Post Guidelines To Defeat a Spirit of Offense (Teresa Seputis)

Sometimes a thread can become highly polarized and there are a lot of strong feelings on both side of the issues, which can make it less than edifying. When this happens, there is often spiritual warfare going on against the list and a "spirit of offense" may be trying to gain a stronghold on the list. This spirit's assignment is to stir people up against each other, to cause offense and miscommuniciation and to hurt as many people as he can.

The spirit's strategy is to cause misunderstandings and to magnify things so that they feel much more offensive than they really are. Under the spirit of offense's influence, discussion on a thread can sometimes harsh, heated or even attacking. This occurs because the enemy is trying to stir things up and get list members "fighting each other" instead of fighting our real advasary -- the devil.

The strategy agaist this type of attack is to operate in the opposite spirit: a spirit of love and honoring/perferring one another. By manifesting the spirit of Christ, we take away the spirit of offense's leeway on the list. Here are a few guidelines that will help us to do that...

1. Please say things gently and in an attitude of love. If you can't find a loving an polite way to express your view, perhaps it should not be expressed. It is OK to disagree with each other, but that disagreement must be expressed in a polite and loving manner. Please prayerfully review you post and make sure that you would not be embarassed to have Jesus read it. Invite His presence into your posts.
2. Emotionly charged subjects tend to breed misunderstanding.. There can be cases in the discussion where people have misread what one person said and then posted a hot reply on their misinterpretation of the post. So if a post urks you, wait a few minutes and then carefully reread it to assure it really said what you thought it did.
3. SLOW DOWN! If you are feeling upset or heated or intense about a post, then it is not an appropraite time for you to compose your reply. You have two reasonable options... a) write you reply to a file and then come back later and reread/edit to assure it's not hostile, harsh, attacking, etc before you post it or b) write your reply at a later time when you're no longer feeling heated about it.
4. Do not speak for someone else. Do not try to explain what someone else meant to say. Allow each person to speak for themselves. If necessary, ask clarification questions.
5. Do not attack or put down anyone, even if you disagree strongly with what they said. Keep the discussion on the subject, not on the personality or faults or weakneses of the individuals involved in the discussion.
6. If you feel you have been personally attacked or put down, do not respond publicly. Instead speak directly to the person or send email to the list admin or to one of the leaders/advisors of the list.
7. If you feel that someone else on the list has been attacked or put down or harshly treated, do not defend them publicly on the list. Do not publicly rebuke (bawl out) anyone for behavior you consider inappropraite. If you perceive a problem please either take it politely to the offender or to the admin of the list.
8. Don't make snap decisions in the heat of anger/frustration (such as unsubscribing from the list or refusing to ever read another of a certain person's posts). Instead give yourself a brief cooling off period (a day or two) and then pray about it and ask God to show you His will/heart regarding the decision.

In addition to these guidelines, pray for the list, invite the Lord's presense on it and even pray His blessings on your fellow list members.

blessings

- teresa