Smile

Most of my band members are veterans of clubs and so they are used to being ripped-off all the time, but they are not used to having to smile while it's happening. In Christian music, you get to put up with bad sound systems, unfulfilled concert expectations, and churches reneging on their financial arrangements.
Steve Taylor, from an interview in The Wittenberg Door (1984)

I thought of this quote earlier today when I started dealing with an anonymous comment posted on this blog. (I'm still amazed I could find it online... props to Sock Heaven for the great archive and the ultra-hip "we love Steve Taylor" vibe.)

To start with, it was anonymous. As a long-time church staff member, I have received my fill a couple of times over of anonymous notes, letters & comment cards. Something about being anonymous makes it so much easier for people to turn hateful & sarcastic. (For the record, I don't mind anonymous comments here on the blog when they're about board gaming - I mean, who cares if you're going to take a cheap shot at Monopoly without signing your name? - but it's another story when we're discussing stuff with some substance to it.)

And then - the content. Honestly, the problem wasn't that it was rude or degrading of me... but that it used my blog as a forum to post unsubstantiated accusations about my friends & brothers in ministry.

So I decided on a three-step process to deal with this particular post (and any others like it that appear over the life of this blog):

1. I deleted the offending anonymous post, while keeping a verbatim copy of the post on my hard drive.
2. When the person who wrote the post decides to step forward, I will be happy to re-post the original comment sans the potentially libelous material.
3. At that point, I'll be happy to respond to the accusations, inaccuracies & general confusion engendered by said post.

Finally, back to the Steve Taylor quote. (BTW, you must listen to some Steve Taylor music. Make iTunes rich by purchasing all of his albums.) I don't want to just sit here & smile & "take it" anymore - it's time for those of us who are followers of Christ to speak with grace & truth. It's time for us to honestly stand up to people who would choose to misuse their options for open communication and hide behind the dodge that "Christians don't call each other on their crap."

I'm done with that.