The Future of Christians in Conflict

In my exploration of Christians in conflict on the internet, I’ve come across a lot of bad examples, portraying Christians as insensitive, narrow-minded, and sometimes aggressive in their disagreement. I started this blog by looking at the Ten Commandments for Christian bloggers, which attempts to set a new, clear standard for Christians in conflict online. Though an undesirable conclusion, the many examples I’ve considered in this blog seem to highlight the need for such a model of what Christian conflict should look like within the newly evolving cyber context.

In my last few posts, I have argued that the Christian teachings from the Bible provide a good basis for a model of Christian conflict online. Perhaps not enough has yet been done by Christians to apply this established model to the new context of the internet. On the other hand, it could be argued that if Christians are unable to maintain such standards in conflict in the real world, how can they be expected to adhere to them in the much more elusive cyber world? I think such a viewpoint is somewhat defeatist, and that Christians individually need to acknowledge the rapidly growing role of the internet in social interaction, and consider how they should extrapolate Christian teachings to behave in a consistent manner online.

Yet the internet has played no small part in enabling conflict, with a notable effect on conflict between Christians. The ability to hide one’s identity on the internet, to exchange messages faster than one can properly consider what one is saying, and to detach from one’s real life identity to take less responsibility for one’s actions are all attributes of the internet which exacerbate the conflict between Christians online. However, the internet is still only a tool for interaction and education, and Christians need to recognise that the internet merely facilitates conflict.

The Ten Commandments for Bloggers suggests hope for such a negative conclusion. Although the internet does appear to bring out the worst in Christians in conflict, this model echoes the intentions of Christians who are trying to apply Biblical teachings to this new online context.

Finally, it is worth noting that I have predominantly considered the negative examples of Christians in conflict online, and that these are off-set by a number of examples of Christians in healthy disagreement, behaving in a loving Christian manner, consistent with scripture. Such examples also reflect the work of some Christians to embrace the developing technology of the internet, to interact in a Christian manner, and to use the new services it provides to their full potential.