Henry Neufeld at Threads from Henry’s Web emailed me to let me know that there is another new Philophronos member. Meet Bob MacDonald of Bob’s Log and drop by to read his excellent posts on the Psalms.

I’m happy to announce a new addition to the Philophronos blogroll. Rosemary at The Pen of the Wayfarer has joined, so drop by and check out her blog and welcome her.

I have to say, trying to live up to the standards we set in creating this group has been a considerable challenge to me. I have failed several times, and had to apologize. But overall, putting myself under this obligation has made me tone down quite a lot of my writing even before I post, which has been good both for my writing and my thinking. For example, in Democrats Attempting Bribery To Stop War I didn’t have to hold back my thoughts about the Democratic Party’s latest attempt to stop the war. But I did have to delete some harsh sentences about Nancy Pelosi regarding her character and morals before I hit Publish. It’s enough to criticize actions or note the results of actions – there’s no need to try to beat someone down personally, and I’m a better person – and a better witness for Christ – for not doing it.

Here’s the original post explaining Philophronos Blogging. If you’re interested in joining, comment or email me at laura@pursuingholiness.com.

[Update: Henry Neufeld of Threads from Henry's Web, and cofounder of the Philophronos Blogging group also posted to welcome Rose aboard, and remind readers what Philophronos Blogging is and is not:

There is no Philophonos police force, who read your blog to decide whether you have lived up to some set of rules. Rather, this is something you take on yourself, and your readers get to judge whether you’re living up to your claim. I think there is an enormous amount that we can learn from one another ...

Go read it all. ]

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The internet, as much as I enjoy it, has helped lower the level of political discourse because it is far easier to type something directed at a stranger that you’d never dream of saying to the face of someone with whom you’re acquainted. It even affects the Christian blogosphere. I’m not alone in occasionally wanting “to not just debate the point, but to crush [someone's] argument into oblivion.” I also know that feeling is not consistent with 1 Peter 3:15-16:

But dedicate your lives to Christ as Lord. Always be ready to defend your confidence in God when anyone asks you to explain it. However, make your defense with gentleness and respect. Keep your conscience clear. Then those who treat the good Christian life you live with contempt will feel ashamed that they have ridiculed you.

If we are called to make our defense of our faith with gentleness and respect, how much more should we do so with respect to minor issues like the politics of our nation or any of the temporary governments of this world? Those things may feel quite important right now, but in the light of eternity, our perspective on them will be very different. By and large I think Christians do an excellent job of keeping debate civil, and that is why I’m joining Henry Neufeld, a liberal blogger (Threads from Henry’s Web) to make a rather bold challenge that we’re calling Philophronos Blogging.

philóphrōn: to think, have a mindset. Friendly, courteous, benign (1Peter 3:8). Deriv.: philophrónōs (G5390), in a friendly or kind manner.

Philophronos is defined by Louw-Nida in their Dictionary of the New Testament According to Semantic Domains as “pertaining to friendly concern and kindness toward someone.”

Christian bloggers should purposefully express our political beliefs with gentleness and respect, with the intention of setting the example for non-Christians. We’re not all going to agree. We don’t need to agree. But we can debate the issues in such a way that the debate glorifies God and points people to Christ. We’re challenging Christian bloggers who write about politics to write at least one post a week until the election – and hopefully after it – that adheres to the following guidelines.

• Consistent with 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 and Ephesians 4:15
• Assume goodwill and good intentions for our political opponents
• Wherever possible list supporting reasons why they have good intentions
• Negative statements are not personal and are factual
• If negative statements are conclusions, the facts that led to the conclusion are referenced
• Negative statements support the argument and are not gratuitous

Imagine what the political tone in the country would be like if all political debate adhered to those guidelines! Again, we believe most Christian bloggers are already doing these things, but we’re challenging the Christian blogosphere to do so in a more purposeful way, on the “pay it forward” concept that if we start this, others may just join in. We can have edifying and productive political discourse. Let’s work on blogging friendly - practice Philophronos Blogging!

If you would like to join us, you’ll be added to the blogroll and aggregator. But if you just want to let us know that you’re blogging Philophronos without joining, trackback to this post or the one at Henry’s. To join, post a comment on here or at Henry’s.

UPDATE:
Here is the code for the blogroll -
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://rpc.blogrolling.com/display.php?r=1f6eb26cb6e76b42f0119c12cc9c8d33"></script>

If you want to display the blogroll without taking up a lot of your sidebar, you might try using this code – it will limit the height and add a scrollbar to the side of the blogroll – <div style="height:200px; overflow:auto; color:#FFFFFF;"><a href="http://www.pursuingholiness.com/2006/10/20/philophronos-blogging/">Request to join this blogroll!</a><br /><script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://rpc.blogrolling.com/display.php?r=1f6eb26cb6e76b42f0119c12cc9c8d33"></script> </div> <p>

Here is the aggregator. After trying a different service, I decided on just using the Favorites feature in Technorati, because it offers several options. You can just read posts on the Favorites page, or you can add them to your side bar via an RSS feed as I have done here, with Christian Favorites and Political Favorites.

To join, you may display either the blogroll, an RSS feed, or a Technorati widget.