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Grass roots conservatism follows the constitution..which was written by old white protestant men.

They saw God as an intergral part of any government and the right to discuss Religion openly as a right. Now JR has the right, since it is his forum ,to ban all religious discussion. But I do not believe he intends that one church or one set of beliefs be allowed to stay while another is censored. Like the Protestants that have loved FR and posted here he loves the constitution and its core values.

It is not right that Protestant speech is censored and Catholic speech not..and that is what has happen on this thread.

It is part of a general trend to bash Protestants ..the one group that still unwavers in its support of the founders..

"Free Republic is an online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web. We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America."

All no doubt true.

And yet, I would make the argument that FreeRepublic is primarily a forum of people who truly and deeply believe in certain principles.

Political principles. Moral principles. And religious principles.

The greatest problem the Republic faces now, as at any time in our history, is that of apathy, of drift. You can't have a constitutional republic that is composed of moderates and the apathetic any more than a republic can survive if large numbers of the electorate are uneducated.

You seem to think that these battles are constant and unproductive. To the contrary. They help each of us to define who we are and what we really believe. What we're willing to fight for, to make a stink about that just won't go away.

The same spirit that sometimes animates these discussions is, in fact, the same spirit that made FreeRepublic such an powerful influence in the impeachment of x42 and in the Battle for Floriduh.

You won't get moderates to do that. You won't get a moderate to turn out and FReep Condit's office every week, rain or shine, like JimRob and his bunch does. And there are plenty of other examples.

Whether you like it or not, these are all a very vital part of FreeRepublic and what has made it work: the never-say-die, damn-the-torpedos attitude of so many differing people. And what makes it work is the committment to traditional moral values and a constitutional republic.

It isn't perfect but human beings only seem to come in a certain number of flavors. If you want a constitutional forum that can rise and accomplish something, you need some tough bulldogs on it whose jaws stay clenched even after they're beaten to death. And if the dogs growl at each other a little bit between the major battles, then a good doghandler knows that that is just their nature.

I think JimRob knows this better than some of you moderators. Over the course of time, I think you'll see it too.

I think that in policing complaints and unruliness on religious threads, gross insults and a constant pattern of baiting is what you should watch for. We Calvinists don't complain when others come in and give us a strong argument from time to time. And our RC friends, despite their constant we're-being-persecuted refrain, generally don't have constant trouble either on their threads.

But I say it's good to mix it up now and then so you don't get complacent. It shouldn't be constant and you moderators should watch for a pattern of constant stalking and disruption. But FR won't last if it becomes a haven from free speech either. The marketplace of ideas necessary to any democratic republic is not a series of closed inpenetrable rooms from which all other thought can be excluded.

FreeRepublic needs to let there be some challenges, even tough ones. But a consistent and unrelenting pattern of attack is unproductive. Let the RCs challenge the Protestants and the Protestants challenge the RCs. As long as they mostly have some peace and quiet on their own threads, there's nothing wrong with it. It's healthy. I'll tell you flat out that people complain about the religious bickering but it is a part of what draws people here, just as freedom of religion and expression have always drawn people to our constitutional republic. That's the truth.

Let's remember the value of free speech and the marketplace of ideas.