It all started about two weeks after I installed the guestbook on my site. A nice, "Great Page, have you met Jesus?" note dropped into my book at random. Being the polite soul I am, I responded in kind by dropping the writer a few lines of thanks and avoiding the religious debate altogether. This tactic seemed to work for awhile, and I met some very nice people in this mannor! After all, I reasoned, if I really believed that the Goddess wanted me to convert others to her worship, I would. Fortunately She has never asked that I do so.

All was well and good, and I plodded on through the world of html web-authoring, kindly responding to whoever wrote me and asked that I do so. That is untill yesturday, when I popped onto my site to check the guestbook and found that it had been signed by five of those wonderfull Christians in a row...all with different web addresses, and all with different e-mail. What am I supposed to think about that? Perhaps I am being backed into a cyber corner and forced to look at pictures of the "Savior", or maybe there is a new terror on the 'net, a band of tech-nomads with a blood lust for witnessing!

I suppose the question I should be asking is not, "How did Jesus get in my guestbook," but,"Why would Jesus WANT to be in my guestbook?"

How exactly does a God with such a following become reduced to peaking his little face out of a banner ad for "Little Christian Soldiers" home page, tucked quietly away in a guestbook beneath the bold type heading, "BLESSED BE!" Surely there is a better way to get the word out! Personally I would never have considered pasting a graphic of a pentagram into a religious Muslim, Jewish, Christian, or any other religious homepage where to designer might not appreciate it. That is what I consider to be common courtesy.

In light of the fact that these crusaders might not realize that what they are doing is really no more than spamming God all over the internet, I have created this list of on-line religious ettiquite:

1) Leave one message per party in a guestbook at a time

2) Do not post banner ads or other
graphics which might be offensive to the site's creator in his or her guestbook. (This applies to every common sense situation...no satanism ads in the Little Lamb of Jesus guestbook, no child-porn banners on a parenting guestbook, etc. Just be nice, ok?)

3) It's ok to argue your position if you disagree with the guestbook's creator, but try to keep it above the belt. (No name-calling, e-mail bombs, death-threats, etc.)

4) And finally, have fun! People tend to be more relaxed and open about themselves in cyber-space, ironically because no one can see them. Try not to take it too seriously. Half of the things we say on the internet would never even be uttered in our real lives!

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