Ad-Hoc Religion Forum Committee Discussion - Thread 3

3/27/02 | angelo

[malakhi]

I've reviewed the critiques and suggestions from Thread 2, have incorporated those I could, and have come up with the following Topic list. One point that was questioned by a number of people were the names of the Denominational Topics categories. I have tried to stay with names that are in common use, and/or are preferred by members of those groups. If you suggested a change here and I did not put it in place, that is probably why.

What I would like to do is to have all interested parties vote a straight up or down on the topics as they stand. If over half of the voters oppose the present list, then we'll reopen it for further changes. If the majority is in favor of the present list, then this is what we'll go with. Keep in mind that additions to the list are always possible down the road.

I will be offline from sunset tonight until Saturday night for the first two days of Passover and then for Shabbat. That will give everyone a chance to weigh in and vote. I'll tally the votes Saturday night, and let Jim Robinson know the results.

Thanks for your participation and the many great suggestions!

General Topics
Activism	Opportunities to make your voice heard.
Apologetics	Defense of doctrine.
Current Events	Religion or religion-related news of the day.
Ecumenism	Pertaining to discussion, cooperation and understanding among denominations.
History	History of religion, religion and secular history, tradition, sacred texts.
Humor	If at first you don't succeed, don't skydive.
Ministry/Outreach	Pastoral issues, proselytization, missions.
Moral Issues	Abortion, divorce, sexuality, social justice, ethics.
Prayer	Requests for prayer, articles about prayer, spirituality.
Religion & Culture	Religious critique of secular culture, influence of religion on culture.
Religion & Politics	Church/state issues, legislation, court cases, 1st amendment, the political process.
Religion & Science	Creation, evolution, ethical issues posed by scientific advances.
Theology	Nature of God and religious truth, rational inquiry into religious questions.
Worship	Methods of worship, liturgy, communal prayer.

Denominational Topics	This is not intended to be a complete list, but rather to indicate broad categories.
Catholic	Latin rite, Eastern rites.
Charismatic Christian	Assemblies of God, pentacostalism, charismatic movement.
Eastern Religions	Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Taoism.
Evangelical Christian	Baptist, sola scriptura, non-denominational, independent fundamentalist Bible believers.
Islam	Sunni, Shiite, Sufism, Wahhabism.
Judaism	Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Karaite.
Mainline Protestant	Anglican, Episcopalian, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Unitarian, UCC.
Orthodox Christian	Greek, Russian, Armenian, Antiochian etc.
Other Christian	7th Day Adventist, Churches of God, Messianic Christians, LDS, etc.
Other non-Christian	Baha'i, Zoroastrianism, animism, Wicca, etc.
Skeptics/Seekers	Agnosticism, atheism, secular humanism, etc.

[malakhi]

Bump for your vote.

I vote yes.

[malakhi]

FYI.

[RnMomof7]

Too many Catagories IMHO Ange ..how many does the main board have??

[Ward Smythe]

I'm not sure "Evangelical Christian" doesn't overlap with other categories, in fact I'm sure it does, but I can live with this list.

[Prodigal Daughter]

Happy, blessed Passover to you and yours. PD

[father_elijah]

You've done an excellent job, angelo.

I vote yes.

Good shabbos in advance!

[RnMomof7]

Why the denominational ones???Once you do that you have people complaining that no one else can say anything...we have religious ghetto's..As I said before if someone wants a closed discussion I will be glad to supply links for them ..Is this Free Republic or a ghetto?

[malakhi]

The "News/Activism" board has 73 Topics.

Some people wanted more, some wanted fewer. I tried to balance the two.

Let me know if you vote "yes" or "no". I'm not offended by a "no" vote, of course! This is our forum, and I want people to be happy with how the topics are arranged. If the majority oppose this list, then we'll take another run at coming up with something a majority can support.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Yes Vote
Thank You for your hard work on getting this list put together.

[malakhi]

I'm not sure "Evangelical Christian" doesn't overlap with other categories, in fact I'm sure it does, but I can live with this list.

There is bound to be some overlap. And any article can have multiple Topics listed. There is no perfect way to set this up. May I take your reply as a "yes" vote?

[OrthodoxPresbyterian]

If Unitarian is included as "Mainline Protestant", I vote NO. Unitarianism is about as "protestant christian" as Orthodox Judaism, and for much the same reason!!

Unitarian should be placed in "Other Christian" at best, and that is a MAJOR stretch (but, you put LDS there, so maybe it's a big enough tent). They really should be placed in "other Non-Christian" or... perhaps most accurately... "Judaism"!!

For are they not, essentially, Moral-Law-Noachides who deny the divinity of Christ?

[malakhi]

Mom, these are not closed lists or private sub-forums. The Topics are a way to sort and search for articles. All of them, regardless of topic, will appear on "Latest Posts". Anyone can post on any article. All this does is allow me to search for, say, all articles that include the topic "Theology" in the header.

[ppaul]

Isn't it amazing?
We have "freedom in Christ" and yet we want to pidgeon-hole everyone into little groups.
Forget it.
Let's keep the discussion wide open and not broken down into an anal-retentive nightmare.

:

[Ward Smythe]

Yes, I'm sorry, should've typed that. Count me as "yes."

[RnMomof7]

My vote is no for the Ghetto Part

[ppaul]

BUMP

[malakhi]

OP, I put the Unitarians in the mainline Protestant Topic because that is where they derived from. The "Description" is intended to provide some general idea of what should go into that Topic, not to be a complete definition of that topic. There are Unitarians who are indistinguishable from other mainline Protestants, and there are some, as you note, that could more properly be classified into some of the other categories. With a group like "Unitarians", there is no perfect fit because the group itself is so diverse.

[RnMomof7]

State your vote out loud Paul...he will not count a Bump:>))

I am just waiting till the first crybaby says" OHHH you can not post here this is a XYZ thread"

[malakhi]

I should point out that in any of the Denominational Topics, the groups who fall in that category are going to be divided into Liberal/Modernist and Conservative/Traditional camps. There are secular Jews and observant Jews. There are liberal Episcopalians and Continuing Anglicans. There are liberal Lutherans (ELCA) and conservative Lutherans (LCMS). These are broad categories, not complete lists.