Hey Everyone
(Uh-oh, this one looks very long.)
It is hard to believe that the Lib board has only been around for just about one year. I remember this because I went into the hospital for about a month last June/July, and when I got home, I was so confused! There was this whole new board called Liberal Christianity, all filled up with a plethora of new threads and old ones that had been transferred there. Wow, thought I, thinking that this would be a place where Christians who didn’t quite fit the mainstream mold could peacefully discuss stuff like, oh, maybe
Scripture? Peacefully without upsetting our literalist friends. I thought it might be a place where we could finally investigate the actual literary aspects of the Bible, maybe look into some allegorical or mystical interpretations. But what I found when I started catching up was that it wasn’t very peaceful, and anything that even hinted at a conventional approach was not welcome. I saw poster after poster who had tried to join in, saying they had never felt like they quite belonged to the mainstream, only to be shot down when they tried to talk about the Bible or their love of Christ. Anyone who did this was immediately labeled a “fundy” and basically asked to change their point of reference or leave. But that was at first, and things have changed.
Now, I know that wil and Abo and some other folks campaigned to get the Lib board up and running, but I think it was created mainly to accommodate one person, who was admittedly a secular humanist (not a liberal Christian) with a personal axe to grind, who took every opportunity to bash Christianity and remind us all of her supposed intellectual superiority. Now, I don’t remember if she was banned, but if she was, it was because, after everything that had been done to help make a place where she could speak freely, she carried her axe on down into Comparative Studies and continued her bid to basically take over CR and turn it into a radical extremist site which opposed interfaith dialogue with anyone, Christian or otherwise, who held to any fundamental aspects of religion at all. But after all of this, she came back, I believe, under a different handle, and as far as I know, is actually still a member, whether she still posts or not. And I think she tried to come back and be more civil, but maybe without all the uproar, she was bored? I don’t know. Anyway, I’ll say this much for her—she was interesting, and in spite of her hurtful rants, she left us with a place where we can actually talk about things in a more inclusive way, and for that I am grateful. I’m sure she would think it odd that folks like myself are considered “liberal” by many, and that I tend to make my home in the LC now.
Then there is the flipside. There are folks who help spawn the sort of bitterness described above by what that lady might have called “religious abuse”. These are the folks who, regardless of how devoted they may be to the idea of “love the sinner, hate the sin” cannot seem to demonstrate that same love in their actions. It comes off like
passion without
compassion, and so much of the time it renders the point they so desperately want to share ineffective at best, and unhealthy and hurtful the rest of the time. And they openly wonder why people don’t want to invest in the heaven they speak of, when they themselves appear to be stuck in some kind of perpetual hell already. And they don’t have the common courtesy to let up every now and then with the threadstarting either. It’s one thing to be good at starting conversations, but someone (don’t remember who) recently used the term “carpet bombing” to describe what happens when someone with a tunnel vision type agenda gets going. I thought that was a good description. I mean, anyone trying to have a conversation about anything else might as well take a vacation for a while, because it is next to impossible to continue it when any post you make gets buried by five or six new threads every time. This may be exciting to some folks, and I may just be slow or something, but I really don’t appreciate it, and it does appear to me to be a transgression of the Code of Conduct. I am glad that the young “preacher” who recently engaged in this type of activity has apparently emerged in a more mature capacity due to whatever training he may have received from devoted veterans in the Christianity garden. I’ve picked up on a couple of hints, but I must say that the difference is so marked that I hardly recognize him. So he has been here under more than one new name? I have only imagined one. How about that? What a difference, and much appreciated from this end! It is kind of like when someone finally turns the boom box down—then I can actually hear the music and my headache gets better.
I know this post is long, but I don’t do this very often, so hopefully those reading this will bear with me just a little bit longer. There has been a lot said about how we shouldn’t be offended by the words of another—about how we ought to be tolerant even of intolerance. Well, that’s fine to a point. Perhaps something worth working on individually. However, what I think needs to be considered is that people can get offended for the sake of others. In other words, I can usually take whatever is dished out without falling apart or losing my way. But there are people who are in tender places that are in need of loving kindness and are sincerely seeking a kind word. They already may be hurting more than anyone can imagine, even if they don’t say so. So when I see someone with an apparently gentle soul getting their head flushed down the toilet in the name of Christ, I make no apology for getting a bit riled. It ain’t right, folks, and it should not be allowed here. You can talk to me all day about sticks and stones and how words can’t hurt, but obviously they sometimes do. And I’m sure I have been the offender from time to time, and I might even have done it in this post. But sometimes I just have to stand up in defense of those who really have shown no malice and yet are fed to the lions, all because they don’t fit into a certain theological box. Like maybe those folks who’d like to attend a church, but are told to check their sins at the door. What good is a church if a person can’t come as they are, sin—or perceived sin—and all? Surely God knows their heart better than anyone in the church.
Well, I still think we need the Lib board. Even if there isn’t that much activity. It is still a safe haven for certain folks and certain conversations. I realize it may be difficult to moderate, because it does tend to lend itself to subjects like Christo-Buddhism and such that can usually be handled in Belief and Spirituality or Comparative Studies. But there’s something unique about it in that it actually can narrow things down a bit when needed. For the most part, maybe we Christians can get along on the Christianity board, and only when it feels right to post on the LC out of respect, then it is still there. Personally, I have always thought it should be a subforum in Abrahamic religions, but then wil and some others have given me food for thought in this area that I had not considered or understood before. I guess it really doesn’t matter to me, as long as there is a place for everyone to feel at home, or at least somewhat comfortable.
LOL, guess I needed to get some thing off my chest, huh? Thanks for reading. (And if you skimmed it, you should go back and read it all because I spent a lot of time writing it.
)
InPeace,
InLove 
