Hanging up The Gloves... Again!

Some of you may remember that I recently declared Rhett's Rants to be a "Combox Free Zone."

Well, that only lasted a few days...

I changed my mind after I considered how many friends I have made through my comment box. So for the sake of missing a few more of those connections, I reversed my policy and opened my comments section once again.

After having declared myself finished with blog debates, I recently messed up and threw my hat in the ring once again, this time over the issue of the extent of the atonement at the Reformed Mafia.

After a few days of going back and forth, I finally realized that neither my opponent, nor myself, were moved one inch throughout the entire exchange. In the end, I think it was a huge waste of time and energy. To make matters worse, I probably didn't represent my position all that well anyway. All I ended up with was a headache and lots of wasted time that I could have better invested in a number of other things. (like my family, evangelism, studying, work, hunting, whip making, etc, etc, etc...)

As I have admitted in the past, I don't really like debates and I'm not that good at it anyway. If anything, I'm probably hurting my cause more than helping it by being fool-headed enough to jump in. The whole exercise ends up being added stress that I don't need. Having realized that, I am now going to commit to writing my Rants and leaving the debating up to guys who have the brains, the time, the patience, and the ability to do it.

A couple days ago I visited Scribe's blog. On his latest post he introduced a new blog called "the Little Sanctuary". From that new blog, Scribe posted the following is a quote which sums up what will (hopefully) become my future policy concerning blogosphere debates:

"This writer does not seek to enter into debate with his readers. He has learned that an atmosphere of debate will not “win people” to anything. Paul warned his Corinthian readers that “knowledge puffeth up” and it is this puffing up that breeds debate. To “contend” does not mean to debate. Many debaters are concerned with winning the debate rather than winning others to the truth. Winning debates is not a purpose of the sanctuary. The writer prays that God will be pleased to condescend and bless this ministry and those who read it and pray for its contents."

Does this mean I'm now totally against any and all debates? No... I think in some cases, and in certain situations, well regulated public debates can be beneficial. However, the typical blogosphere debate usually results in one-on-one brawls full of "straw man arguments", mischaracterizations of opponent's positions, and personal attacks: some of which I have been guilty of myself. These things help none of us.

(In all honestly, I don't know of any blogosphere debate I've ever read that changed my opinion of anything one way or another -no matter who "won" the debate! )

So, Lord willing, I'm going to do my best to keep myself from getting involved in these one-on-one blog boxing matches in the future. From now on I just want to write articles and leave it at that. It has become all too clear to me that I'm not going to make a name for myself as some "uber-apologist" for Calvinistic theology anyway!

If you agree with my work here: Great!

If you don't agree with any of it: Pray for me.

Looking for a debate? Take it elsewhere... I'm retired!

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