Blogroll Membership Issue

Defining the Moderate Christian Blogroll is somewhat subjective, and I have normally allowed self-identification to provide the main clue. An individual who was a member of the blogroll for a very short time, and then was removed at his own request is complaining about it. Anyone on the current blogroll can discover who this is and find his posts by checking your Technorati links. The only reason I’m not linking to it here is that I don’t want to spark another round of links if I can avoid it. (If there are no links to your own blog check those to energionpubs.com/wordpress [Threads from Henry’s Web] and you’ll find the relevant posts.)

The issue here is homosexuality which can create a rather extreme reaction wherever it is brought up. The Moderate Christian Blogroll isn’t an organization that takes doctrinal positions and doesn’t take a position on homosexuality or any other issue except for one. The one issue is that topics need to be addressed in a way that leaves dialog open. As a moderate Christian, I am not offended by different views. I am offended by repeated ridicule of any group of people.

In the case in question the blogger requested that I remove him from the role before I had even had time to review his posts. Now that he has made a post complaining, and has implied that the Moderate Christian Blogroll has a position, I’ve reviewed his posts. Had he given me time to review them after another blogroll member complained, I would have removed him from the roll. I would have taken this action for two reasons:

1) Due to technical problems which I do not comprehend, he is generated many multiple feeds and many links, so that every time he links to the list, we get multiple link entries via Technorati. I would remove someone from the roll for that reason alone until the problem was resolved. Having the same post show up in the list multiple times makes it hard for some of us who respond based on links to our material that we find on Technorati to find relevant links.

2) Due to use of words such as “loonie,” whether just in the title or in a post doesn’t seem to me like respectful language to use about any group. Many dozens of posts on a single issue and a very touchy response also does not fit in with the relaxed attitude of the role.

I know that we have members who believe homosexuality and Christianity are compatible and others who do not. I have seen posts tending both directions. With this one exception, such posts have been respectful.

I would add a requirement to the roll that someone not inundate us with disrespectful posts on a single topic, but I think that is implied in the basic rules. In any case, I don’t intend policing, and I don’t think even this one issue would have come to everyone’s attention without the “technical difficulty” which still exists, and which generates multiple links.