I’ve given this some thought overnight, piusv, it’s not that I think it’s “OK” so much as I think it’s important to maintain the caucus structure so that FReepers participating in the Religion Forum are able to discuss their beliefs among themselves in peace. It can get very contentious at times, and while I’m certainly not immune to arguing history and theological points fairly strenuously myself, not everyone is comfortable with that and not every topic on the Religion Forum should be put under a microscope, dissected and criticized, sometimes fairly brutally.
I appreciate and respect the position you are in, you’ve taken a strong position out of faith and find yourself being excluded to a certain extent because of it. I see that the RF Moderator has replied and confirmed that it’s acceptable to repost a given caucused topic that you find controversial and you find yourself unable to participate, as an open thread so long as you wait until the following day to do so. That’s one way to discuss a given matter freely and without the constraints of a caucus. The downside would be that this would allow us Protestants to chime in also, and you may not like that.
Another approach would be to monitor a given caucus thread with which you take issue for whatever reason, and if the caucus is broken due to mentioning your belief you are absolutely entitled to respond. A caucus thread is not a protected hidey-hole from which to lob spitballs at other beliefs. I find that some frequent posters of caucus threads have difficulty understanding this, and so I do respond when entitled due to my belief being introduced wrongly into the caucus.
I hope this strikes you as satisfactory. While we don’t agree on all things, I respect your position and you seem to be a decent sort. Contrary to what several seem to want to claim in the heat of debate, I don’t hate Catholics. I just have major problems with the priesthood and hierarchy. Individual Catholics, so long as they’re professing repentance and Christ risen, are brothers and sisters as far as I’m concerned.
Thank you for caring about this. I think the re-posting as an open thread would work for me for now. We shall see how it works out in reality. Just so you know, I don’t mind Protestants chiming in since I rarely if ever post a caucus thread anyway. I actually get more upset with Catholics who allow the discussion to go off on the usual tangents as a result of the Protestant posts.