We really DO like conversation….

A few months back those of us who try to operate this thing called The United Methodist Reporter had a dilemma. We absolutely wanted to create a space for conversation on the stories we publish and on life in the United Methodist Church, but time and time again we found the comments here devolving into name calling and demonization, with folks seeming to take joy in declaring their brothers and sisters to be heretics. Frankly, it had gotten a bit out of hand, so we turned off comments for a while to see if we could discern a better way. We looked at a bunch of commenting systems, like Disqus or Facebook Comments, but in the end they all had limitations we didn’t really like. After searching for a while, we’ve come upon a new commenting system that we are going to try in the hopes that we can work together to improve the level of discourse on the site.

As before, the same rules apply — treat one another with respect or we’ll ban you from the site. That may sound like censorship but UMR is a privately owned site and we simply won’t stand for personal attacks, which is our choice as site operators. We understand that passion is a part of good conversation, but we believe passion never trumps Christ’s call to love one another as he loved us. If you disagree with someone, make a good argument, don’t throw brickbats (whatever a brick bat is?).

One new addition to the commenting system is that folks can vote on whether they like or dislike a comment. If you think a comment is good and helpful, give it a thumbs up and it will rise to the top. The same holds true for those comments that are less than helpful — vote down and they will fall to the bottom.

We understand that there is no perfect system and that there will be people who believe it is their right to say whatever they want without concern for the feelings of others, suggesting that to do otherwise is to be “politically correct.” We believe that treating others with respect and offering a bit of tact isn’t about political correctness, but rather is simply what people of faith are called to do (read about the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians or the call to be careful with our speech in James).

We know that this is a difficult time in the life of our church. There are great differences in our beliefs on how to interpret scripture and our common life together. There is a lack of trust at all levels. We may be idealists but we believe that trust is gained through honest, respectful engagement with one another, not lobbing attacks at “those people” on the other side. We hope that we can be one means of furthering the conversation, and we hope you will join us in the journey.