There ought to be some looseness allowed for improving the human race, I say. 
Posted on 01/26/2007 9:05:39 AM PST by Religion Moderator
Trying to get rid of me so soon? LOL! Actually, no, I'm not aware of a fixed term.
Not at all. I think you are fair to all sides and do put up with good amount of nonsense. (counting myself as one of the ones dishing it out)
It's just kind of interesting to get a glimpse into the inner sanctum.
Were you to pick a mod nickname, what would it be?
(Recall last November we got "Control Freak Mod", "Out of Control Mod", etc., all in good jest.)
Fr. Mod? Mod the Great?
Welcome, new Religion Moderator. I wish you luck, and lots and lots of patience.
Mama always said, "Do not get involved in arguments about religion."
Good advice, but hard to heed here on FR.
LOL! I'd like to know what you'd pick.
Then again, if everyone listened to your mother, I'd be out of a job. LOL!
Hehee...
LOL! That is hilarious!
There ought to be some looseness allowed for improving the human race, I say.
Is that the principal reason we get so much opposition?
I don't know for sure, but if I were to venture a guess it would be that your confession is the "establishment" relatively speaking.
Yes. Established is just the right word to use.
Were you a frequent poster on the Religion Forum before becoming a mod?
I would like to make a distinction. Idiot and liar are insults (well, rarely, a lie can be proven, but not likely on an Internet forum). Heretic has a technical meaning, and when used as such should not be taken as insult. For example, if you profess to be Christian but deny the Virgin Birth of Christ, you are objectively a heretic.
More narrowly, the Catholic Church defines as heresy denials of certain Catholic doctrines, even if other Christian denominations disagree with them. For example, some Christians believe that The Virgin Mary did not remain virgin after the birth of Christ. This makes their belief on that score objectively heretical.
There is also a distinction between holding a belief that is heretical and being oneself a heretic. This is because in order to be called a heretic one has to have a full understanding of the correct doctrine. An ignorant person cannot be a heretic. So, there is in fact a dose of respect that comes with the term.
I don't know if other confessions use the word at all, but this is how Catholics use it. Please, do not think that if you are described as a heretic someone is trying to insult you. All that is typically meant by the epithet is that your belief does not conform to the teaching of the Catholic Church.
Another word with a potential to be taken as an insult is "anathema", or its English and Latin cousin, "excommunication". This is used to describe the same thing: that the anathemized belief or the excommunicated person is in contradiction to the Catholic (or Orthodox) belief system. It does not mean that the anathemized person is condemned to hell, or even that he is forever barred from communion. The purpose of excommunication is to call the person's attention to this unfortunate fact and invite him to correct his views and come back to communion.
I am not sure if confessions other than the Catholic and the Orthodox use these terms in the precise technical sense, but this is how we use them, and we mean no personal offense when we do.
Bump for future reference (and, of course, thoughtful contemplation)
The Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church tends to use the term "heretic" only in reference to member of the ELCA.
I guess that makes us antidisestablishmentarians ...
Heresy, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a "theological or religious opinion or doctrine maintained in opposition, or held to be contrary, to the Roman Catholic or Orthodox doctrine of the Christian Church, or, by extension, to that of any church, creed, or religious system, considered as orthodox. By extension, heresy is an opinion or doctrine in philosophy, politics, science, art, etc., at variance with those generally accepted as authoritative."[...]
the term "heresy" has no purely objective meaning: the category exists only from the point of view of speakers within a group that has previously agreed about what counts as "orthodox". Any nonconformist view within any field may be perceived as "heretical" by others within that field who are convinced that their view is "orthodox";
You are sesquipedalic. That is a sign of Divine favor.
So you got that going for you; which is nice
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