For those interested: Scripture Through the Her2 Fight

[Paula O]

I was glad to read your happy news of "NED in da head" in your updated sig line. Hooray! That's great! If I knew how, I'd post Snoopy doing a Western Swing "happy dance" in celebration.

You said in your last post that you feel this thread is very inapproprite for this site. May I share my heart in the most cordial and respectful of ways that those who find the thread topic, "For those interested: Scripture through the Her 2 Fight" of interest, that they click on the posts but if not, they simply refrain from doing so. I know that this site is intended for the sharing of info and questions, education,and mutual support and encouragement and that not all threads appeal to everybody.

About a year ago you expressed this same opinion here in this thread and I shared back then:
>I'd like to suggest in the friendlinest of ways, that there is plenty of room on this board for a variety of threads, including this one. Surely folks can either choose to read and contribute to a thread if they are interested in the topic but simply not click on it at all if they don't want to read about a particular subject or perhaps simply would prefer not to read what a particular poster is writing.

There is sadness, fear, disappointment, and loss that we may feel in our own journeys as well as heartfelt sorrow when our fellow Her2 Positive sisters face very hard battles with cancer or when one of our members passes away. We cope with stresses in lots of different ways. Many people find a great deal of hope and comfort in God and the Bible. I sure do. I am happy to pass along and contribute to the group what I personlly consider to be encouraging and helpful beit free resources for those with cancer, humor, interesting articles, songs, quotes, or Scripture. My sincere desire is to be a blessing.

Chrisy responded to mine and your replies with:

>I don't know if I would claim to be "overseeing" the board, although I do have the POWER to delete spam or any other thread

I agree with Flori re avoiding political discussions - they quickly get hot and divisive and unhelpful. Over the years we've had very few occasions where Joe had to shut down political discussions and that has always been one of the "house rules" of living in Joe and Christine's home.

I think the same could be true of religious "discussions" or controversies, which we have not really encountered very much, in fact I can't really think of any in the 8 years I've been here. I'd hate to see that too.

I think that is very different tho from sharing inspirational messages or quotes, including this thread which is biblical scriptures. I personally find this thread a super helpful gift and really appreciate the work that has gone into sharing these. I also really like that "scripture" is referenced in the thread subject so that those who want/need this can easily find it (vs. searching through a more generic "inspirational quotes" thread) and those who are not interested or do not find it helpful can equally easily avoid or ignore it.

Although I do see your point about where do we draw the line, Flori. To me the difference is a quote from the dalai lama or other religious sources is likely to be helpful to some members; ads for cialis or links to porn are far less likely but maybe that's just me!

I especially love the respect and grace with which we as the her2support family express ourselves and respect each other-Brenda was a champion at this. This is the only online site on which I have EVER posted because I never felt safe on the sites notable for their "flame wars". You know who they are.

I love you all. You know who you are, too."
--Chrisy


Chrisy and I spoke on the phone multiple times in the two years before she passed away. You've known her much longer than I have. I appreciated her friendship and miss her as I imagine you and many others here do too. After your comments in this thread last year she referred me to the many hits on this particular thread (I just checked and as of today there have been 4,385 hits on this thread) and she said something along the lines of , "Paula, it wasn't me alone who clicked all those times on this subject line and found the Scripture and thoughts helpful. I think we should have this thread continuing to be available to whoever wants to read it. and those who don't should simply not read the thread." I agree. She also moved the thread to the "Keeping your mind off breast cancer" section at the suggestion of another member which I thought was a great idea. There are lots of references throughout the thread to others battling breast cancer and dealing with adversity and finding comfort, hope, and encouragement from Scripture during tough times. There are many breast cancer survivors that find this topic highly relevent both in their perspective of life and death.

I am sincerely hoping that both you and I , along with the group as a whole here can allow each other a supportive, gracious, positive, non-judgemental space to allow for both differences and similarities in the way we each journey through our own personal battles with cancer including resources we find helpful.

I'm a peace lovin' gal that cares about the feelings of others and I imagine you are too. Let's please not you or anybody here take offense or make this a negative point of contention in the group. Simply do not click on what you do not find helpful but surely there is room here to allow others to do so if they wish.

Paula
P.S. You look great in your updated avitar. That's neat that you are having so much fun dancing! I know you've been through some rough stuff and wish you only the very, very best.

[SoCalGal]

A year ago or a year from now - it's all the same to me – I don’t think that posting a thread about religion is appropriate here.

Any of us could start a thread that attracts a lot of hits – the point that I continue to be concerned with is our level of professionalism in content.

We compete in the online marketplace and having threads about Bible or Torah or the Koran any other religion just makes us look like amateurs.

I believe that we count on being funded, respected and supported by the cancer community at large, so IN MY OPINION your thread is and will always be inappropriate.

The issue is WHAT kind of a support community are we? When one member cut and pastes pages of posts about her God, to me that has the flavor of proselytizing.

As far as *for those interested* that is another weak defense because the same could be said of soft porn – do we want a link to a soft porn hub on our site? Many people could feel better from that, too. Would certainly get a lot of hits. Using the opinion of dead members is another ridiculous and weak defense – perhaps if Chris were asked, she’d now say that you’ve gone too far. YOU cannot speak on another’s behalf, including "god". For the record, I received a surprising number of emails from other members who don’t like the thread. But I am not representing anyone other than myself – hope you are clear on that.

At best I will agree to disagree with you and hope that you will never decide to cut and paste MY WORDS and use them as you see fit. This will serve as your notice that you do not have my permission to do so.

I would also ask that you edit out all reference to my name in your response above.