There are two things I firmly believe about our modern society that directly affect how I think about conversations on this forum and reporting people etc.
#1 People in our society have become extremely over sensitive.
In society at large it is pretty much at the point where you can't discuss anything of substance without someone getting offended. You literally have to watch everything you say and even then unless you limit yourself to the weather and traffic, its likely someone will get offended.
Heaven forbid you should disagree with someone, or call their beliefs into question. Such things are simply too offensive to allow.
#2 Civil conversation is going the way of the dinosaurs.
Fewer and fewer people are capable of calm, civil conversation between disagreeing view points. Because disagreement has been defined as intolerance, and offensive etc, whenever disagreement occurs people immediately react as though they had been attacked violently.
Its ironic really, but as people become more sensitive and more easily offended, all public dialogue becomes more adverserial and it becomes more and more common to demonize the opposition.
Taking those things into account, I believe that I as a conservative and as a Christian have a responsability to not behave in either of those ways. I have a duty to God, my fellow man, my fellow conservatives, and myself to be reasonable, to be civil, and to not allow myself to be easily offended.
I'm certainly not perfect in this, and it has been a struggle over the years because I come from a hot blooded and stubborn family (Irish-Norwegian
)
However, looking back over my years at CF I can count on one hand the number of times I've been reported (I remember 2 specifically and there may have been one more). In one of the cases the staff sided with me and ruled that my remarks were not out of order. In the others I can't remember for certain.
Also, as far as I can remember I've never reported a single person.
I believe that it is more productive to take responsability for myself and take care of myself than to report people. That doesn't mean answering "in kind" either.
One thing I have learned from years of posting and debating on forums is that the person who gets angry, starts name calling, or rideculing etc, always comes off looking unintelligent, and unreasonable, while a person who stays calm in the face of such things always looks like they know what they are talking about and are confident.
In general mocking and scorning are the tactics of the ignorant. If people have facts and reasonable arguments they use them.. if they don't they resort to mocking.
Of course as I sit here writing this all the times I've mocked various philosophies and beliefs come to mind
I'm not saying that we should never report anyone. If someone is really being abusive then thats fine. I do think, though that we need to make sure we aren't being overly sensitive. I think we as conservative Christians should do the utmost to ensure that we are "above reproach". To me that means hold yourself to your own highest standards. Look at the standards you hold other people to, and then hold yourself to one step higher than that.
And I'm not talking about issues of sin vs. righteousness really, but simply civility and honor.
A final note is the value of humility. I, like most people, have a lot of problems with pride. So I try to be aware of that, and I try to actively counter act it.
Most people are prideful to some degree, and ironically nothing bothers us more than when other people are prideful. Humble people are a pleasure to talk to and in general to be around.
One area this really comes out for me is in apoligizing when I behave badly, and admitting when I'm wrong.
Humans in general are masters of self-justification. That is something we have to actively beat down if we want to over come it. Again evaluate yourself by the standards you hold others to, except maybe even a little higher standard.
I, in particular, like to think I'm always right. So its a very useful exercise for me to make myself admit when I'm wrong not only to myself but to everyone, and to ask forgiveness when I do get out of hand.
There have been a fair number of times on these boards when I have had to ask forgiveness for my tone or words. Even if I didn't get reported, I knew I was uncharitable. Even when I was right in terms of the debate, my behavior was wrong.
I think that we as Christians and conservatives should hold ourselves to a higher standard and we should police ourselves. That is what freedom requires and what we are all about right
#1 People in our society have become extremely over sensitive.
In society at large it is pretty much at the point where you can't discuss anything of substance without someone getting offended. You literally have to watch everything you say and even then unless you limit yourself to the weather and traffic, its likely someone will get offended.
Heaven forbid you should disagree with someone, or call their beliefs into question. Such things are simply too offensive to allow.
#2 Civil conversation is going the way of the dinosaurs.
Fewer and fewer people are capable of calm, civil conversation between disagreeing view points. Because disagreement has been defined as intolerance, and offensive etc, whenever disagreement occurs people immediately react as though they had been attacked violently.
Its ironic really, but as people become more sensitive and more easily offended, all public dialogue becomes more adverserial and it becomes more and more common to demonize the opposition.
Taking those things into account, I believe that I as a conservative and as a Christian have a responsability to not behave in either of those ways. I have a duty to God, my fellow man, my fellow conservatives, and myself to be reasonable, to be civil, and to not allow myself to be easily offended.
I'm certainly not perfect in this, and it has been a struggle over the years because I come from a hot blooded and stubborn family (Irish-Norwegian
) However, looking back over my years at CF I can count on one hand the number of times I've been reported (I remember 2 specifically and there may have been one more). In one of the cases the staff sided with me and ruled that my remarks were not out of order. In the others I can't remember for certain.
Also, as far as I can remember I've never reported a single person.
I believe that it is more productive to take responsability for myself and take care of myself than to report people. That doesn't mean answering "in kind" either.
One thing I have learned from years of posting and debating on forums is that the person who gets angry, starts name calling, or rideculing etc, always comes off looking unintelligent, and unreasonable, while a person who stays calm in the face of such things always looks like they know what they are talking about and are confident.
In general mocking and scorning are the tactics of the ignorant. If people have facts and reasonable arguments they use them.. if they don't they resort to mocking.
Of course as I sit here writing this all the times I've mocked various philosophies and beliefs come to mind
I'm not saying that we should never report anyone. If someone is really being abusive then thats fine. I do think, though that we need to make sure we aren't being overly sensitive. I think we as conservative Christians should do the utmost to ensure that we are "above reproach". To me that means hold yourself to your own highest standards. Look at the standards you hold other people to, and then hold yourself to one step higher than that.
And I'm not talking about issues of sin vs. righteousness really, but simply civility and honor.
A final note is the value of humility. I, like most people, have a lot of problems with pride. So I try to be aware of that, and I try to actively counter act it.
Most people are prideful to some degree, and ironically nothing bothers us more than when other people are prideful. Humble people are a pleasure to talk to and in general to be around.
One area this really comes out for me is in apoligizing when I behave badly, and admitting when I'm wrong.
Humans in general are masters of self-justification. That is something we have to actively beat down if we want to over come it. Again evaluate yourself by the standards you hold others to, except maybe even a little higher standard.
I, in particular, like to think I'm always right. So its a very useful exercise for me to make myself admit when I'm wrong not only to myself but to everyone, and to ask forgiveness when I do get out of hand.
There have been a fair number of times on these boards when I have had to ask forgiveness for my tone or words. Even if I didn't get reported, I knew I was uncharitable. Even when I was right in terms of the debate, my behavior was wrong.
I think that we as Christians and conservatives should hold ourselves to a higher standard and we should police ourselves. That is what freedom requires and what we are all about right
