1st March 2004

Here is a potted all-too-brief history of a unique event on a Usenet newsgroup. Allegations have been made that a small group of people tried to 'take over' alt.christnet.christianlife. The allegations centred on whether this 'takeover' formed itself into a 'cult'.

In this process alt.christnet.christianlife newsgroup has in the last couple of years become the most 'popular' of all Christian Usenet newsgroups, and the third most popular of 'religious' newsgroups (after alt.atheism, and talk.origins, and ahead of alt.religion.islam - 45th, 47th, 67th and 85th http://usenetstats.com/top100bytes.php ).

A website was created for this newsgroup by 'V***' - a deeply committed Christian lady who lives in Germany, and who many regard as one of the two key leaders of the 'Building Crew' or 'The Fellowship' group (the other being 'Griz', to whom V*** defers as the notional leader).

Five key spoilers attacked the group 'led' by these two - two Australians ('woz' and Mark Tindall), plus Glenn, who posts under the Usenet name 'oldwetdog', and David Matthieu P.P. - and the website CULL (Christian Usenet LifeLine - http://acc-countercheck.g3z.com/ ). And of course there were others.

Most of the posts in the last couple of years on acc have been quite edifying - requests for prayer, comments on scripture passages, theological discussions etc. People developed deep friendships, and talked on the phone or by email to encourage one another. Some of the regulars on acc have had very sad lives, and their courage in the face of adversity is, for me, quite breath-taking. Several also have proclaimed themselves alienated from 'the church' and were obviously looking for 'fellowship' and acceptance here.

But people became polarized - over who's 'for us' and who's 'against us', and also over theological issues (particularly the Trinity, the authority of the Bible, what constitutes an 'authentic' prophecy, whether homosexuals or wiccans can be true Christians etc.)

One of the most contentious issues was whether people should be discouraged from posting on acc if they were deemed to be either heretical or 'obnoxious' (my word). Several were asked to leave. A stormy debate ensued about whether that could happen on an unmoderated newsgroup.

See http://groups.google.com/groups?q=oldwetdog+phony+surrender+alt.christnet.christianlife&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=10240pepe8t9i84%40corp.supernews.com&rnum=2 for a thread summarizing what happened.

'Griz' defended his and his colleagues' actions in trying to 'create order' in the newsgroup. See http://groups.google.com/groups?q=sioux+order+trolls+stiff-necked+Griz+alt.christnet.christianlife&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=vvc33td544f8b1%40corp.supernews.com&rnum=1

The whole kerfuffle seems to have come to a head in December/January 2003-2004. See http://groups.google.com/groups?q=Sara+aequo+alt.christnet.christianlife&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm040103000706.58138.qmail%40www.boxfrog.com&rnum=1 for a typically vitriolic thread...

Here's another, (3rd January 2004) about some of the contentious theological debates - http://groups.google.com/groups?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=mangles+oxymoron+alt%2Echristnet%2Echristianlife

Quite a few of The Building Crew/The Fellowship left acc and migrated to alt.christnet.evangelical (another unmoderated newsgroup) and christnet.christianlife (a group moderated by 'Deac' who seems to be wondering what hit him :-)

I arrived on the scene (having posted intermittently to the group for about nine years) after receiving emails from people in both camps, and have tried to figure out what's going on. As a newcomer to the 'contentious era' (the last two years) I'm not sure I have a complete handle on it all yet (who has?). I'm not interested in taking sides, but simply reporting what's going on, and try to be an impartial 'arbiter' in the whole situation. I don't want to vilify anyone (there's been enough of that). But I was intrigued, quite frankly, in the first attempt I know of in a Usenet newsgroup of a group trying to form a cohesive 'fellowship' online. I was welcomed warmly at first (see http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&threadm=402d4b26%240%2428872%24afc38c87%40news.optusnet.com.au&rnum=2&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Drowland%2Bthree%2Bcriteria%2Bvera%2Balt.christnet.christianlife%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26selm%3D402d4b26%25240%252428872%2524afc38c87%2540news.optusnet.com.au%26rnum%3D2 )

but this soon changed when it was discovered I'd posted some of the acc material on our website.

I invited Griz and others to respond to these posts with 'a summary statement of your perception of the truth is all that's needed, and, yes, then people can make their own judgments...' , and received this from Griz (I have his permission to reproduce it):

~~~

Judgments are arrived at not by reading words which can so easily deceive; but by testing the spirits (1 John 4:1). If your readers would know the truth on this issue and administer their own judgments upon me, then at least they should do me the honour of getting to know me themselves and test the Spirit in which I seek to daily operate: and not rush to judge me from afar based on another man's written words concerning events, many of which he was not even present for. Try as we might, we simply cannot test the spirits 2nd or 3rd or 4th hand! That's called "gossip" and is a sin.

You've been told where I like to hang out. Come and test the spirits for yourself! All that is required is an open mind that is free from the temptation to pre-judge based on what has been written in the above article, and a civil spirit.

[end of Griz's response]

I'm currently removing these 'offensive' articles from the JMM website, and will suggest Googled newsgroup archives instead, to take some of the heat out of the situation.

I've used a month's leave to read many hundreds of acc posts, and communicate with several key people off-line. There are still strong feelings between 'us' and 'them'. People are getting 'plonked'; or their posts returned with <snipped> responses. There has continued to be considerable name-calling and vitriol exchanged between antagonists.

The way forward (and most want to move forward) is to *really* leave the contentious past behind, and perhaps draw up a list of protocols for posting on to Christian newsgroups in particular, to make these habitats-for-fellowship more edifying.

I'd be willing to draw up a draft, including what sorts of personal/heated issues ought to be followed up offline; and what comprises 'good manners' as well as 'being Christian' online in a public forum, etc. etc.

Suggestions?

Note: The V*** person alleges that people could possibly find her name in this website and do her harm: I've altered it so that search engines can't discover her name here. Why folks would trawl a website in Australia rather than search Google beats me: most of this is easily recovered there...

~~~