GOOD NEWS - BAD NEWS (Don't Say You Weren't Warned)

Self | 1-22-04 | Sidebar Moderator

[Sidebar Moderator]

GOOD NEWS - BAD NEWS
(Don't Say You Weren't Warned)

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:

'You don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger
And you don't mess around with Jim'

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.

[lockeliberty]

at the same time, if we know that a particular word or phrase offends other people, wouldn't it be the Christian thing to do to choose another word or phrase, if possible?

Possibly. I take it on a case by case basis. There were times when Jesus, Paul, et al, would use descriptive phraseology to convict the hearer.

[White Mountain]

Your #497: Hi White Mountain. That's my hope too. :)

We were 25 seconds apart. Great minds think alike!

[lockeliberty]

Yes, you've proven over and over again that you can only read in a wooden literal letter of speech instead of the spirit of the speech. Thus your problem.

[A.J.Armitage]

The bell curve: Shouldn't the Pope be able to chop off the offending end of the curve?

The question of their Catholicity: Why does the Pope suffer non-Catholics to be in communion with him?

Do you see what I'm getting at? The unity of Catholics is purely nominal as often as not.

[xzins]

There are 3 meanings, LL. 1 of them is about cats. The other is about female anatomy. The 3rd is about weakling, but it derives from the 2nd.

Is there another that I'm missing?

2 out of 3 are bad and the first is easily detected because it would be in a context of children and kitty-cats.

This is not hard. Just don't use it.

[Salem]

'Ping' on this thread, just in case you are ever in the Religion forum. There's a very nice cop on duty now.

Reminds me of the one very extensive and educational thread where Judaism/Messianic Judaism was, um, debated. I thought everybody in our sphere of influence was downright professional!  




If you'd like to be on or off this
Christian Supporters of Israel ping list,
please FR mail me. ~
    
There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had
spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass. (Joshua 21:45)
Letter To The President In Support Of Israel ~
'Final Solution,' Phase 2 ~

[Barnacle]

But the pro-choice Catholics also fail to obey the Pope.

I seem to remember from your past postings that you are a pretty smart guy. So, the way you're playing stupid has me wondering...

Are you just trying to piss me off?

[lockeliberty]

So when Paul was inspired to use the term, "goads", was he being naughty?

Repent of your legalism.

[Sidebar Moderator]

bring 'em young.

Surely you could have found a better way to provide the information than that.

I am somewhat computer and Internet literate, and I already had enough information to find more information on that subject should I decide to do so.

I'm going to use your post to, hopefully, impart some information about myself and how I moderate to everyone; I'm not picking on you, A.J.

One thing that's always in the back of my mind is the great difference between personal face-to-face communication and Internet communication. In heated oral discussions, words sometimes slip out - you thought it, you said it, it's out there, and it can't be taken back. Those things happen and we all learn how to deal with those situations.

Internet communication is different. Words don't just "slip out" - they have to be thought, then typed, then (hopefully) reviewed, then posted, all of which after the original thought need to be consciously decided upon. Compared to verbal conversation, there aren't any "slips of the tongue" in cyber conversation. In that sense, every word that appears on this forum or any forum is premeditated.

Yes, we all get angry, or any number of other combinations of emotions, which cause us to blurt things out. But the Internet allows us time to reconsider. You might be surprised to learn how many times I've rewritten my remarks just on this thread. In one or two instances I did exactly what I'm talking about - just sent it "out there" without reconsidering. In my view, too many people don't reconsider. That's when flame wars start. That's what I'm here to stop.

[Barnacle]

Why does the Pope suffer non-Catholics to be in communion with him?

I don't know. As long as you're contemplating such marvels, why don't you ask why Jim Robinson why he suffers non-Conservaives on Free Republic?

[lockeliberty]

Xzins example of it's use as term for "weakling" would be accurate. In fact, I would not have a problem using the phrase in front of my mother who is a very devout Christian. She would have known exactly what I would have meant. She would have known that my meaning had nothing to do with either a part of the female anatomy or a cat.

[A.J.Armitage]

I'd like to ask another question. White Mountain here, in the name of posting "both sides", insists that those of us who are Christians post Mormon material (which happens to be contrary to Scripture), while himself never posting material criticizing Mormonism. Now, as you no doubt know, there's a word for such people.

Am I permitted to apply that word to its referent in the person of White Mountain?

[Sidebar Moderator]

[sigh] Take discussions regarding Mormonism to threads posted for that purpose, and I'll decide on a case-by-case basis.

I'm not about to give blanket approval for some future event.

[xzins]

Goad??? There's no problem with goad. It's not legalism to point out legitimate means of words.

Merriam-Webster: Main Entry: 1goad Pronunciation: 'gOd Function: noun Etymology: Middle English gode, from Old English gAd spear, goad; akin to Langobardic gaida spear, and perhaps to Sanskrit hinoti he urges on 1 a : something that pricks like a goad : THORN b : something that urges or stimulates into action : SPUR 2 : a pointed rod used to urge on an animal synonym see MOTIVE ,

Your word is also a type of tree, an adejective meaning "full of pus," and some variety of skunk.

The context will tell if those are what is meant.

[A.J.Armitage]

I'm not playing stupid (nor, I hope, stupid for real). The point of criticizing Protestants for having multiple denominations is that Sola Scriptura fails to insure unity. My point is, so does the Papacy. Otherwise, why would the late-Mideaval Catholic Church have become disunited when the Reformation happened?

[185JHP]

DYK know the source of the belief that b\c at any given time a certain number (36?) of Righteous men are alive, the Lord doesn't destroy the world?

[A.J.Armitage]

I don't know. As long as you're contemplating such marvels, why don't you ask why Jim Robinson why he suffers non-Conservaives on Free Republic?

And just how is a discussion board equivalent to the Bride of Christ (which is what the Catholic Church claims to be)?