Rules

The First Rule is that all comments must be charitable. Insults and attacks on people will not be tolerated. Criticising ideas is one thing, but people are not their ideas. Further to that, any critical remark should still be done in gentleness, and with with definite reasons given so that the criticism can be responded to. Simply saying that something is wrong does not make it so.

The Second Rule is that there will be no monopolising of Q&A Forums. I've found, doing Q&As at Barque, that they often tend to become one commenter and me having a very lengthy debate, while all other readers end up feeling alienated, and not bothering to participate--ever. That will not happen here. If you want to pick a fight with me, I encourage you to do so at Barque of Peter or by emailing me directly at doubting - thomist @ hotmail . com (without the spaces, of course). Similarly, I'm typically going to limit commenters to three comments per Q&A Forum. If you want to continue discussing your question(s) after that, again, email me directly. If you have more questions, please wait until the next Forum. (I'll post a new one each time the prior one goes off the Front Page. Each Forum will also be tagged so as to be easily accessible.) Also, if you want to email me your questions directly, send them to the above email. Please understand that emailing me at that address will be with the understanding that it may be posted on this blog at some point, unless you specifically say otherwise.

The Third Rule is no anonymity. I don't mean you have to tell me your name, but give some sort of identifier. If you don't have a blogger account or Open ID, or whatever, click the "Name/URL" option and enter a handle of some sort. When I get a number of "Anonymouses", I can't tell them all apart. If three people post as Anonymous, then they'll each only get one shot to say something in any Q&A Forum (as per Rule 2). Plus, it just feels so dang impersonal. I don't care what you call yourself, as long as it's not "Anonymous", and as long as it's the same name each time you comment.

The Fourth Rule is that spammers and trolls will not have their comments published, so please don't waste my time by spamming or trolling. If I don't publish your comment, I will make a comment in the article telling you that I've received your comment, but am not publishing it for whatever the reason might be. If you feel that I'm in error as to my reasoning (you really weren't trolling, say), you may email me to tell me why you didn't actually do what I thought you did, and we'll go from there.

The Fifth Rule is simply, please don't steal my stuff. As I said, the images on this site are mine. So are the thoughts that I'll publish. If you want to use them somewhere else, please ask permission first.

That pretty much covers the Rules. A few last notes:
1. If you comment here or email doubting - thomist @ hotmail . com, I reserve the right to reproduce your question and my answer as a new article on this blog.
2. If you email me, I will never, under any circumstances, share your email address with anyone else, ever.
3. While the way I express myself is all me, my answers, to the best of my knowledge, will be in agreement with the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. If I happen to have inaccurately represented the Church's official teachings on some point, please show me (with sources) so that I can correct my mistake. In case I'm being particularly obtuse or obstinate, you may also try contacting my pastor or bishop to bring my error to their attention, and keep me accountable.