Respectfully, if the Moderators pull anything that has anything to do with Religion over to the Religion Forum, it's okay by me.
My own position is that the Church must be Reformed in order to have a positive impact on Political Society.
And since Religious Conservatives disagree over what this entails, having a separate Forum to discuss it makes sense to me.
When y'all have become good Presbyterians like the old Revolutionist Rev. John Witherspoon (grin), we can then ask Jim to re-combine the Forums for the purpose of melding Religious Activism and Political Activism. As long as the Church is still "sorting out" what "Religious Activism" must necessarily mean, the provision of a separate forum for discussion of the matter makes every bit as much sense to me as a "News/Politics" Forum provides for Libertarian/Conservative argumentation of what "Political Activism" should necessarily mean.
I.M.H.O.
We can and should ask for that right now! Unfortunately, this is the crux of the matter. There is no thing as conservatism without religion, namely Christianity, in this country.
To separate the two is to sound the death knell for conservatism. To act as if they can be separated and still expect conservative principles to stand on their own is naive.
To actively separate them is antithetical to any true conservatism.
Any "Conservative" political movement in America must be animated by a continual reference to, and analysis of, the intersection between faith and politics.
"Conservatism" needs definition on a forum like this:
Main Entry: con·ser·va·tism
Pronunciation: k&n-'s&r-v&-"ti-z&m
Function: noun
Date: 1835
1 capitalized a : the principles and policies of a Conservative party b : the Conservative party
2 a : disposition in politics to preserve what is established b : a political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, stressing established institutions, and preferring gradual development to abrupt change
3 : the tendency to prefer an existing or traditional situation to change
Personally I believe that a political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, stressing established institutions in America is, by definition, based on Judeo-Christian tradition and social stability.
Therefore, I do not shy away from calling those self proclaimed conservatives here on FreeRepublic.com "A Conservative News Forum" back to the very roots of that "Conservatism, " namely Judeo-Christian principles and belief. Christianity is integral to the continuance of Conservatism in America and thus The Necessity for Christianity on Free Republic.
I would like to see an ongoing, charitable discussion and debate on the defintion of, and basis/roots of, the "Conservative" aspect of FreeRepublic.com "A Conservative News Forum."
And that can only happen when the two are not artificially segregated.