Religion Forum Staff Roster Updated on 2 March 2009

If you have any questions about how to use the forum, post a new message and one of these friendly folks will answer you as soon as possible. To post a new message you have two choices: click on any of the sections under Board Folders in the left column and click on the "New" button or just click here and the "New message from ..." page will open. Select a Folder from the pull down box (Social Hall, for example), type in a Subject and either leave the default "ALL" in the To box or select anyone with "Sysop" or "SL" (for Section Leader) in their name from the pull down list. Then type your message in the large open area and when you're finished click on the Post button at the bottom.

Sysops

Tom Sims is the Wizop and Forum Manager

Tom has been working in CompuServe forums for many years. His interests range from religion and philosophy to world affairs, from business development to the arts and from writing to public speaking. He is a pastor and a personal coach as well as an entrepreneur. He has been known to sing without warning in the middle of anything when the mood hits. He is the father of two adult sons and one adult wife. He is also a very proud grandfather. Tom lives in California's Central Valley and manages this forum, having been trained well by the legendary Georgia Griffith whose legacy he strives to honor.

Ivy has a B.S. and a Master's degree in Education, with a specialty in teaching elementary level science. Some people contend that there is an innate conflict between science and religion; she disagrees and embraces the concept that where religion seeks to answer, "Who did it?" science concerns itself with asking, "How was it done?" Ivy recognizes assisting in the forum as an opportunity to cultivate an environment that facilitates questioning, reasoning, and expression of thought within in a diverse community of individuals from various faiths and non-faiths. Since joining the forum she has worked to make a positive difference and has surprisingly found that the biggest difference she has made was within herself. Ivy believes that this is as it should be and for that she is very thankful.

Aisha received her Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations at Harvard University. Professor Musa is fluent in English and Arabic and has a working knowledge of Persian, French and German. She has been a member of the Religion Forum staff since the early 1990s.

Arthur has been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) for 34 years and resides in the Houston, Texas area. He has been Section Leader of the LDS Section for 11 years and signs his messages as "Custodian and Janitor of Ward 13". He invites anyone who has an interest in the LDS Church (Mormons) to drop by and visit.

Cally (aka CalS) has been moderating online discussions since before Microsoft Windows 1.0 was released. She was a moderator on a DiversiDial system starting in the mid 1980s and a moderator on Fidonet for many years. She joined CompuServe relatively recently, around 1998 or 1999. As you can tell, she's not good at remembering exact dates!

Cassy is a self-described geek, who has been moderating online discussions since before the invention of the World Wide Web. She started with DiversiDial in 1985, moved on to BBS's and GEnie and eventually to CompuServe in 1991, where she's been moderating in one forum or another ever since. An agnostic, Cassy is willing to learn from every religion and philosophy she encounters.

Chaya is married, a Mom and a grandmother. She has been in the field of education for the past thirty years in different capacities and has loved every moment of it. As an Orthodox Jew, she lives her religion and it brings meaning to her life. She wants to expand and learn more about other religions and to clear up the many misconceptions about Judaism that exist. Growth has always been her aim whether in her marriage, as an educator or as a Jewish woman. The Religion Forum gives her an opportunity to grow even more by participating with other people who are interested in religion whether they are atheists or believers.

Chris is a lawyer, retired early, married with two children, born and living in the UK. Being a preacher's kid, at 9 he was an evangelical atheist. At 15 he had an ecstatic mystical experience and went looking for a religion to fit it. 30 years and several religions and denominations later he concluded that liberal Christianity was probably a good enough fit and Anglicanism was the way to do it, not merely because he lives 100 yards from the parish church. He has a degree in Theoretical Physics, spent 25 years on various councils including being Mayor of his town for a year, is an occasional preacher and actually managed to sell a few of his paintings once.

Gary lives in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. He's a computer geek by trade. Philosophically, Gary sums himself up as a bleeding-heart liberal atheist.

Gary (aka Gary-) is a husband, father and grandfather who is employed as a computer network administrator. He has been active in this forum since 1992. His interests include religion, history and travel, plus he is an active participant in muzzleloading (shooting antique-type firearms in competition) and is an amateur photographer. Gary has traveled somewhat extensively but has yet to visit to Australia and Antarctica. Post college and pre-marriage, he spend more than three years in Brazil on a Peace Corps type assignment sponsored by an NGO.

Gillian is a teacher of English and Drama in the English Midlands, mother of two teenage daughters and a compulsive communicator who loves discussion and fun but not so much fighting. She fell in love with Durham Cathedral in her late teens and has maintained an interest in religions of all varieties since. One day she'll work out which she believes in. She's been posting on CompuServe forums since 1996 and doesn't know where the time went.

Henry is the founding director of Pacesetters Bible School. He has BA and MA degrees in Biblical Languages, and has done post masters work in Linguistics. Neufeld has started numerous small study groups, in which he emphasizes building a present living experience using scripture as a foundation. He is the co-author of When 3 to 8 Gather, a guide to using scripture effectively in small prayer groups. He is also the vice-president of the steering committee for United in Prayer for Pensacola, a city-wide prayer movement. He grew up as the son of Seventh-day Adventist missionaries, left the faith, then returned to the Lord in a United Methodist Church. This has led him to concentrate especially on experience that transcends barriers of doctrinal belief.

Mel was raised an Idaho Mormon and is currently an inactive member of the Church. After serving in the Army, he ended up in Oregon and in 1977 married his wife in a Lutheran Church. Two years later, Mel's wife converted to Mormonism and in 1980 Mel and his wife and their first child were sealed in the Idaho Falls Temple. While working full time and pursuing his BA in Sociology (and between births of their next two children) Mel and his wife attended weekly Institute of Religion classes. During this time, Mel also had the privilege to meet and befriend Mark Borg, a young college professor and the teacher of several religion classes which Mel attended. After much encouragement from family, Mel retired in 2005, filed for disability, and is currently the primary caregiver of their youngest child whom Mel and his wife adopted at birth in 2007.

Mike is a student, though not at any organized institution, majoring in humor. Dry, shaken not stirred. A computer engineer, manager, and project manager. He was raised Roman Catholic and lowered to atheist and has gotten increasingly comfortable with that position. He chops wood, builds boats, throws pottery, boomerangs, and the occasional exception. He lives in Michigan near Ann Arbor with his wife and son.

Patricia is well into the Crone stage of the Wiccan trilogy and wishes that more wisdom had come with age. She has been a sysop on the Religion Forum since the late 90's, with a rest break now and then. She lives in Dallas, Texas, is retired, and an active volunteer with a local theater group. She describes her personal philosophy as Libertarian, Taoist Wiccan with no belief in any sort of entity god(s).

Rich joined the Religion Forum in 1990 and right from the start found himself involved in controversial discussions. When sponsorships came available, Rich offered to sponsor the Limbo Section, where many of the more contentious threads tend to wind up. Rich believes that the struggle for an integrated worldview and for God is actually a struggle to get our words right, and he sees the forum as a great training ground in that endeavor. Although he was raised as a fundamentalist Christian and continues to find the God concept intriguing, Rich is now most comfortable calling himself a non-theist or humanist.

Robert lives near Buffalo, New York USA. A former computer programmer, he's now pursuing a career in geology. Robert has been active on CompuServe forums since 1994 and has been posting on Religion Forum since 1998.

Georgia was a graduate of Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, where she majored in music education and minored in English and religion. She enjoyed learning new languages including computer programming languages; over the years she learned 12 foreign languages. Georgia died on September 14, 2005, after a short illness.

• Social Hall - Jill Seal, Gill Othen
• Christianity - Chris Eyre, Gill Othen, Cassy Beach, Shawna
• Judaism - Chaya Selig
• Islam - Aisha Musa, Ivy Shahin
• Interfaith Issues - Cassy Beach, Terri S.
• The Public Square - Chris Eyre, Gary Zuwait, Gary Dean
• Global Thought - Chris Eyre, Gary Zumwalt, Gary Dean
     Sponsored by Energion.com and Energion Publications
• Elections & Faith - Patricia Olver
• Freethinkers - Gary Dean
• Authors Online - Tom Sims, CalS
• Moral Choices - Patricia Olver, Mel
• Latter-Day Saints - Arthur Wilde, Caroline Lane
• Science & Religion - Robert, Jill Seal, Mike of All Birds

Dorr Altizer

Dorr is a Viet Nam Veteran who retired from a 25 year career in the U.S. Air Force in 1990. Dorr provided Webmaster services for the Religion Forum and Christian Fellowship Forum on CompuServe from August, 1998 to September, 2005 and he continues in that role under the current management. As a long time Model Railroader and Railfan, he's a member of many railway oriented organizations and spends most of his online time at TrainNet.org. Dorr and his wife Jan (and three cats) live in the City of Surprise, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona. Their home is just west of a BNSF Railroad siding named Lizard Acres, so if you ask him where he lives, he grins and says, "Lizard Acres, Arizona."