{"id":531,"date":"2010-08-13T04:00:21","date_gmt":"2010-08-13T10:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=531"},"modified":"2010-08-13T04:00:21","modified_gmt":"2010-08-13T10:00:21","slug":"is-civil-discourse-dead-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=531","title":{"rendered":"Civil Discourse & Baptist Blogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Is civil discourse dead in America?\u00a0 If\u00a0this week’s death wishes for Sarah Palin are any indication, then my answer would be a resounding yes!\u00a0 Following the news of former Alaska Senator Ted Steven’s death in a plane crash on Tuesday, two New Hampshire\u00a0Democratic\u00a0politicians\u00a0publicly mused how they wish Sarah Palin would have been on board the aircraft.\u00a0\u00a0 Keith Halloran, a candidate for the New Hampshire House of Representatives, commented on Facebook, “Just wish Sarah and Levy [sic] were on board.”<\/a> Halloran has since apologized for his outrageous comment, but one wonders whether his apology is sincere.\u00a0 Before he issued\u00a0an apology on his Facebook page, he reportedly told the Associated Press that, “It’s just a tempest in their Tea Pot,” <\/em><\/a>an obvious reference to the darling of the Tea Party movement.<\/p>\n

A second NH politician, State Rep. Timothy Horrigan, was forced to resign\u00a0after he wrote “a dead Palin wd [sic] be even more dangerous than a live one…she is all about her myth & if she was dead, she cldn’t [sic] commit any more gaffes.”<\/em><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 The remarks of these two pols certainly gives new meaning to New Hampshire’s motto, “Live Free or Die.”<\/em>\u00a0 They must have forgotten the wise old saying, “if you don’t have anything nice to say about someone, then don’t say anything at all.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, incivility is not the sole province of Democrats.\u00a0 Republicans have been known to utter stupid or insensitive remarks their fair share of the time.\u00a0 Who can forget South Carolina Republican Congressman Joe Barton, on the floor of the House of Representatives,\u00a0yelling out\u00a0“you lie” to President Obama during his speech to a joint session of Congress?\u00a0 Or Texas Congressman Randy Neugebauer (R.-TX) calling Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak “baby killer” <\/a>in the midst of debate on the Health Care Bill earlier this year?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I wish that incivility was confined to the halls of Congress, but sadly, this malady has been known to rear its ugly head in some of the most unlikely places, including on Baptist blogs.\u00a0 Like Congress, the blogosphere can be a rough and tumble world.\u00a0\u00a0We can often get passionate when talking about politics or religion.\u00a0 Nothing wrong with passion.\u00a0 However, when that passion becomes unhinged or out of control, then Houston, we have a problem!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I love to dialogue and sometimes even debate the heated issues of the day, whether we’re talking religion, law, politics, or even sports (although I\u00a0usually leave that one to my brother-in-law).\u00a0I have recently been involved in\u00a0discussions on two different Baptist blogs, SBC Today <\/a>and SBC Voices<\/a>.\u00a0 In both\u00a0cases, there are folks, including me,\u00a0who have strong and often conflicting opinions on\u00a0major issues affecting Baptist life.\u00a0 That’s as it should be.\u00a0 If everyone agreed on everything, life would be somewhat boring.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

However, we can and should disagree agreeably.\u00a0 There are times\u00a0when\u00a0we may want to disagree even more forcefully (sometimes in person), but it is at those times that we need to remember that what we say and how we respond\u00a0not only reflects upon us, but\u00a0as Christians, also reflects upon our Savior.\u00a0 Some people are good at pushing our buttons.\u00a0\u00a0There are often folks who wait to see what we say and then make comments that are intentionally designed to provoke us into a less than Christ-like response.\u00a0 When we fail to address the issues, but instead resort to\u00a0personal attacks, who can we blame?\u00a0\u00a0Take a look in the mirror and you will have your answer.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So, the next time you’re\u00a0tempted to comment on a post at your favorite blog, take a deep breath and reflect on what you want to say, if anything.\u00a0 Sometimes, discretion is the better part of valor and you simply need to ignore someone else’s comments that are nothing more than verbal hand grenades lobbed into the conversation for maximum carnage.\u00a0 At other times, you may want to respond to someone, but try to give the benefit of the doubt to your “opponents” and demonstrate grace in your words, even if your actions are not reciprocated.\u00a0 Who knows?\u00a0 If we all\u00a0made a concentrated effort, we might just find that civility (and grace) in America\u00a0is not dead after all!\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is civil discourse dead in America?\u00a0 If\u00a0this week’s death wishes for Sarah Palin are any indication, then my answer would be a resounding yes!\u00a0 Following the news of former Alaska Senator Ted Steven’s death in a plane crash on Tuesday, two New Hampshire\u00a0Democratic\u00a0politicians\u00a0publicly mused how they wish Sarah Palin would have been on board the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[113,3371,864],"class_list":["post-531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civility","tag-baptist-blogs","tag-civility","tag-sarah-palin"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-8z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=531"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4729,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions\/4729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}