[CATHOLIC CAUCUS] Instructor of Catholicism at UI claims loss of job violates academic freedom

The News Gazette ^ | 7-9-10 | Jody Heckel

[RonDog]

Here are the rules as posted (my copy and paste) on the Religion Moderator's profile page.

Finally. Fifty posts later, SOME clarification. Thank you.

I am still not clear on exactly who is allowed to post what on threads like these. Sorry.

In the future, I will continue to just LURK on these kinds of "Religion" threads, and not post -- but in the humble opinion of this ten-year member of FR, posting a short explanation of the "rules of engagement" for a thread like this -- at the beginning of every thread like this -- would be a VERY good idea, to enlighten "newbies" to this little corner of the world.

Hard as it may be to believe, MANY of us who occasionally stumble onto threads like this -- because of the newsworthy aspects of a story like this -- are not clear on the rules here.

FWIW. :o)

[RonDog]

Thanks!

[Judith Anne]

If you had read the thread, which is not very long, you would have seen that the very same article has been posted elsewhere on FR on an open thread, in TWO other places.

[RonDog]

Sorry. I guess I wasn't clear.

I found THIS thread from links on those other threads.

My point was, others may have done what I did, too -- and stumbled upon this thread -- without knowing that there are (apparently) special rules for who can post on this particular kind of "caucus" thread, and what they can and cannot post.

Since these not-clearly-posted rules do not apply to all of the OTHER threads on the REST of this forum, I was just suggesting to the insular community who post on this sub-forum that you might have less people breaking the rules -- vice, all the deleted posts -- if they knew that there WERE special rules, and what those rules are.

If someone found this thread via a Google search, for example, they would be totally clueless about the "minefield" into which they had entered, regardless of the thread length -- without more specific instruction.

Personally, I shall return to my previous policy of only LURKING on threads like this -- and let you folks instruct the "newbies" (or not) -- any way that you choose.

This reminds me too much of TEGWAR. :o)

[mlizzy]

Is there a way that Free Republic could post Caucus rules in the Religion Forum (I will place the link in my start-up commentary from now on, but, of course, that doesn’t cover all RF threads), and it would be great if Free Republic could come up with a way to delete someone’s inappropriate comment, so that it doesn’t mar up the post, which creates a sensational type of atmosphere that draws away from the content of the post (win-win situation for those who wish to speak ill of the Catholic Church). In a Catholic chat group I was in years ago, they took particular pains to not display who was being thrown out of the room for that exact reason.

[mlizzy]

Here's the link. It's linked to the Religion Moderator screen name.

[Religion Moderator]

Both of your ideas would require a software change. I’ll pass it along.

[RonDog]

Thanks, mlizzy!

Just posting that link (with a short explanation) at the start of each "special" thread would go a long way towards solving the problem.

[Judith Anne]

Are you Catholic?

[RonDog]

No, but I am Christian.

[Judith Anne]

Okay. When you see the words, “CATHOLIC CAUCUS” do not post on the thread.

[RonDog]

Thanks. Will do.

And, when you post future "Catholic Caucus" threads, perhaps you can also post (or link to) precisely what that means, early in the thread -- to educate the uninitiated.

It should be a LOT easier for newbies to follow the rules, if they know what they are -- as we discussed earlier in this thread. :o)

[mlizzy]

Subject: How to Help Dr. Ken

My dear friends and colleagues:

Now that this issue has hit the national media, many people have asked me what they can do concretely, right now, to help Dr. Howell. Thus, I present three actions that you can take:

1) Continue praying for him and for all of those who are involved in this situation.

2) Invite all your friends to join this Facebook group. Group membership has exploded in the last 48 hours since the first news article came out, which is great, but we can spread awareness of this injustice even further by expanding it.

3) Change your Facebook status to help spread the word further, to something like what mine is now: "At the University of Illinois, doing your job gets you fired. @Save Dr. Ken!"

There will be other action items coming soon, so keep your eye on your inboxes. I'll be keeping you posted.

I remain your servant in Christ, -Trisha Tan