The emotions are running high, people obviously have very strong opinions that are passionately held, but short of facts and definitive statements by the leaders, including Metropolitan Jonah, the discussions on AOI Observer will inevitably devolve into conspiracy theories, conjecture, endless repetition of points, and so forth.
I am imposing a cooling off period. I am going to shut down the comments on the three +Jonah threads for a week or so (other threads remain open). I also need time to decide if I want the Observer to continue in this unplanned trajectory as an alternate voice to OCANews.org.
Other venues exist, ocatruth.com for one for those who want another information and analysis site. For those of you who want to discuss this issue, you can got to monomakhos.com, George Michalopulos’ blog.
One other point. Tone and content are important elements that contribute to the success of the Observer. Right now the tone and content are degenerating, not because we don’t have quality contributors, but because of the passion driving the discussion. Is that a bad thing? Not always but it is difficult to manage. Since my rules for contributing are very liberal (you have to show respect and move the discussion forward), they require that the contributors police themselves. That’s hard to do with the volatile topic we are discussing.
So we are taking a break. It will give us all time to cool down, reconsider the arguments, prevent some friendships from getting strained, maybe even get our minds and hearts ready for Liturgy on Sunday.
Fr. Hans Jacobse
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