To my online sisters

The internet has allowed us to connect, often deeply and personally, even if we will never meet face to face.

The internet allows us to knit together family built not on blood or kinship but on shared doctrine and desire for families that resemble ours. It can be hard to find that in our local communities so having distance fade away when you sign on is a wonderful boon we’ve received from technology.

The internet also allows the exchange of ideas. I don’t need to wait months for the delivery of a series of letters on a new book. News travels fast and gossip travels faster. I have personally opened my mouth (well, put hands to keyboard, whatever) too quickly and had things come out that I later regretted. The instantaneous nature of the internet, coupled with the ability to “say” our words to a screen, rather than straight to a person’s face, can make it hard to remember that on the other end is a sister we may well be hurting.

The world is full of discord. Of strife. The church has more than Her fair share of that, too. We Lutherans sometimes eat our own.

I would like to see the Katie Luther sisters be sisters in true- that we love each other, and strive to better the relationship.

This doesn’t mean eschewing opinion or keeping back a word of reproof when needed. What it does mean (and I include myself in this) is remembering that we are all real people. Sinners, redeemed by our Lord, eager for a chance to discuss and learn and connect.

There is a comment policy on Steadfast Lutherans that I have adapted to use here. It goes as follows:

Rules for comments on this site:

Engage the contents and substance of the post. Rabbit trails and side issues do not help the discussion of the topics.  Our authors work hard to write these articles and it is a disservice to them to distract from the topic at hand.  If you have a topic you think is important to have an article or discussion on, we invite you to submit a request to katieluthersisters at gmail dot com.

Provide a valid email address. If you’re unwilling to do this, we are unwilling to let you comment.

Provide at least your first name. Please try to come up with a unique name; if you have a common name add something to it so you aren’t confused with another user. We have several “john”‘s already for example.  If you have a good reason to use a fake name, please do so but realize that the administrators of the site expect a valid email address and also reserve the right to ask you for your name privately at any time.

If you post as more than one person from the same IP address, we’ll block that address.

Do not engage in ad hominem arguments. We will delete such comments, and will not be obligated to respond to any complaints (public or private ones) about deleting your comments.

Interaction between people leaving comments ought to reflect Christian virtue, interaction that is gracious and respectful, not judging motives.  If error is to be rebuked, evidence of the error ought to be provided. Please be kind.

We reserve the right to identify and deal with trollish behavior as we see fit and without apology.  This may include warnings (public or private ones) or banning.

Holly Scheer

Photo from: //bit.ly/1JBy7Yv