected as the moderator of the Religion Forum because no one else wanted to wade into the mess that this forum has become. All too often when abuse reports come into the moderators from the Religion Forum it is discovered that there are no clean hands in the dispute under complaint. More often than not removing the post complained about generates another abuse report asking "why was I punished when he said thus-and-so first". In many cases, removing all of the offending posts makes the thread unreadable. So, whatever you think of me now, or come to think of me in the next few weeks, I'm your last chance. After me comes the abyss.
And do yourself a favor; before you respond to this announcement remember the immortal advice of Jim Croce:
I'm not Jim, but I've got his ear.
One final word. I am not here 24/7. I actually have a life away from Free Republic; consequently your questions/complaints/comments may not be answered immediately. Be patient, they will be answered eventually. In the end, my goal is (our goal should be) that there will come the day when my presence here is unnoticed. That should be attainable if we all act like the Christian brothers and sisters we claim to be.
May God bless you all.
Better get ready. More and more vintners are going to fake corks, and even screw tops.
Cork's too expensive.
On the religon forum we have three main groups. The RC's emphasis human authority. The Arminians emphasis individual piety. The Calvinist emphasis God's soveriegnty. Each of these emphasis will have a direct bearing on ones political understandings. Our theology directs our politics. If our common goal is that our country return to a Christian emphasis in the political realm then it becomes necessary that those of different Christian theological emphasis be allowed to vigorously debate their particular emphasis. By understanding our oppositions viewpoint hopefully we can find some common area of agreement in the political realm. I'd much rather debate someone who has a passion for his/her beliefs than a post-modern pussy.
Perhaps you should consider suspending the thin-skinned abuse button pushers?
I don't see why it would be treated any differently.
The point is that spirited debate that marked the historic church is an embarrassment to the political culture today
As I see it, the point is that "spirited debate" need not entail personal attacks and ungodly behavior.
That fact that, historically, religious debate sometimes involved these things doesn't mean that it was appropriate then or appropriate now.
As long as you say, "in my opinion, X is the absolute truth" I think you're okay. ;o)
Seriously, all religious claims are, when you get down to it, statements of opinion. Any religious proposition begins with an implicit "I believe that..." If they were provable, there would be no need for faith.
What happens, though, is very often we forget that what we believe to be absolute truth are, in fact, statements of belief/faith. And that others, who do not share the same axioms we do, will not reach the same conclusions we do. If we focus solely on the "absolute truth" part, we can become very judgmental and condemnatory. It is in the axioms and conclusions where there is room for respectful dialogue (and respectful disagreement).
If you are talking about threads "For Catholics Only" or "For Protestants Only" or the like, I pull those when I see them. Thanks, LM
You are basically asking us to act like most do at the churches we attend, "hi how are you" "good to see you" "see you again next week" What we have had for the most part here in the religious forum is a breaking down of these walls and can really see, feel and hear what the other person REALLY believes. Its seems to me you are taking out the personal reaction that is so much apart of what we really are and putting in a dry impersonal debate. I don't advocate attacks on others, but a strong attack on a false faith or doctrine is what is called for from the Bible, how do you moderate this?
I used to own a buss with 400 customers that I had to deal with on a month to month basis, it would get to the point that it seemed like all 400 of them were really being pains in the butts, but when I would stop and look thru them, it would only be 5 - 8 of them that were real pains to deal with, and it just seemed like all 400 were bad. I got rid of the few that were causing the problems and the rest now seemed like saints. A very easy solution to a problem that seemed all encompassing.
BigMack
I'm sorry, but the opportunity you speak of has been filled.
Well then, I just hope I'm not the second one to run afoul of it
1- Criticism of the Pope is allowed. When we get into humor, things get grayer. Some would see a piece of satire as offensive, others wouldn't. So there will be some discretion and case-by-case decision making that will occur. If someone is going out of their way to offend, that's crossing the line. That does mean that sometimes we are going to have to guess motives, and that also means sometimes we will guess wrong. But they will be educated guesses, and it is not the worst thing in the world to have an attempt at humor removed.
2- again, we'll have to take things on a case by case basis. I've said the following in other contexts, but really those who are in significant danger of getting into trouble for too often crossing the line are those who like to push the line.
3- Pointing out a fallacy is one of my favorite debate techniques. As for saying that something is an argument from ignorance, again I'll go back to my case-by-case handling stance, although I believe that in almost every case I can imagine where someone could throw out that the other's is an "Argument From Ignorance", it could be easily reworded to simply provide the cure for the ignorance.
4- Your tagline doesn't seem offensive to me, but it is not in English and if someone could convince me that I am missing something in the translation my answer could vary.
5- Sucker punching someone with a smile is still sucker punching someone.
yea they had a fervor for Christ that is not PC today" Just go along to get along"
Is there any point at which this "fervor" becomes something that is contrary to the teachings of Christianity?
How do you suggest deciding which handful to get rid of? Do we dump the heretics (for causing problems by advocating doctrinal heresies), or do we dump the orthodox (for causing problems by being judgemental concerning heresies)?
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