When I’m wrong I’m wrong.

I thought the UK Evangelical Alliance was going to honour bloggers by letting bloggers be, well, bloggers.

Wrong. The Evangelical Alliance held a get-together and invited whomever will to come.
So some did. Good so far, right? A lunch, a chance to meet, chat…

I didn’t see any indication the attendees were expecting this:

1. You shall not put your blog before your integrity.
2. You shall not make an idol of your blog.
3. You shall not misuse your screen name by using your anonymity to sin.
4. Remember the Sabbath day by taking one day off a week from your blog.
5. Honour your fellow-bloggers above yourselves and do not give undue significance to their mistakes.
6. You shall not murder someone else’s honour, reputation or feelings.
7. You shall not use the web to commit or permit adultery in your mind.
8. You shall not steal another person’s content.
9. You shall not give false testimony against your fellow-blogger.
10.You shall not covet your neighbour’s blog ranking. Be content with your own content.

Ruth Glenhill at The Times has the post, with a followup article. The EA mission director explains why he had his organization draw up these dictates.
Question now is, if members of the EA are perceived as violating this ‘code’, are they turfed?

The commandents are supposed to go up at the EA site Monday; hopefully as an organization they’ll come to their senses and let it go.
Codes of conduct for bloggers are not a new idea.

I’d like to believe the EA missions director was being a bit tongue in cheek or overly enthusiastic, but I think I’d be wrong. He’s not a newbie, he’s been blogging for a year.

If any Canadian Evangelical parachurch organization pulls this sort of bait and switch you’ll see ranting here at BDBO that’ll make saints blush. (How many of those commandments did I just break posting this?;^)

God bless a wit at The Times:

Blessed be the R. and the O. and the F. and the L.

via: connexions

Evangelical Alliance Mission Director Krish Kandiah’s personal blog: What’s next?

What UK bloggers are saying:

Of life, laughter and liturgy
PoliGazette
John Lyons
Kouya Chronicle
MetaCatholic
Church Times Blog

Update: ar arrr arrrrr! The Telegraph headline: Bloggers given new Ten Commandments by church leaders The sub-header is a hoot: Christian bloggers have been given a new set of ‘Ten Commandments’ aimed at delivering them from the temptations of online arguments.

There is nothing wrong with arguments - they can be splendid exercises which clarify, clear the air etc. How an argument goes depends on the attitudes and self-control of individuals involved in one.

I can’t stop laughing at the use of the Charlton Heston as Moses image.
There is something wrong with that picture.

I think the EA as well intentioned as they meant to be made an error in judgement on asking bloggers to hold off until the organization could make their media splash.
It’s quite the belly flop and I remain curious to see if they cut their PR loss on this and just move on. Good intentions can and do go south. To be fair and not just an anti-authoritarian or upset for blog friends who were misdirected, this is the reasoning of The Evangelical Alliance Missions Director:

“These commandments are virtual rather than set in stone, but are offered to the blogging community as a way to link the Ten Commandments with the art of blogging.

“In the ever-changing information age, what we need is wisdom for life, and God communicates wisdom to our culture through the Bible on every issue from social justice to social networking.”

I am amazed EA staff got 25 bloggers who did lunch to stay mum so that the organization could release their 10 commandments to traditional media first.
The blogs are where the gems of wisdom are.
As connexions points out the ‘commandment’ discussion at the EA/blog luncheon took up a very small parcel of time:

If you just went by the articles you might assume that these ‘commandments’ were the main focus and purpose of the gathering in London. (’Conference’ is far too grand a word) But they weren’t . Less than a quarter of the time was spent on them. Furthermore, what has been sent to the papers bears no resemblance to what I thought was going to be circulated for further comment.

Father Z: He also reposted his now famous internet prayer.
The Mad Priest

Update: The Evangelical Alliance put up their commandments (at least they aren’t on some silly tablet graphic) and say they meant it all tongue in cheek.
Not much else they can say really.
When the organization released this to media, I’m failing to understand why the staff who put this together were not out online, going to blogs, apologizing where necessary, explaining if they could and at least saying hi and thanks for the mention and attention.

42: Making Christianity irrelevant
The Simple Pastor
The Road to “Elder” ado
Faith and Theology: The (new) 10 commandments for bloggers
Yep. These ones I can get alongside with.:^)