In these massively troubling times (no need for me to itemize the issues) and the incredibly disturbing bifurcation of opinions, views, and perspectives, where very few people have even the slightest interest in listening to someone on “the other side,” there is at least one thing that virtually everyone agrees on:  these are massively troubling times with incredibly disturbing bifurcation of ….   Well. right.  We can at least agree it’s a mess.

And what, I ask you, does that have to do with the blog?  Well, in short, nothing and everything.

Over lo these many years, I have tried very hard to allow everyone to express their opinions on matters connected with the blog — principally, the study of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, the origins of Christianity, the first several centuries of Christian literature and history, and cognate fields such as Hebrew Bible, early Judaism, Greek and Roman religion, with a touch of personal religious views and modern religion, etc.

I have also tried very hard not to take sides on the social and political issues that are confronting us, at least to not take sides directly.  Moreover, I have tried to keep the discourse polite, open-minded, and generous to the views of others.  You don’t find a lot of that on social media, as you no doubt will have noticed.  But I try to discipline myself, and I do not allow guest posts to take stands on such matters, and I do not approve comments that in my view go a bit too far in expressing strong views on such matters.

I want people of all political persuasions and people with all views of important social agenda to be welcome to the blog and to feel that this is a place where they can talk about their understandings of the topics we deal with on the blog.  I know as well as anyone that there are indeed social agenda issues, political conflicts, military activities that are in ways connected with what we do here.  But I do not want us to go into these.  Each of us can do so quite easily in other venues.  I want the blog to stick to historical and literary issues connected with the New Testament, early Christianity, and related topics — including the perceived relevance of these issues to today if it seems appropriate.  But not to focus on the political/social issues themselves or our incredulity that others are too blind to see them the way we do.   And I want to keep it polite.  No one liked the old Saturday Night Live Point Counterpoint better than I did.  But, well, this ain’t SNL.

So please: let’s focus on our common interests while we’re here on the blog.  And let’s respect opinions we disagree with.  It is perfectly fine to state in firm terms reasons you disagree with others.  But no belittling, name calling, personal attacks etc., please.

I say all this both to keep all of us on the same humane and polite/generous-to-others page here, and to explain why sometimes a member will make a comment that I simply cannot approve and post.  (Even when I totally agree with it!)

If you have any concerns about the matter, do let me know — including by posting comments here.  Politely.