Mr SyroMalankara, while you are at it, do you mind clarifying that the opinions you express on this forum are your own and you do not post here as an official spokesperson of the Syro Malankara Church?
Very funny. I don’t think it needs to be stated because it is obvious.
Your Username SyroMalankara creates much confusion you know.
Are you saying that it causes much confusion for you, or are you attempting to save those who you think are incapable of figuring out the obvious (afterall, you’ve figured it out) for themselves?
Syro Malankara is the name of a church, and since Catholic Answers has provision for members to display a username and declaration of one’s religions affiliation separately, using the name of a church as a username causes unnecessary confusion.
I disagree. No one here is confused by my use of this username.
If you have been officially appointed as the spokesperson for your church, it would be all the more appropriate for you to post your real name and designation in the church hierarchy for readers to be clear about the level of authority you bring to the table as an official representative.
Suffice to say that I do not speak as an official spokesperson for anyone, I speak for myself and cite other scholarly and academic sources when presenting statements which need verification prior to being presented as fact. When stating an opinion, I do not cite sources, as such are unnecessary.
I have already made it clear that I express my own interpretation of history of Christianity in Kerala based on the sources of information I have used. My search for primary sources of information is still in its infancy. Even the online documents I have been able to read needs to be checked for its authenticity by getting at untampered hard copies. Therefore I do not post here as a scholar. Religion and history of religions is not my area of study. I post merely as one who wishes to encourage readers to seek primary sources of information further back in time than the scholars who are commonly cited for recent publications on the topic.
Why won’t you post these so-called “primary sources” that you claim to use so that we can all read them ourselves and determine whether they are authentic for ourselves? So far it seems you are presenting yourself as having unverified information, which you refuse to cite (which comes across as either you do not, in fact, have any sources and are presenting your opinion as fact; or, you are citing sources which cannot be trusted). Yet you keep claiming to have some “online documents” - why not present them to the reader?
I would request the moderators NOT to use you as a mediator in any conflict on this forum related to history of Christianity in Kerala because you are one of the participating members in the discussion.
I am not sure who and what you are writing about here - I am not a mediator, nor have any forum moderators asked me to be one. I am simply a long-time, active member of this forum, who has proven to be reliable in presenting Catholic teaching from the orthodox (some say traditional) side - especially in regard to the Syro-Malankara and other Eastern Churches. Sure there are disagreements, but both sides are always academically presented and then we agree to disagree if that is where the debate takes us.
These recent presentations of opinion as fact, without citation - especially in regard to a controversial topics which goes against EVERY scholarly and academically held view is something new, which no one has even been brazen enough to post - especially when this new view has not been citing their source of information.
I think it is obvious why it would lead to others being upset.
Moderators and mediators need to be outsiders who are capable of at least some degree of unbiased judgment.
There is no educated person who is unbiased (meaning, the only person who will remain unbiased on a particular position in regard to FACT [not opinion] is one who is not educated on the subject matter), the question is, will one’s bias lead to favoritism… When the presentation of fact is shown to have support from well-known, acknowledged and verifiable sources, this bias can be moderated and even though one may disagree, it will not lead to confrontation. On the other hand, if sources are not cited, nor any attempt made to show the academic background of the presentation - one can simply dismiss that opinion as fiction until facts prove otherwise. The one who repeats and re-repeats that unverified statement on multiple, unrelated threads creating off-topic posts is being disrespectful and disruptive.
