[George W. Bush]

Those who demand their theology be free of challenges will only find relief on the closed threads on the Religion Forum. Anywhere else – open threads in the Religion Forum, News Forum, Smoky Backroom, Chat, Blog – challenges will occur.

Yes, but will pro-Mormon or anti-Mormon debate on purely political threads that do not pertain to Mormonism or particularly to Romney's personal Mormonism be privileged over any other kind of ordinary discussion on the 'front pages'.

Now Mormonism may be germane to a news/politics thread. For instance, if Israel is discussed, it would be perfectly legitimate to ascertain if Romney held a Replacement Theology position as was once held by the R.C. (repeatedly exposed here at FR) and is currently held by some Protestants and the history of Mormon teachings indicates a certain...tendency toward that. What is important is not the theology of it but the actual impact such religious views might have on a candidate's foreign policy. Romney moved, perhaps preemptively, to quiet any concerns that he held any ideas out of the ordinary among the American conservative foreign policy establishment. He did quite well at that meeting.

In recent years, we rarely see any RC-vs-Prot or such threads tolerated on the 'front pages'. There is no reason why Mormons (and anti-Mormons) should receive some special privilege to have religious catfights on the election threads.

No special pro-Mormon privileges, no special anti-Mormon privileges. The same for everyone else. It's good forum policy for all conservatives. I like to read the Romney threads because I'm taking him seriously and want to know if he is as conservative and trustworthy to us as he claims. But eight to ten months of Mormon apologetics and Mormon-bashing makes him pretty unappealing even to follow as a candidate. And he certainly has not made Mormonism a prominent feature of his campaign or public record.

At any rate, thanks for your reply.

[sevenbak]

4 times in that reply you put pro mormon ahead of anti mormon as to reasons for postings. This is my main contention with what you are saying. The pro mormons here on FR are not pushing their agenda, but are responding and defending. BIG difference!

[Religion Moderator]

If Free Republic had been around when John F. Kennedy ran for office, I’m fairly certain most News threads would have sparked a theological sidebar debate.

My suggestion is to ask the correspondents in a theological sidebar on the News forum to please take it to the Religion Forum. If they don’t and it becomes a flame war or disruptive to the thread, then make an Abuse Report.

The Administrative Moderators on duty will consider the report and the parties involved and will take whatever action they believe is appropriate which might involve doing nothing, or moving the thread to the Religion Forum or the Smoky Backroom or identifying trolls or troublemakers.

But be careful not to spam the abuse button – it can backfire.