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Locked on 01/26/2004 9:33:25 AM PST by Sidebar Moderator, reason:
This thread is now locked. It has served its purpose. thank you all for your participation and patience. |
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.
Unfortunately, that's a very difficult question to answer; just the nature of the beast, I think.
All I can say with certainty is that it's my job to draw that line. I try to do that as judiciously as is possible. I sometimes make mistakes, seemingly a condition of humanity. It's regrettable, but if one lives long enough one learns to take one's mistakes with a certain amount of humility. If you read through this entire thread you'll see that I made a couple of mistakes here; if you continue reading you'll also see how I attempted to correct those mistakes.
In the final analysis, while I can't always provide a precise definition of abuse, I've been doing this long enough now that - most of the time - I know it when I see it.
Again, if you think I've made a mistake in a particular ruling, a polite FReep mail stating your objection(s) often works wonders. Sadly, unless I catch myself in time, calling my attention to what is perceived to be my mistake with a harsh comment on the thread will often result in whatever is the opposite of "wonders". A kind word turns away wrath, or however it's said in the myriad of Bible translations extant today.
Follow the pattern. ;-) If Catholic Only isn't gonna happen, and Protestant Only isn't gonna happen, then "g.r.p.l. only" isn't gonna happen.
It would appear that over the years every time I have posted such an example you call it a "false accusation" and then you accuse those who try to prove the truth of the material posted of being agressive posters and hostile posters and liars and Natural men.
I think you've noticed that I have pretty much avoided any discussion of LDS Doctrine or History lately. And I have come to your defense many times when people have knee jerk reactions to your presence on a thread and call you names or otherwise directly ridicule you. That is wrong. Those who called you names and directly questioned your salvation or your committment to God were wrong to do so. Indeed I may have even participated in such behavior and if I did it was wrong.
But I think it is a legitimate discourse to discuss whether certain doctrines or church practices are inconsistent with the Bible or inconsistent with documented historical records. I am always accused of "playing the Sevetus card" against the Calvinists. I have argued that the execution of Servetus, like the execution of all heretics and witches was a dark stain on the body of Christ. It is a dark stain on the Church of Christ of which I am a member. But it is legitimate in a religion forum to discuss the history of the Church of Christ. People are not agressive posters because they post historical documents. People are not agressive posters because they post the dirty laundry of specific church organizations to determine the validity of the teachings and the qualifications of the leaders of certain church organizations.
If we want to seek the truth, then we must be willing to examine and discuss not only the wonderful and good things that our churches teach and have done in the past, but also the terrible and embarssing things they have done as well.
I have posted examples before. Nearly every time I have done so, the thread has been deleted. I am hestitant to do it again. I would be insane to post some examples on this thread.
I enjoy the religion forum here very much. It is unquestionably the best religion forum on the net. The people who post here are for the most part are as learned and informed in religious matters as you will find anywhere. It is a great place to post your religious views and see if they hold water. It is also the best place on earth to learn to defend your beliefs against strong and well reasoned arguments to the contrary. So if you enjoy it, treat it as your baby. Feed it. Nurture it. Let it grow. Don't kill it.
But if we do go that route, we're going to have to have a lot of discussions on how y'all are going to self police it so that the staff here doesn't get overwhelmed with it.
MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
The handwriting is on the wall.
The answer is, when it comes to the Religion Forum, the Sidebar Pastor is setting the lead and I am going by what he says. So if his words, and my words, are different, go with his.
Now on a separate note, there was a mail to the SM account which I would like to share and have people think about. I am not naming who sent this, since he or she mailed it instead of posting it.
"I remember posting one article a long time ago quoting the leader of the Mormon church who said something like, "spend more quality time with your family"...I agree. Sometimes, people in their zeal lose the forests for the trees."The whole article was about families etc. (I think it was national family day or some obscure holiday or something)
Next thing you know my thread was put into the religion forum and it turned into a BIG mormon bashing thread with everyone calling him a liar and a fraud. Saying he had 10 wives and that he was a cult leader etc.
Its like 'what happened to the topic of families?' He didn't even write the article, but was just cited in it with about 10 words.
IMO things like that have got to go.
If this is what was being asked about before when it was put to me if "g.r.p.l. only" threads would be allowed, then I want to clarify.
"g.r.p.l. only" threads will be pulled.
That thread doesn't say "g.r.p.l. only" and would not be pulled.
And if we got an abuse report from someone saying "this Catholic is posting on our g.r.p.l thread" we would ignore it. And if we got an abuse report from someone saying "this Catholic is being abusive on our thread" we would look to see if we agree that there is abuse going on, and act accordingly.
Thanks, LM
Please. Take it!
You see, unlike husband and wife, we actually agree on most things... ;^)
I got a two week suspension for doing that. So which one of you gets to go to freeper purgatory?
Never quite understood that phenomena
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