WANTED: A CATHOLIC USENET STRIKE TEAM (CUST)

Self ^ | 2002.07.19 | B-chan

[B-Chan]

I have recently begun reading and posting to a Usenet newsgroup called alt.religion.christian.roman-catholic (ARCRC). It has been -- to say the least! -- an eye-opening experience. Rarely have I seen Catholic-bashing of such a vituperative and hateful nature. The level of sheer venom in the average thread makes one of our "never-ending" FR religion threads look like a 1040 long form. Atheists, agnostics, and their allies run rampant, gleefully blaspheming and sarcastically denying the Lord Jesus Christ, ridiculing the Church, and posting all sorts of anti-Christian garbage. Many of the Catholics (and rational Protestnts) on the group, while willing, are obviously ill-equipped to defend the faith, being either spiritually immature, semi-literate, improperly catechized, or all three. (Mea culpa.) As a result, the level of reasoned discourse is low, with name-calling, insults, and killfiling rampant on all sides, leaving the field to the Bad Guys.

I'm going to continue posting to ARCRC in an attempt to raise the level of discourse, but I was wondering -- would some of you like to join in? What I have in mind is a sort of "Catholic Usenet Strike Team" that would monitor ARCRC, keeping an eye out for particularly heinous messages, then swooping in en masse to refute, rebut, and defeat those who post lies, calumnies, and misinformation about the Faith. These "Catholic Commanados" would also come to the rescue of some of our earnest but less-able Catholic (and Protestant) brothers when the latter get in over their heads rhetorically.

I realize that we're all busy, but in the Information Age, so-called "e-pologetics" is a mission field we can't afford to ignore. I'll continue to do my best, but I'm hardly a Catholic scholar, and I only have so much time to devote to Usenet every day; in other words, I could use the help.

If you think you might be interested in a little Usenet combat for Christ, please let me know, either on this thread, or privately by FreepMail; if not, please forgive me for the intrusion. In any case, you owe it to yourself to sample alt.religion.christianity.roman-catholic and see what a jungle it really is out there.

[B-Chan]

Yours in Christian Fraternity,

B-chan

[Sock]

If that's the place I'm thinking of, you're right, it is a jungle. I can really appreciate what you're saying but "street fight" apologetics is a tough game and I'm reminded of an article posted some time ago at FR that was titled (I'm probably a little off on this)"Why I don't debate idiots"?

I know there is the great commission to preach the gospel, but even St. Paul knew when to say when in his preaching (see Acts 18: 6) and I'm not the apologist that St. Paul was. I am further reminded of the passage in Titus 3:

A man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, avoid: knowing that he, that is such an one, is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned by his own judgment.

The problem is not only that the effort is a waste of time (I've never witnessed an online conversion by one of these kinds of radicals), but dealing with them can affect ones own spirit. These kinds of battles do not lead to peace of soul.

Nevertheless, I'm curious. Do you have a link? ;-)

Pax tecum.

[Gophack]

I don't know if I'm up to this street fight, but I might be interested. Sometimes the battles here on FR are challenging enough, and most of us are at the least Christians! I haven't taken my apologetics outside of the Protestant/Catholic debate ... I don't even know where I would start with someone who doesn't even believe in God, let alone His Son, Jesus Christ!

[Theresa]

Okay I found the list and responed to the post of a guy who seems to be an atheist. I may visit the list from time to time. Thanks for the notice!

[tiki]

I'd start with Pascal if I wanted to go there and I don't.

[LadyDoc]

Christian bashing is terrible, so I stopped going to such places.

You would be better to pray for them rather than to try to change their minds. On FR, we can discuss our differences, but as the "never ending thread" shows, good Christians can disagree.

I had a Christian friend who gave up on Christian chats after seeing the blasphemy on Yahoo's chats. I told him to go to Crosswalk.com and he found other believers to discuss things. Petersnet has a discussion list for Catholics.

[Gophack]

Wow. Thanks for the information. Maybe we SHOULD set these people straight, or at least tell them what they are doing wrong once or twice, and then if they don't listen we have done our part.

However, FR takes up all my "Free" time ... and I don't think I want to sacrifice my FR time by keeping up with these other threads.

[american colleen]

Hi B-Chan,
I can't take the format over there! It is difficult to follow the progression of a discussion going on. I admit, I am spoiled by FR.