Lutheran Liberal subforum

[Iosias]

There has been talk in the Anglican forum (http://www.christianforums.com/f368-scripturetraditionreason-anglican-old-catholic.html) about possibly introducing a conservative subforum and a liberal subforum. It would be good to hear from you about what differences have happened in the Lutheran forum after the introduction of your new subforums. The relevant thread is here (http://www.christianforums.com/t4723421-discussion-about-dividing-str.html).

Thank you for your time :)

[karen freeinchristman]

I was just going to post a similar thread, but checked to see if there was already something here, and here it is! But this thread was started in February and no one has answered. :(

I would also like to know whether the more liberal and more conservative subforums here are working for you guys. :confused:

:angel:

[Luther073082]

Personally even though I'm a faithful member of the ELCA I do not in any way consider myself to be a liberal.

I'm mainly in the ELCA for one reason. Open communion. . .

Although its my understanding that "offical doctrine" of the LCMS still teachs the pope is the anti-christ although they do not teach this in practice.

I actually have no other issues with the LCMS other then those.

So I'm kind of uncomfortable with the term "liberal".

[karen freeinchristman]

Personally even though I'm a faithful member of the ELCA I do not in any way consider myself to be a liberal.

I'm mainly in the ELCA for one reason. Open communion. . .

Although its my understanding that "offical doctrine" of the LCMS still teachs the pope is the anti-christ although they do not teach this in practice.

I actually have no other issues with the LCMS other then those.

So I'm kind of uncomfortable with the term "liberal".
Thanks for posting! I think you have hit on one of the problems we also envision in naming our subforums - that many people who might not fit into the conservative one would also not feel comfortable with the label 'liberal'. That is one of the problems with the labels. We are trying to figure out the best way that we can utilise subforums to help avoid contention in our forum.

Do you (any of you) feel that your subforums do help to avoid contention in the Lutheran forum as a whole?

[Luther073082]

Thanks for posting! I think you have hit on one of the problems we also envision in naming our subforums - that many people who might not fit into the conservative one would also not feel comfortable with the label 'liberal'. That is one of the problems with the labels. We are trying to figure out the best way that we can utilise subforums to help avoid contention in our forum.

Do you (any of you) feel that your subforums do help to avoid contention in the Lutheran forum as a whole?

Is there a debate subforum maybe that would be good.

No I think the best way to avoid confrontation is just having people who respect eachother.

And really sometimes if there is a debate you just gotta let it go . . . as long as people don't flame eachother so what? Its your choice to get involved in a debate no one forces you to.

Yeah we have our debates but people seem to get along for the most part. I point to evidence that I don't think this ELCA subforum is very active.

[mnphysicist]

Thanks for posting! I think you have hit on one of the problems we also envision in naming our subforums - that many people who might not fit into the conservative one would also not feel comfortable with the label 'liberal'. That is one of the problems with the labels. We are trying to figure out the best way that we can utilise subforums to help avoid contention in our forum.

Do you (any of you) feel that your subforums do help to avoid contention in the Lutheran forum as a whole?

That was the intent, when this forum was created, and I think it might have helped a bit, but I don't think it was all that helpful, partly due to the label, and partly due to it being subforum. The biggest help, was a change in rules enforcement, but that was back in 2004, and now much of that is out the window.

I did an analysis of members sometime back, and well over a thousand perhaps close to two thousand Lutheran members are registered on CF, yet the participation in the the main Lutheran forum, nor the subforums is not even a fraction of that number. Granted, out of the two thousand, not all that many are active, but it is a problem.

The other unique situation with TCL, is the main forum is predominantly conservative confessional Lutherans. In an informal survey I did a ways back, moderate or liberal confessionals are not very comfortable, and definitely are not comfortable in the liberal subforum. Somewhat no doubt due to the label, but also, there is a world of difference between a moderate confessional, and a moderate ELCA member, to say nothing of the liberal Lutheran members, many of whom until last month, probably would have run into icon issues.

Lastly, I think the folks who put the liberal Catholic forum together were pretty wise to locate it in WWMC. I don't know if that would work all that well for TCL subforums back when, but at this point in time, it does seem to work quite well for the liberal Catholic forum.

There is a ton of legacy knowledge buried in the staff forums, and in time, we will be bringing that public, but it will be a slow process, and with all the changes going on, it could be a while. On the other hand, if you have specifics, I can probably find them, and expedite the release.

[karen freeinchristman]

Wow, a reply from the Policy Chief! :thumbsup:

Thanks for responding, Luther 073082 and mnphysicist! :)

Very informative food for thought.

I will make a link in STR to this thread for others to see and perhaps ask more questions.

[Luther073082]

Wow, a reply from the Policy Chief! :thumbsup:

Thanks for responding, Luther 073082 and mnphysicist! :)

Very informative food for thought.

I will make a link in STR to this thread for others to see and perhaps ask more questions.

I agree the term liberal is kind of a big deal here.

The problem is the ELCA has become famous for a small but highly vocal liberal group on which a lot of other churchs tend to base their views on us.

As I pointed out earlier, homosexual marriage comes up every year in the ELCA because the liberals bring it up every year. That makes the news. . . but no one tells you how badly it gets completly shot down every year.

[RegularGuy]

I wasn't around when the sub-fora were created. From what I have seen, they don't work very well. The main forum is a pretty hostile environment for ELCA Lutherans. The ELCA/ELCIC sub-forum is not very active. Most of the liberal Lutherans end up at WWMC.

As for dividing a forum, I'd ask "why split the body?"

[karen freeinchristman]

Thanks for your post, RegularGuy.

[RegularGuy]

You're welcome, of course.

As you may have gathered, I'm not a fan of ghettoization. There's enough of it in CF without subdividing denominational fora.