Reframing Religion and Spirituality on Yahoo Answers
got on answers.yahoo.com and started answering and asking questions about religion. When I got on there (about a month or so ago), under the username of merely "Ivan", the whole Religion Spirituality section was dominated by Fundamentalist extremists telling everyone else that they were going to "burn in Hell". I started applying framing to get out my Progressive ideas about religion and spirituality and within a few days, the whole tone changed. Now, if anyone dominates it, it's Athei
sts and Agnostics. For awhile, they were attacking the Fundamentalists with insulting language, but I kept asserting the notion, throuhg more framing, that it goes against Progressive values to insult someone because of their religion. I encouraged people to communicate their ideas in a civilized tone, but still be clear with their ideas. The tone changed again and now, I'm really pleased to say, that, although there's still plenty of flaming on there, as everywhere on the Web, Progress
ive spiritual views are really coming to dominate.
Fundamentalists seem to have almost backed off entirely, and even if they say anything, they're sure to note that they don't "hate" us, but just want us to accept Jesus (which is still not getting the point, IMO, but which is still an improvement). When they say anything, rather than people lying down and rather than people just getting angry, they're met with Progressive framing, since a lot of people have picked up my civilized tone of simply framing Progressive Spiritual values.
Check it out yourself. I'm fairly proud of myself. I'm not a politician or a major activist. I'm just a Progressive religious person (a Wiccan to be precise) and all the language framing really works!
Yours truly,
Ivan Richmond
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Thanks
Thanks for the input, Even. I didn't see many of these before. I guess I was looking for a link that said something like "Religion" under Topics. In fact, you might want to make that one of the Topics. I was just starting with the basics of framing that I got out of "Don't Think of the Elephant" and "Thinking Points" and came up with my own frames, but I have no idea as to whether my frames are any good (except for the fact that whatever I'm doing seems to be working). I'm really just stabbing in the dark the best I know how.
- irichmond
I appreciate the suggestion about the topics list
I have added Religion in the Topics section on the Rockridge Institute website. For those who are not familiar with what we are talking about, there is a list of topics that the Rockridge Institute has examined and written about at:
http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/research
If you are wondering what the Rockridge Institute has written about an issue, that is a good place to check.
Evan
New! Good to hear
Thanks for sharing your story, irichmond. It is encouraging to hear of the success that you have had using framing and communicating progressive values in a debate that often generates more heat than light.
For those unfamiliar with the Rockridge Institute's analysis of religious and political thought of conservatives and progressives, there are a number of relevant articles on the Rockridge Institute's website:
http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/search?SearchableText=religion
Among these, one that provides a comprehensive look at progressive and conservative models of Christianity is a good place to start, regardless of one's personal religious beliefs. It is an excerpt from George Lakoff's book, Moral Politics:
http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/research/lakoff/mp14
Evan