If the article is so full of slants and lies, then why not start with your favorite few and speak about why they are untrue. I know I would be more than happy to engage with you as would the poster who put it up. Nobody even tried and the nastiness started almost immediately. Tell me why we have Catholic threads that consistently trash the "Protestant" differences? Are not Catholics just as worthy of criticism?
Second, nobody "hijacked" the thread. It was never a discussion to begin with - only self-congratulation amongst the Protestants, and the complaints of the few Catholics who felt like confronting it tonight.
Well, the most virulent initial posts have been deleted by the Moderator so you cannot see them now. Believe me, they started nasty and went up from there. There was no interest in disputing any facts from the article, only Molotov cocktails thrown in every response. How can you then expect a respectful dialog?
Third, theology and civil discourse is scarce here. From both sides.
It is scarce only on those threads that get sidetracked into flame throwing. I have even seen some of them go for thousands of posts with only a few dishonest or hateful comments. People who are interested in apologetics seem to manage just fine with others who oppose as long as respect is mutual. There are many Roman Catholics on this site with whom I have a loving and congenial relationship. We exchange prayer requests, blessings and disappointments. I am convinced that there are very few Freepers who have no point to share other than in flame-baiting, but ignored, they usually slink away.
I absolutely love the opportunity I have here on Free Republic to "talk" to people from all walks of life and I am grateful we have such a forum to do so. I would hate for the few "ingrates" to spoil it for the rest of us and, if we let them, we have only ourselves to blame.
As I said upthread, it's too big for this thread. If we picked *one* it might be manageable.
And frankly, an open thread is no place for such a discussion... Were such a discussion to be on an "Ecumenic" thread, which would curtail the nastiness from both sides, it might be a discussion worth having.
Tell me why we have Catholic threads that consistently trash the "Protestant" differences? Are not Catholics just as worthy of criticism?
If Catholics are posting threads "trashing" differences we have with Protestants, call them on it in a calm manner as I'm trying to do here.
It is scarce only on those threads that get sidetracked into flame throwing. I have even seen some of them go for thousands of posts with only a few dishonest or hateful comments. People who are interested in apologetics seem to manage just fine with others who oppose as long as respect is mutual. There are many Roman Catholics on this site with whom I have a loving and congenial relationship. We exchange prayer requests, blessings and disappointments. I am convinced that there are very few Freepers who have no point to share other than in flame-baiting, but ignored, they usually slink away.
I absolutely love the opportunity I have here on Free Republic to "talk" to people from all walks of life and I am grateful we have such a forum to do so. I would hate for the few "ingrates" to spoil it for the rest of us and, if we let them, we have only ourselves to blame.
I like it too, and I've seen threads that have been fine. But I've also seen threads disrupted by flamethrowers from both sides.
I don't know how much you follow the main threads, but on one of the FReepathon threads, several posters suggested eliminating the RF altogether - too much strain on the mods and on the system. Perhaps we ought consider that and start to police each other better -- i.e. fraternally correct the members of our own confession to tone down some of these discussions, use the Ecumenic and Caucus threads when possible, and the like. Because all the non-RF FReepers see are the flamewars, and that's a poor witness coming from all of us.
I've got to attend to other things, so this is my last post on the thread. Feel free to FReepmail me if you'd like.
“I have even seen some of them go for thousands of posts with only a few dishonest or hateful comments.”
Go look into a mirror. Look at the disgraceful, loaded question you asked me that I quoted above. Playing that kind of “have you stopped beating your wife yet” gotcha is both dishonest and, imho, hateful. Nasty and juvenile are words that leap to mind.
And your nasty, juvenile question was milk and honey compared to the truly bile filled screeds posted by the multi-collored font twisting haters here.
So go get a mirror, look into it. But be careful getting off that High Horse of yours, a fall could really hurt.