7. W o r l d :

"BLACKMAIL" DANGER OF INTERNET, WARNS MISSIONS LEADER

THE GLOBAL "PUBLISHING" capability of the World Wide Web leaves missionary organizations open to the dangers of "blackmail" if they don't make good use of the medium themselves, a missions leader has warned.
New computer technology that allows anyone with a telephone link to make material available around the world via the Internet offers "power without the benefit of checks and balances" says Youth With A Mission President Jim Stier.
"In the arena of missions, where one's reputation is of highest importance, this creates a point of leverage which is powerful enough to be used for blackmail," he writes in a statement recently posted on the mission's International Home Page on the World Wide Web.
While traditional media such as TV and newspapers require material to be checked and verified, no such restraint exists on the Internet, where "sites" can attract thousands of browsers each day, and "a reader has little way to check what's serious and what's spurious".
Such potential for "abuse" should encourage missionary organizations to aggressively use the potential of the Web for good", says Stier. "It has a dark side and always will as long as there is sin in the world. It also has a great potential to be used for good.
"If we abandon this whole medium to those who wish to use it wrongly, or if we only use it sporadically and ineffectually, then it's our own fault should the negative prevail....we should fill the Web with the truth and pray that most will recognize it there."
Stier's statement on the YWAM "site" - opened a year ago, and featuring news of ministry programs and opportunities for training and service - also says that missionary groups should examine allegations seriously, as "even in the most spurious of vitriol there is something which can help us to do our jobs better".
But "we don't want to get into a situation where we're trading accusations back and forth in public. This is always very harmful to the cause of Christ.
We must respond in an opposite spirit, with love and gentleness. We should pray for those who are attacking us in this way and do everything we rightfully can to bring reconciliation."
Stier's comments were prompted by the posting of a former YWAM worker whose personal home page claims that the organization "fosters spiritual abuse" and that proper measures were not taken to deal with problems at the ministry center at which he used to serve. "Controlling measures" were used on staff, he says.
The 15-page report - likely to be found by anyone searching the Web for information about YWAM - details the ex-worker's concerns and his communication with mission leaders who, he says, failed to resolve the situation satisfactorily.
While the case "does not mean that the whole YWAM organization is riddled with spiritual abuse", the author maintains that if the mission "is willing to ignore such a clear-cut case, they will likely be willing to ignore future incidents".
Stier said: "There were some problems at the center. We have been dealing with them and our goal is to restore everyone involved. We have procedures within the mission whereby anyone who feels their concerns have not been dealt with can appeal to a higher level. What we won't do is submit to unreasonable demands"
While the complaints were not likely to harm YWAM's reputation "in a way that we could measure statistically", Stier said that he was concerned that they might dissuade some individual people or churches who did not know much about the organization from pursuing involvement "and maybe missing their calling".