Comments guidelines

A friend of mine recently wrote up these guidelines for his blog.  I thought they were quite good, so I am going to use them, too…I hope these won’t be needed, but wanted to have them posted.  I don’t want to be a censor, because I am all about the free exchange of ideas, but there does need to be some guidelines in place for everyone’s benefit. So here they are. Please read them carefully… 
Guideline #1 | Personal attacks will not be tolerated. I despise this in politics, I despise it in relationships, I despise it in theological discussions, I despise it period. If you cannot argue your point in the realm of ideas, then, sorry, you have lost all credibility and you are automatically disqualified from the discussion.
Guideline #2 | Comments must made be with the right attitude. Remember when your mom would say, “Don’t use that tone of voice with me”? I don’t care the least bit if you disagree with every word I write. That’s your choice. But you must say whatever you say out of grace and love, show respect for the others that are reading and commenting, and even at the end of the conversation be able to agree to disagree agreeably. If you are unable to do so, if I detect any meanness or hatred, then, sorry, your comment will get deleted.
Guideline #3 | Comments are conversations, not lectures. We can kick around an issue, disagree about things, try to convince each other, and agree to disagree agreeably, but the comments are not the place to preach your sermon. Comments are not the place for long drawn out arguments. They are also not the place for copying and pasting someone else answers to a question either. When I get the sense that the comments are meant not to enjoy the blog and the community around it, but to advance a certain ideology or theological viewpoint, that is when I start to get a little irritated. If you want to do that, then it only takes a few minutes to set up your own blog. So what I’m saying is this: if your comment is not a logical part of the conversation, then, sorry, it will not see the light of day. Which leads to the last guideline…  
Guideline #4 | This is my blog. It’s where I write about ideas and things that are going on in my head, you read about it, and hopefully respond. Maybe you disagree with me, and someone else disagrees with both of us, and the fourth person agrees with aspects of all of our arguments. Cool. As long as we are responding in a loving way, I am happy, and this blog is fulfilling its purpose. But if I feel that if the comments are being used to railroad the discussion and turn it into something else or used in any way that doesn’t benefit the Kingdom of God, then, sorry, I reserve the right to decide which comments lives and which ones go to that big forum in the sky.
I don’t mean to sound too harsh… those of you who have been reading this blog for a while know that nothing will really change because this is what I have been doing so far anyway. But I just wanted to put them out there so that from now on there will be no confusion and no guessing about where I stand on “censoring” comments. I’m sure that it will be a rare occasion when I need to do so.