Beginning immediately, the G&S discussion boards are eliminating the Politics and World events forum and the current posts / topic threads in that section have now been locked!
After some serious discussion and reflection, it has been decided that the forum's constant political focus has been taking away from the stated mission and focus of Godandscience’s discussion boards – as its intended mission has always been to encourage and strengthen belief and faith in Christ.
Unfortunately, we live in times of great political upheaval and passionate political debates – much of which on the G&S boards has often turned deeply personal and divisive. While the mods enjoy these vigorous political debates as much as anyone else, we have come to the conclusion that it has become a huge negative and constant distraction for our Christ-centered mission. As a result, many people who had long frequented G&S for its discussions of spiritual and Christian-based topics have become very turned-off and disillusioned seeing so much negativity and political focus – so much of which has focused on American political topics. This has thus greatly hurt the traffic to the forum and thus diminished the type of spiritually related topics more appropriate to our stated mission. There are countless good places online to engage in political discussions, but purely political debates will no longer be allowed here.
So, how will this new change work? As moderators, we will have to make constant judgment calls as best we can. We are well aware that it’s unrealistic to pretend that the political world around us no longer exists or that NO political reference can’t EVER be made. So, although we are eliminating the political forum, we WILL allow mostly general political comments in other forums about newsworthy events or as they might relate spiritually or morally to those other forum topics. HOWEVER, when it comes to introducing, baiting, or deliberately stirring the pot with political “he said, she said” or “they politically did this or that,” or people begin to bring up blatantly political topics concerning political parties, actions of specific politicians or individuals, start debating whatever political viewpoints, demonizing this or that politician (and especially, LOL, THAT one) – seriously, no matter WHAT the party affiliation or political topic, left, right, etc., these will no longer be allowed. So, if a poster launches into blatantly political discussion, commentary, or criticisms, a mod will step in and note such is no longer allowed, while also noting that posters are more than welcome to take such conversations PRIVATE with other board members. We may also delete some posts, if necessary. So, what we are asking is, for everyone posting to merely do what most of us have already long practiced at work, in social engagements, and with others – and sometimes even with family members - with whom we know political conversations can easily become contentious, damaging or divisive, and so we’re simply smart to avoid them. It’s just using common sense!