MNHQ - please help

[Thegreatestoftheseislove]

New Year’s best wishes to all of those in charge at @MNHQ and do their best to herd cats. Please could I respectfully request that, in line with other religious boards, Christian Mumsnetters does not appear on Active Discussions?

I have spent some time reporting several disruptive posts on a particular thread today … I’ve lost the will to report them all. A number of participants are unwilling to take notice of the statement at the top of the Christian Mumsnetters’ board and are simply using it as their own personal extension of the Philosophy and Religion board. A number of members, Christians and non-believers alike have politely asked them to desist, but, well, clearly they do not want to.

Herding cats is a challenging and thankless task at times. Please could the Christians amongst ask that you help in keeping our meeting place free from disrespectful disruption. It is not, or should not be the place to discuss whether or not God exists or if Jesus is Divine, as there are other places to take those arguments and discussions.

They are doing an online version of bursting into a church mid-meeting and shouting ‘it’s all a load of rubbish!’ It is rude, disrespectful and disruptive. They are entitled to their opinion, but there is a time and a place: Christian Mumsnetters is not it.

Thank you 💐🙏

I support this request.
There’s no way the rude comments would be tolerated on a board dedicated to discussing the Islamic Faith.
If comments are posted as a genuine question that’s one thing, if they are designed to be offensive that’s a completely different situation and it’s not fair that we have to put up with it.

Don’t come back with any freedom of speech nonsense either. This is upsetting us and reducing our freedom of speech.

I agree. Some posters are persisting in arguing points when it expressly says at the top of the board that it's not the place for this.

I hoped it would be a pleasant corner of MN for people who are sympathetic to Christianity.

I know the Muslim board has had issues too.

Please address this, Mumsnet HQ

Certain posters are arguing back that they are not being disrespectful when they have repeatedly been told by Christians and by others that their behaviour is unacceptable and that they should go to the Philosophy/Religion board with their theories if they want a debate.

It’s been a horrible morning for those who use the Christian Mumsnetters board and some of us are ready to quit this arena entirely.

I am not sure what the thread in question is about, and admittedly I am an atheist, but IMO MN HQ needs to clean up its act. It used to be that MN was known as a place for robust debate. That has now changed into a place full of vitriol and outright nasty posting, where keyboard warriors abound having come across from Reddit and TikTok, and MN is now emulating a social media platform with its likes and funnies and what-not.

I agree that removing the Christian board from active is a start, but the issue goes much deeper than this. AIBU needs to go IMO. It’s a place where MN are proud of the fact that users can go to essentially join in a virtual fight, and no, “report offensive posts” doesn’t cut it, because most of them are never removed, and on lots of threads there are so many that most of AIBU would be unnecessary anyway.

I'm an atheist and I say that I find this request entirely fair.

Whilst I dispute the existence of God I do not wish for people with faith feel like they are being pushed out of discussions and spaces they feel safe in.

We can discuss our lack of faith elsewhere.

I think it’s ok to have discussions with respectful atheists. It’s the downright rudeness from some people that we object to.

I think that would be best too.

When I saw this thread I went looking for the one that inspired it and in particular noticed the "echo chamber " comment.

I think that people who want general discussion about religions should use the philosophy/ religion section. That's an appropriate place to discuss different beliefs and all the ifs and buts.

I see the Christian, Muslim, Jewish etc boards the online equivalent of the respective places of worship.

Would any nornal person go into a physical place of worship and demand they get to talk about their belief that religion was 'wrong' and start demanding attendees explain themselves and tell them they clearly wanted an echo chamber?

Of course not because that would be, frankly, batcrap crazy.

People are allowed to want to talk about their faith without someone inserting themselves into the conversation and telling them how wrong they are.

It's not necessary. It's rude. There are other sections of mumsnet to have a broader debate about the concept of faith.

I want to add my agreement with previous comments, having reported a (sample) post from the thread in question on Christian Mumsnetters to MNHQ.

There is a philosophy/religion board which is well able to host contentious discussions. The Jewish/Muslim/Christian boards are primarily for people following their faiths and are not to my mind the appropriate places for goady and contentious posting. It is disrespectful, hurtful and turns pleasant, supportive spaces into something quite different.

I think at least a much more robust T&Cs message is needed on all the faith boards, followed up if needed by warnings for people breaching those guidelines.

This. And also I would say that there's a time and a place for debate. I don't think the Christian board is it. The philosophy/ religion board is.

@ChristmasStars i didn’t realise the difference
I wanted to make the point that I don’t mind respectful debate. It’s the rude unintelligent comments that offend me.

Apparently some people objected to Christians claiming god hates homosexuals.

Are you hoping that nobody goes on to read the actual thread and realises that is massively, massively misrepresenting what was actually said and instead they just take your comment at face value?

@Goody2ShoesAndTheFilthyBeast Thank you for answering that. It seemed unnecessarily provocative but I didn’t know how to counter it. It seems to me to be representative of the problem with the actual threads

Sadly it is.

I'll be honest, I'm not a Christian, i just think that everyone has the right to have a place just to talk about their faith with those who share that faith without people coming along to bash it and I think we all should respect those places and have our debates about reigion in other places. And not try to twist things to suit an agenda.

I'm a little torn here. Of course people of faith should be able to talk about their faith to each other- and there is-or there used to be-a Christian prayer thread that I would bot dream of posting on. And I do think some of the posts on the thread were inappropriate and rightfully deleted. I do have an issue with people using their faith as permission to post straight untruths, though. Or the classic "You wouldn't say that about Muslims/Jews/other faith of choice. I think it's OK to take statements like this up wherever they are posted.
.

Totally agree with this @Thegreatestoftheseislove

@CurlewKate I do have an issue with people using their faith as permission to post straight untruths, though.

This is where the problems start, though, because your idea of an untruth may not be another person's. If it's connected to their faith and on that particular board, then surely it's not the right place to challenge it?

Christians should NOT be claiming that because God doesn't hate anyone! He hates sin though and we're all sinners. But this is often misunderstood by others who want to just shout at us that we hate various groups of people.

I would support this change. No skin in the game myself, but I do think Christians should have the right to talk amongst themselves in a safe space.

That wasn't what was said.
The thread is right there in Christian mumsnetters.

@AlteredStater "This is where the problems start, though, because your idea of an untruth may not be another person's. If it's connected to their faith and on that particular board, then surely it's not the right place to challenge it?"
If it's connected to their faith then absolutely, I agree. However, there were actual historical
Inaccuracies on that thread. I don't think such things should be left uncommented on.

Please could we leave this thread free from bringing arguments from elsewhere, to here? Not that I will debate it here, but as a person who is not a Christian, your claim to ‘historical inaccuracy’ may be another Christian person’s truth - for eg the young earth belief. Christian Mumsnetters is not the place for an unbeliever to challenge such things because their perspective is not Biblical.

This thread is merely a gentle request that @MNHQ help us (us being Christians) to keep Christian Mumsnetters a place free from the type of argument or debate best suited to the many other boards available. I can see that there has been a response in the other thread started on this same topic/request by @BeckyAMumsnet
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/5242977-the-christian-mumsnetters-board . I am happy to leave this in their hands.

I am waving to all the kind and supportive non-believers who have voiced their opinions on the matter and who have expressed understanding. Thank you to you all 💐

I apologise for the derail here, @Thegreatestoftheseislove I am still a bit irritated after this morning's events.

Are you still at it, Kate? 🤦‍♀️
Take it to the Philosophy / Religion board please. Why is that so hard?

God bless you. No need to apologise. I totally get it and share in your feelings 💐