Why was this necessary?

Thoughts?

I am just really wearied by the constant trolling of Rico and his many handles and Bert (If Bert isn't also Rico) so I am glad of a space where they don't totally disrupt the conversations or are verbally abusive.

By the way, Joe. That is a beauitiful picture. Ireland is one of the places I have never been, but Irish is part of my son's background so I hope to go some day.

It might be a good idea for members who will be posting to express what they hope to get out of the new forum.

Personally, I hope to be able to have more in depth discussions about aspects of my own faith without those discussions being derided our hijacked by hostile posters. I am excited about the possibilities.

There are some discussions where diversity of faiths are interesting and informative and I get the impression that that will be welcomed here. Equally, I hope the new forum will be a place that conversations about aspects of Catholicism and Christianity can be discussed without the topic being diverted to other issues, or expiring into the archives.

I also hope that members will treat each other civilly. I respect Joe's authority, as administrator of the forum, over determining the appropriateness of responses or posts.

Thanks for taking the initiative to create this forum Joe.

Peace

Hey Joe,

Thanks. You were ahead of deadline and hopefully under budget. I am looking forward to this forum.

I have to get myself and avatar.

Sincerely,
Stihl

Okay, just giving it a test drive to see how it works. I'll be back later to update my profile.

Might be fun though

I just want to see my name In LIGHTS!!!! 8)

Oh, and test this thing out.....

I agree with AustenFan and Hank. I get tired of having good discussions highjacked by people who only really have one thing to say--they don't like religion, Christianity in particular. That's ok, they're certainly entitled to feel that way, but it will be nice to have a space to continue some of the more interesting conversations that arise.

I've actually been fascinated by the Syracuse forum (and I include my role in it) for some time. Joe posted an analysis of what he terms the barbarianism of the forum on his blog--you might want to check it out--and I think he's on to something. It's not simply that an anonymous forum can bring out the worst in people, although that's true. It's also that people hold attitudes towards religion that, quite frankly, reek of a kind of primitive anger. And it's not directed just towards religion, but towards what we've come to think of as civilization in general. The truth is, barbarianism is a powerful force--perhaps it's our default mode. I think it's good that many of us want to shake it's dust from our feet, at least part of the time

And finally--a practical note: I am tired of good threads getting archived so quickly. This is a slower format, so perhaps it will also allow us to be more thoughtful and take our time.

I like what everyone has to say. Austen and Cradle about being tired of every thread being hijacked. Hank about wanting the chance to have more sustained and thoughtful analysis. Cradle's point about the threads staying up longer so you can keep them going until they run out of steam, instead of being archived because they're lively.

And look at that, you can use italics. Awesome! (in bold)



:cheers:

I hate to submit a "me too" post on my very first visit to the forum, but I have to say I agree with Cradle and Austenfan (as well as Hank). The hijacking of threads in the other forum was really, REALLY getting on my nerves.

It's good to be here and nice to "see" you all! Thanks for setting up the forum, Joe.

I'm far behind on a deadline and have to cut this short but I'll be back to fine tune my profile.

Why was this necessary? Ummm, off the top of my head, I'd say it's because we're meant to grow in holiness, and in order to do that it's sometimes necessary to retreat to a place where we're among like minded friends who encourage us in our faith.

Gosh, that was a mouthful, but I CAN write huge long sentences here without the fear of a "what did you mean by that?" or "this sentence doesn't fit" or some other blasted evil critique from an English professor...I hope!

Thank you, Joe!

Liz

I sincerely believe that everyone that has "signed up" so far has unquestionable credibilty and more importantly respect for the others here. A promising atmosphere has been established and also a new start in creating a meaningful dialogue about our Creator. Thanks Joe for your time and effort.

I think Stihll commented on another thread about slow moving on syracuse. It's beyond slow. And Joe is right; Some people over there have NOTHING to say unlesss it's a knock on Catholicism and Christianity. If they don't have somebody to play against conservations will cease because one can only go on so long with the following:

Rico: Catholics are horrible people

Bert : Yes, they are.

Agent: Their religion will die.

Color me extremely bored.

That is another reason I am here. Here people talk about books and religion, and statues, and economics, etc. They are actually interesting.

and no, not all of them are, but the militant ones are. This article-from the LA Times, of all places makes reference to the Eagleton book Joe had referenced some time ago. I agree with the author of this opinion piece:


http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-allen17-2009may17,0,491082.story?track=rss

in which he taught me several interesting things and ways of seeing the early church.

And then he commented: "As a serious aside, circumcision and its relation to church history is certainly a subject I would not have bothered submitting a serious response to over on the other forum."

That's awesome that we can have it here. Over there, yeah, well, I won't go on and on about how quickly it would have devolved, but you can all picture it.

out your forum Joe. You did a great job. Thanks for the invite.