Lauterbrunnen Valley, Switzerland
(Wikimedia Commons; click to enlarge)
Probably my favorite place on Earth<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Contrary to my reputation in some circles, I\u2019ve never favored nor enjoyed no-holds-barred internet fisticuffs. \u00a0Nor have I ever supported personal attacks.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
People who really know me, I think, will have no problem believing that, in fact, I\u2019m very far from the image of the mean-spirited attack dog that some cherish of me.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I do believe that frank disagreement and honest argument are necessary on occasion. \u00a0I don\u2019t attack other faiths \u2014 I have a long record precisely to the contrary, in many scores of columns for the Deseret News<\/em>, in books and articles and public lectures, in my classroom teaching, in my establishment of Brigham Young University\u2019s Islamic Translation Series and Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, in outreach efforts over decades on five continents \u2014 but I also believe that I have a\u00a0responsibility to defend my own faith against attacks on it. \u00a0And I will do so.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
If others refrain from attacking my beliefs, I\u2019ll happily spend most of my time and effort in positively advocating those beliefs. \u00a0But I won\u2019t back down if they\u2019re assaulted.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still, even then, my focus is not, and never has been, on the personalities of others.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, contemporary discourse \u2014 particularly online \u2014 all too often goes immediately for the jugular, for the polemics of personal destruction.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been having\u00a0a very rough twenty-four hours \u2014 though, happily, things have begun\u00a0to look up. \u00a0It\u2019s been one of those periods (I won\u2019t become more specific than this) when a lot of things, very much including online spitting matches,\u00a0seem both objectionable and utterly trivial.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
So I just want to post an appeal:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
When you\u2019re inclined to attack somebody who\u2019s a more or less public figure, please remember that even public figures have private lives. \u00a0They\u2019re people. \u00a0They have families. \u00a0They have feelings, worries, concerns. \u00a0They may well be suffering \u201csorrow that the eye can\u2019t see.\u201d \u00a0And the odds are reasonably strong that they\u2019re trying to be decent people, and to do good.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
When you feel like letting\u00a0a blogger have it, or writing an insulting letter to a newspaper columnist, please take a deep breath before you press \u201cSend.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
So much public discourse today, online and elsewhere, is almost unbelievably crass, coarse, cruel, defamatory, and uncharitable.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I have a longtime acquaintance\u00a0who writes on religious issues for a major daily newspaper here in Utah. \u00a0She tells me that she simply can\u2019t bring herself, anymore,\u00a0to look at reader\u00a0comments on her articles, because, so often, they\u2019re so horribly\u00a0unpleasant. \u00a0And I know exactly what she means. \u00a0I sometimes wonder what people are like in daily life who can be so consistently callous and nasty\u00a0in public forums. \u00a0I don\u2019t understand them, and I hope I never will.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not very eloquent, these thoughts. \u00a0Not well organized. \u00a0Not deep. \u00a0But deeply felt.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Contrary to my reputation in some circles, I\u2019ve never favored nor enjoyed no-holds-barred internet fisticuffs. \u00a0Nor have I ever supported personal attacks. \u00a0 People who really know me, I think, will have no problem believing that, in fact, I\u2019m very far from the image of the mean-spirited attack dog that some cherish of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>