I encourage you to comment on my posts.  I need to learn from others, as I hope to teach others.

But here are some things I would like for you to know before you post a comment:

1. You don’t have to know me to comment.

2. You can ask questions.  I can’t promise I’ll answer, but I’ll try.

3. I’m fine with people disagreeing with me.  I don’t delete comments for disagreeing with me.

4. I will delete your comment if I think you are trolling, or contributing inappropriate content.

5. Here are things I will most likely delete in a comment:
Irrelevance, libel, abuse, harassment, profanity, pornography, spam, unwanted soliciting.

6. If you’re gonna post it, you gotta take ownership of it.

7. If you post it, you give me the right to use it too.  I promise not to use your comments in an inappropriate way against you, but if your own words betray you, so be it.  I may use your words against your other words if I need to in order to rebuke something false or unethical.

8.No, I don’t delete comments for “bad grammar” or correct it.  And please don’t do that to others, unless the correction you are making is meant to actually clarify the meaning of what someone tried to say.

It is my desire that this space be one of Christian communication, meaning that I hope for everyone who comments on my blog, including myself, will treat the space with respect to the teachings of Christ and his disciples on communicating with others.  Sometimes when we disagree with people, especially when we cannot see the tone in their writing, we get a little heated.  As you speak, consider the following passages and let us take them to heart.

James 1:19: Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath.

James 3:10: Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brethren these things ought not to be so.

Matthew 5:37: But let your communication be yea, yea; nay,nay: for whatsoever is more than this comes from sin.

Psalm 1:1: Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly.

Matthew 12:36-37: every idle word that men shall speak they shall give an account therefore in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shall be justified, and by thy words thou shall be condemned.

Matthew 12:34:… Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

1 Peter 3:10: For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.

1 John 3:18: My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

James 1:26: If any man among you seems to be religious, and bridles not his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

Colossians 4:6: Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt.

Ephesians 4:26: Be angry and sin not.

Ephesians 4:29: Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

Proverbs 13:3: He that keeps his mouth keeps his life, but he that opens wide his lips shall have destruction.

I would also encourage you to consider the same covenant that the bloggers at the website “Sojourners” created, and desire for the same principles to apply to my blog:

Sojourners Comment Community Covenant

I will express myself with civility, courtesy, and respect for every member of the Sojourners online community, especially toward those with whom I disagree, even if I feel disrespected by them. (Romans 12:17-21)

I will express my disagreements with other community members’ ideas without insulting, mocking, or slandering them personally. (Matthew 5:22)

I will not exaggerate others’ beliefs nor make unfounded prejudicial assumptions based on labels, categories, or stereotypes. I will always extend the benefit of the doubt. (Ephesians 4:29)

I will hold others accountable by clicking “report” on comments that violate these principles, based not on what ideas are expressed but on how they’re expressed. (2 Thessalonians 3:13-15)

I understand that comments reported as abusive are reviewed by Sojourners staff and are subject to removal. Repeat offenders will be blocked from making further comments. (Proverbs 18:7)