Don't use faith as weapon of criticism

I am, for better or worse, someone who wears his faith on his sleeve. Because I'm a preacher's kid, because I've sometimes written in the newspaper about my mission trip experiences, and because I'm a certified United Methodist lay speaker, people associate me with my faith.

That's a good thing, and I make no apologies for it. But I've never tried to shove my faith down someone else's throat, and I'm uncomfortable with being held up as an example. I have a lot of flaws and shortcomings, and I don't want anyone to hold my individual shortcomings against my faith.

There are few things that make me any angrier than when someone who disagrees with what we do here at the newspaper tries to bring my faith into the matter, as if the fact that I'm a Christian automatically means I should agree with them. It's happened more times than I care to remember: The self-righteous note about this or that which drops in the phrase "as a Christian, John, you should know better" or some equivalent.

I got an e-mail last week from a woman I've known since we were teenagers. She was upset about the web site comments related to a particular story. That's fair, but her request was that we throw the baby out with the bathwater and do away with web site comments entirely.

I e-mailed her back, explaining to her that there's a system by which people can object to individual comments if they are libelous or otherwise inappropriate. I also told her that "libelous" wasn't the same thing as "negative" and that some negative comments were likely to remain, despite the fact that they made her uncomfortable. Interactivity -- including the chance for people to express their opinions -- is considered a key to a successful media web strategy. And a successful web strategy is considered a key to the future of this newspaper.

There are times when the comments on our web site make me cringe. I think some of our commenters are unnecessarily negative and cynical. Their seeming belief that anyone in public office is a crook and a liar runs counter to my own observations over the past 23 1/2 years as a journalist. I've seen bad public officials; I've also seen many good ones.

I don't agree with all of our commenters. At times, I disagree with most of them. But I support their right to express their opinions.

The woman who was upset about the web comments e-mailed me a second time, repeating her request that we take web site comments down entirely. This time, she threw in that infuriating phrase "as a Christian, John ..." into her e-mail. The implication was that if I was being true to my own Christianity I would agree with her on this issue; she was taking the "Christian" position and I, apparently, wasn't.

That's a cheap shot. She is no more the official spokesperson for Christianity than I am. (And, believe me, I'm not.)

A person's faith should carry over into everything they do -- professional, social, family and what have you. Ideally, my faith would influence the choices I make in my line of work. But they're still choices, and there's room for reasonable people to disagree about the right and wrong answers. God knows the right answers; anyone lower on the organizational chart has to admit the possibility of error, and that requires an attitude of humility. You shouldn't look down your nose at, or judge the spirituality of, those with whom you disagree.

-- John I. Carney is city editor of the Times-Gazette and covers county government and other topics. He is the author of the novel "Soapstone," a fictional version of his real-life short-term mission experiences.