I don’t think you are using common sense FRiend. Jim Rob is not saying people can’t discuss or even debate religious issues. What he is saying is that a deliberate barrage of anti-Catholic posts, which HAS been ongoing for some time, needs to stop. And yes, there have been some Catholic posts over the years (I’ve been lurking here for a long time) that pushed the envelope. But, and I say this as a former Roman Catholic, the attack posts aimed at the Catholics have been by far the greater problem. Lately it’s been off the hook.
So yes, I would say that Catholics, and anyone else for that matter, needs to exercise a modicum of restraint when posting threads critical of other peoples’ religious beliefs. I remember a similar barrage of anti-Mormon threads. And there is a big difference between posting about someone converting into your church, and posting an article damning the members of someone else’s as Hell bound pagans.
No practicing Catholic would ever bash another religion
Perhaps I have not been paying close enough attention to the “anti-Catholic” threads. But, actually, it seemed the opposite in my purview.
Let me add that no one should be able to post a Protestant bashing thread, either.
I say that as a Catholic.
So if I was to post a thread from some Catholic source (note—I know of none, but there may be some out there) that says all Protestants or Baptists or Lutherans are heretics and going to Hell because they reject the one, true Church than yes, that would be bashing.
But a thread about a Evangelical who was once a Catholic and changed or a Baptist who is now a Catholic is not bashing, IMHO, unless of course it starts with “I left that Roman Whore of Babylon Church because...” Or “I left those damned-to-Hell Heretics and joined the one, true Church because....”
And Jim simply wants us to use our own judgment on that.
I agree. There are legitimate disagreements based on how different Christian churches interpret the Bible, those subjects can be debated civilly. For example debating whether infants should be baptized. Both positions can find Biblical support and arguments can be based on factual church teaching and practice.
What people can no longer do is just make crap up while maligning the beliefs and intentions of others. That goes for Protestant and Catholics.
Amen
But it is because so many conservative RCs hold to the classic RC doctrine that all outside Rome are as Hell bound pagans (or as just yesterday when one affirmed we were dead if we did not believe in the Real Presence) then provokes refutation AKA flame baiting. Which for so many RC devotees is anything that impugns their church.
While refutation was too often, it should not be banned. And if it is then it needs to be defined. I think a quota system of two per week would be more reasonable.