Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The " I Believe " Forum

"The Catholic religion is straight out of the pits of hell."

"How can you have a "church" when heathen people gather in the name of false doctrine?"

"The devil is a master counterfeiter, do you really think he wastes his time hanging out at the Church of Satan?"

"Satan wants God's children to associate with his children in an unholy alliance -Don't do it! Billy Graham has caused millions of people to see no harm in the Catholic religion. I tell you, the Catholic religion is straight from hell."

"The Catholic church is based upon TRADITIONS and not upon the Bible. Even by twisting the Bible out of context, it's still impossible for Catholics to justify their ridiculous religion."

"Look at the creepy picture below of the Great Catholic Whore, notice the scars in her hands..." (in refernce to the Virgin Mary)

"Gentlemen:

For years, at great discomfort to me, my fellow Catholics, and some other very worthy Protestants and other Christians whose influence and participation on this forum would be greatly beneficial, and because of my distaste for meddling, I have stood by and allowed this forum to evolve into a place that is objectionable to many, dare I say, to the majority.

As a result, the participation of many, many highly qualified and devout Christians has been sorely missing from these pages, for the benefit of a very few whose modus operandi seems to be the exclusion of those whose beliefs do not mirror their own.

Very recently, out-and-out bigoted and hateful anti-Catholic commentary has been posted, explicitly seconded by a regular contributor to this forum, and has been allowed to stand without rebuke by many. That is shameful to those who approve, embarrassing to me as the owner of this site, hurtful to me and my fellow Catholics and our families as Catholics, and demeaning to all of us as a group.

This will not happen on this forum or on 24hourcampfire anymore.

1] I created Christ at the Campfire as a place for Christians of all denominations to fellowship. Lofty as that goal was, and certainly mindful of the controversies that were sure to arise when dealing with issues of faith, I nevertheless was hopeful and anticipated that the quality of membership on the Campfire would allow us to enjoy a respectful, sophisticated, and non-prejudicial level of discourse, for our collective benefit.

I remain absolutely convinced that this is not only possible, but desirable, as I and many others of different Christian denominations have been doing just that via PM.

2] If I must be respectful, tolerant, patient, and decent to members of other denominations with whom I disagree, whether mildly or vehemently, on this forum that I created, then so does everyone else! I cannot see how that is an unreasonable request.

3] Nobody who has been reading this forum over the last week has any doubt about what and of whom I write, but let me lay it on the line:

If you wish to continue posting in an ignorant and bigoted manner about any denomination, then please grace us by taking your bigotry elsewhere, immediately and permanently. It will not be tolerated here any longer.

I will note, for the record, that some of the very individuals who were most vociferous in calling for the banning of Big Stick for his repeated racist comments about lhonda and Asians are the very individuals posting the over-the-top anti-Catholic lies, misrepresentations, and ignorant fabrications now. The sad part is that I and most everyone else believes Larry was half-joking and pushing buttons to get a rise (and he did). The comments posted this week are much more egregious, hateful, offensive, malicious, repressed, and ignorantly bigoted, and thus much more worthy of rebuke.

The silence of some speaks volumes!

NOTE WELL:

The purpose of this post is expressly to open the doors and welcome anew any and all divergent viewpoints on Christianity at CATC which a member feels is worthy of discussion and/or study in an atmosphere and environment in which they can assume basic levels of respect and decency, and intelligent, intellectual discourse in which the ultimate result may be and often will be:

"We're going to have to agree to disagree on that point."

I doubt I'm going to convert anyone to Catholicism via the Internet, and I expect I will not be converted to Protestantism here either.

But that does not mean we have to allow, or I have to tolerate, explicit, willy-nilly, ignorant bigotry in a specific case, nor in general allow a handful of contributors of one denomination to alienate and marginalize those with whom they disagree.

NOBODY has a monopoly on Jesus Christ nor on His salvation!

If I am wrong about the Campfire's ability to meet this standard, and I have been often wrong before, then I will most certainly be changing or eliminating CATC.

I will not sponsor ignorant bigotry, nor support it with my silence any longer!

Call this a line in the sand.

Rick Bin"