1) I do not post links within comments (I either don’t post the comment that contains them or I edit the comment to delete them) unless I happen to have time to look at the web sites first. So if you include a hyperlink within your comment it may or may not appear here. Too many hyperlinks within a comment almost guarantee the comment will not appear here.
2) I don’t post comments that contain names of individuals or organizations that could be interpreted (by them) as slanderous or libelous or that make negative claims about them that I am not sure can be verified. For the most part it is best not to name names in comments unless it is complimentary or neutral (e.g., recommending someone’s book). If it’s controversial, avoid the name. (Remember that many corporations and famous people have reputation guards that discover every mention of them on the internet. I don’t want to receive letters from lawyers representing people or organizations. Anything I post here, even comments by others, comes back to me.) Occasionally I will post a comment after editing names from it.
3) Of course I don’t post comments here that are rude, uncivil, merely argumentative, etc. What I look for in a post-able comment is one that moves the conversation forward in a constructive manner and does not merely react.
4) I will not post comments that misrepresent others’ beliefs. For example (not a real example here but I have heard it said elsewhere): “Catholics worship food!” I would not post that as it is untrue even if the person saying it believes it. Similarly, at risk of being accused of being defensive, I will henceforth not post comments here that blatantly misrepresent Arminianism (e.g., “Arminianism says humans earn part of their salvation”) or Calvinism (e.g., “Calvinists believe God is evil”). It’s fair to say that from a Calvinist perspective Arminianism leads to such-and-such as a good and necessary consequence and that from an Arminian perspective Calvinism leads to such-and-such. There is a world of different between that and saying that Arminians believe or Calvinists believe what they deny believing.
5) Please try to keep comments relatively brief. I often have 30 or more comments to read and decide about and I tend simply to delete extremely long comments as I don’t have time to read them carefully.
6) I tend not to post comment that merely repeats other ones–even if it they are by different commenters.
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