From: rlt@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (r l taylor)
Subject: Re: Do We Need a New newsgroup? (was Re: Those Nasty Fundamentalists)
Organization: AT&T
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 17:48:33 GMT

In article <86097@netnews.upenn.edu> crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford) writes:
>In article <1992Aug13.144317.22359@meaddata.com> mcr@meaddata.com (Mary Ries) writes:

>>I have tried reading and posting to soc.religion.christian... but for
>>reasons I can't easily pinpoint, I don't really get much out of that
>>group.  Its like my topics don't "fit".  Maybe there is too much
>>doctrine discussed there? All kinds of historical stuff that are way
>>too deep for me, I feel like I need a degree in theology to post
>>there. Maybe I have a distorted perception.

>What about a group called rec.arts.christian?  That would include
>things like the L'Engle discussion and the Christians-in-the-arts
>image discussion (which started with Amy G. but broadened
>considerably); we could also set it up with the premise that 
>it wouldn't be moderated, in case threads broaden to include
>discussions not directly related to the arts, but that we would
>at least attempt to steer discussion back to that topic
>occasionally.

>Any thoughts?

Okay, here's some thoughts.  I'm undecided at this point, so I only
toss these out to see if they'll stir up more thoughts.  Brainstorming,
I think is the official term. :-)

If we were to propose a new group, how about soc.culture.christian?
That would seem to encompass a lot of areas, even beyond what might
be expected in a group like rec.arts.christian.  Things like styles
of worship;  various preachers/evangelists (Hagen, Copeland, etc.);
what denomination we are and how that affects us;  whether music/movies/
dancing/books are inherently good or evil...a lot of the things that
have come up lately that we need to address in our everyday Christian
walk.

Of course, this overlaps a lot with the charter of soc.religion.christian
(I think).  But, as has been mentioned, that group seems to deal more
with theology than with the tangents.  And the fact that it's moderated
seems to stifle it a bit, though it could probably become a real free-
for-all if it weren't moderated.  And I must give the moderator a lot
of credit - he does try to allow all sides, and does a much better job
of it that the moderators I've seen in some other groups.  I guess the
part I like least about a moderated group is the delay between the time
an article is submitted, and the time it gets into the system.  But that
really can't be helped.

Was anybody around when soc.religion.christian was created?  I suspect
that a lot of this stuff was hashed out then, and it was set up the
way it was, and named the way it was, for good reasons.  It would be
interesting to know what went on back then.
  
I don't know...perhaps we should try to participate more in the groups
we already have.  Be the "salt" or the "leaven" or whatever...But where
does that leave threads like the Mike Warnke thing?  Not really music,
and the moderator of s.r.c doesn't feel a blow-by-blow account belongs
over there.  It's a tough one - christianity is more than a religion,
it's a way of life (okay, *the* Way of Life) but we're not (by the world's
definition) a nationality, so do we rate a soc.culture group?  Maybe we
could try an alt.{something}...but that leaves out folks whose sites don't
get the alt hierarchy.  A mailing list?  Back when we had the ccm mailing
list, I couldn't send anything to it; I don't know how many others had a
similar problem, but again, some people might be excluded.

So there's my initial thoughts.  Comments?  Other thoughts?  If we do
decide to call for a new group, though, let's do it "by the book" this
time.  Remember all the hassles we had creating this group?  I would hope
we wouldn't have to go through that again.

---
Roberta Taylor KB2OOA  | You let me sing a song for you every now and then,
AT&T Bell Laboratories | But I'm asking you, when are you gonna listen?
Whippany, NJ           | You say I never sing about anyone but Jesus
rlt@gummo.att.com  <>< | Well, that's because Jesus is my song. ---Anne Herring