I guess you really can't help yourself can you? Rus is hurting, and you have to make a snide jab at Gurney? Take it to PM, it has no place in this thread.
Gurney's opinions are public knowledge in TAW. Whether you think them appropriate or not is immaterial and in no way justifies your "whatever you want your God to be" comment.
Completely agree. Rus, stick around. You are a pillar!Rus,
I hope you’ll prayerfully withdraw this thread and rethink it. I’m not loved by everyone here. I know that. My sense of humor isn’t always well-received, I tell it like it is sometimes too bluntly, and I detest liberalism, evolution, LGBT nonsense, gun control, and a host of other things. I do agree that there ARE “Orthodox” in here at times who are doppelgänger sock puppets or posers. Agree 100%. A few regularly come. Thereve been moments where I’ve felt downright insulted by some.....but I move on. Occasionally I roll my eyes.
I hate to break this to you, Rus, but ALL of us here stand around folks at our parishes who don’t grasp Orthodoxy reciting the Creed. I’ve heard not only pro-socialism, Pro-gay, and pro-abortion folks, but I’ve talked to people in my parish who refuse to fast or take communion in other denominations!!!?! Fortunately most of my fellow parishioners are conservative, traditional, vote that way, live that way. Most at my parish see the European Union and secular humanists and modernists as dangerous loons. But a few are pot-smoking oddballs in my humble opinion. I just try to politely say hi to them and move on....
No need to leave TAW; just avoid the people you find unorthodox and heretical or eccentric. That’s the best answer.
It’s funny you’re on FB, but want to leave TAW! I’m the opposite. I got so sick of the politics (mostly anti-Trump rhetoric and bloviation) and minutiae (look at me! I’m eating a steak sandwich! WHO CARES!?!) stuff, and the risks of putting myself out there that I personally deactivated my account. I’d rather be here!
I personally find your posts more helpful than you can imagine! As we’ve reminisced before, you and I started out driving each other nuts, but came to really like and appreciate one another. Your thoughts on linguistics, men like CS Lewis and GKC, and your emphasis on examining ourselves theologically with tradition and not giving in to humanists through linguistic adoption of the enemy tongue really has changed my thinking.
Your stubbornness is one of your strengths. I find the thought of you leaving depressing, sad, and unfortunate for us all. You have so much to contribute, so much to say. We love you. If you really leave, it’ll make me sick.
God bless, old friend. Reconsider!!!
My opinion about the inappropriateness of such interjections - and that those are precisely the problem in TAW - is also well known.
One thing I should make clear is that I think the very structure of our forum within CF works against us. One thing I know for sure is that, speaking about regular Orthodox members of TAW, if we have problems with each other, we should try to reach out to each other, in the spirit of the prescription in the New Testament, rather than appeal to a rules structure and to people outside of our Church. But sadly, that's not the case. I've even done that a couple of times; no more. Reporting fellow Orthodox to non-Orthodox, and rejecting private efforts at reconciliation, is wholly at odds with how we are supposed to be.
I could see staying if we could police ourselves, but it's pretty clear to me that we can't, and that some are perfectly happy with that. If the Church fathers were members, Arius would have had St Nicholas censured for "flaming". And if you've seen posts like this one just disappear, then you know what I mean. And there are some topics we can hardly say anything about without triggering such action. That has led me to this "existential" crisis. If we cannot freely discuss issues that are really controversial among us, even if only a few members are on "the other side", then this place could still be good for asking for prayers, but that's about it. The structural nature of this forum under CF is a big problem, as I see it. No structure would be perfect. If ours were an independent forum, we'd still have the problem of the biases of the moderators, and would have to hope that they would be largely Orthodox. Here we can't even hope that.
There's open enmity between members. As the Apostle James said, my brethren, these things ought not to be! As long as we are fine with this situation, I don't see the value of discussing anything. If we have members that WANT to be contrary and DON'T want any reconciliation, then we ought to be able to bring the issue to the table. The disruptive members will be the ones that don't want to convince the rest of us of anything, only to keep their views afloat via non-TAW intervention.
If I see hope of us being able to police ourselves, then I will stick around. I just don't see such hope.
This is the hard part. As someone who is an ambassador (and not even a mod), I like having a place - a home base so to speak - where I can fellowship without having to constantly monitor, like we do in some other forums. We still do monitor (probably more than many realize), but it’s kind of like a home that I don’t have to worry so much about Ambassador duties. It is difficult though with moderating on all sides with the unique aspects of Orthodoxy.I think we have a mod traineee who is a catechumen.
I have been asked to be a mod a number of times. However ... I am not terribly comfortable being in the position of policing.
Probably much more than this needs to go to pm (and I'm willing, and others might have input as well).
I'm not sure how CF would feel about having TAW modded in that way. Perhaps they would be in favor, since it IS against the rules to argue against Orthodoxy. But it's true that few non--Orthodox mods would have any real hope of understanding nuances, depending on the topic.
If the Church fathers were members, Arius would have had St Nicholas censured for "flaming".
I said metaphorically. No one gets hospitalised for being told he is wrong. In love, of course.There should be no punching, especially when there are no Arians - and St Nicholas realized he was wrong to have done it. There should definitely be no punching when we're having civil discourse among Orthodox Christians.