Posted on 04/23/2006 8:01:06 AM PDT by Religion Moderator
Hello everyone. Pleased to meet you. I am your Religion Moderator.
I have been asked by several posters to let you know any special guidelines which apply to posting in the Religion Forum on Free Republic. Here goes…
First, you should know that all moderators have authority on the Religion Forum and we are individuals and therefore what is tolerable to one may not be tolerable to another. However, I have general responsibility for this particular forum and spend most of my time reading your posts and moderating the conversations. And I do hold Religion Forum posts to a higher standard.
The previous Religion Moderator is still with us and other moderators who have served as Religion Moderator may also appear on thread with this handle. In other words, you cannot be sure that I am the person who posted with the handle. However, most of the time, it will be me simply because I’m reading all of your posts.
A few guidelines:
Threads which are devotional or church-like in nature (such as daily mass readings) will be protected from challenges to doctrine, etc. Reported challenges will be pulled. The titles of the threads should be clearly designated so other posters and the moderators will know.
Threads which are not clearly designated are open to challenges, like a public square.
Posters should remember they are not “preaching to the choir” on open threads – and take care to be respectful, clear and concise in their arguments. Passers-by will value your demeanor as much – or more than – the actual substance of your post.
This is very important: meet the offensive challenge to your doctrine on the open thread, do not mash the abuse button. I will not remove a challenge simply because it is offensive to your beliefs. If you cannot defend your own confession, then you are better off avoiding the open threads and leaving the reply to someone else of your confession.
Always argue the issues – theology, philosophy, history, etc. – and never make it personal.
If I see the conversation turn personal, I will intervene by pulling posts and/or posting a warning. If the misbehavior continues, posters may find themselves having to log back in – or they may be given a time-out to cool down.
In the extreme, the threads may be banished to the smoky backroom, locked or pulled. And a hot-headed or defiant poster may be banned.
Banned posters who try to sneak back onto the forum using a different handle are nuked. Trolls are nuked.
I have no tolerance for potty language simply because it inflames other posters and results in unnecessary abuse reports that moderators then have to process. It is a waste of everyone’s time and doesn’t help the poster’s image either.
Whenever I see a profanity – or a reference or acronym for a profanity – I will remove the post. If your post was pulled and you remember using such a word, just rephrase and repost and everything will be fine.
As with all threads on the forum – hatred and any suggestion of racism or violence will be pulled. Posts which are just plain tacky may also be pulled.
Calling an author a liar is permitted – calling another poster a liar is not.
Attributing motive to an author is permitted – reading the mind of another poster is not.
Poking fun at a confession is permitted, but be careful when poking fun at another poster. If he doesn’t think it is funny, I won’t either.
Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it. It all boils down to being respectful – phrase your challenges as if you were the recipient, i.e. think Golden Rule.
From your statement that, ”I will not recognize secular philosophies as qualified subjects for devotional thread protection”, it sounded as if strict “freedom of assembly” protection would only apply to theistic based devotionals.
Rather an ask for blank check, would you be willing to review an Objectivist devotional post and give it the same protection from challenges if it met some reasonable criteria, other than claiming to be divinely inspired.
Again, objectivism is philosophy not theology and thus does not qualify for protection as a "devotion" or "church-like" subject. Platonism, Marxism, Realism and so on also do not qualify for the same reason.
But don't you see that the purpose of today's "devotional" was to show how the Protestant and Catholic Churches do not have the "fullness of the gospel" that the LDS Church purports to have?
****
Correction P-Marlowe today's LDS Devotional was NEVER about Protestant nor the Catholic Church as you said PM!
The talk never mention any other faith it was about awareness of what each of the LDS standard works contributed to the LDS understanding!
The devotional was about the LDS Standard Works which are the OT, NT, BoM, D & C and the POGP.
"I am particularly grateful for the help I received from the topical guide in the LDS edition of the Bible and also for the index in the new edition of the triple combination, which helped me find the references I wanted more quickly."
"The Bible makes this great statement and says that without the Savior we would perish. Paul discusses these things in 1 Corinthians and in Romans, but not as clearly as we would like."
"It takes the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price to explain more fully why we would have perished. We would have perished because of the fall of Adam; we being unable to save ourselves either from his fall or our own sins."
***
The main focus focus was about that the Book of Mormon as another Testament to Jesus Christ!
Matt. 18: 20
20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
Now that you are here maybe you can answer my question that was pulled:
Who appointed Jesus as the Beloved Son of God the Father?
And what position did Jesus have in heaven before he was appointed as the Beloved Son of God the Father?
I won't argue with your answers. I'd just like to know the official position.
Thanks.
What about posters who don't believe in the Religion Moderator? Can anyone truly prove that the Religion Moderator truly exis--ZOT!
LOLOL!
Now that you are here did you understand that todays devotional was not about any other faith only to teach how each of the standard works testify of each other?
As an ex Mormon you should know the answer to your question!
....There is no other book in all this world that tells us as clearly about the mission of Jesus Christ as does the Book of Mormon.
My question to you restornu was this:
Do you believe someone removed something fromt the New Testament? And....
If so, who (or what group) removed the "plain and precious" truths.
For those who are not particularly interested in your conversation, but want an example of a respectful, open discussion - check out the last several hundred posts of this thread: Luther and Erasmus: The Controversy Concerning the Bondage of Will
It has proven to be very thought provoking and informative about two or more sides of a particular question.
Thanks for stating your position Moderator. I understand this is a secular message board - not on the sense of secularism, but rather it means FR is without any specific religion backgrounds unlike, say, evangelical Christianity of Rapture Ready Message Board. I will keep this in mind that "the game is different on different boards".
Different boards serve different purposes. FR has plenty of intellectual-oriented politically conservative Christians or other Christendom members or non-believers. RR has evangelical Christians that are politically conservative, centrist, and even leftist-pacifist when it comes with secular politics.
Marxism is antithetical to Free Republic. It would be as welcome here as Wahabist devotionals.
Platonism and Realism are narrow philosophical concepts that don’t begin to approach the integrated ideological system of Objectivism. (FWIW, Objectivism is neither .) Comparing either to Objectivism is like comparing the concept of animism to Catholicism. Animism is a “feature” of primitive religions, not a viable religion or comprehensive ideology.
Objectivism on the other hand is arguably as comprehensive, integrated and dogmatic an ideology as is LDS (and at least as conservative). The only significant difference (other than success) is that it’s atheistic, and as far as you’ve re-explained, that’s the only factor in your decision to deny equal protection for Objectivist devotionals.
I’m not really concerned with that. As Bush said yesterday, you’re “the decider” in making the call, but please don’t misrepresent Objectivism with those unreasonable analogies in order to justify excluding Objectivism.
....There is no other book in all this world that tells us as clearly about the mission of Jesus Christ as does the Book of Mormon.
***
Do you believe someone removed something fromt the New Testament? And....
Well I had ponder many of these things in the Bible as a child that had puzzled me until I found was introduced to the Book of Mormon at the age of 38 and the rest fell into place!
If so, who (or what group) removed the "plain and precious" truths.
Opposition!
Eph 6
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
2 Cor. 4
3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
I notice even if I choose a particular "denominational" topic, I would still come across something that I don't expect to see. For instance, when I view threads under the topic "evangelical" I see "Catholic caucus" devotional threads there every day. I don't believe the poster should put any of these under the topic of evangelical churches because most of Catholic devotional threads would obviously not be welcome among evangelical Christians and they are not even allowed to be posted on boards of (evangelical) Christian nature except in Apologetics sub-forums (See Rapture Ready BB rule for ref: http://rr-bb.com/faq.php?faq=rr_rules_clarification#faq_rr_rules1_ ). Is there a way to remove them from topics like this?
And to the moderators, also I feel Messianic Judaism should be re-classified under evangelical Christianity rather than "other Christians". Most evangelicals would feel far closer to Messianic Jews than even mainline Protestants like Lutherans or Episcopalisns for instance. Messianic Jewish teachers like Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Zola Levitt, or Jacob Prasch can equally be called evangelical Christian Bible teachers as well. Would it be feasible to reshuffle topics like this?
Per our previous discussion.....Ping.
"Greetings, sire..." (Mumbles prayer)
So are you saying that the "opposition," darkness, or Satan had a hand in the compiling of the Bible?
Do you see where many of us Bible believing Christians might take offense at that suggestion?
What some Mormons may fail to appreciate is the deep offensiveness of their implication that Christians have something less than the full gospel of God. But mainstream Christians react, not by getting offended, but by demonstrating what they believe from the Bible, which inevitably involves showing the Mormons the differences between Biblical doctrine and Mormon doctrine. This seems to be the point at which we hear the Mormons complain that they are being slandered, that we evangelicals, Catholics, or other Christians are preaching "negativism" and marshalling a "negative onslaught" against them.
**Threads which are devotional or church-like in nature (such as daily mass readings) will be protected from challenges to doctrine, etc. Reported challenges will be pulled. The titles of the threads should be clearly designated so other posters and the moderators will know.**
Thank you from all of us!
**Always argue the issues – theology, philosophy, history, etc. – and never make it personal.**
Again, thank you.
You could always send me a question on a devotional thread in a Freepmail.
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