cultural background of MODx

From time to time I get the impression that MODx is not only a CMS but a "CCMS", where the additional "C" stands for "christian".
I find signatures like "the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom" and a lot of christian community sites done with MODx.
Is there a reason for this, historically, or otherwise?
I’m a bit disconcerted right now, since I just found a site having a really extreme, fundamentalistic tone. I do not mention the URL nor the user’s name here, because I do not want to intimidate anyone, I just try to translate the site’s claim:
"Jesus is my life, and death is my reward". Reminds me very much to the islamic fundamentalist statement of loving death more than life. And with this statement I totally and wholeheartedly disagree!

Quote from: silent at Aug 28, 2006, 12:01 PM

From time to time I get the impression that MODx is not only a CMS but a "CCMS", where the additional "C" stands for "christian".
I find signatures like "the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom" and a lot of christian community sites done with MODx.
Is there a reason for this, historically, or otherwise?
I’m a bit disconcerted right now, since I just found a site having a really extreme, fundamentalistic tone. I do not mention the URL nor the user’s name here, because I do not want to intimidate anyone, I just try to translate the site’s claim:
"Jesus is my life, and death is my reward". Reminds me very much to the islamic fundamentalist statement of loving death more than life. And with this statement I totally and wholeheartedly disagree!

I find there is just as much diversity here as anywhere else. I personally do not subscribe to any one religious or cultural perspective, but I’m a unique individual, to say the least. However, at the same time, I also feel strongly that religion and culture are not appropriate subjects for this community to explore; the focus here should be on what we have in common, and that in my perspective, is sharing our knowledge and contributions to the open-source content management space.

Quote from: OpenGeek at Aug 28, 2006, 12:26 PM

I’m a unique individual, to say the least.

So am I
I did not intend to debate religious issues here, I was just wondering about the quantity of religious sites done with MODx, and if there is a reason or background for that. Nothing else, and completely off-topic.

I think you’ll find that there’s people in the MODx community (much like in every other community) who feel it’s appropriate to share their personal/religious beliefs with the rest of the world. And then there’s people who feel it’s a personal thing and find the flaunting of one’s religion an offensive display of ostentatious behavior.

From a historical perspective, I think it’s true that some of the original founders of the project were comfortable in expressing their religious views through their Open Source work, but that is certainly not indicative of the majority of the people involved in the project.

But hey, we’re accepting and love one another around here no matter what And I can personally vouch for the fact that MODx is not a Christian-focused (or even Christian-primary) community at all. See my sig for more details

vbrilon: should have clicked your sig earlier! (still rotfl...!)
and, btw: thanks for your reply and understanding.

I’m just a casual community member at this point; can’t answer your question. However, I have alluded to my faith occasionally here (when in context to a question or an actual project). I would do that anywhere.

For sure, I would never choose MODx based on Christian considerations nor would I refrain from using other CMSes (I do use them), though I know some of their authors and most valued contributors are, by their online words, extremely hostile and mocking of my own sacred convictions.

I find we (myself for sure) tend to notice the statements that offend our convictions and bypass the ones which support them. Odd quirk of human nature

It’s too bad you were so turned off by that site; have no idea what site it was. If you want to chat about it, drop me a pm.

Well, Zi is Muslim from Pakistan and I’m Jewish in Israel, although I am rather fond of spaghetti

I can only add to this discussion that over half a century of observing life has pretty much convinced me that it takes all kinds to make a world, and as long as you don’t try to deny me life and humanity because I don’t believe what you believe (or because I’m a woman...I’ve been there, done that, too) we should get along just fine.

I will add that my father was a rabid athiest (as in rabidly attacking any hint of any kind of faith, bloodied my nose a few times until I learned to keep my thoughts to myself) and I spent 20 years as a Jehovah’s Witness, so when I say I’ve been there, done that, I really mean it.

Thanks to all of you for these kind and honest replies!
(I think, dealing with this kind of issues from time to time is a benefit for the forum’s climate.)

My issue was not, if individual members of this community are religious, or express their beliefs (as long as they do not do that in a missionary manner), my issue was, if there is a general christian bias in the dev-team or the community. Because that would indeed make me feel a bit strange. But now I know that this community is very open-minded and tolerant. That’s all I wanted to know.
For me "doubt is the beginning of wisdom", not fear - please take this as my personal statement on this personal issue...

Over the past two months I’ve spent endless hours reading the documentation, reading forum posts, examining parts of the source code. The only places I’ve ever seen an religious references are in people’s personal work and personal signatures. This state of affairs seems entirely appropriate to me.

Indeed, there may be people on here who wish to proselytise, who wish to "spread the word", whatever that word may be. I think what happens is that those sorts of people - people who want others to read what they say - are likely to have some content that they want to manage, and therefore find MODx. But I haven’t seen anyone try to use this community to directly push their own religious agenda. Unless suggesting people buy a Mac counts...

As it happens, I’m broadly agnostic but I wouldn’t want to be defined by my beliefs.

I don’t have a problem with the signatures people have - they are just bumper stickers.