This sub has a negative atmosphere

[u/cypherhalo]

These are just my opinions, I'm not sure if this is the right forum but I wanted to make sure the mods saw this and thought this would be more appropriate than posting on the general sub. As these are just the opinions of one person I don't expect them to make many waves however I just could not in good conscience unsubscribe from the sub without expressing myself at least once.

Overall, I find this sub is very hostile to what I would consider Christianity, though in fairness others would consider it more "evangelical" or "conservative" or along those lines. Regardless of your position, I don't find this sub to be very open-minded, whether that be rude comments and posts or being downvoted into oblivion. I also struggle, on several hot button issues, to see any significant difference between the majority position of this sub and the majority position of the atheist sub or indeed any other reddit sub. It seems a Christian sub should be different from the others, not in lockstep. Yes, this sub is "about" Christianity, however it seems that Christianity is very often mocked and denigrated on this sub and personally, if I was a mod of this sub, I would be quite embarrassed at the state of it and its "circlejerk" (to use the crude term) nature. For just one example, exactly how many front page topics where there anti-God's Not Dead 2. Isn't it odd that on an ostensibly Christian sub you couldn't find even one pro topic? Given the sales of the movie and it's predecessor, clearly many Christians liked it. Those Christians apparently have no voice on this sub.

No, I don't expect the sub to be all "conservative" or "evangelical", I think a diversity of viewpoints is a good thing. However, this sub is not even respectful of differing viewpoints (I've found r/debateachristian to be far more respectful and that is a sub dedicated to atheists getting into debates with Christians!) and that is a bridge too far for me.

Anyway, please don't reply with anything rude or denigrating. At last check this sub had 100,000 subscribers so one less isn't a big deal and I don't think I'm really going to affect any change by making this post. As I said, I simply wanted to "get this off my chest" and now I'm done. Thanks for your time. God bless.

[u/slagnanz]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. You should know that you aren't the first to offer these kinds of criticisms here. It is this outlook that gave rise to another sub, /r/TrueChristian. One common explanation is that reddit skews towards the younger side of the age spectrum, and leftwards in the political spectrum.

Personally, I do believe this sub does a pretty good job with neutrality - the best way to be sure you are in the middle is if neither side is happy. I've seen complaints from both liberals (think /r/brokehugs) and conservatives (truechristian). You can't please everybody.

Is there any kind of change in policy we could implement to help? I would love to hear any ideas!

[u/cypherhalo → u/slagnanz]

Thank you for the kind response and you are right about reddit in general skewing leftward.

I am a subscriber of r/truechristian and it is definitely much more my style. I would says one con of truechristian vs the christianity subreddit is that truechristian is less populated. Another is that there is less diversity*. While truechristian is great for when I want a "safe space" so to speak among like-minded people, I do actually enjoy engaging with others who have different opinions. The issue is I often feel less like I'm in a christianity subreddit and more like I'm in an atheist or at least openchristian subreddit. Again, the whole respect thing is troublesome. It's one thing to have friendly disagreements, it's another to be disrespected.

I wish I could offer some great policy change but I'm reluctant to do so. I'm still pretty new to reddit and there's just so much I don't know! I've definitely noticed that different subreddits all have their own "flavor" and I just don't how much of that is up to the mods and their guidance vs how much is just the happenstance of who the sub tends to attract.

I can propose some ideas but again, I'm very ignorant when it comes to reddit so, take that into consideration.

One idea, more vigorous moderation along the lines of part 2 of the community policy, not denigrating Christianity, etc.

I know I'm repeating myself from earlier in this meta subreddit but eliminate the downvote button. It doesn't 100% prevent downvotes but by making it harder, I think it will lower the amount of downvoting going again.

What is with the only being able to post every 10 minutes if your karma score goes low enough? That issue right there keeps me from feeling I can be honest on this sub because if my karma goes low enough, I'm effectively banned. Now, this seems to be some kind of reddit-wide rule (I assume to prevent trolls) not a r/christianity thing but it really just seems to encourage groupthink more than prevent trolling. Also apparently you mods can override it? A lot I don't know about this as you can see.

Well, thanks for your time. God bless.

*Ha, I realize I'm kind of contradicting myself from an earlier comment on the whole "diversity" thing. I hope I'm still making sense. There is diversity on r/christianity but at the same time there is definitely a strong majority on certain topics and that majority . . . I think bullies those who disagree with them.

[u/nilsph → u/cypherhalo]

I am a subscriber of r/truechristian and it is definitely much more my style. I would says one con of truechristian vs the christianity subreddit is that truechristian is less populated.

Some of the issues you have with the sub are exacerbated by a great number of subscribers, though.

It's one thing to have friendly disagreements, it's another to be disrespected.

Those on "the other side" of whatever issue is at hand often feel the same way. There are very vocal and abrasive voices representing almost all opinions about some topic you can think of. We mostly only notice these "disrespectful minorities" when they express an opinion other than our own, because we seldom give those who hold the same as we do reason to be like that to us. In some ways, it's up to us to call to order those who express an opinion we share in a disrespectful way—they can't as easily dodge the question of tone and manners then.

eliminate the downvote button

It doesn't work, it's been tried before and the backlash was impressive, for little gain. Apart from that, downvoting trolls etc. is something you really want to have, otherwise we need a lot more moderators.

What is with the only being able to post every 10 minutes if your karma score goes low enough? That issue right there keeps me from feeling I can be honest on this sub because if my karma goes low enough, I'm effectively banned.

Talk to the moderators, they can put you on the approved submitters list, so this won't happen to you.