In a recent/current thread filled with some horrible ad hominem stuff two posters wrote:

Since you hate Christians and Christianity so much why do you call yourself a Christian?

and

I wish all you squabbling xtians would shut the f___k up!

After a decade of wandering around Usenet religious (and other) groups, I've come to these conclusions:

1. People who are not Christians - atheists, agnostics, God-seekers, whatever - are *not* generally going to be positively influenced towards the Christian faith by what happens in most of these groups. I've noticed them coming and going, and, metaphorically, often shaking their heads in bewilderment, anger or sadness. Some have actually hung around, and I've met a couple of these personally and had a cappuccino with them. Why they do stay on here beats me!

2. Are Christian posters to Usenet groups representative of Christians generally? Yes and no. Many here, by their own confession, inhabit these groups looking for community, friendship, or answers-to-deep-questions. Many are lonely, with family/marriage/ personal issues, or have collided with church authorities etc. and are wanting an all-comers locale where they can hang out and be heard. We/they bring their baggage with them. Fair enough. But yesterday I concluded an interim pastoral ministry at a church which is nothing like alt.christnet* groups. They truly love one another, pray for each other, and generally get along very nicely. (They remind me of the critic of the first century Christians who nevertheless said, 'Behold how these Christians love each other' - and apparently without the sarcasm I often read here!).

3. So Usenet populations may not be representative of the community-at-large, Christian or otherwise. Vitriol is not just a Christian newsgroup flavour: have you dropped into alt.atheism recently? People on all sides of the religious divides can attack each other rather than be open to irenic discussion.

4. Back to Christians: we are supposed to treat others, including God-seekers, with 'reverence' or 'respect' (see 1 Peter 3:15,16). I want to be the first to apologize if/when I have not done that. But I have decided, with God's help, never to respond to ad hominem stuff, and want to invite you all to do the same. If people want to attack one another in the 'yes you did no I didn't' style let's not respond, but simply leave them to it. (Note: because I said 'I invite you all' to join me in something a couple will read into that some kind of desire to 'be political' - ie. use some kind of authority here. I'm frankly not interested in all that, and enjoy the freedom of give-and-take in unmoderated groups, when the exchanges are friendly and constructive).

5. Now, this thread will also probably have posts-in-response which include 'Don't listen to him, he's... (a heretic, from Australia, whatever).' There's nothing much we can do to stop that, but we *can* mostly agree to talk about ideas, or encourage each other prayerfully. A common technique in constructive communication is prefaced by the words 'Help me to understand...'

6. So, my God-seeking friend, Christians are not perfect. They even sometimes say 'Don't look at us, look at Jesus Christ for a model'. That's frankly a cop-out. If Christ is in our lives we should be more like him: loving those who are marginalized, different, and even treating people from the religious group - the Pharisees - who opposed him most, like Nicodemas, with respect.

7. The Christian Good News is that if God is like Jesus nothing is too good to be true (as the 'Jesus Freaks' used to say). Jesus taught us that we are loved by God before we change, as we change, after we change, and whether we change or not. (The classic parable on all that is the story of the Prodigal Son). Some dispute that summary of the Christian notion of grace. They might give assent to the great commandment, to love God with everything we are and to love others, but in their/my worst moments their behavior belies their creed. Believing 'right doctrine' (as they interpret that) is most important for them. The New Testament - particularly Jesus, Paul and John - however, puts *love* first. Beliefs and obedience are a concomitant of love for God and others.

8. I'm not going away (though one or two here have wished that). I have a little more time now and believe these venues provide valuable contexts for exploring faith and life together. But I'm going to ignore the 'ad hominem-ites' and character assassins and their negativity (but not block them - that's childish and unchristian in my view). Billy Graham has been a good model for us in these respects: he's made a life-long commitment not to 'answer back'. Again, I am sorry if I've been guilty - or deemed to be guilty - or guilty-by-association in this respect.

9. I'm posting this to the three newsgroups I read most at the moment - ACC, ACE, and ARC. If any responses cross-post to other newsgroups, I'd encourage us to delete those extra groups.

God bless you all: most of you on the other side of the Pacific (now that's a good name for the relationship between peoples across divides :-) are (or should be) asleep now. Sleep well!

--

Shalom!

Rowland Croucher

May 31, 2004