Degrees of Anonymity

Oh, how the hit count mounts. I've heard radio hosts talk about this. If you want to increase your audience - stir up a little controversy. The irony in this is I have chosen not to participate in the online blog/comment wars. I prefer the old fashion way...in person. So I'm not sure what has caused the upsurge. Maybe somebody just hoping I'll jump in. Sorry. Not my style. Don’t consider this jumping in. Just putting a little Biblical wisdom on the otherwise Wild Wide West of the World Wide Web.

With that said much of what I see stirring people is the rightness or wrongness of a person commenting as the infamous anonymous. In reality there are always degrees of anonymity. Even when you leave a name the mere fact that you are commenting in the privacy of your own home, on your time at a safe distance without the fear of immediate reaction is degree of anonymity. People leave me anonymous comments all the time. Not just on the blog. They make statements to a person in order to communicate a message to me. It’s in person; just not directly to the person they ultimately want to communicate with.

The internet gives us that same sense of anonymity. We want our cake and we want to eat it too. We want to express our emotions as strongly and clearly as we feel so inclined but we don’t want the accountability that goes along with a personal encounter. Is that right or wrong? Depends. I know one person who reads many of the ‘Northwoods’ blogs regularly. They are a person looking for their faith back. Wanting to be reminded of what of what they once knew as their community of faith they are taking a peek into ours and to trying to rediscover it. Oops. I think they took a peak and caught us at a bad moment. They did not want to say, ‘hey my name is John Doe and I used to love Jesus but not I’m struggling’. They simply wanted to say, ‘hey, body of Christ, people are looking at you to figure out if this Jesus thing is real or not. Wake up and be responsible.’ So it may feel like anonymous is judging us and our comments…in reality they may be judging for themselves whether or not this faith thing is real.

Jesus said in John 13:35 says, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” In other words…we will be judged by others according to how we treat one another. We can complain about it. We may not like it. But that is the way it is and will always be. It may be a good time to take a look inside and judge ourselves and ask ourselves the question…Am I following Jesus closely? If I am I will be loving the other followers he has placed me in community with.


Ephesians 4:29 gives us the standard for all communication. Person to person, computer to computer or broadcast for the world… “Don't use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.” Next time you go to type, speak or communicate in anyway ask yourself…is it good, it helpful and will it encourage somebody? That’s the kind of community I want to be a part of and that’s the kind of community that will draw people to Christ.