Protestantism

» paper_turtle - My Standard

When I used the word "neutrality" what I meant to convey was not the absence of an opinion, but objectivity and balance. That is, having an opinion but ALSO having respect for differing points of view.

Loaded language, or language which can easily be misconstrued, is NOT fair, Brian. Nor is it respectful of differing views.

There are all kinds of ways to say "I disaggree" without implying anything negative the topic being disagreed with, or the person who addressed the topic.

You can say you have difficulty understanding how the person arrived as his/her conclusion instead of saying the conclusion/person doesn't know what he/she is talking about.

You can point out flaws in the argument and refrain from saying something such as "any logical/reaspnable/sane/intelligent person would agree with me."

You don't have to label the person as liberal/conservative/whatever to get your point across. To my mind that's lazy--liberal = bad, and conservative = good.

You can clearly say, "I believe," or, "I think," or, "in my opinion," or "this is how I see it."

Now, most of the time you DO communicate with objectivity and respect for differing views. But you didn't with regard to Tutu. Nor did you really make clear where you stood on the death penalty.

peace and love,
Paper Turtle

-- posted by paper_turtle