It's disappointing. I don't come here for general fellowship. I come here to argue with Christians (sometimes friendly, sometimes not, but I'm being honest, that is why I come here). If this isn't a Christian site, then I am less interested in participating.
More importantly, it's a disappointment to me bcause I honestly thought we were going to see something from the Christian end of the spectrum here. I've been around this forum long enough to know the ins and outs of some of its politics, and I've seen a lot of people hurt by the old rules. Folks suddenly denied their faith icon (then told it wasn't a judgement about their faith), folks questioned about their marriages, etc, deceitful bannings, deliberately biased moderation, baiting by mods, etc. That stuff didn't happen every day and most of the mods made an honest effort, but it happened often enough to cause some real tears. The bottom line is that the old CF, specifically the secrecy and the division of members into discrete categories of participation is what set the stage for that). I was happy to see it go in the latest reforms, not the least of reasons being that I thought we were going to see a Christian website that DIDN'T rely on coercive authority or serve primarily as a system for status politics. What I thought we might get to see here was the best in Christianity.
And we did see that, we saw it in dozens of moderators and admins that quietly went about trying to make the system work. Some didn't even like the reforms, but they gave it a shot. Yes, there were lots of other people angry and spiteful about losing the leverage they had over the rest of us. But at least some were showing they could make their faith work without being propped up by a host of rules and weapons to use against the unfaithful.
There were others who talked about letting the wolves into the rest of the forum, compared us non-Christians to pedophiles and said we were doing the Devil's work, that our mere presence in other forums would harm young Christians, etc. They pushed to have the term "Christian" taken off the site. They played up every flaw in the new system and turned everything into a constant referendum on the reforms and the Christian status of the site. In effect, they insisted that it just isn't a Christian forum without all the baggage that came with it before. They put status politics above everything else and denied the possibility that was the initial round of reforms. And it looks to me an aweful lot like they won.
To me, it's a bit like finding out your opponent isn't worthy after all, like the respect I thought I had for Christianity is misplaced. It's as though a website can't be Christian unless it really is petty and mean-spirited.
That's a shame. I would rather have seen what Christians could do without all that junk.
