Blogospheric Beatitudes

Oftentimes, due to the zeal to defend our faith, we sadly lapse into *snarkiness*, sarcasm, condescension and downright vitriol. If our blogged words could kill, there would be many casualties of the religious wars of blogdom. The reality is, at some level there are casualties. Our Church believes there are very real and temporal consequences to our wrong actions and behaviors including grieving the Holy Spirit. The words we type on-line are not excluded from Christ's promise that they will be shouted from the housetops. Unfortunately, my own comments and posts are not entirely free of this. I am not proud to admit this nor do I look forward to the "This Was Your Life" tract of my darker moments, since we are definitely held accountable for the things we have done in this life, whether good or bad. So when I see interactions on the net that are examples of Christ's command to love your neighbor as yourself, I want to post about it!

My frequent commenter, Theo,

had been conversing on a blog that does not share his theological perspective. Check out the beatitudes shown here. Theo always ends his comments with:

Theo:

Humbly, I remain your brother in Christ,

Respondent:

As long as you cultivate a belief that you are justified by the merits of Christ, your congruent merit, and the congruent merit of others, you believe a false gospel, Theo, and you are no brother.

Theo :

Dear brother ****,

You wrote: "you believe a false gospel, Theo, and you are no brother."

I fully understand how your interpretation of Scripture and the theology you hold sacred forces you into this view. As I previously wrote in a different thread on this blogsite,
"...please understand that in spite of your theology, I recognize your Christianity, and as such, I deem you my brother... I know that you cannot call me ‘brother.’ Please understand that *my* best understanding of the Gospel mandates that I recognize you as ‘brother,’ nevertheless. You can disavow our fraternity in Christ. I cannot.

“Regardless, I'm confident that God's will shall be done. In the end, all is to God's Glory."

Humbly I remain your servant and brother in Christ,
--Theo

God bless Theo, he's a better man than I!