Well, well, well. I was wondering how long it would take for someone to force me to make rules. And we have a winnah!!!
Comment Number 2 on the "Submission To Future Pain" post has won the award, dingdingdingdingding!
I was about to put the following in a reply to his comment, but decided that since it contains information vital to all comments here, bumped it up to Post status, instead.
The Rules
Well, hello there, Mike. Thanks for commenting.
Copied that right off your favorite Roman Catholic website, eh?
I’m actually grateful for your post, because it gives me a chance to start delineating the rules for this blog. So far, no one yet has broken them. But you came along and poof…we got rules! So thanks for that.
Rule #1
READ THE SIDEBAR BEFORE POSTING.
If you had read the sidebar “about me” on this blog, you would be well aware that I am a 5 point (is there any other kind?) Calvinist. Therefore your quotations from the Catholic Catechism I admit of no authority nor scriptural validity, and your Lumen Gentium is extra-canonical and therefore inadmissible as evidence as well.
Now, if you have honest questions about canon, scriptural defense of predestination, or Calvinism, come on in, sit down and make yourself comfortable. I’ll fix you a big ol’ glass of Texas sweet iced-tea (is there any other kind?) and we’ll have a friendly, if deep, discussion.
Or if you want to proselyte, that’s legal as well, long as you keep your manners. Just remember turnabout’s fair play. You proselyte us, we get to proselyte you, and it's all in good fun, dontcha know.
Disagreeing with me or other comments here is also allowed, even encouraged, as long as you mind your manners. One ad hominem attack, one insult, one pointless post, and you’re out. Keep to the subject, defend your point intelligently and humbly.
Rule #2
EVERYONE GETS ONE FREE TROLL PASS
First offense merits a warning and an invitation to state your question or point more clearly and relationally so that we can engage with it in a civil manner.
Anyone who shows up at the blog and knocks on the door with their troll suit on a second time will find themselves kicked under the gate and the dogs set on them to chase them back under the bridge where trolls belong. And their comment will be deleted without warning along with all subsequent comments by them.
You just used up your Free Pass, Mike. So if you come back, you’ll have to 1) use evidence that is admissible in a Calvinist court (that would be the Bible…Protestant Canon if it makes a difference) and 2) make your point in such a way that it’s obvious you’re in the discussion for the long haul, planning to mind your manners, able and willing to learn, and ready to engage relationally with the posters and commenters as persons and not just infidels.
I do really hate to seem so inhospitable on a first visit like this, but you just happened to trip the wire, Mike. No hard feelings, ok? Just abide by the rules and we’ll all have a good ol’ time.
Now that we have rules…LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!
HOLD FAST
Michael --
ReplyDeleteYou might consider adding actual interaction to your comments, instead of simply entering someone's blog with your own topic in mind and posting about that, ignoring what a blog entry's actual topic is about.
I wonder if what you write makes a lot of sense to yourself (a common trap on the internet, to be sure) but not to others. Furthermore, you have not even addressed the fact that you posted a spam comment to Esther's blog that didn't at all relate to her actual topic. Spam is understandable (again, this is the internet). Intentional, human-created spam, made without a bot, is much less excusable. It's bad netiquette. Bloggers will likely not link to your materials. Also, Google knows.
Though I've no desire to see your belief that any official Roman Catholic Church pronouncement is equivalent to God's written Word influence people anyone, avoiding spam will go a long way toward winning friends.
Without that, Christians have even less cause to read (much less accept) your accusations that any non-Catholic Christian denomination is a "heresy," or that "sola Scriptura" is an evil teaching, etc. Seeing that you do not (yet!) follow even good blog etiquette, why would readers expect faithful exegesis of Scripture?
Meh...don't feed the trolls or cossett the spammers, Stephen. This person is obviously quite unbalanced: just visit his website and you'll see what I mean. I'm sorry for what he's been through, but this kind of behavior is unacceptable. I have marked his comments as spam: in the time it took me to do that, he posted several more posts, with similar content. May God bless him with mental stability and peace. Meanwhile, he won't show up here again.
ReplyDelete