Here’s a response I once made to someone who was critical of another Usenet poster:

A gentle word of encouragement, my friend:

On the Net (and particularly in newsgroups) you will meet people from whom, if you met them in real life you _would_ want to retreat…

Having been a newsgroup poster for about 8-9 years now, I’ve learned that:

* These forums provide an opportunity for all kinds of yet-to-be-redeemed-fully people (like you and I) to have an audience, which would have been denied us in pre-Internet days…

* We all have unfinished business from our past to deal with, and it’s easy for another’s response to trigger those sensitive areas…

* The challenge for all of us is, at least, to be magnanimous (Abraham Lincoln was one of the best examples I know who exhibited this trait) or at best to be accepting of others (see Romans 15:7) – not just the nice or agreeable ones. That’s essential Christianity, after all…

I can feel a sermon coming on so I’d better climb out of the pulpit at this point. See our website for some articles on all this…

Rowland Croucher

—