I agree with the idea of limited political/religious threads.

However, there is a problem when you simply go and delete the thread. My problem with it is that I have no idea of what the transgression was. So, I am left in a quandry of what is acceptable to post and what is not acceptable to post. Furthermore, I am very annoyed that all of the effort put into the individual posts in the thread is now gone. This has occurred in the DD with a thread on what is inside typical oil filters. It was a fantastic thread and quite long. Two individuals stepped down to insulting each other and the entire thread was deleted. This is grossly unfair to every other member who posted on the thread.

It would be highly beneficial for you to note a specific offending post with the note "moderator objects" or similar, and then lock the thread. Then, everyone can see where you are coming from and all the guesses as to what is appropriate and what is not are eliminated. Furthermore, the posts that are not offensive, and valuable, are retained.