Jason’s suggestions for edifying internet discussions. Quite good. (quoted here for my own sake)

This list has been in the making for about two years in my head. It summarizes much of what constitutes my bad experiences in witnessing Christian argumentation over the Internet. Let me say upfront that I’m guilty of all these at one time or another, in fact, I am my best source of material for some of these. So here are my top ten suggestions, in no particular order, for making Internet discussions among Christians more digestible.

1. The characters appearing on your screen were at some point generated by human fingers that were fearfully and wonderfully made by a marvelously working God who has made us in His image. Treating another human being in a contemptible way is an offense against God the Maker.

James 3:8-10 But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so (James 3:9 – 10).

2. Verses 13 – 18 of the third chapter of James deserve their own point. Read these words frequently:

James 3:13-18 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

3. Most of us have our own congregations to which we belong and church leadership to whom we are accountable. We don’t need self-appointed cyber-elders going around as though the “keyboards” of the kingdom were given to them. If you can’t resist the urge to anathematize, excommunicate, or otherwise weigh in with your ecclesiastical declarations over the Internet, don’t be surprised if you receive in response, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who the (*bleep*) are you?” (Acts 19:15, with a translation update into our vulgar tongue).

4. “Do not let the sun go down on your wrath” is not a license for you to vent your bitter spleen at someone who disagrees with you. In fact, it is a command to deal with your own wrath (even if legitimately placed) before the end of the day as you “meditate within your heart on your bed” (Psalm 4:3). If somebody’s e-mail or Internet post raises your blood to a boil, try sleeping on it after having meditated upon God’s Word in the area of how you should conduct yourself in this situation rather than proportioning that time to meditate upon how much of an idiot your opponent is.

5. Don’t expect your polemical rhetoric to be blessed by God. Calvinists, of all people, should resonate with Paul’s admonition to Timothy that it is GOD who grants repentance. If we are convinced of our own understanding of things and we want to bless others with that which God has graciously gifted to us, then we should have no problems proceeding in gentleness, patience, and humility.

2 Timothy 2:24-26 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.

6. Project your own behavior in the context of your local church. What would your congregation look like if you handled disagreements on the local level like you do on the Internet?

7. Try to resist the urge to use terms such as “non-sequitur”, “ad hominem”, etc. It doesn’t make you look any smarter, in fact, it just makes you look like someone who wants to look smart.

8. Self-sycophancy is seriously sickening. If we want your opinion as to how you think you have done in the discussion, we’ll ask for it. One way you might help yourself to improve here is by removing the word “refute” and all its conjugates from your vocabulary.

9. Obviously, if I thought that by disagreeing with you I was disagreeing with Jesus and Paul then I would not disagree with you. So please spare me the “I-guess-you-don’t-agree-with-Paul” line. Related to this is the “you-just-need-to-dispose-of-your-human-traditions-and-submit-to-Scripture” line. In all honesty, this just looks like desperation on the part of a frustrated individual, or worse, a self-deluded and arrogant one.

10. Yes, we have examples of apostles, prophets, kings, elders, judges, and other ordinary folk who rip into other people. Think long and hard before you use that as justification for your own therapeutic rants. Also keep in mind point #3 above. When someone is about to rebuke his brother, there should be a sense of credibility to it. This requires a greater familiarity with that person, or a greater degree of authority, than 99% of us share between each other over the Internet. Which reminds me, if you’re not already pouring as much energy into serving in your local congregation as you are defending the purity of the Gospel over the Internet, go talk to your church leadership and let them know how you are being underutilized – I’m sure they could use your help. Then again, perhaps they know better than to bestow this kind of responsibility on you and that’s why you are here making the rest of us miserable.