Prior to this OP who has requested this poll ?
I did. I feel like because the forum wasn't active when all the congegational areas voted on similar polls, we never really got a chance to do this as a community.
I don't want to rehash what I posted earlier in the thread, but I didn't want anyone else to have to unfairly take the heat for this if anyone is upset, so I wanted to make sure I stepped in and ackowledged that I did ask for this revote behind the scenes (Way back in May, actually, originally), and people were kind enough to set the process in motion for me.
I think this is potentially a good opportunity to be an even more inclusive diverse forum. There are three or four Catholic forums on the site and as far as I know this would be the only one where people could be honest about being on a side of this issue that other forums don't allow discussion of. This is I really feel very relevant to being Catholic "in our times", as Saint John XXIII might put it (The quoted three words are from the Second Vatican Council, which Pope John convened).
At the same time, this isn't about having this issue take over the forum. No one wants that. Its just I think an extension of our general atitudes and fellowship to be welcoming and allow people to be themselves in a way they may feel they can't always be elsewhere because discussion is not allowed or must concur with conservative interpretation of doctrine that many now feel the church is beginning to evolve beyond. Its not an attempt to say everyone has to think "x", but to allow people to take a liberal position in a liberal forum when the subject comes up, which I think will be rarely.
Someone asked why this topic and not others, and the answer is because all the other forums voted on this in 2015, and there was clear precedent for at least getting this poll. I probably would have started with some other things like inviting self-identified progresive Anglo-Catholic Episcopalians and Anglicans who specifically believe in Apostolic Succession, 7 sacraments, the veneration of Saints, and so on to participate as full members here (Not all Anglicans, the ones from the Anglo-Catholic movement Cardinal Newman started who really share the Catholic practices and progressive values of a Liberal Catholic forum). We had a broad consensus in favor of that at one point, I think, and it would have been a logical starting point towards maybe doing some more polls and defining ourselves and growing as a community before jumping straight to this, but I was told that specific idea did not fit the top brass' vision for this forum and probably would not get a vote, that we could not expand our full voting and debating membership in that direction officially (Though I hope at least folks like that would be welcome here unoffically, and I know they are always welcome in fellowship per the rules). So I focused on asking for the vote we could get.
And I do think this vote is important. I like the fellowship and friendlines vibe we have going, but I would like in the long run to really have this be a safe haven for liberals who have no place to rest their heads, not to the exclusion of others, but just to give us what we don't have in other forums. I'm not interested in just being like OBOB with less arguments, though I do like that we have less conflict and more spirituality and love, I also want it to be a place where we don't have to fear being censored or given the boot for standing up for the marginalized every once in a while if that is what our hearts tell us is right. Obviously, its not an attempt to have everyone adopt my more liberal views or whatever, its a vote not to ban them.
Like I said, there are other votes I would have taken first, but this was what i could get and I hope folks will prayfully consider voting "yes". I really have put a lot of effort into making this hapoen, and we need 2/3s to approve it, so its not going to be an easy hurdle to climb and I am hoping the last four months of working to get this won't be a waste in retrospect.
I'd like to do more, especially the Anglo-Catholic thing, but this what we have, and its better than nothing if it goes the way I hope it will.
I voted before I read the OP about the rules for who can vote. Sorry about that! I've posted here before just when I see something that interests me but I'm not Catholic. Idk how to undo the vote but I guess it can be ignored?
