Quote:
Originally Posted by seekermeister  I am a Christian that has long felt a calling to use internet forums for the purpose of representing Christian values to the people most in need of them. Thus, I tend to focus on nonbelievers of all catagories. Obviously, this tends to cause conflicts at times, but I always try to handle them in a Christian fashion. |
My first instinct is to make a joke about the Heretics Fork: But I'll let that inference lie. Your statement makes me think that you must be no stranger to heated discussions regarding theism; particularly Christianity.
I look forward to reading more of your threads.
Quote:
|
I am a founding member of the forum, and had no problems there until recently, when a couple of antagonists in the debate forum took their dislike for me, which was simply based on my faith, and started trolling me throughout the forums boards.
|
I think I'm starting to picture it: You, an established member,
no stranger to heated discussions; They, a pair of [relative] newcomers who take umbrage at the attitude of your posts (an attitude which is becoming apparent in this thread*).** These poster then begin a campaign to somehow lessen you in the eyes of your peers. This campaign escalates.
Quote:
|
As a device to annoy me, they made formal complaints to the forum adminstration about my signaturebar (which contained the same biblical quote as my signature does here), and said that it was offensive, and wanted it removed. I have been a member of many different forums, most of which were not Christian, and never has anyone suggested that this verse is offensive. Even at this forum, most of the members thought that it was acceptable. But the forum admin was obviously only interested in appeasing these two people, who had post many, many lies, and statements that were without question, offensive to any reasonable person, Christian or not. I know that most anyone reading this has seen similar things themselves.
|
It seems to have annoyed you. Perhaps some "Formal Complaints" against your antagonists' statements would have been appropriate at this point, then maybe it would be
them posting here about the prejudices of NewEgg administration.
Quote:
|
Despite support from the membership of the forum, the admin demanded that I remove the signaturebar, which I refused, because that would be saying that the verse or any quote from the Bible was offensive, and that I shall never do.
|
It's good that you adhered to your principles. I respect that.
I believe that this statement is triggering the debate that you later state that you do not wish to begin, because whie
you may not think there are any offensive phrases in the Bible, a lot of people disagree.
Quote:
|
Without going into long details about the sequence of PMs in this regards (which made no progress), I was banned from the forum entirely. This was after a separate PM with another member, in which I advised him that if the issue were forced any further, that I would contact every Christian forum on the web, and advise them of the situation. I told him that he could advise the admin about this if he saw fit, but didn't really care, because I had ceased discussion with the admin after many hours of discussion.
|
So, shortly after you issued what could easily be taken as a direct threat (though indirectly issued) to the forum, you were banned. That seems very reasonable to me. I would hope that you weren't surprised when it happened.
Quote:
|
Why am I posting this here? Because I believe that both Christian and nonChristians deserve to know how any company will treat them, before doing business with them.
|
From what I can infer, you were treated quite poorly by certain non-members of the forum and very fairly by the administration.
The forum administrator issued you a request to remove something from your signature block, you refused and got into an argument over it. If that were all, then your banishment was unfair, however, you proceeded to threaten the administrator with something that could at worst, have a financial impact on NewEgg.com and at best, cause a nuisance of people registering only to harass and flame the people who support the administrator's opinion.
Quote:
|
I did not post this to start any debate or to obtain any advice, except in terms of posting, as I stated in the beginning. But, I wouldn't mind hearing how others feel, and perhaps Newegg might be interested also.
|
I didn't reply with the intention of debating my statements either, but that doesn't make my statements any less susceptible to critique and discussion by the other members of this forum.
Quote:
Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger James 1:19
Since this verse is fairly benign, does anyone see a reason that the Biblical reference is offensive?
|
I don't find that even slightly offensive. Even in the context of the section of bible that contains it. I also like James 1:27
There are plenty of good quotes in the Bible, many of them even offer good advice. Isaiah 13:15-18*** is plenty quotable, but certainly not benign in any sense of the word.
* - I don't think attitude is a negative thing, simply another interesting facet of the varying posters on a message board.
** - Lynne Truss was right! The Colon family of punctuation is addictive. I hope I'm not completely abusing it.
*** - Random bible quote taken from The Skeptics Annotated Bible