Foundation for Religious Diplomacy<\/a>, in outreach efforts over decades on five continents \u2014 but I also believe that I have a responsibility to advocate my beliefs and 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.\u00a0 I myself receive anonymous hate mail virtually every day and, not infrequently, multiple times daily.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve been receiving such hate mail for years now.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
So I just want to post an appeal.\u00a0 It seems especially appropriate to the Christmas season, though we shouldn\u2019t require the holidays to remind us to be kind:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
When you\u2019re disposed to attack somebody who\u2019s a more or less public figure, please remember that even public figures have private lives.\u00a0 They\u2019re people. \u00a0They have families. \u00a0They have feelings, worries, concerns.\u00a0 They may be going through tough times.\u00a0 They 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 who writes on religious issues for a major daily newspaper here in Utah. \u00a0She tells me that she simply can\u2019t bring herself to look at reader comments on her articles anymore, because, so often, they\u2019re so horribly unpleasant. \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 in 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 *** \u00a0 Contrary to the reputation that\u2019s been carefully cultivated for me in some circles over the past decade or two, 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 […]<\/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-93546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>