Is how we communicate others positions in posts honest?

[Revmitchell]

To be fair both sides do this, they post caricatures of the other persons stated position and then attack that caricature. Its not fair or reasonable. What we all need to do is communicate the other persons position based on their exact words and refute those exact words. Otherwise we run the risk of misrepresenting them and swinging at strawmen.

It lacks integrity to rephrase someones position in the worst possible light and then accuse them of holding to your caricature of their position. When we do this we are going against scripture because we are being a false witness.

We have all been guilty of it.

should we be more exact in stating the position of those with whom we disagree with?

 

[Eternally Grateful]

we should never assume we know what someone else thinks. Sadly in chat rooms I see over and over people who look for key words then its like a light goes off in their head and they assume they know what the other believes. Then they attack that person based on this faulty understanding.

then when the person tries to correct them, It just gets out of hand, and turns into a war.

If we have a question about what someone is saying or not sure we understand, we should ask them, not assume

 

[Use of Time]

To be fair both sides do this, they post caricatures of the other persons stated position and then attack that caricature. Its not fair or reasonable. What we all need to do is communicate the other persons position based on their exact words and refute those exact words. Otherwise we run the risk of misrepresenting them and swinging at strawmen.

It lacks integrity to rephrase someones position in the worst possible light and then accuse them of holding to your caricature of their position. When we do this we are going against scripture because we are being a false witness.

We have all been guilty of it.

should we be more exact in stating the position of those with whom we disagree with?

You should definitely work on this.

 

[Reynolds]

To be fair both sides do this, they post caricatures of the other persons stated position and then attack that caricature. Its not fair or reasonable. What we all need to do is communicate the other persons position based on their exact words and refute those exact words. Otherwise we run the risk of misrepresenting them and swinging at strawmen.

It lacks integrity to rephrase someones position in the worst possible light and then accuse them of holding to your caricature of their position. When we do this we are going against scripture because we are being a false witness.

We have all been guilty of it.

should we be more exact in stating the position of those with whom we disagree with?

We don't have to be exact, but we MUST be accurate.

 

[JonC]

The best thing to do is ask, restate the position in your own words, and always be open to correction when stating a belief that is not your own to another to whom the belief belongs.

Caricatures serve a few purposes:

1. Caricatures demonstrate the ignorance of the person posting the caricature.

2. Caricatures are attempts to veil inadequacies in the view held by the person posting the caricature.

Or

3. Caricatures are meaningless insults (we see this often in the Cal vs Arm and the political sections of the BB).

 

[Guido]

I'll keep this in mind as I debate here in this forum.