In its continuing catastrophic decline, The Politic, apparently channelling typographic instructions from the Lord, has begun editing comments in order to ensure that they show the proper degree of “respect” for God. “Matthew” (great evangelical name, that) has taken it upon himself to chastise a poster for using a lower case “g”, and to edit the poster’s writing, despite an explicit statement that the poster intended to write “god”, not “God”.
One can only be grateful that the omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, eternal, loving deity who created all that is, was, and shall ever be, has so staunch and brave a defender to press the shift key.
It is unclear what actual impact the use of the character “g” instead of the character “G” has on the state of the universe. It is also a bit unclear by what mechanism Matthew’s edit is supposed to increase the level of respect the original writer feels for God. Nor is it clear why the Maker of Us All favours Matthew’s unilateral imposition of a 700-year old typographical convention. But that, I suppose, is why I shall never be a theologian.
The only time person to ever edit a comment of mine was Anonalogue, just a couple of days before what appeared to be a nervous breakdown. Even his supporters (I think there were two) saw that as an appalling breach of blog etiquette.
Matthew…you know what? God doesn’t care about the upper or lower case. Really. Truly. However, She wants you to know that She really hates that boring gray masthead you guys use, and She also asked me to tell you that She’d like to have a private chat with Greg and Tom (if they haven’t already fled “The Politic” in embarassment) about some of the stuff you’ve been saying on Her behalf.
That’s just sad.