MUTUAL RESPECT AND CIVIL CONVERSATION

I have been an active participant for a couple of years in the CrossCurrents Forum. There has been a lot of interesting ideas shared and I enjoyed it. But there has been an undertone of abuse and even hatred exhibited mostly by atheists who seem to get their kicks from bashing Christians. Lately, it got worse and I demanded that the moderator find ways to enforce the forum's policy. Here is the purpose and policy statement found on the START PAGE:

Welcome / Combining the former Christianity - General, God and Sex, Faith Forum and CrossCurrents under the banner, this forum:

1) Provides a platform for discussion of articles appearing in CrossCurrents magazine

2) Is open to persons of all faiths or none.

3) As the name suggests, the forum is for discussion of issues at the interface of religion and politics, the arts, philosophy. It is open to skeptics, humanists, atheists, Christians, Wiccans, Pagans, Jews, and others.

4) The only requirement is the willingness to engage in civil conversation on the topics suggested above, respecting the dignity of those who hold views and beliefs other than your own. (This does mean that blatant sexism, anti-Semitism, gay bashing, personal insults and abusive behavior are not welcome.)

I think the policy is pretty clear that the Moderator not only has the right but the responsibility to confront people who abuse Christians and others. What do you think? Your comments are welcome.

WHEN FREE SPEECH BECOMES HATE SPEECH

Shuck and Jive offers "When Free Speech Becomes Hate Speech." Excerpt:

Language that dehumanizes other groups of people because of their ethnicity, gender, religion, political views, sexual orientation or whatever, can result in actual violence against particular groups of people. It is called hate speech. I am becoming convinced that a culture of hate speech, which is what we have today, will lead to increased violence.

I was thinking about this in light of Dr. Robert Jensen's article the other day: Few of us are guilty, but all are responsible. We all are esponsible for the language that we use and the language we accept as normative.