The Forum Liberalis

Uh oh, GWLANA, I broke the rules... again!

So. I made of the mistake of not just blogging about Rav but actually going in there and once again got sucked into the psychotic world of hyperliberalism that honestly must make Baby Jesus cry.

As I said to Amanda, most of the people in there are so liberal they don’t even tell THEMSELVES the truth about their own issues for fear of offending their own self-worth. For the most part, they are just tiptoeing around, apologizing and smiling at each other. There is nothing more irritating to me than people who dance around topics and use "gentle" language for fear of offending any number of groups (for example, it's not unusual to hear someone respond to a question about submission like this: "Well, I don't want to exclude transgender marriages from my assessment, but....") If you should happen to make a comment about the fact that gender roles are not a figment of the imagination, they start telling you how you must then logically assign roles to members of other races and be a total racist crapbag. Right. They are big on not excluding anyone, but they arent' ashamed to say that they they would like to exclude the Christian right from anything and everything... to include the right to breathe the oxygen we all must share. This type of Political Correctness is not only nauseating, it's destructive. There are only so many people you can "include" before society begins to disintegrate. What liberals have never understood is that we do things for the good of the majority, that's the only way a society can work. Does that mean that we exclude or marginalize anyone? Absolutely not. What it does mean, though, is that we expect everyone to do their part and pull their load.

This is why it's funny when liberals tell me they "don't like the army." Oh boo hoo. The army loves you, baby. While they sit around whining about how unfair and mean the army is, the army provides them and the whole world with security that gives them the freedom TO complain about itself. Now THAT'S a sense of national duty. Recently, we got into a conversation about how harsh the army's policies about mental illness are. Are they? Sure. They could probably be more sensitive and helpful for those who truly ARE struggling with things like PTSD. One need only look at the numerous soldier suicides this year to determine that. But what do people expect them to do? To pass out candy and sing kumbaya around a camp fire? To send soldiers on vacation? It's the army. It didn't become the most powerful army in the world by sitting around being sensitive to people's needs. In case no one noticed, there's a war going on. The army itself knows the truth--- they sing it in cadence every morning. Their job is battle. They'll rest when they're dead.

Talking to people this liberal, for me, is like talking to an invading alien army. I am not equipped with the correct vocal chords to communicate. Even if I was, I would not be equipped with knowledge of their language. And since they are hostile, I have no desire to even attempt it, it's far easier and safer for the defense of my planet to just blast an RPG into the herd, pray that it hits a target somewhere near the center, and run for your life. When they retaliate with what THEY claim is "just friendly fire," your only option is to find the nearest nuclear bomb and let it roll. This is the verbal equivalent of my tactics whenever I go in there.

The problem I have with rav is this. I was raised in France and in California, where we often have what's called a "Cafe Philo." A bunch of people sit around a table drinking coffee and discussing life. Sometimes, it gets heated. Other times not. But it's always fruitful to see people from all walks of life getting together to discuss the important issues. This is what a forum is.
The dictionary definition is: A medium of open discussion or voicing of ideas.

I was not on the debate team when I was in high school. I thought they were huge geeks. Instead, I snuck out of fourth period math and met with my friends at the coffee shop, where we smoked cigarettes and sipped organic soy chais and chatted about the meaning of life. This is the way it has always been in my world.
So why, then, does Ravelry seem to think that life operates like a debate team? That in order to participate in their forums, of which they persist in creating subforums and further subforums to continue to isolate me from speaking about religion "as a way of life." (yes, even in the DISCUSSIONS ABOUT RELIGION forum!)we must somehow excel at professional debate?

Instead of being able to go in there, share your life experience, and read the life experience of others, hear, learn, grow, and think, we are required to read endless amounts of "statistics" and "facts" and babblings of people with PhD's. We are required, if we want to have an opinion, to back it up with data. Why??

Perhaps it's because I have absolutely no respect for "education" as it is, but this really bothers me. Obama is educated. I think he's a moron. My husband was not. I think he's a genius. It really doesn't matter to me if some institution or organization has given you a stamp of approval and said "we endorse this person as telling the truth." The only qualifying factor, for me, that makes a person worthy of having an opinion that I will count as "fact" is one who knows the Bible, truly knows the Bible, as one who is illuminated by the Holy Spirit of God. I could not care less if you spent 22 years furthering your studies at I'm Special U. It really has no bearing on how much you know, for scripture says "The wisdom of this world is passing."
NOW, this doesn't mean that I believe we need to throw knowledge out. Knowledge is good, and faith is not, nor has it ever been, in opposition to science. Science will never disprove God, nor will it prove Him ,because we are simply called to live in faith. Those of us who do will find God all around us, and no amount of "scientific proof" would convince us otherwise. Nevertheless we have the responsibility to make ourselves understood. To communicate in a language that the listener can hear. I am the first person to admit that this becomes increasingly taxing as time goes by, particularly when you are faced with the same questions, the same responses, and the same people, day in and day out. It becomes so taxing, in fact, that I have been guilty (and was last night) of throwing my hands up and saying: "you know what? Screw it. You really aren't important enough for me to even bother trying to communicate truth to you. Just wallow in your life and you'll have a nice big surprise at the end."

Unfortunately for me, that's the wrong answer. I am not able to do that because I am called to care about these people--- to love every one of them, heretical, nasty, vile morality, and all.

The problem I have in online forums is that each one takes on the characteristics of the people who frequent it most. I love the R&P because I've been there the longest, and I set the tone, and I know anything goes, and I know not to be offended and I know no one else will be either. The R&P, for me, is far superior to any forum I've ever encountered because it's the most like a Cafe Philo. We go in, we relax, we talk about the issues, we poke fun at each other, and we grow. I've done some of my best growing in the R&P. Not everyone shares my beliefs in there, but at least there are enough people with similar beliefs that make you seem like a person with a right to an opinion, as opposed to feeling like everyone's watching you like you are a lunatic. In the R&P, I've always been told: I love you, but your batsh*t crazy. The "I love you" part, combined with the respect you are given for being a reg, makes for enough warm fuzzies to keep you unscathed when you DO have to battle it out in there. I become a better person, and a better Christian, through my interactions in there.

Conversely, Ravelry brings out the worst in me each and every time. Why? Because Ravelry is nothing like a Cafe Philo. It's like a transgendered alternate lifestyle NOW liberal fest, where I feel, very often, totally alone. Everything I say and think is so utterly foreign to these women (and the occasional man that pops in) that I frequently am met with shock and awe.

Whatever other Christians are in there are painful silent, or they simply spend their time agreeing in the places they can with what they read to make friends, instead of challenging people to grow. Whenever we DO get some Christians in there who are willing to take a stand, they immediately get swarmed with so much BS and confusion and satanic doctrine that they quickly fold over themselves and retreat to pray and lick their wounds. One cannot even have a thread that lays out the basic tenets of Christianity without being literally swamped with lies, new age garbage, demonic doctrines, and "educated" information that negates Christ's Godhood, the Holy Trinity, or Satan's existence, and then you come out looking like a wierdo for actually believing the basic tenets of the Christian Faith. It is so disheartening. These people embrace all that is sad, heartbreaking, wrong, evil, immoral, and dark and earnestly believe it will enhance their human experience. It is painful to look at, but more importantly, it's painful to go in there and even remotely attempt to tear a hole in their dark bubble and let some light in. You are met with so much venom disguised as sugar that you come out of there literally gasping for peace. Talk about an exercise in futility.

It infuriates me to think that when I'm NOT posting in there, they just go through life, patting each other on the back for being such spectacularly TOLERANT human beings, so evolved, and they have no idea that there is a big wide world outside of their LYS and job at the food co-op (no offense, Jen, if you're reading) where the reality is that they are as deceived as they come. Of course, when I do post, it doesn't even make a dent in the crazy, and all it does is send alien lazer beams of angst and frustration aimed at my heart-- because deep down, as much as I can't stand their mindsets, I DO care about these people. And they are WILLINGLY giving themselves over to ALL that our Lord has warned us against.

In a way, I guess I can understand how much it pains the Father's heart to hear/see people believe these things. It draws me closer to the Lord. My evangelical response used to be to keep on going in there and shouting out the good news, but my Catholic response is to WEEP over ravelry and to "stiff upper lip" it, shut up, start praying and do penance for them.

Perhaps this lent I can offer up some part of my lenten fast for the salvation of the souls in Ravelry.... for the light to somehow penetrate this forum where participants aren't having "discussions" but rather willingly submitting to brainwashing and encouraging each other in the name of "tolerance" to take in ANYTHING they can get their hands on but godliness.

As a dear raveler said to me in an email yesterday:
"I’ve been reading the thread in DAR. They’re really quite hypocritical aren’t they? They’re remarkably tolerant until someone disagrees with them."

Amen to that!!! May the Lord create forums for personal discussion throughout the internet, where His name alone will be praised, and where the darkness flees like roaches from the light.