Can we talk?   (painting from TAKA in Asbury Park)

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.

Because these topics are quite incendiary, I have been doing more than the usual amount of editing and rejecting.  It is difficult to mediate the give and take that occurs whenever these subjects appear. We have had experience covering the Kirk Cameron story in 2012..     We provide some guidelines in our “rules” at the top of this page.

The first point is to say that we try to stick to the issues raised in the post.   It is so easy to stray off the topic, but we have to maintain some order, otherwise we get chaos.  Our topics are the letter sent by OGU and the action that they took with respect to the cupola event.  We are mostly interested in the effects of all this on Ocean Grove.

Secondly, we do not allow personal attacks, name-calling   (such as “bigot” or “hateful”)   or attributing motives.   There are those who want to review the Rabbi’s credentials, his politics, his web site and his history of past statements.  Some want to guess what is in his heart.   Two commenters wanted to compare him to Hitler. Needless to say, that comparison was not permitted.

But we will stick to what the Rabbi  actually said last week in Ocean Grove.   His exact words can stand on their own and be discussed without commenters characterizing them  as “bigoted” or whatever.    We will not post highly volatile statements because we are trying to maintain a certain tone on this website, and for those who resent that, you can try to get your inflammatory opinions printed elsewhere. If you want to be heard on Blogfinger, just be careful how you craft your comments.

I want to point out that Blogfinger cannot vouch for everything that commenters say  in terms of facts.  Because just about all our commenters sign in anonymously, there may be a temptation for some to provide fiction instead of truth, so we all have to read  anonymous assertions with suspicion.

Thank you, the Management.