List Guidelines

1. Participation is open to anyone of any doctrinal persuasion or religion, but presumes a preferential deference to the faith of Apostle's Creed.
   In other words, you don't have to be a Lutheran or even a Christian to participate. Honest inquiry is welcome "How can you believe that?". Misrepresentations of the faith however -- "You all believe this simply because of your emotional hangup over that" -- are against the spirt of this list. Mockery of the deeply held convictions of Lutherans is against the spirit of the list as well.
   
   
2. Please refrain from posting extended excerpts of articles that you have acquired from other sources.
   Please instead copy and paste the relevant paragraph or two that caught your interest, along with a URL (internet link) back to the source where you originally found the material. The reasons are severalfold:
   
   • It is the opinion of the moderator that it is easier for folks to tolerate dialogue with a "moderately unreasonable friend" than to tolerate having to read long excerpts of material from the "completely unreasonable organizations" who have influenced your "moderately unreasonable friend". I believe that the habit of long-quoting has in other groups, on the average, led to more personal hurt than words typed by forum participants.
   • Copying long articles is disrespectful of the copyright of the original authors.
   • Disclosing your source of information is more forthright to your online friends. If for example you are quoting a newspaper article, one you found excerpted on the Drudge Report, please have the decency to tell us-- don't lead us to believe you read the entire original article yourself.
   
   
3. When discussing the political realm, try to keep your posts towards "uprooting sins from the political order" moreso than "partisan salvos".
   Ask yourself, "Will this post open up a new moral issue to folks who might currently disagree with me?" or is this post simply intended to point out the hypocrisy, stupidity, cruelty, or godlessness of those who voted against my candidate last fall?


4. As a famous dinosaur researcher once said, "Be ruthless to theories, kind to colleagues."
   Incisive evaluations of other's ideas are welcome; attacks on people are not. If you feel offense at a post, please try to consider whether your friend's words are an honest result of a different theology than you have. The words "heretical" or "homophobic" can be used polemically; they could however be the honest result of someone's critical analysis based on their theological viewpoint. Try to find ways to label ideas with adjectives rather than persons with nouns.


5. Do not let the sun set on your anger.
   Bickering about months-old outrages is against the spirit of the list. Drop it. Forgive the offending party even without their repentance. Think of the Sermon on the Mount as a guide to participation here.
   
   
6. Try to limit your posts on a thread.
   Often there may be multiple persons chiming in on a topic, or "thread." Do not reply to every one in a single sitting, but consider reading them all first and then offering your position. Consider getting a email server that allows you to see posts grouped by thread.
   

 

1) If you have received an invitation, you may see a view like this. Click on the link for the main page for the group (groups.google.com/group/ELCA-G).

2)You are now on the main screen for this google group.
Click on "Subscribe to this group".

3). Now you have a choice. You can either go the left path (create a google id associated with your own email), or sign in with your own, already-existing google email account.





4)This is the screen for creating a google id associated with your existing email account (blah@yahoo.com, blah@school.edu, etc.). Fill out the form.

Then you should be good to go.