On someone else's blogs, the discussion turned to a disagreement with the views expressed by another blogger on her thread. It made me think of my views on the topic.

When I came to JU, I had initially wanted to blog primarily on religion. But I found that, not only are religion topics not highly read unless you're pretty controversial or it's good enough to get featured, but I take harsh criticism of my religious views pretty personally, so it's not a good "side" of me to be throwing to the lions.

Unlike politics, where I can give as well as I get, religion is about a VERY personal side of me, a side that, while I am willing to defend, I don't wish to broach unless asked specifically on a topic. Because, when you get to know the reasons behind my faith, you get to know a LOT about me, especially things I'd rather not divulge in a public forum.

Because of that, I rarely comment on religion threads (I'm pretty willing to bet that similar reasons from others leave them equally silent). I have my views, I don't really wish to debate them, and, moreover, I don't want to hurt the feelings of someone who may have an equally deep seated basis for their belief. But I DO read many of the articles, because I find the topic interesting.

The truth is, I disagree with about 99% of what I read on the religion threads. But that doesn't make it any less substantial or any less valid. So the omission of my comment does not detract from the quality of the article, but the addition of my comment certainly would.

I don't even want to drop in a "good read" comment, because if I do, I'm afraid that would become an invitation to the writer of the article to inquire WHY I simply left the "good read" comment. And I, for one, don't want to go there!