I'm just taking it all in... [
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My inclination is to drop the CC forum, but I'm still considering other options.
You would not believe how much time I spent dealing with this last skirmish. The emails, posts, demands for so-and-so to be banned, phone calls, etc., easily took 10 hours out of my week.
And over what? People twisting the situation to fit their personal agenda. Go back to the fundamental issue: A few people complained that Micha's post was a little too preachy and evangelical. I happened to agree, so I made
a post to that effect. In there I said.
Religion is a very personal thing, and sharing one's beliefs in an international, public forum can be tricky business. None of the members who wrote are against religion or Christmas or free speech, they're just asking that it be a little less intense.
Now, that seemed pretty polite and gentle to me. How then did I become the Politically Correct Wimp (an email comment), who was prohibiting the use of "The C word" (many posts) and squashing free speech (more posts)
Here's why: 1 - It's easy (and fun for some apparently) to argue incessantly just for the sake of arguing. 2 - Some people believe they have some responsibility to trumpet their personal beliefs as long and loud as possible without regard to any one else's perspective.
Here's the message that came across from our a few of our members; "We're entitled to be in-your-face about Christmas, our religion, Jesus, and anything else we want, and we'll argue that point and spin any opposing comments as long as we want."
It's a free country, and anyone is entitled to believe whatever they want. However, in a civilized society, we temper our behavior to be consistent with how other people feel about and respond to our beliefs. We can have some very interesting and even heated discussions within those boundaries, but it takes just the tiniest bit of respect for other point's of view, and some basic debate skills.
Honestly, I enjoy the Casual Conversation forum. It has really allowed us to get to know each other. But unless I get some warm feeling that we can have polite, spirited debate while maintaining a respectful environment, it's going away.
