To comment or not to comment

Last updated on: November 9, 2011 at 10:06 am by Dave Griffey

To comment or not to comment 2011-11-09T10:06:00-04:00 Dave Griffey

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Ah, that’s the question. Ages ago my blog went goofy. When it finally came back, my comments boxes weren’t working. I tried to figure out the problem, and finally – with some help – found that it was actually a simple solution.

Still, I decided to leave them off. Why? Because early on, I had several folks stop by and throw their comments in the boxes. Most were nice. A couple were naughty. Some were just downright mean. And it came to pass that one particular day, when I was in a pissed off mood anyway, I told a fellow who enjoyed coming by and pointing out how stupid us Christian types were to knock it off. Disagree all you like, but at least hang around and debate, say something constructive, something. To his/her credit, he decided to move on. After that, the number of comments dropped. As if saying ‘hey, I want constructive and respectful debate here’ was a red flag for some of my readers.

It was also at that time that the great Lila Rose Disaster of 2011 was occurring. This is when Catholics asked the question ‘can we tell lies in order to achieve good ends.’ I can see the problem with that. And I saw the problem with a Catholic based organization founded on deception. But oh, the arguments. I read things about Lila Rose, other Catholics, even Corrie ten Boom, that made my hair curl. All by Catholics. It was embarrassing. I was ashamed to be part of any Catholic discussions at that point, and vowed to keep the comments off for good.

But there is a problem. As a pastor, I never used ‘the bully pulpit’ to advance my agendas. I even resisted discussing controversial topics except for casual forums where the congregation was free to speak out. I understand that there are times when you stand up and proclaim ‘thus saith the Lord’, but it’s also nice to hear other views and allow other ideas to be tossed about.

I can be opinionated at times. I’m no great writer, I admit. But I can throw out opinions. I sometimes wonder if it’s fair for me to say this or that without a visiting reader having a chance to reply. I noticed this a week or so ago when a blog I used to visit put up a generic dig at Christianity. I knew the fellow wasn’t Christian, but he usually left the faith things out of it, or opened up his blog to comments when he didn’t. But this time he made the dig, and purposefully removed the comments section. Somehow I felt it was unfair that he would unload like that and not allow those who disagreed a voice.

So I’m kicking it around now, especially as I’ve gotten back into the whole blogging world. Not saying I’ll bring them back. I’ve seen some pretty scary stuff in comments sections. And I don’t want to just ban, ban, ban anyone who says things I think are over the line. Then folks just don’t bother because they aren’t sure what will bring the crushing gauntlet of eradication from the blogger. So I’m kicking it around. I might bring them back. We’ll see. Just FYI.

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