Book of Faith Social Network's Page

This is in regards to the abrupt closing of the conversation “How would you define Book of Faith”. (Go ahead, take a few minutes to find it and see what it’s about.) As the one accused (though unnamed) of “inappropriate” comments discouraging “those who are following the Spirit,” I would like to give another perspective.

1) First, I am confused about the nature of this site and its purpose. It isn’t clear who is actually administering it. It was created by something called the “Book of Faith Network” but who or what that constitutes is never stated. Is this something out of Augsburg Fortress, Higgins Road, or something independent of either of these? Are there names and faces to put to this? In other words, where is the transparency? This is a part of an ELCA sanctioned program. Why the anonymity?

2) What is this site trying to accomplish? It says it’s a social network and has a conversation/discussion component. As anyone knows who has participated in such things elsewhere, you cannot control online discussions. That’s the nature and the genius of the internet. Of course, it’s a challenge and has its downsides. Conversations go in unplanned and sometimes unpleasant directions—but that is usually a subjective judgment. When a thread gets out-of-hand, the answer is not to shut it down (which has happened before here) but to let it run its natural course. When people dislike it or get tired of it, they stop participating and eventually it dies of its own accord.

These discussions don’t work, however, when there is a censor imposing his or her views on everyone else. What’s irritating to one is often what is of interest and value to others. If you don’t want a free-wheeling conversation, then don’t start an internet forum. In the present case, this seems to be another example of the church trying to use a medium it doesn’t understand and then being confused and reactionary when it behaves in ways it didn’t predict and doesn’t like. This kind of behavior only discourages participation and leads people to not take it seriously. Be aware, also, that many people will survey a site anonymously before deciding whether to participate. You will never be aware how many of those people you lose.

3) With regard to this particular incident, as I stated myself, I knew I was expressing a “contrarian” view. In my view, I was raising serious questions about BOFI and the assumptions behind it and, until the thread was shut down, getting serious responses. While Kurt (who began this thread) may have disagreed with my opinions (though he never responded to them), his explanation for closing it down simply doesn’t hold water. Instead, it has all the looks of a “I don’t like the way this game is being played so I am going to take my marbles and go home” reaction.

The other possibility, of course, is that this wasn’t about the content of my posts. As anyone can read, I responded critically to two back-to-back posts by Kurt’s wife, Rachel. I believed her posts were unnecessarily personal (which the discussion had not been to that point), condescending, and basically irrelevant since they did not address the subjects being discussed. I called her out on this and still stand by what I said. If Kurt disagreed with what I said, or was offended by it, he was certainly free to express that (as was Rachel, of course, but she did not respond). I don’t see, however, how ending the thread was at all the appropriate response (if that is, in fact, what caused it). Even more importantly, I don’t understand how Kurt was able to end it, which goes back to my questions at #1 above: What is this site, who’s running it, what are we trying to do?
Finally, I just share the comment of another pastor who observed this chain of events:

“I am absolutely stunned. So let me see if I get this right. We are inviting people into conversation and dialogue about the book of faith. The blog is one of the ways to engage in that dialogue. But we really don't want dialogue if it challenges us to think about the big picture/problem. So the only dialogue we really want is of the shallow kind that questions nothing. So we want the dialogue of BOFI cheerleaders only! Let's see when else did we see the church try to stifle any challenges to the church? HMMMM!”

Let’s take a deep breath and really think about what we are trying to accomplish here.

I'm new at ning. Is there a help page?

Hopefully this gets many people interested again in the scriptures and they discover the many facets of it, plus how exciting and interesting it can really be!

We have a rich opportunity with Book of Faith, to re-educate ourselves as faithful Lutherans to go deeper in the Scriptures to find our Lord there and our purpose there. I am so full of hope as we journey together into the word.

Thank you.

Thanks Jennie! It was great to see this again. I'll spread the word! Leslie

I'm delighted to join this network, and I look forward to being part of the larger conversation that BoF is fostering.