A disproportionate number of academics or degree’d people tend to blog.
Some can un-tangle a person’s point of view without un-tangling the person.
The rest of us learned to fight on the street and have our PhD’s in the school of hard knocks.:^)
I think one of the reasons I enjoy blogging so much is reading and learning different styles of dialogue, discussion and debate.

I continue to find blogging interesting because it has helped me try to stick to two basic communication rules in my own space…KISS and HALT.
Keep it Simple Stupid is a great rule.
When two degree’d people go at it, there is a different fisking style. They can get to the ‘gutting like a skewered moose,’ in quite stylized ways.
The words are apt to be bigger.
I tend to blog with my broadcasting attitude.
That said, I have great respect for those who are the epitome of linguistic fussiness.
I wouldn’t debate with Rev. Mike to save my life. He’s very smart and his schooling has been put to good use. But I know I could say what is on my mind and heart in his blog comments and he would receive it with grace.

Signpost’s duo also have degrees, and are no-one’s fools.
They tend to be experts in dialogue. What pushes my buttons, brings out the mercy and patience in Dan and Phil.
Which brings me to the HALT rule.
It’s an old AA concept that helps me remember when not to do verbal battle.
Am I Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired? Then it is time to step back before making a decision about what I’m going to bring to a discussion. Sit on my hands. Take a walk. Sleep, eat, and at least pause and pray before I hit the keyboard.

And when Cre8d (Rachel Cunliffe) is personally attacked like this, you’ll see a different approach…an outstanding listener at work, who knows what she feels and thinks.

Regan and Rachel, Since neither of you, who have been quick to criticise the evangelistic efforts and callings of other Christians, have come up with your own definition and explanation of what the gospel and evangelism is, I can only assume that you have no idea whatsoever!

What these bloggers all have in common isn’t the batch of letters after their names. They are in their 20’s, 30’s and 40’s, so it isn’t just life experience.
They live on three different continents, and have very different kinds of jobs.
It isn’t just a passion for blogging or ideas and words. It goes far deeper than that.
I think it is apparent that they love Someone in common.

They know the different kinds of judging.
They understand that a critical person can be coming from negativity, insecurity, immaturity, an unrenewed or even wrecked mind, and that any kind of criticism is best done openly and constructively. They grasp that it is one thing to challenge an idea, quite another to censor the person. They know the tone matters in what they write as sure as if they spoke it. They are active listeners. These bloggers I’ve focused on have the room in their lives for healthy disagreement.

This article was written at the beginning of the 20th century. I re-read it often, for it is very true in the 21st, and I need to re-focus regularly.

Censoriousness has a special facility of fastening itself on a religious person, and on persons professing a great deal of religion, and its very intensity is in the proportion to the intensity of religious zeal, and seems to find its greenest pastures in those who profess the perfection of love.

God bless the god-bloggers who understand our blogging and our comments reflect Him.
Blog on!

PS: I can identify with Real Live Preacher. Writing for a paycheck and a deadline can be really dreary. I popped this post up as it tumbled through my thoughts and fingers, ‘editing’ as I went, and know for a fact that two bloggers under fire have lighter hearts tonight. I know that I do too, and that makes blogging worthwhile.

A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything–or destroy it!
It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.
This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue–it’s never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. James 3: 6-9