Please Note Changes to Charter

PDN

The following has been added to the Charter for the Christianity forum:

Charter wrote:

The Christianity forum is a platform for open discussion of the Christian religion by those who follow it, or those who have an honest questions about it. Individual posters with other beliefs are welcome to post questions and join in debate, but only in relation to the religion, and in conformation to the forum's rules.

Attacking or belittling the religion and its beliefs contravenes the charter of this forum and will result in a temp ban, with the possibility of an outright permanent ban.

Hopefully these changes will help make the forum a more pleasant place and will encourage more Christian posters to see this as a place where they can discuss their faith, share fellowship, posts prayer requests & testimonies etc.

JimiTime

Long overdue. As a frequenter of the forum, I sincerely welcome this addition to the forum charter. A hearty thank you to you PDN, and anyone else who was involved.:)

Zombrex

PDN wrote: »

Hopefully these changes will help make the forum a more pleasant place and will encourage more Christian posters to see this as a place where they can discuss their faith, share fellowship, posts prayer requests & testimonies etc.

That has never been a problem. None of the Christians have to reply to any of the posts by non-Christians, they choose to (quite forcefully more often than not) and any of the "Christian Only" threads seem to quickly die a death of disinterest. You guys get as much of a kick out of arguing with non-Christian posters as they do arguing with you.

Will be interesting to see what constitutes a "belittling" of Christianity

Non-Christian poster - "Er, that doesn't make sense. Why would God do X? That would make him evil"
Mod - "Stop belittling my faith! Ban!"

Hopefully not ...

Mickeroo

Does this mean The Bible, Creationism and the Prophesy thread will be locked?

I know we shouldn't criticise posters,but does it mean you can't criticise a post anymore now too?

PDN

Mickeroo wrote: »

Does this mean The Bible, Creationism and the Prophesy thread will be locked?

Not unless you are using a discussion of a belief held by some Christians (Creationism) to sneak in attacks on Christianity in general.

There is plenty of room to discuss specific issues - but too many posters have been exploiting this to launch attacks on the Christian faith as a whole, or on doctrines that are inherent to Christianity itself. For example, in almost every thread as soon as the Bible gets mentioned some troll posts something along the lines of "The Bible is just a collection of man-made books etc.". This prevents discussion of the subject at hand and is unacceptable. It has been increasing of late and it stops here and now.

Mickeroo

Wait, the bible is a collectin of man made books!!! Ah no, I'm just joshin :P

Sounds reasonable enough

Coriolanus

Just for clarification and to use the bible example, if someone stated something was true because it was in the bible, that'd be grounds for at least a rebuttal right?

Or maybe I'm misunderstanding, it has been known to happen!

Zombrex

Nevore wrote: »

Just for clarification and to use the bible example, if someone stated something was true because it was in the bible, that'd be grounds for at least a rebuttal right?

I presume you mean something that is contradicted by say science, like someone saying "The Earth is 6,000 years old"

Rather than say a moral position (its wrong to have sex before marriage, it is in the Bible), which while non-Christians might find silly is simply a Christian belief, not something you can rebut other than simply expressing an opposite opinion.

robindch

Wicknight wrote: »

Will be interesting to see what constitutes a "belittling" of Christianity

Not a bad idea. And what constitutes "attacking" too.

PDN

Nevore wrote: »

Just for clarification and to use the bible example, if someone stated something was true because it was in the bible, that'd be grounds for at least a rebuttal right?

Or maybe I'm misunderstanding, it has been known to happen!

Let's use a hypothetical example. If Christians are debating about whether hell is really a place of fire or whether the flames are symbolic, then it makes sense for them to cite the Bible in support of that position.

If an atheist (or indeed a Muslim) wants to then use that as an excuse to butt in and attack the Bible then they may expect to get kicked into touch with a moderator's size 11 boot.

If a thread is discussing a subset of Christian belief that is believed by some but not all Christians (eg the inerrancy of the Bible) then it is legitimate for other posters to argue against that belief and put forward other beliefs (eg plenary or partial inspiration). However, an atheist spouting off their belief that the Bible is a load of rubbish is still unwelcome and in contravention of the Charter.

Overheal

As an atheist scripture-battling rarely interests me but if the discussion relates to atheism, well then..

Hell is an office lobby where the magazines are all for elderly women, btw. And theres no clocks.

PDN

Overheal wrote: »

As an atheist scripture-battling rarely interests me but if the discussion relates to atheism, well then..

If someone posts something that makes a statement about atheism or atheists that you feel to be false then, naturally, you should have a right of reply.

Fanny Cradock

I don't see this as being a barrier to good discussion. Rather, I hope that it will put an end to posts really only seek to attack Christianity.

@ Wicketnight

Unfortunately it has been a problem in the past. We have had a number of posters leave because this forum was seen as a place to either attack Christianity, which is completely different from challenging it, or to justify it from attacks.

thebaldsoprano

I hope that attacks on specific parts of Christianity won't be construed as an attack on Christianity as a whole.

This is coming from someone who has found this forum (oddly) to be a much more welcoming and reasonable place to explore my agnostic beliefs than the A&A forum :eek:

toiletduck

PDN wrote: »

The following has been added to the Charter for the Christianity forum:

The Christianity forum is a platform for open discussion of the Christian religion by those who follow it, or those who have an honest questions about it. Individual posters with other beliefs are welcome to post questions and join in debate, but only in relation to the religion, and in conformation to the forum's rules.

Attacking or belittling the religion and its beliefs contravenes the charter of this forum and will result in a temp ban, with the possibility of an outright permanent ban.

Hopefully these changes will help make the forum a more pleasant place and will encourage more Christian posters to see this as a place where they can discuss their faith, share fellowship, posts prayer requests & testimonies etc.

Well since some of ye don't rate Mormonism as Christianity where does that leave followers of Joseph Smith?

Asiaprod

toiletduck wrote: »

Well since some of ye don't rate Mormonism as Christianity where does that leave followers of Joseph Smith?

They should probably request their own forum:)