The Status of Secular Music Forum

[ps139]

Hello everyone,

As many of you know, Nadroj1985 has become agnostic, and can no longer post in this forum. He was a great contributor and is missed. This forum, as far as I know, has always been open to Christians only. Recently, Nadroj started a thread asking Erwin if he could make the Secular Music forum open to all members. This has raised this important question about whether the secular music forum should only be open to Christians, and the reasoning behind it. Some ideas were raised about having both an open secular music forum as well as this Christians only secular music forum. However, for understandable reasons, Erwin will not double up, and he has made that very clear.

Rather than people who never post in here deciding the status of this forum on another thread, I am starting a poll so we can be in charge of what happens to this forum. We have developed our own little community here, and we who frequent this forum should be deciding its status. Currently the status of this forum is that it will remain Christians only. We will vote on the issue, and go with what the members of this forum want.

I thought about making this vote anonymous, but in the long run I do not think that is the best idea. People who never participate here could anonymously stack the vote, and it wouldn't be fair. So, when you vote, everyone will be able to see who you are, and what you voted for.
So:
Should Secular Music remain Christians only, or should it become and open forum?

 

[Marissa]

I thought about making this vote anonymous, but in the long run I do not think that is the best idea. People who never participate here could anonymously stack the vote, and it wouldn't be fair. So, when you vote, everyone will be able to see what you voted for. Know that Nadroj will not be offended in any way if you choose to keep the forum as it is.

I'm curious, how often does one have to post in here to have a say?

 

[ps139]

I did not post my opinion in the intro post because I did not want to present any bias. I've thought about this issue a lot. But in the end I vote to keep it Christians only. Here are my reasons: In my experience here at CF (almost 5 months) I have been posting in all sorts of forums. When I am in the open forums, I do not enjoy it as much as when I'm in the Christians only forums. Note that I am making a general statement here (this does not apply to everyone) - I have found through discussions with many agnostics, atheists, and other-religions that there is a hostility toward Christians. It often comes through in the posts. I also notice a very cynical attitude most of the time. Granted, I do not think that hostility toward Christians would come through much in posts about music, but I think the cynicism would. I like the community we have here, it is a great place where believers in Christ can meet and talk about music, not taking notice of who is what denomination, what this guy or that guy believes about salvation and sin, et cetera. This is the only forum on CF that is like this for me. There are plenty like it, but there not music, so they bore me.
I love this place and want to keep it just as it is. If it were open we could not have the animated discussions we've had about the worth of secular music, people who honestly felt that Christian music was the only good stuff to listen to no doubt would be ridiculed. I don't agree with them but I understand them. And I think those discussions are fruitful as well.

Nadroj is a great guy, and I know he would not bring cynicism or an anti-Christian attitude to this forum. Neither will many of the other non-Christians on this site. But from my experience I conclude that people like Nadroj are in the minority. I have also come to the conclusion that the only reason I might vote to make this open is to let our old friend back in here, but one person is not enough to change the way things have been operating. I've explained this to him and he understands, and has no problem with it. I like this forum the way that it is, there is a sense of community and Christian fellowship and I fear that were this forum opened to all members, that feeling would diminish.

 

[ps139]

I'm curious, how often does one have to post in here to have a say?

If you feel like you post enough in here to have a say, then vote. If not, then don't. Otherwise it is not fair to the people who always post here. That will be taken into account when I take our collective decision to Erwin. It is only fair.

 

[ps139]

Wow, it happened faster than I thought. Already we have people posing as Christians and posting in here. Loki, I have seen you publicly admit, on another forum, that you are not a Christian but that you have posed here as one. And your profile states that you believe in atheistic evolution.
People, be honest.

 

[* kittie *]

I'm curious, how often does one have to post in here to have a say?

hmmm...don't know. i post here somewhat often.
anyways, i say open to all.

 

[* kittie *]

how do you see who voted for what?

 

[KristianJ]

It's a very tough one to decide on. Like ps139, I'm not sure if the quality of discussion would be preserved if it was opened up. I wouldn't want people coming in and extolling the virtues of bands that were distinctly "evil" (for want of a better word) in their manner, lyrics and other attributes, but then again my fears might not be realised until the next blue moon. I am all too aware of the way that opening up forums can cause frictions, being a part of the Australian forum, and that in a way may have only slightly influenced my decision to vote CO. But at the same time if the decision was made to open it up, I'd still contribute.

 

[ps139]

how do you see who voted for what?

If you look at the votes, click on the number of who voted for what (it can be any of the 3 "results" numbers). Then it will take you to a screen where you can see who voted for what.

 

[ps139]

It's a very tough one to decide on. Like ps139, I'm not sure if the quality of discussion would be preserved if it was opened up. I wouldn't want people coming in and extolling the virtues of bands that were distinctly "evil" (for want of a better word) in their manner, lyrics and other attributes, but then again my fears might not be realised until the next blue moon. I am all too aware of the way that opening up forums can cause frictions, being a part of the Australian forum, and that in a way may have only slightly influenced my decision to vote CO. But at the same time if the decision was made to open it up, I'd still contribute.

Yeah, I pretty much feel the same way. We can't know for sure what would happen if it was opened, but when I have no idea of the results, I do not vote for change. A bunch of my friends in the real world probably woudln't consider themselves Christians, and we talk music all the time. But basically I voted no because there seems to be a bunch of people here with an axe to grind against Christianity. When I go to concerts with my friends everyones there for just the music. So its a bit different. Whatever happens I'll still continue to be a big contributor, but like I said, when you do not know what will happen with a change, and things are good as they are - I say "if it aint broken dont fix it."

 

[twosteppin]

I understand that the secular forum for Christians only is a fun place for Christians to go and talk about music without the fear of being overwhelmed by people ridiculing us for listening to "evil" secular music. But its really not that way. (I.E. the threads about the evilness or non evilness of secular music) What I mean to say is, most of the hassle that we get here is from Christians. I just do not see non-Christians causing problems here. If it were up to me, we should attempt to make this an open forum and if problems arrise, then we should go back to Christian only.

 

[twosteppin]

Yeah, I pretty much feel the same way. We can't know for sure what would happen if it was opened, but when I have no idea of the results, I do not vote for change. A bunch of my friends in the real world probably woudln't consider themselves Christians, and we talk music all the time. But basically I voted no because there seems to be a bunch of people here with an axe to grind against Christianity. When I go to concerts with my friends everyones there for just the music. So its a bit different. Whatever happens I'll still continue to be a big contributor, but like I said, when you do not know what will happen with a change, and things are good as they are - I say "if it aint broken dont fix it."

i respect what you said in this post. we really wouldn't know what would happen. and I havent been in many forums with a lot of non-christians so i do not know how some non-christians would act in here. would there be a lot of christian flaming? If it changes to open, cool. If it stays the same, thats cool with me.

 

[ps139]

i respect what you said in this post. we really wouldn't know what would happen. and I havent been in many forums with a lot of non-christians so i do not know how some non-christians would act in here. would there be a lot of christian flaming? If it changes to open, cool. If it stays the same, thats cool with me.

I don't think there'd be any Christian-flaming, that sort of stuff is never tolerated here - but when I go into debates in the open forums I usually come out with a headache .

 

[Larry]

I voted to have it placed in the Open Forums area, but not for the reasoning set forth in the OP. We have had scant few other members who have also contributed a huge amount of posts in several of the Christians Only forums, only to fall away from the faith later. Does this mean that we move all those Christians Only forums to the Open area, just because one or two, who had contributed much, lost their faith? Of course not! If that were the case, we wouldn't have any Christian Only forums. It would all be open forums if we were to use that logic....and this would happen because of an extremely small number of those who fell away vs the thousands who have not? I don't think so.

I voted to have it moved to the Open Forums area because of it's very nature - MUSIC - the thing which most non-Christians and many Christians can find a commonground. Music is universal, crossing all barriers - religeous, cultural and political. When Christians and non-Christians get together to discuss music, bands, etc, 99% of the time it is a positive exchange.

Call me naive or overly optimistic, but I think this musical commonground may help build bridges, trust and raport, not easily done in your regular, (and predictable), religeous, philosophical and political debates we see in all the other threads.

BTW, this forum move is something that has been on my mind for a while. And even though I do not agree with the OP's reasoning for the move, I still think it should be moved to the Open Forums nonetheless.

 

[ps139]

Good points, Larry. I added a line to the OP.

 

[Arwen Undomiel]

I hope you don't think I'm too much of a newbie to vote, but the only 2 places I go in CF are these music threads and the GA forum, where I mainly lurk because I too get a headache and quite discouraged there sometimes.

OK, I voted to put it in the open forum. I should have read the posts other than the OP first, because ps139, you have made some awesome points. Very, very good points. Then Larry, you also made a good point.

Can I change my vote to 'undecided, but leaning to keeping it Christians Only'?

As a new poster I leave here for a few days at a time, mainly due to RL responsibilities but also because I haven't gotten my brain around the thought of atheists/agnostics posting on a Christian forum. I know why they are there, and there are good reasons, but from what I've read it seems that some have *ahem* "enlightened" others in a not-so-good way. (I am NOT referring to nadroj here, so don't email me, lol) And much of the Christian rebuttal breaks my heart. At least for the majority of us in CO we won't let snark from other Christians about us listening to secular music bother us much.

 

[Mϋzikdϋde]

I had to vote to leave it as a Christian only area because I think this section is for a Christian perspective on secular music. This is a Christian Forum Site. There are tons of music forums online that discuss secular music.
However, I don't see why we can't have a seperate music forum in the open forums so Christians and Non Christians can discuss their different views on the subject.

 

[ps139]

Can I change my vote to 'undecided, but leaning to keeping it Christians Only'?

If you want we can count your vote as undecided. Can't lean either way though .

 

[Arwen Undomiel]

I know - I was just rambling incoherently...

 

[* kittie *]

ohhhh haha i never knew that. and i've been here at CF for...quite a while.