Need Advice Re: Web board

[Sonic]

I wasn’t exactly sure where to post this. It’s not an apologetics or faith topic and doesn’t seem to fit anywhere else. If this topic would fair better on another part of CAF, then please feel free to move it to an appropriate place.

About four years ago, my friends and I got together to form a message board with the intention of creating a non-denominational club for Christians who share our hobby.

We have very little experience with our endeavors, and it seems like we’re winging it most of the time. We’re very small now, but are hoping to grow.

To make a long story short, we need help with our club from other Christians outside our hobby. It’s essential that we have dialog with other Christians in order to gain support, but also to explain in better detail what are interests are and why we exist.

We really need someone who is willing to take the time to listen to and learn about us. Unfortunately, the eccentricity of our hobby doesn’t lend itself to being taken seriously, and the obscurity has caused many misconceptions about the nature of our hobby and our club.

We have been trying to encourage our members to speak with their church leaders and pastors in a form of grassroots effort, but this has had very limited success. There are not that many of us, and for the most part we have received very little recognition.

Currently, I’m a moderator on our message board and a Catholic. At least nine of our members are Catholic and the others come from various Christian traditions. By far, Catholics make up the largest part of our membership, and the second largest portion identify themselves as non-denominational. This is one reason why I’m posting on Catholic Answers.

Is there any Catholic organization or group (loyal to the Magisterium) who would be able to talk to us and help us… maybe even take us under their wing and mentor us? Someone from Catholic Answers, EWTN, or Saint Joseph Communications? We need help for outreach and prayer for our Catholic members, as well as people who can help answer questions about our Catholic faith and offer advice and counseling. We also need technical advice and advice on how best to run our website in a fun and family friendly way.

We will also need the same type of help for our non-Catholic members, as well.

If anyone can offer us some helpful advice, then it would be greatly appreciated.

It is very important that we have someone who will listen to us. Do respond if you can, and you can always private message, too.

God bless you all, and thank you so much for reading.

 

[Sonic]

Was I wrong to ask for advice here? Usually everyone is pretty chatty and willing to give advice. I’m sort of confused rather than being frustrated.

C’mon! I know you guys can come up with some great advice! You’ve never failed me in the past!

We are primarily trying to reach out and help bring the light of Christ to members of the Anthropomorphic fandom. We are also trying to help people get away from the addictive and sexual lifestyles that have attached themselves to the Anthropomorphic fandom since the late 1990’s. We are trying to reach out to young people that often associate themselves with a subculture and often mistrust Christians.

Here’s some videos from our outreach trips to Anthrocon 2007 and 2008. We also have members that have attended the Rocky Mountain Furcon in Denver Colorado.

youtube.com/watch?v=etqXx8wqyqw
youtube.com/watch?v=3gxRmzLJjRo
youtube.com/watch?v=hBX2oLZZi-s

Eventually, we will have a video of the Sunday prayer service that was held at Anthrocon. It is currently being edited and will be available for anyone to see soon.

It’s my opinion that if other Christians would make a concerted effort to reach out to members of Furry fandom in a loving way, then many souls would be brought to our Lord Jesus Christ. I talk to these people everyday, and they really open up and listen when they hear that another Christian is willing to take the time to talk with them. A little faith, love, and charity goes a long way.

 

[DawnInTexas]

Sonic: I’m not sure what your question is. Is it that folks from other denominations aren’t joining? Or you don’t know how to answer them, and would like someone to help?

Thing is, with some denominations of Protestantism, they believe The Holy Spirit works through individuals. Therefore, they do not get their answers from their pastors.

They are good protestants when one person for instance, believes in abortion, and the one next to them doesn’t. They are both good protestants, and The Holy Spirit works through them both.

As practicing Catholics, our Faith & Morals are dictated by our Faith. Outside that, we can do as we please.

Most protestants believe in Scripture alone (Sola Scriptura). We, practicing Catholics have 3 legs to our Faith:

1. Holy Scripture
2. Sacred Tradition
3. Magisterial Teaching

We share, with our brothers and sisters in other denominations, our Faith in Jesus Christ as Our Lord and Savior…it is our ~beliefs~ that separate us.

Am I getting off track? I’m not quite sure, what you’re wanting. A source for help?

+Peace Be With You.
-Dawn

 

[Sonic]

Sonic: I’m not sure what your question is. Is it that folks from other denominations aren’t joining? Or you don’t know how to answer them, and would like someone to help?

Am I getting off track? I’m not quite sure, what you’re wanting. A source for help?

Thank you for answering, Dawn. It really is appreciated. My apologies if I was too obscure in my first post.

Let me see if I can clarify my first post.

FFC began as a group of Christian artists and writers coming from different faith traditions. FFC started with two missions:

1. To provide a meeting point for Christians in the Anthropomorphic fandom. This was very much needed. There was an antagonism towards Christians involved in the Anthro fandom.
2. To provide a meeting point for Christians wishing to help develop venues (website, online art galleries, news letters), which would help support a clean anthro genre (a fandom free of pornographic artwork and stories), and also help foster a genre that did not contradict Christian teachings.

Since the beginning, many of our members requested some support forums. We currently have a prayer request board, and section to help members with various problems and obstacles in their lives, a board dedicated to helping others escape from various sexual lifestyles and addictive behaviors, and small prayer group.

Here’s some things we need help on…

1. We are looking for people who can help us in our outreach with our current and future Catholic members. Our current Catholic members are trying hard to help answer questions of faith the best we can, but we’re not experts and need help in answering various topics that often appear on FFC’s message board.
2. Likewise, we also need the same help from other denominations to reach out to FFC members of other Christian traditions. As a Catholic, I often find myself doing my best to answer questions to a Baptist or Methodist who may not readily receive an answer from a Catholic due to the difference of faith you mentioned. These are not always matters of faith. Sometimes these are support questions dealing with anxiety or depression, and the person may feel more comfortable receiving advice from someone of their own faith tradition.
3. We really need help with fostering dialog between the various traditions. I am afraid that we are not experts in this field , and we can foresee that this is a skill that will be very much needed with the mix of Christian traditions and backgrounds coming to FFC. Right now, everyone on FFC is very close and the general attitude is mostly ecumenical in nature. We don’t want that to change.
4. We need help for our support efforts: people who will help participate in the prayer and counseling sections… people who can offer help with outreach to members wishing to liberate themselves from various sexual and addictive behaviors.

Back in the 1990’s, Furry fandom was inundated with people from various alternative lifestyles and this has created many problems. One of the convention organizers literally began promoting the fandom in alternative sexual lifestyle magazines, and the fandom was flooded with literature and artwork promoting those lifestyles.

Unfortunately, we find that we are constantly having to deal with the ramifications of what started in the 90’s, and many of our efforts are strained because of this. There is often a great number of Anthro fans that do not support the adult oriented atmosphere hovering over furry fandom, but are either don’t know they can help change the fandom or remain silent out of shame of being stigmatized by the immoral nature of some of the literature/ art being promoted in the fandom. This is very much a silent majority that often feels isolated and ashamed of their interest in the Anthro genre.

Right now, we are doing our best with what we have, but we are not experts and we can always need more prayers.

 

[Sonic]

Part 2:

1. Another thing we would like to do is open up the genre to the public. We want people to know what’s going on and to let people know about the good and bad aspects of the fandom. Currently, the genre is ever growing more closed to non-anthro fans. This is helping to foster the darker elements in the fandom, and also encouraging some of the isolation and anxiety of people who have entered into it as a subculture.

We want to open wide the doors to Christ and let the light in. We feel it’s important that FFC members hear the voices and opinions of Christians outside the fandom… instead of hearing the negative voices they are often exposed to within. Not only do we want to help dispel some of the misinformation about our interests, but we also want to combat the feelings of isolation often experienced by members in the Anthro fandom.

To give a little perspective on the situation, a tiny minority of individuals are busily churning out dozens and dozens of pornographic images of some of our most beloved cartoon characters for consumption by very impressionable young minds. Many of these people are not involved in Anthropomorphic fandom and have no interest in fostering its growth.

Most of the Anthro fandom consists of people between their mid-teens and early twenties. Many of these people enter the fandom with an innocent interest in cartoons and stories about animals or animal-like characters (Bugs Bunny, Rupert Bear, etc), and are exposed to pictures of a most despicable nature. I’m afraid that in the future society will have to deal with fruits of this labor. I don’t know about you, but I do not want to see pornographic images of Bambi or Mickey Mouse. I certainly don’t want to see them promoting sexual lifestyles and fetishes.

Every week, we have young people who come to us struggling with temptation and doubts fostered by the imagery mentioned above, and it is the reason why we’ve had to create a support forum dealing with these issues. It’s really a necessity. Some of these people are still in high school.

This is one reason why FFC is seeking to have dialog with Christians who are not involved in Furry fandom. We want to let people know what is going on, but we also want them to know that there are lot of good people involved that are not happy with what has been happening. There are Christians in the Anthropmorphic fandom.

1. The last reason is rather utilitarian. We need help running and developing our website, clean online art gallery, and online newsletter.

We need writers and artists that are willing to help produce literature and imagery that will help promote a clean Anthro genre which is centered around Christ and his teachings. We were creating a small devotional with animal fables based on scriptural quotations and prayers, but we didn’t have enough writers or artists to keep the journal going. It was published in PDF format, and was being offered to FFC members for free.

Likewise, FFC has plans for an online art gallery where artists and writers can submit images of their drawings, paintings, and sculptures to share with others. This would also be a free service, and the artwork would not have to be Anthro oriented as long as it was G-rated.

I hope this helps clarify things. If not, I’ll try to explain the best I can.

 

[Sonic]

I just wanted to say that I no longer endorse the FFC website I mentioned above. It seems I was fooled into believing these people were okay. Unfortunately, the website is becoming more and more cult like in it’s inner workings (the admins). For this reason, I feel it necessary to warn everyone not to go near these people. They have no intention of promoting an ecumenical atmosphere or a hobby club. This is due to a radical change in website leadership. The Catholic members no longer have a voice there.

They pulled a humdinger of a con on me, and the information I gave was result of the line they fed me. I’m Catholic, and intend on remaining Catholic. I don’t want anyone to be led astray by them. There are still good Catholics that joined the club, but it’s no longer friendly to them.

Thanks for listening.

 

[Dale_M]

Sonic, thank you for giving us an update. I will not recommend that site, per your suggestion.