CC is a lot like the little girl in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem:
It isn't an issue of the site designers, but of its inhabitants. I'm hoping I'm not the only one who stays largely out of most discussions on here since they are divisive and contentious. It is indeed frustrating to want to speak meaningful thoughts and have no appropriate tie-ins to work off of, but getting argumentative about non-essential issues is contrary to biblical directive. It also dilutes the healthy content on here so it isn't found.
Instead, I want to see more honest questions and respectful teaching - Teaching differs from arguing in that it is about the needs of the reader, it's about empowering the reader to decide for themself, it respects that the reader has their own journey and relationship with God, and the writer doesn't take any responsibility for the reader's choices. In teaching you present the lesson and then leave it to the student to accept or reject it without having to sell them on it beyond correcting misconceptions. Consider even in teaching, though, the warning in James 3:1-12 of a stricter standard of judgement for those who teach.
It is possible for there to be other healthy uses of this site beyond what I understand/am called to, but I believe I have enough discernment to recognize that a lot of what is going on isn't it.
And no post should be about harmfully bashing others. There is a place for cutting to the heart, but like a physical knife, it is violently abusive to brandish such words about without consideration for the wounds one is causing to others.
In addition to the titular verse from Romans 14, please consider:
1 Cor 1:10-17
"When she was good,
She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid."
She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid."
Instead, I want to see more honest questions and respectful teaching - Teaching differs from arguing in that it is about the needs of the reader, it's about empowering the reader to decide for themself, it respects that the reader has their own journey and relationship with God, and the writer doesn't take any responsibility for the reader's choices. In teaching you present the lesson and then leave it to the student to accept or reject it without having to sell them on it beyond correcting misconceptions. Consider even in teaching, though, the warning in James 3:1-12 of a stricter standard of judgement for those who teach.
It is possible for there to be other healthy uses of this site beyond what I understand/am called to, but I believe I have enough discernment to recognize that a lot of what is going on isn't it.
And no post should be about harmfully bashing others. There is a place for cutting to the heart, but like a physical knife, it is violently abusive to brandish such words about without consideration for the wounds one is causing to others.
In addition to the titular verse from Romans 14, please consider:
Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one would say you were baptized in my name. Now I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.
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