Well, it’s just been discovered that the person who originally founded ChristianLeft is a mentally unstable troll. Oh, sorry, “allegedly” a mentally unstable troll. I sort of knew that they weren't the nicest or most stable person around but then they kinda flipped out. People are leaving. I’d leave too but I find it hard to care because I’m trying to leave LJ anyway and the fact that LJ is pushing people like me out is something few people on CL seemed interested in talking or even knowing, about. Still, I’m a little weirded out to realize that such a successful, usually well run comm was largely the work of someone whose baloney and cheese sandwich is lacking the cheese.

Finding good online religious forums is so frustrating. A promising group will start up and I'm all yaay!

And then you see readership and commenting start to slide or drift away, because group member’s views don’t exactly match other group member’s views (see the old joke about the two Baptists on a bridge). Or because the blogger has occasionally been wrong, or may not have as much education as some of the other readers. Or because people just didn’t realize how much new stuff they were going to have to accept in the name of open minded discussion. Almost as if everyone *wants* to find an excuse to fight.

Why is it that when it comes to theo cons, their leaders, speakers and writers can be wrong all the time and no one cares, if they notice at all, but with theological liberals, it only takes being wrong once or saying something the wrong way and you’ve lost your audience forever? Everyone is on the defensive, constantly and can’t seem to let down their guard even among those they are supposed to be on the same side as, suspecting everyone around them of being a closet fundamentalist, sexist or racist.

Theological liberals seem to have these invisible walls up. Conservatives will sit around for hours discussing what God is or is not doing in their lives, offer comfort, support and advice, but the liberals go out of their way to avoid bringing up anything personal. Maybe if they weren’t so focused on being cerebral all the time, they could examine why they have the reactions they do and people would feel closer to each other and more able to work together. I had the same problem with the neopagan forums I’ve tried to read, nobody seemed particularly interested in delving deeper into their personal spirituality or revealing emotions (of course, in some of those forums, doing so would be giving other people ammunition to ridicule or yell at you which is another reason to avoid general neo pagan forums).