When Christians Comment

If you read my last WORLD blog, you saw a situation that perfectly illustrates what I am going to rant about today.

Situation:  I write a blog post.  And then the wolves descend and chew not only me, but each other up–gingham dog and calico cat style–until there is nothing left of anybody, but bones and gristle. And sometimes not even that.

Yes, we have our big-girl panties on today and, yes, I know about the freedom of speech and that, for a lot of people blogging is about starting a conversation and letting commenters take over and finish it.  Michael Hyatt allows comments for just such a reason.  It’s a conversation.  Back and forth.  Ping and pong.

I get it.

But when does it become more than that?  What happens when it gets to the point the original meaning of the post is lost entirely in the ensuing ‘discussion?’  When does it become nothing but sheer tit for tat, he said/she said, commenters rabidly defending their positions to the detriment of the conversation?

And, should we use our websites as a forum for people who apparently have nothing else to do in life but sit monitoring the threads of their favorite (or most unfavorite) blogs, so they can, at their leisure,  pick apart the writing, deconstruct any argument being made, determine how incomplete or inaccurate it is, split hairs over semantical minutiae, probe wildly at the blogger’s real meaning (hidden apparently from even the blogger), miss any attempt at humor entirely, and point their lily white fingers at any sign of (perceived) heresy?

A blogging friend once called it bruising.  Another friend suggests it’s the courage of anonymity that makes people so brazen.  As the poster, of course, I have no such cushy option.  I am forced to be me, along with my little recognizable avatar, meaning I have to play nice, by the rules, worrying about my reputation as a writer, a Christian, a human being, whilst the others come at me or my post (as well as the other posts and posters) with all pistons firing.  Netiquette aside, it seems basic courtesy is suspended in the crusade to set each other straight.

Maybe I’m the problem.  Maybe I’m too sensitive, too girly.  But the challenge I throw out there is this:  As Christian commenters, what is our purpose?  Better yet, what is our motive?  I propose that if it’s simply to air a grievance, to lighten our own emotional burden by cyber-puking our  pent-up poison onto others, to split hairs in an attempt to show how much smarter we are than the rest of the universe, or to bludgeon each other over the head with scripture, we ought to examine ourselves. “Why do Christians eat their own?” one friend asked me.  Why indeed?  When the  Bible speaks of iron sharpening iron, I don’t think taking a tire iron to each other was the intent.

Before sinking our teeth into blogs and bloggers, Christian or not, we might want to pause for just for a moment, and consider this prayer of St. Ephrem before hitting send:

O Lord and Master of my life, give me not the spirit of sloth, idle curiosity/meddling, lust for power and idle talk.

But grant unto me, Thy servant, a spirit of chastity/integrity, humility, patience and love.

Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see mine own faults and not to judge my brother. For blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Then again, I’m am a blogger, biased like the best (and worst) of them and, as such, suspect.

But today I’ve got my armor on.  So, go ahead, hit me.