Having been banned by other web sites, I have been through this (also, having not wished to join other liberal blogs).
I simply would link to the web site that banned me, and answer their stupidity in my own blog.
And if the fear is that someone would stumble across the caucus thread and miss the other, you could ask the religion moderator to allow a single non-caucus post to link to the open thread; I would guess that would be granted, and would be a reasonable way to allow a faith group to discuss among themselves in peace while still providing discussion for the rest of the board.
And we still have the moderators to remove the caucus designation if the caucus thread is attacking other faiths rather than simply discussing the faith of the caucus.
As to “chafing”, when I first started reading caucus threads, I couldn’t stand not correcting people who had their bible all wrong. That’s why I don’t read the caucus threads anymore.
I love my Catholic conservative brothers and sisters, but there are a few things their church believes that astound me; occasionally other beliefs different than mine have the same effect. And I know that some Catholics and some protestants feel the same way about my brand of belief.
But if they post in a caucus, they are off-limits to my “correction”. It doesn’t matter how much their belief offends my sensibility, if they simply discuss their own belief in a positive manner, and don’t attack other beliefs, the caucus protects them from having to deal with distractions like me and others trying to save them from their error.
If we didn’t have caucus threads, we’d be tearing at each other’s throats over religion all the time, and would fail to do the good conservative political work that is necessary. I don’t think that would necessarily HAVE to be the case, as I believe people can disagree about faith in a loving and respectful manner.
But if you have seen some open Catholic threads, or poke around a bit, you will find that it isn’t just the Mormons that feel they are attacked for their faith here at FR. The nature of freeper discussion appears to be a more phyiscal and personal debating style, one that leads to hurt feelings among those who allow feelings to be hurt by anonymous people posting to internet forums.
Don’t you think that Mormons have enough places to go discuss their theology without posting in-your-face, “Joseph Smith is a Prophet” caucus threads on FreeRepublic?
Let me tell you, when I was Mormon, we had three meetings on Sunday and one during the week, plus Family Home Evening on Monday, and once-per-month homemaking activities, regional Stake conferences each trimester, and semi-annual General Conference. The outlines of the beliefs are specifically stated in each meeting and no dissension is allowed there. I suggest they go to one of THOSE meetings if all they want to do is scratch each others backs and stroke their own “holier than thou, my religion is the only TRUE religion” egos.
In fact, I question the veracity of any caucus thread for any group. If freepers want to talk privately amongst themselves, there is always freepmail.