ANNOUNCEMENT: MORATORIUM - TOPICS RELATING TO HOMOSEXUALITY

[MarkRohfrietsch]

ANNOUNCEMENT: MORATORIUM - TOPICS RELATING TO HOMOSEXUALITY
Effective immediately all topics related to Homosexuality with the exception of authoritative statements from the Church. In effect, this is a ban of all homosexual discussion from a Political standpoint, but not from a Theological perspective.

This Moratorium will be in effect for the period of one month, but may be extended at the discretion of Staff.

Threads of this nature in these forums will either be closed or moved to American Politics at the discretion of staff.

Mark
CF Admin

 

[Michie]

Thank you. I do not mind discussing it but when it becomes the sole purpose of many in the forum it really gets old.

 

[S.ilvio]

An inspired decision. Thank you Mark...

 

[Genersis]

Hmm. Interesting move.
Wonder if it will impact OBOB member activity.

 

[Michie]

If they are not interested I discussing it in the context of faith, it will.

Hmm. Interesting move.
Wonder if it will impact OBOB member activity.

 

[MoonlessNight]

Out of curiosity, was there any warning that this was a possibility before the moratorium was announced?

I'm honestly asking. I don't keep up to date with every forum announcement.

 

[Tallguy88]

Out of curiosity, was there any warning that this was a possibility before the moratorium was announced?

I'm honestly asking. I don't keep up to date with every forum announcement.

It had been suggested and received some positive feedback in Michie's thread. However, the primary reason was to give the forum a cooling off period to cut down on an increasing number of reports on an overy contentious politiCal topic. It is only temporary. Theological discussions of homosexuality are still allowed, so long as they don't turn political.

 

[MikeK]

Mods, feel free to delete or move this thread if it violates some rule.

What precipitated the homosexuality thread moratorium? Was this something posters were requesting or were reports from those threads overwhelming staff? My gut instinct is to be pretty peeved about it, but I would like to hear the reasoning. I created this thread rather than asking a staffer directly as I suspect that many posters have the same questions and a thread on the issue should clear it up more efficiently than innumerable questions to staffers. Thanks!

 

[Marius27]

Too many reports due to how hateful people got on the subject.

 

[Michie]

My impression and I don't know, just my take, is that it was getting too political and the only thing that people talked about. Tallguy said we could still discuss it as long as it does not become political. I don't mind the moratorium because the topic was taking over a faith forum which is a bit strange in the first place. We can still discuss it in the proper context. At first I thought it was completely off limits unless it was based off something clergy said.

Mods, feel free to delete or move this thread if it violates some rule.

What precipitated the homosexuality thread moratorium? Was this something posters were requesting or were reports from those threads overwhelming staff? My gut instinct is to be pretty peeved about it, but I would like to hear the reasoning. I created this thread rather than asking a staffer directly as I suspect that many posters have the same questions and a thread on the issue should clear it up more efficiently than innumerable questions to staffers. Thanks!

 

[AvilaSurfer]

We get it. You're gay. You won the court decision. Can we just stop hearing about it now?

 

[Sword of the Lord]

Too many reports due to how hateful people got on the subject.

Slander. Sticking with true biblical interpretation and tradition of the Christian church isn't hate.

 

[LoAmmi]

Slander. Sticking with true biblical interpretation and tradition of the Christian church isn't hate.

Directly attacking the person and not the topic, however, is hate. And that was going on, sadly, from both sides of the issue. It's a highly emotional topic for people and it does bring out the worst. Kind of like an abortion debate or a debate over how the Packers aren't going to make the playoffs (Just poking you)

 

[Tallguy88]

ADMIN HAT

Merged thread into this one for the sake of keeping everything together.

 

[Tallguy88]

Mods, feel free to delete or move this thread if it violates some rule.

What precipitated the homosexuality thread moratorium? Was this something posters were requesting or were reports from those threads overwhelming staff? My gut instinct is to be pretty peeved about it, but I would like to hear the reasoning. I created this thread rather than asking a staffer directly as I suspect that many posters have the same questions and a thread on the issue should clear it up more efficiently than innumerable questions to staffers. Thanks!

Too many reports is the primary reason. It allows a cooling off period for the forum. Theological discussion of homosexual issues is still allowed in OBOB and political discussion of it can continue in American Politics while the moratorium is in effect here.

 

[Tallguy88]

I should point out that this was a unanimous decision by all the Admins, not something that one person pushed through. Reports have been higher than usual from OBOB, so naturally, we looked at them to try to find the causes and what could be done.

This is a step that will hopefully help. So far, it seems to have cut down on them somewhat.

Also, this was a topic that was drawing in a lot of non-Catholics to debate outside the bounds of what is allowed. One reason was the new software's " most active threads" feature that brough posters in here whow didn't realie where they were postimg. I believe our tech guy has made it where OBOB threads won't show up in that list, so that should also help cut down on violations here

 

[Davidnic]

Moratoriums have been necessary from time to time across CF to restore civil conversation, diagnose and solve what is causing a high volume of reports and restore the ability to talk about things. They have never been used to remove a topic long term. And I am sure this one is exactly like all of those before it.

The Anglican area had some moratoriums a few years ago when some issues came up that had the members arguing. We had the really big political one here back in 2008. And there are many other examples. Personally I have overseen...I think three large ones while either OBOB Admin or CF Policy Manager.

In each case it was temporary and the result was more open and less contentious posting when it was over. And that is what this one is too.

 

[Michie]

Have you not seen the new announcement David?

 

[Davidnic]

The marriage one, yep.

 

[Davidnic]

I think the new rules on it strike the only balance that can work. If a denomination has decided on their top levels that they are more open to it, then in that congregational area it can be discussed somewhat differently. But for us it does not change much. We will never have such a statement from our authority so it will only remain allowable in the bounds of Church Teaching.