Ad-Hoc Religion Forum Committee Discussion Thread

3/25/02 | angelo

[malakhi]

Jim Robinson has asked me to get a committee together to discuss the topic setup for this new forum. Below is his post to me on The Neverending Story thread. This looks like a good place to start the discussion.

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To: angelo

John has set up the "Religion" forum. For the time being, it has only the one "General Discussion" topic. I'm hoping that a few of you can form a committee to come up with a suggested topic list. There have been many suggested topics submitted to me during the last few days, but rather than me picking and choosing from random suggestions, I think it would be best to have those of you who are most interested and knowledgeable in the area to design a comprehensive yet compact topic structure (if such a thing can be designed).

There can be two or three sections: an overall or general topic area, then a more specific list, and perhaps a denominational list as well. Any thread can be posted to as many topic categories as appropriate and multiple keywords can also be used to further define and classify threads. The topic names should be short (one to three words each), but the subject area should be sufficiently broad to allow for a fairly wide range of threads and discussions. The topic name can be followed by a sentence defining the topic area. See the topic list for the News/Activism topic for example.

Thanks, Jim

36828 posted on 3/25/02 2:37 PM Central by Jim Robinson
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[malakhi]

Would you folks be willing to help me coordinate this? I'd like input from a broad spectrum of religious backgrounds, and y'all pretty much cover the gamut!

[malakhi]

I'm not trying to exclude anyone, and I'd like input from each of you who is interested in contributing.

As always, anyone who wants on or off my bumplist, please freepmail me.

I'm going to go back through The Neverending Story thread and dig up the topics that have been suggested so far.

[Khepera]

You got it.

[RnMomof7]

I think your list looks fine ange...and no my feelings are not hurt:>))

[al_c]

Count me in.

[malakhi]

Suggestions by dittojed2:

Theology
Religious News
Prayer
Devotional
Opportunities for Activism (court cases/religious freedom issues)
Announcements (such as special events in people's areas)
Creation vs Evolution

[malakhi]

Suggestion by 68-69TonkinGulfYatchClub:

Daily prayer thread for the military.

[RnMomof7]

Church History??

[malakhi]

Suggestions by Quix:

Apologetics
Ministry/outreach
Humor
Historical practices, documents
Origins
Comparative Religious discussion, issues, doctrines, beliefs
Evolution
Prophecy
End Times
Heresy
Heaven
Hell
Religion and public life
Legislation/court cases
Miracles
Holy Spirit, Charismania, Pentecostalism, Spiritual gifts
Demonology, satan, possession, oppression
Persecution, freedom of worship, freedom of communication
Radical fundamentalism, religious terrorism
Education, hospitals, orphanages, poor ministries
Prayer, prayer requests
Spiritual character, fruits of The Spirit, lived faith, intrinsic religiosity
Counterfeit, surface, extrinsic religiosity
Atheism, agnosticism, Hinduism
Eastern religions
Islam
Judaism
Martyrdom

[Romulus]

My suggested topic is: The Ghettoising of Religion, And Why Conservatives Will Subvert It.

[RnMomof7]

I would like to point out that the Neverending thread is in ALL of those catagories

[DouglasKC]

and perhaps a denominational list as well.

If there's going to be denominiational lists, I volunteer to be the moderator/guider/upkeeper/whatever for a "Churches of God", which could basically cover all Church of God denominations which keep the 7th day sabbath...

Topics could be tough to whittle down though...there are probably literally hundreds if not thousands of individual topics in Christianity alone.

Maybe something like "breaking" religious news, sure an inter-religion free for all ala the Christian Chronicles.

[NATE4"ONE NATION"]

Would you folks be willing to help me coordinate this? I'd like input from a broad spectrum of religious backgrounds, and y'all pretty much cover the gamut!

Could'nt think of a better man for the job.

I vote Angelo - Moderator!!

[malakhi]

My suggestions for denominational topics:

Catholic
Mainline Protestant
Evangelical Christian
Orthodox Christian
Calvinism
Judaism
Islam
Eastern religions

BigMack suggested including IFBB (Independent Fundamentalist Bible Believers). Bearing in mind that we want the topics to be "sufficiently broad", how detailed of a denominational breakdown should we make?

[malakhi]

Count me in.

Great! Thanks al.

[malakhi]

Church History??

Good one, Mom!

[Wordsmith]

Orthodoxy and Parallel Monologues

Hi angelo - Sure, I'll chip in where I can. Please see the link above for a thread I started last week. Sounds like there's some interest in a thread on traditional Christianity from an ecumenical perspective.

For this reason, I think I'd suggest a "main topic" on ecumenism, and then a subtopic on "Christian tradition" or a similar theme. This would allow Christians from the sacramental confessions - Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and so on - a place to discuss issues of faith without having to defend common principles (like veneration of saints) every other post.

"Neverending" could be another "subtopic" under ecumenism - as a "general" discussion (perhaps with a disclaimer that posters may find some posts offensive) or as a specific "NC v. RC" discussion.

I also think that it might be good to have a "main topic" on the relationship between faith and secular culture. Then you could have subtopics on themes like faith and science, faith and morality, faith and secular entertainment, faith and the arts, and so on.

There could also "main topics" on things like Theology, History, Current Events, and Denominational news. Then under each, appropriate subtopics. Let me know if this sounds like I'm going in the right direction.

[Wordsmith]

I think you could have "Mainline Protestant" and then "Fundamentalist" or "Evangelical" or "Bible-Based." Of course, as we've discussed ad naseum on Neverending, these terms are all somewhat controversial. I say the Orthodox Church is Bible-Based, the RC's say their Church is Orthodox, and the BB's say their Church - the invisible one - is catholic. Not sure how to get around this, but traditionally (8^>) the "big 4" in Christianity are Orthodox, Catholic, Mainline Protestant, and Evangelical.

Perhaps we also need a category for "general religious seeker."

[DouglasKC]

Catholic
Mainline Protestant
Evangelical Christian
Orthodox Christian
Calvinism
Judaism
Islam
Eastern religions
BigMack suggested including IFBB (Independent Fundamentalist Bible Believers). Bearing in mind that we want the topics to be "sufficiently broad", how detailed of a denominational breakdown should we make?

More detailed than this...7th day Churches of God don't fit into any of these categories. Most are sabbatarian and believe in keeping biblical holy days instead of traditional Christian holy days, which puts them at odds with protestents and Catholics...