antagonistic spam

as i posted before our church went through what i would call a "minor" split awhile back (others would call it a "major" split). basically 250 people out of a church that averages 1,500 in worship left to form another church. while i didn't like the fighting that was a part of it i'm really not too upset about the split because i have been telling our former pastor for four years that we could solve our space problem by forming a new church and getting church members to go over to it. personally i would much rather form new churches when a church gets to large for its space rather than building new buildings. forming new churches is the best way to grow the kingdom of GOD on earth. so while i wish the manner of it happening had been better i'm really not too upset about the result of there now being two churches.

of course, not everyone agrees with me.

this past week i received following comment on my church blog.

You cannot decide when you'll be a family member and when you'll not be one. Where were these "family" members when they were needed to stand strong at the onset of the Parkview craziness? Those who steadily fought the fight were weary and now have left. They could not be under the elected leadership of those who clearly oppose godly authority. Now the ones that are left at Parkview are mad as if their other family members left them with a mess to clean-up because now they have to step up and fight. You can never stay neutral. Choose you this day who you will serve. If everyone had done their part to be a true family member and stick together as a family in the first place - perhaps the ugly divorce would not have happened. Do you still stay in contact with your friends who were on the front-lines at Parkview, were injured and now moved on? Or have you cut them off? I would say to you that you are not acting like Jesus and that you actually abandoned your family. Quit acting like your holier than thou and have all the answers. Practice what you tell us in the youth. Let's go beyond the 4 walls of our youth group and actually be a part of the church.

the comment was made by someone supposedly named "james" but "james" didn't leave a last name, email address, or web address that i could respond directly to him/her. so basically "james" left an anonymous critical comment.

of course, being a slight "techno-nerd" i know that when you post on a blog you leave a "cyber footprint" behind. thanks to some tracking software i was able to find out the ip address of the commenter and then to determine who owns the ip address. this comment that is supposedly from a teen is probably not. the comment was posted at lamar advertising at 7:00 p.m. at night. i hate anonymous comments but it fun when it turns out that there is a way to make the anonymous commenter not so anonymous.