The Invisible Line

[Rev. Engineer]

This started in another thread, but as these things tend to, it veered way off-topic, so I continued it here. The origin: http://www.librarium-online.com/foru...77#post1046777
In suggesting an idea for WH40K fluff, I said that organs are taken from live prisoners in China today, so in the futuristic setting of the Imperium, they might do the same thing.
At this writing, I've had two people members tell me that I shouldn't have posted that. To be clear, it's not a baseless accusation, the Chinese government admits that the practice occurs. I happen to think it's evil, and I mentioned that. We also discussed the place of Christian symbology in the Imperium and whether that's offensive.
To paraphrase, one person thinks I might offend a non-member who randomly surfs across this site and supports the Chinese policy of taking organs from live prisoners. The second member says that it's okay to have Christian imagery in WH40K because it's mostly Christians on this site who that won't offend.
I respectfully disagree with both of them. To the first point, I don't see that we should all have to self-censor based on the most easily-offended hypothetical person out there, who isn't even interested in gaming. When I post, I have to keep in mind the feelings of someone who has no interest in the hobby and supports harvesting organs from prisoners against their will?
Paraphrasing again, the second poster said that because it's mostly Christians on LO, this audience won't be offended by all the Christian imagery. So when it comes to that issue, we should consider the sensibilities of the membership here, but when it comes to stealing organs, we should post based on what a non-member who stumbles across the thread might think?
It's not just non-Christians who might be bothered. I guarantee that there are a lot of fundamentalist-types out there who would be extremely upset if they knew about all the religious overtones in WH40K. Anyone remember how AD&D got pressured to drop demons and devils after the first edition? Should we all cave to their sensibilities?
So what are the limits of what we can say? Who do we have to worry about offending, the members of LO and fellow gamers, or the entire world? Does the most-easily offended person out there get to regulate what we can say? If that person gets to choose, there won't be any Rosarius or crosses on armor or anything like it in WH40K.
I really didn't think there could be anyone on LO who doesn't think taking organs from live prisoners is evil. Was I wrong? Anyone want to stand up for that?

[Cyric the Mad]

As stated in the LO Rules:

"Any threads/posts dealing with real life politics, sex or "recreational" drugs, blasphemy or theological flamewars will be locked and/or deleted."

In short: No politics. No religion. The reasoning here is simple - any discussion dealing in these topics involving more than one person will result in disagreement. Such disagreement almost always turns ugly. This is not the kind of thing we want in our community.

I'm locking this thread because it doesn't deal with a site support issue.