A Request of Site Authorities about Member Forthcomingness

Hello all.

I want to make a public request for site authorities to consider and others to give their thoughts on.

I am tired of seeing new members of this board who are vague about their denominational/church group affiliation.

Fact is, when I registered, I was asked for my denomination and home congregation. I put it in without games or weaseling: I was attending a Church of Christ then, and anyone who read my profile knew it. I was proud of my congregational affiliation, but considering that many adherents of the Churches of Christ engage outside Christians with attempts to undermine, I knew that identifying my church group affiliation would cause undeserved suspicion. Still, I respected the norms of this board.

Most other members have been forthcoming with their church affiliations just as I was. You will find their denominational affiliation and church congregation in their profiles.

Well, it seems that some of our new members want to cover up their church affiliation for expediency in debate/proselytizing. Some do not disclose it even when asked. I suspect that at least one is lying. These people want to hide what group/s they are promoting.

I would like the site authorities to please consider a new policy:

• any current member who does not give adequate details about church group affiliation has a set time to change that,

• in the future, any new members who refuse to disclose their church group affiliation will be banned,

• anyone who lies about their church group affiliation will be banned.

If anyone of integrity would like to chime in their support, please do so.

Site authorities: this thread was set up to make a request and see how much others feel similarly. When you believe this thread has served its purpose, I am totally okay with it being deleted.

 

No.

However, it is pretty obvious that some of the members here who claim to be Baptist are not.

I suspect that one is Catholic. This suspicion is not as compelling as the one below.

I strongly suspect others here are Church of Christ. That group commonly targets Baptists for proselytizing. It is obvious from the precepts they advance, the Baptist things they attack, their methods, their terminology.

Look, I am not Baptist. You look at my profile it says "Christian only" but you will also see the name of a Disciples of Christ congregation. If someone wants to be vague, put `a ___ church' for home congregation. What I do not like is the increase of people here who are evasive about what church group is their primary current influence -- or are outright lying about who they are.

As DonnA pointed out, it is kind of creepy when you think about it. My original aggravation was that some members here were hiding what group they represent because they knew identifying it would complicate their efforts at proselytizing -- I think they should have to identify what group they represent like the rest of us did. I do not like discussion with people who hide important details or lie. Still, DonnA did give us something else to think about: how far are these obviously ethically-deficient zealots willing to go?

 

Well Agnus_Dei, it is probably with good reason we cannot edit our denominational affiliation: it limits what is happening here. We would have non-Baptists pretending to be Baptists to get access to Baptist-only areas.

Church of Christ adherents can post here. They are not automatically banned from joining.

If I understood DHK correctly, Catholics were banned because some of their best polemicists were showing up here proselytizing to Catholicism. It is against board policy to try to proselytize Baptists to another church group. These polemicists were showing up here proselytizing to Catholicism and concealing their identities. As a result, all Catholics were banned with few exceptions.

I agree with you that if Catholics are banned from joining, then going after the Catholic church or its people should not be allowed. As you and I both know, what a lot of people claim about Catholicism, the Catholic church, or Catholics themselves is baseless. If a person wants to revile those people, s/he ought to be told that there are next to no Catholics here and that there is no need for it.

However, just as the Catholic purge was apparently necessary, so also might another purge be needed. Rather than ban a whole church group, I advocate purging those individuals who refuse to be forthcoming about what church group they really represent.

 

Fixed.

Sure that was okay.

 

Yes, but both of you people
a) are proud of your church group affiliation,
b) do not depend on hiding your church group affiliation for your activities here,
c) are honest people.
There are others here who do not share all of these sentiments.