Erin, thank you for responding. I feel that blaming the fall fo CF and morals in general in the world on liberalism to be the cowards way of not taking personal responsibility for ones actions.
I am liberal in many things, but only those things that are not set in stone. For instance I do not believe that there is any other way to God but through Jesus Christ and that I firmly believe. I am liberal on how people find Christ. One of the great (recent) Anabaptist teachers found Christ and believes he was born again when he was a JW, and left the church as a result of inconsistancies within the church. So I do believe that there are other roads besides Bible alone that will lead one to the foot of the cross.
I am liberal in whether women should be pastors. I know history has proven male dominance over women, and the Bible even spells out that women should not be leading men, but I believe that was during a place and time when uneducated women leading men would have been a disaster. Educated women? Seems to me that many churches today would close their doors if not for the strength of women to hold the doors open.
One can be liberal and still be a God fearing person. Hell, I am totally against Unitarians, LDS and JW's being able to represent themselves as Christians in this forum, but am liberal enough to realize that is the nature of this site. If it bothers me enough i will just expose them as what they are instead of leaving because they make me feel uncomfortable.
CF has to give ground because the faulty premise that it supports. It says it wants to unite all Christians (or those who call themselves Christians anyway) to one body but that is the rub. Liberals conservatives and cults all say they are the Christians. You cannot deny the rights of some and lift up the rights of others and still claim to represent all members. If in fact conservatives want their voice to be heard they have to concede that the liberal voice will and does have equal footing.
Who is to blame? I am. I could have done more to foster peace here, but sometimes I love to fight even when I know it is wrong. I get into meaningless conversations with zealots of all kinds fighting battles that have been fought over and over and over again to the determent of the forum. I left for quite some time because of it. But I am back now because I want to make a difference.
I don't know you, and you don't know me but I concede that you may be right about a great many things that you believe, but i also am willing to admit that until I have this realization for myself I cannot accept it as gospel. That for me is being open minded or in some terms liberal.
I do thank you for being candid by the way and hope you do come back. Please do not leave because you are uncomfortable. Ghandi said "be the change you want to see . . ." and I believe that is what we should all do. If we are unhappy with this system, let's change it and stop blaming others is all I trying to say because I have met some really God awful liberals and conservatives in here that care nothing about the gospel but just love to spew their views instead of living in love.
Anyway peace, and i hope you do come back.