A note from Wesley Strackbein, Managing Editor of Vision Forum Ministries’ website:

In the month to come, through a series of articles to be released on a weekly basis at Cross Examination, Vision Forum Ministries hopes to answer the questions of many families who have called and written us, often heartbroken, over their concern about the use of gossip, revilings, motive judging, and personal attacks by our Fundamentalist brothers at SharperIron.org to discredit proponents of unity between church and home. Through at least seven widely-discussed articles and their commentary sections (often laced with acrimony and defamatory material), the Fundamentalists at SharperIron.org have targeted proponents of unity between church and home for public censure. At Vision Forum, our concern is not over legitimate, brotherly, academic discussion and criticism — which is completely fair and reasonable — but over expressly unbiblical behavior in the form of spreading false witness, bringing public charges without even contacting brothers in Christ in advance, publishing gossip and revilings, etc. — all contrary to the Word of God.

Documentation of this behavior will be presented and a charitable appeal to our brothers to re-examine the use of their site as a forum for defamation and gossip will be an ongoing theme. Next week, Vision Forum’s Cross Examination will post: “Biblical Integrity and The Fundamantalist Anathema,” which examines the far-reaching charges presented on the SharperIron.org website, including a call to Christians to formally recognize proponents of church and home as false teachers and to dissasociate with them. Next week, we will post the second installment of Bill Einwechter’s blow-by-blow critique of SharperIron.org’s three-part series opposing Vision Forum Ministries. Also coming next week is an analysis of the ethical and legal responsibility of all blog hosts for any libelous and defamatory material published through the open commentary section of their websites.

The rise of the Internet and the blogosphere have created a wonderful new forum for discussion and research. But the same forum which can be used as a tool for good also provides an easy avenue for the rapid mass dissemination of gossip, revilings, and defamation against Christian men and ministries. The ease of publishing information through a blog and the lack of accountability for what is published has contributed to the relaxation of journalistic and academic standards (not to mention principles of brotherly charity) when critiquing others that often results in Ninth Commandment violations. Even legitimate criticism, however, must be subject to biblical, academic scrutiny. Those who use the Internet to discredit the name and work of others must be prepared to have their own critiques cross-examined.

The purpose of the Cross Examination section of our website is to do just this. With malice toward none and gratitude for the freedom the Lord provides and for a free society which fosters dialogue in the spirit of Christian charity, we pray that the light of God’s Word will reign paramount in every controversy between Christian men. It remains our vision that all Christians will embrace the spirit of the Bereans who, as Luke tells us, “were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11).