Re: A difficult balance
Submitted by Brian on October 10 1999 at 00:15:27
In reply to A difficult balance Submitted by Julius on October 09 1999 at 22:26:50
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Julius, I have to agree with all you have said here. I only came here about three weeks ago, but as I read back through the threads I became convinced that I had found a place that could help me get a handle on what is going on inside of me. I read so many things that could have been written by me because they said exactly what I was feeling. In these last three weeks, I have come through a lot, both with myself and with Christ. My relationship with Him is changing, but, even more importantly, my relationship with myself is also changing. I am, for the first time, getting a handle on what it means to 1.) be a boylover, and 2.) be a Christian boylover. By reading what so many others have posted I have been given a sense of what is "normal" for a Christian boylover to be going through (emotions, doubts, fears, questions, etc...) Upon coming here I felt comfortable enough to be able to put it out there and start posting. I even put it on the line and gave a part of my story. I did something that is not generally a part of my nature, but I felt that I was among people who could be my friends - people I could trust to understand what I was going through. Though I think this is a great place to have responsible debates on topics of Christianity and boylove, or just boylove, it is not a good idea to open this forum up to the possibility of arguements or personal attacks developing. A good responsible debate I always welcome, but when a debate turns to arguement, or worse yet, ad hominem, all support stops, and unfortunetly, all talking will eventually cease also. In a support atmosphere, this is not what we want. We need to talk! I simply stumbled in here by chance, but if I would have sensed an atmosphere of hostility - even slight - I would not have stayed. Your link to Boylinks brought me here because I am a Christian who was really struggling to understand what is going on inside of me. If I would have read the things that I read all this afternoon at RDC I would never have stayed here, much less come back. I don't envey Bach's job as webmaster here. There are tough decisions that have to be made, and this place deals with people who may be at cross roads in their life. It is also a place where we open ourselves up. In a society that has a near phobia, which is fed with so much misinformation, we can tend to be very defensive; we have pretty much been trained to be excessively careful. But, here at CBF, we let our guards down a little bit. We not only have society, in general, to be leary of, but we have churches and religions and well meaning Christians around us who tend to be un-Christ like in their lack of understanding and toleration. Our everyday lives are frought with enough worry as it is. I don't want to see the atmosphere develop here that would say, "open yourselves up and post here, but be ready to defend yourself." Please, let's encourage different points of view. They are healthy for us all to grow in our love for Christ and ourselves. But, let's always do it in love, concern and support. This is an extremely important forum. Don't make it too loose in scope. Thanks for letting me air my opinion. A brother in Christ, Briam |