Most of the readers, except for a few, on this thread have picked up my drift by now. You’ve seen me do the same elsewhere. I loathe ad hominem attacks. At times, I have been accused, although I think in the main wrongly so, of such attacks myself. Admittedly, there is a fine chalk line between hard debate and personal attack. When upon occasion I have stepped over the line, I have made public or private application for forgiveness as appropriate. I suppose that we all error on the side of zeal occasionally.
However, there is a definable difference, I think, between taking a hard line and attacking the individual. One appeals to reason and argument whereas the other appeals to the emotion or sentiment toward the person. Blasting a person’s ideas or actions or statements is fair fighting. If you can’t take being hit, don’t get in the ring. Sarcasm and ridicule, IMHO, are fair blows if directed toward one’s actions or statements, not the person. However, it is not proper to attack the person by questioning his motivation or thoughts, his sincerity or integrity, his character, etc. Words and behavior are observable so that we can comment upon these but one’s thoughts are beyond our knowing. In other words, we can judge words and actions but we cannot judge the person. As Christians, we are not to intrude into this domain and judge. God alone knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts; this sphere is reserved for Him only to judge.
There appears to be a basic underlying premise from which some operate on this board. If a person differs from us beyond certain degrees of latitude, we judge him to be a no account sleaze ball whose person is fair game for our scorn. We make character judgments and impugn his integrity, his manhood, his motives, his patriotism and his very mental processes. This is wrong. When one makes an attack on another’s character, it speaks more about his own character than the one he assails.
IMHO, we are attacking David Cloud because he is David Cloud rather than refuting his positions. We cannot honestly know whether David Cloud’s hard line stances are from spite or conviction. If we are indeed loving Christians, then we are not prone to think evil of our brother (I Corinthians 13:4-7) even though his position may irritate us to no end. Let’s suppose hypothetically that David Cloud is guilt of all that he has been accused, is there is any warrant for us doing wrong in deriding his character and person?