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Someone asked:

What in the Bible or Christianity is specifically applicable to addiction?

My upvoted and previously accepted answer was deleted because apparently it was deemed "advice". While I suppose I can maybe see that, the question is specifically phrased in a way that my answer was appropriate to the form of the question.

Is it off topic to ask a question such as "what consolation does the Bible offer to someone struggling with grief"? I would argue "no"; even though an answer is indistinguishable from "advice", it isn't asking for personal advice, but for what the Bible says about a particular situation.

And if the answer is "yes", maybe the question needs to be closed... this would seem to support that?

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  • The original question was Does Christianity really offer nothing for addiction problems specifically? I edited it to make it more clear and compatible with the site.: Do any Christianity denominations really offer something for addiction problems specifically?
    – Ken Graham Mod
    Aug 6, 2021 at 19:07
  • ...so enumerating such is not permitted?
    – Matthew
    Aug 6, 2021 at 19:10

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You phrased your answer in a way that was almost entirely pastoral advice, the question was phrased in a way to avoid being pastoral advice. I really appreciate Al Brown's question phrased in a way that can be objectively answered after a sort of rocky start last week.

Deleting a post, no matter how well written, probably isn't necessarily censorship. I give you my word as a compromised Catholic, the only thing I censor is people talking smack about Our Lady.

Sorry, I didn't check the edit history, but Ken's right (although we always have a conflict of interest as users on the site as well as mods) so I had to respond to flags, in general we don't moderate posts that we answer or write.

You might have had a good answer to the original question, but the original question would have been closed (so I guess I'll take back what I said about appreciating Al's phrasing.) But it's the same question, essentially, just one can always be objectively answered and the other can be subjectively AND objectively answered.

But I definitely recognize that editing a question in a way that invalidates yours looks a little untoward, but that question had the hallmarks of a question that should have been closed. It's just a matter of who do we want to annoy more as mods.

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  • I repeat: how is one supposed to answer a question like "what does the Bible / <denomination> say about <problem>?" without the answer being "almost entirely pastoral advice"? Slapping "what denomination" on it really doesn't address that problem. If such answers aren't allowed, I will argue that even in its current form, the question ought to be closed.
    – Matthew
    Aug 6, 2021 at 19:51
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    OK - you're right "Where to find it in the Bible" is not what we do here.
    – Peter Turner Mod
    Aug 6, 2021 at 20:40

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