somehow I feel somewhat to blame for trying to initiate a balanced discussion of anything that had to do with religion.
Personally I don't think you have anything to beat yourself up about.
Theoretically, we're all big boys and girls here - and are willing to be responsible for acts/speech we have committed - and the consequences that flow from them.
More than once I almost unsubscribed from a thread I was the OP. Some especially outrageous statement would light a fire of ugliness I just didn't want to participate in. Now I admit being a bit old fashioned here, raised on a constant drilling of manners.
The ugliness doesn't go away by not looking or running from it ...
Better to get it out in the open and let a little sunlight and communication disinfect it (IMO)
People often mistakenly think that they have no influence over others ...
A few years ago an individual on another forum - who I am often at loggerheads with from a political perspective - wrote a very persuasive (it seemed to me) post about the inherent wrongness of throwing cigarette butts out the window of your vehicle and littering. Being a smoker with that inclination and occasional habit, it totally changed my own behavior ... even though his post was not directed at me, and no one other than myself on that forum was even aware that I had been doing it.
No one - and that includes those I disagree with politically - should ever sell themselves short on their ability to influence others.
Frankly I was incredulous that people in this modern day and age could say what they were saying, and apparently plenty of others thought so too.
Apparently so ...
But like FarmGirl said, I didn't come here to listen to myself (or other New England liberals...) talk, I want to learn from others.
Unfortunately, that is not everyone's agenda ...
Some folks have it as their agenda to find "comfort" ...
from agreement with those of a like mind ...
To these, folks who hold different views are often very very threatening ... and many of them will attempt to
stop others from communicating, through various means ... including some which reasonable people might find at least distasteful, if not actually underhanded and devious ....
Perhaps we should all consider all of us in the same room when we talk to each other at TBN. A great big room, but no real distance between us. A large room in a Community Building perhaps. With tractors outside...:tractor:
LOL ... perhaps ...
And perhaps some already do ...
I have never reported anyone for posting something I didn't like. But I can see why other folks would.
Well, I have to say I am rather mystified (not necessarily about you per se) ... I've seen
denials by multiple people of ever having reported posts ...
And as far as I can recall, I am the
only one that has ever
publicly admitted doing so, on a handful of occasions. Judging from the number of posts I've had pulled (probably a number somewhere south of 10) over a number of months, I certainly could not have been the only one ... since I'm not in the habit of reporting myself.
I do know - as a consequence of being friends with several moderators on another forum - that, at least there, those who were most inclined to regularly and repeatedly complain (a relatively small handful of people) - often just about allowing a particular topic deemed controversial - were also the least inclined to publicly participate and challenge those whose views they disagreed with. I also know that a number of those were inclined to bypass the "Report Post" feature and instead PM a particular moderator directly - as a means avoiding having all the moderators informed of their complaint and having the matter addressed and handled by a consensus of all the moderators to the particular forum.
Generally speaking, I have a real short list of things which I will - without fail - report:
1. Criminal threats of illegal violence towards myself or any other individual or group.
Beyond that, I'd largely prefer to address anything else in open forum by directly confronting the individual involved myself rather than complaining to someone else to do something ... although I'd be a liar if I said there hasn't been a time or two that personal pizzing matches have motivated me to report a post.
You just can't yell fire in a theater, and a few, very few..., of the statements posted here were definitely on fire. And put the community building at risk.
Yup ...
very few ...
