"Billboards on the Electronic Highway"

Practically every day now, somebody tells me of somebody or other who is venting his/her displeasure with Christian Home Educators of Colorado, Generations, Kevin Swanson, Vision Forum, or HSLDA, or the like, via the internet. They hand me a url, and I may or may not surf over to the site, stick my hand deep into the sewer pipe only to find more straw men, words out of context, outright lies, base calumnies, and the like.

My policy is not to respond to any of this (although I've probably blown it a time or two when drawn in by a particularly nasty calumny leveled against a friend).

While I don't agree with some things that friends say or write in the Christian community, I have never made it a practice to put a billboard up on the electronic highway or any other highway, explaining to the world all the reasons why I disagree with some Christian brother, or why I really dislike him. When unbelievers see these public divisions, this is how they know that we are NOT His disciples.

Such wrangling usually only provides fodder for the silly women Paul speaks of, who are laden with divers lusts, not to mention the erudite, fleshly types who are "ever learning yet never quite coming to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Tim. 3:6,7). And I don't see how it serves to nurture the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.

Thankfully, many Christian brothers who care about this little business of the unity of the Spirit really do take the time to meet together and talk through their differences. It might take a year or two or three of patient working, and love, and joy, and gentleness, and peace, and boatloads of humility, but it can be done. I've seen it done, and I've been part of the process a number of times. I am grateful for those who take the time to do this, and you know who you are.

How Should YOU Handle Internet Gossip?

So how do you deal with internet gossip and slander against an organization or a person, once you have stuck your hand into the sewer pipe?

Simple. Don't trust what you read on the internet. But if you read something that really bothered you about a Christian brother or an organization, call them and ask them if they have sinned in this way or that way. Meet with the people involved face to face. "Go to your brother." And here's what you will find.

. .

The story is usually a little more complicated. The issue is not usually as cut and dried as you thought it was going to be. He'll probably wind up confessing a sin or two of his own, and admitting his own lack of wisdom, if he's humble. You will find that his own position is nothing like that described by somebody on the internet who wasn't him. In short, those horns that you imagined growing in the back of his head, will have disappeared. Happens almost every time!

 
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