Doctrinal Thoughts

[RedTulipMom]

why the survey??? i disagree with defining what we must believe to be here in moderates forums...it will not be a good thing

 

[Rhamiel]

Various forms of nonviolence are the best approaches to most of the world's problems

blah,
I like the idea of defining what a person believes to be a "moderate christian" but we need to be very very careful so we do not exclude people, I do not think of myself as being very moderate so I will probably just be a guest around here but I would like to point out two things (hay deja vu all over agian)
1 being "moderate" covers a very large area, more then liberal or conservitave, maybe more then both of those combined so you have to be very careful
2 you need definitions for words to have meaning, if something is going to be called christian then it has to have something to do with Christ

 

[Willtor]

why the survey??? i disagree with defining what we must believe to be here in moderates forums...it will not be a good thing

blah,
I like the idea of defining what a person believes to be a "moderate christian" but we need to be very very careful so we do not exclude people, I do not think of myself as being very moderate so I will probably just be a guest around here but I would like to point out two things (hay deja vu all over agian)
1 being "moderate" covers a very large area, more then liberal or conservitave, maybe more then both of those combined so you have to be very careful
2 you need definitions for words to have meaning, if something is going to be called christian then it has to have something to do with Christ

Seriously! Just read the OP!



I think if people read the OP more often, they'd get all worked up a lot less frequently.

 

[BelindaP]

Sorry, Willtor. We've been programmed by bad experiences.

 

[Willtor]

Sorry, Willtor. We've been programmed by bad experiences.

It's okay.

Is there anything in particular you'd like to see on the survey?

 

[Rhamiel]

oh the blah was over nonviolence, not what redtulip had to say

 

[Melethiel]

I'm lazy...can I just link to my church's confessions?

 

[chaoschristian]

Here's one to add Willtor:

Discipleship is both an inward and outward journey.

 

[Rowan]

Well, after reading JimfromOhio's definition for "moderate" (which I thought was really good), I'm thinking "Nicene Creed", myself.

 

[RedTulipMom]

im still confused..why do we need a survey? i DID read the OP..and still am not getting it..sorry.

PS..im not worked up..not in the least.

 

[BelindaP]

I think the idea of the survey is to show the wide range of views held by moderates and to illustrate where we tend to overlap. My only concern is that such a survey might be used against members at some point. But, that's bad experience speaking again.

 

[Izdaari Eristikon]

I think the idea of the survey is to show the wide range of views held by moderates and to illustrate where we tend to overlap. My only concern is that such a survey might be used against members at some point. But, that's bad experience speaking again.

I think a doctrinal survey (showing the range of views held by us "moderates", not a statement of what you have to believe to be a member) is a wonderful idea. I'm kinda drawing a blank on what to put in it, but I'm sure I'll think of something later.

But if people want to use it to prove we're too liberal or too conservative, or whatever... let 'em, I don't care. "I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam", as Popeye often said, and he was pretty wise for a canned spinach addict.

 

[Willtor]

Hey Melethiel, you can pick out anything you want. But if it's something big in paragraph form or whatever (like in the Nicene Creed), try to divide it up into small parts that don't grammatically rely on each other (e.g. "By the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate in the virgin Mary and was made man" becomes "By the power of the Holy Spirit Jesus became incarnate in the virgin Mary and was made man").

---

Here are the points I have so far:

Jesus is fully God and fully Man

There is One God Who is eternally Three Persons (I changed "exists" because it occurred to me that that's a loaded word)

The Bible is infallible in matters of faith and practice

The age of the universe is best measured in billions of years

Various forms of nonviolence are the best approaches to most of the world's problems

God hears and meaningfully responds to prayer

God is still talking

Discipleship is both an inward and outward journey.

 

[Willtor]

im still confused..why do we need a survey? i DID read the OP..and still am not getting it..sorry.

PS..im not worked up..not in the least.

A statistical breakdown of doctrines is basically a list of doctrines along with percentages of people in the moderate forum (who respond to the poll) who agree/disagree/are uncertain and how many of those that agree think they are essential to the faith.

I was interested in doing this because I wanted to get a sense as to what "Moderate Christian" meant in the communal sense based on the people who use it in application to themselves.

Now, I know that there are people who are variously for and against the notion of a statement of faith for the forum and tend to see this as that. But it isn't. It will be used as something that is descriptive and not prescriptive. It will say something about us as a group but it won't be a metric for judgment.