Yet it seems like the audience has indeed responded. I don't see what your complaint is here. You know the rules of the forum don't allow people other than mods to enforce restrictions on certain threads. Ryft isn't a mod, therefore any restrictions he might try to put on a thread out of respect for Hitchins aren't going to be enforceable by himself or any of us.
This thread was supposed to be in memory of Hitchens. Sure, Ryft might have posted some controversial views (though certainly not controversial from the perspective of the Christian he is), but that doesn't mean everyone has to turn on him in a thread that was dedicated to remembering Hitchens the man. We don't have a limit on the number of threads that can be posted here, and we certainly don't have a limit on the number of Private Messages that can be sent. You could have debated this subject elsewhere and kept this thread to heartfelt messages as it should have been, but you didn't.
This thread was supposed to be in memory of Hitchens. Sure, Ryft might have posted some controversial views (though certainly not controversial from the perspective of the Christian he is), but that doesn't mean everyone has to turn on him in a thread that was dedicated to remembering Hitchens the man. We don't have a limit on the number of threads that can be posted here, and we certainly don't have a limit on the number of Private Messages that can be sent. You could have debated this subject elsewhere and kept this thread to heartfelt messages as it should have been, but you didn't.