In all seriousness, I admire you for stepping forward, and I have only a deep admiration and affection for you. The truth is, I have been a lightning rod for controversy--no doubt about that, because I have been willing to take unpopular stands with all firmness.
On the other hand, I have always done my best to maintain a proper decorum on the discussion threads.
I will admit that this has not always been easy considering the kind of opinionated, stubborn, even dishonest, even publicly crude folks like we do have on FR. I will not name names; I have never been even so much as tempted to use the abuse button. For the record, however, I can think of several people who could have been banned for the kinds of things which they have repeatedly dared to fling at me in public in utterly flagrant violation of FR rules.
In Brian's case, I just wanted to be quite a bit more earnest than a public forum could handle. I cannot tell you why I felt this way. But I decided to be pretty clear about my views in a private e-mail--which I explicitly refused to give him permission to post, of course. (This was not a matter of cowardice on my part, but a matter of decorum in FR's protocols.) Now, since he posted the e-mail against my instructions, I gather that a lot of people will now know how concerned about my Roman Catholic friends (and now, I guess, my Roman Catholic enemies) I am.
On balance, however, the situation is fine with me. Really. If the Admin Moderator and Jim Robinson conclude that it's best for me to go, I am not worried in the least for myself. I have lots of stuff to do.
So, it's a win/win situation for me.
No matter what happens over this flap, I will continue to pray for Free Republic.
The big difference is I did not know what the result would be I had no "evil " intent...this is a far different situation..