I have been saddened to read some of the comments on recent posts. Disagreeing is one thing; personal attacks, mocking, and belittling are quite another.
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\nWe need to do better than this. There is no point in winning our argument if we lose our charity. A few observations:<\/p>\n
(1) Tone is virtually impossible to determine in a comment. The facial gestures and tone of voice that would moderate spoken language are missing. Be careful.<\/p>\n
(2) What is your goal? If it is to convince someone of the validity of your position, straw man arguments, personal attacks, crying ‘intellectualism’, and dismissing people as heretics isn’t going to work. <\/p>\n
“only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile\u2014 Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy; That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death.”<\/p>\n
(3) It would be nice if we could admit mistakes, or when others have helped us clarify our thinking, instead of hiding behind “what I meant was . . .”<\/p>\n
(4) I don’t wish to be melodramatic, but I think we might be in danger of ruining T & S. No one wants to read a blog full of vitriol. I think most of us are here for fresh ideas and perspectives.<\/p>\n
Play nice, kids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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