A FEW COURTESIES TO KEEP IN MIND WHEN POSTING TO FORUMS
Because religion always has rules about what you can and can not do, Forum Moderators hesitate to set absolute rules about posts to forums. We expect that people who post comments to forums will always want to observe unwritten rules of polite civil discourse in ways that inform and inspire readers without provoking them. Nevertheless, the following are a few additional courtesies that members would do well to keep in mind when posting to forums so that they always present themselves as good candidates for networking.

DON’T MENTION NAMES OR PLACES
Because religion is so complex, and because people are so complex and unique, we might expect to find a wide variety of reasons why people leave organized religion. More than that, however, we should expect variety because the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, unlike humans, never does anything over and over again in the same way. He is always new and creative.

Nevertheless, we know that many people leave religion because they have been offended or hurt in some way by religious leaders or people within a religious community. We know that there are many in this category from personal experience and the abuse that makes the news, but we do not know about all the other abuses that do not make the news. We expect that some of those abuses, great and small, will be reported in these forums. Therefore, we present this caution for people who have been abused or offended in any way by religion and who might want to report it to explain why they have left religion.

KEEP FORUM POSTS SHORT
Because religion is a very sensitive issue for both religious and non-religious people, there is potential for some to launch long rants about religion in general or their experiences with it in specific. Therefore, it is in  the best interests of both commentators and readers if commentators limit their forum comments to one or two topics/issues/ideas per forum post. If a post is too long, there is a danger that readers will get disinterested quickly and miss out on important thoughts toward the end of a long post. For those with a lot to say, the preferred way of getting it all out there is to author several shorter posts instead of one long post.

GOD WILL GET REVENGE FOR INJUSTICE
There is something in people that demands justice for wrongs done. In civil society there are courts that deal with such matters. In religion, however, there are generally no courts or processes through which people who have been wronged by religious leaders or other members of a religion may seek and find justice. Individual religious communities may try to resolve or patch up difficult situations, but their attempts at reconciliation usually make matters worse rather than better and hurts from abuse linger for a long time. This is one of the many problems inherent in religion that occasionally requires lawyers and civil and criminal courts in order to achieve justice.

Even though God says many times that his people are to “do justice,” religious organizations focus more on preserving the integrity of the religious organization and protecting its leaders than on delivering justice to their individual members. These are aspects of hypocrisy and toxicity that Religion Detox Network addresses. We address justice particularly in Religion is Injustice, Slavery, Oppression and Affliction.

It is a fact that whenever great or small wrongs are done within a religious organization, the offended people are likely to gossip about their hurts before they leave the religious organization and then perhaps after leaving. Those who do leave religion and find their way to these forums might be tempted to mention names, places and actual events as a way of getting revenge and bringing shame on those religious abusers. But naming the abuser, while offering a certain amount of fleshly satisfaction, is contrary to the spirit of God’s commands regarding repaying evil for evil. And taking revenge against abusers through postings on Religious Detox Network or anywhere else is not an expression of faith and trust that God will avenge his people.

While forum moderators understand these motives very well, these forums are not intended to be used to publicly expose people who do wrong in religious communities. The purpose of these forums is to provide a vehicle for people to explain and justify their attitudes about religion in general terms – not to get revenge, make particular offenders look bad, or gossip. Our goal is to help others learn from our experiences and apply them in ways that are redemptive — not punitive or shaming. If people who report about abuse that they have observed or experienced receive some comfort in making these reports, that is a bonus. But the main source of satisfaction comes from helping others who are still involved in religion get set free from it. That is one way in which God gets his revenge. It is also how those who are now free from religion obey God’s commandment to utterly destroy all religious kingdoms by setting the captives free from their bondage to religion one captive at a time.

Considering all of the above, Religion Detox Network forum Moderators strongly caution forum contributors against using proper names of people, places or religious organizations in forums they write. Angry as we may be about how religion treats people, we should relax with God’s assurances that he will avenge his people. If we trust that God will expose wrongdoers at the appropriate time, there is no need for anyone to mention proper names of people or religious organizations.

Therefore, forum content that includes proper names of people, religious organizations or events that could be traced back to particular individuals or organizations will be summarily deleted from the forum by the website moderator when they are identified.

Since monitoring of this kind of content by the website moderator will be impossible, it will be up to Forum Members to advise the moderator when they see that this caution about names of abusers has been violated. This may be done by sending a message to the moderator through the personal profile message feature. Click on Messages, Compose, and send the message to “fred”.

LINKS TO EXTERNAL SOURCES ARE FOR INFORMATION ONLY
For the benefit of people who are not familiar with some of the concepts presented in these forums, the Moderators offer links to external sources in several locations. Including these links does mean that Moderators unconditionally agree with anything written in these links. They are for information only and are not included as absolute truths that can withstand the test of Biblical scrutiny.

Internet sites, including religious sites, often offer products for sale and ask for donations. The Religion Detox Network has no financial agreements with external links to which we refer visitors and will not benefit in any way when people link to these sites from the Religion Detox Network.