Explaining It Again

[Ed Hurst]

Someone has asked that I explain this again. My real name and my public persona is no longer appropriate for everything God has called me to do. He's commanding me to do some things that require a measure of anonymity. I don't understand all of it, but I do recognize the conviction that I must pull in the various tentacles out there on the Net connected to my public persona and keep it all right here on this forum. This is our virtual tribal meeting place; it's fairly private. Whatever I used to do on the blog will be featured here only. Eventually my old blog will go "poof!" In it's place I propose a repository of documents I've already produced in various formats. It will be linked here on the forum somewhere for your convenience. If it works out, I'd love to see stuff there from others who contribute to the message. I'd like some feedback on that idea.

So, in other words, me operating as myself on the Net will be restricted to his forum and our community. I will continue having an outreach under an assumed name. Most of you already know about that from previous tentative efforts. That work will link back here to some degree, but the alter-ego itself will not show up here. Instead, people who are curious to see what it looks like can ask me privately and I'll give you a link -- Radix Fidem family only. The whole point is to erect some kind of firewall between the two personas. Not to hide from governments and hackers; that's not possible. It's not a question of hiding at all. Rather, the whole point is putting the focus on the message.

To some degree, this is a good time to consider doing that yourselves, depending on how you use the Internet. Let your identity be a matter of who you are in the Kingdom.

[Denise]

Good to hear. When I first found the blog I was surprised where I found it. I was very hesitant to comment at the blog because of the issues with trolling. The hand of God got me through the archives of the blog to find the forum. I don’t have any friends that are serious Christians, so this felt like ‘ how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that bring good tidings’.
I also appreciate how very candid and plain spoken you are Ed in your books as well as here. Authenticity is not well received on the internet, so I bear witness on pull back.
But how very mysterious that I would find you guys just before ‘the blog is going silent’...
It gave me pause...

[Ed Hurst]

We are blessed to have you join the family, Denise.

There is a limited audience for what the blog was doing, and it's not the shift or growth in exposure that killed it, but the subtle changes in the way people use the Internet. I sensed that change a long time ago, and was waiting for the Lord to tell me when to change things because the shift had crossed some invisible line. I don't fear trolls, but trolls are the first wave of other, more serious threats, in my experience. To meet the rising challenge of communicating the message, now is the time to become anonymous so that the message gets all the attention. It's part of the biblical concept of recognizing who is family and who isn't. I'm one person within the household; that's a privilege for only a few. The person I am in public is much more circumspect. Given the nature of online information exposure, the best way to do this is to construct a persona that is not easily unmasked. That way, handling trolls is a matter of the message, as no personal attack is possible, and the discussion can't get sidetracked.

There will be more books under my real name. I'm seeking to empower the tribe's testimony, not to raise my profile. Share my books all you like; I encourage it. But more important is that you share the message itself. Use my books if I say it better than you might, but I never assume no one else is going to say it well in their own right. People are the message.

Addenda: There's a strategy at work here. First I'll set up a blog and an HTML book attached outlining the basic message (nothing new to you in that book). After a few posts and some evidence of an audience, I'll take the alter-ego "on the road" in the sense of showing up on some social media services. I'll have to choose from those services unlikely to censor, since this alter-ego will be something of a bold prophetic character. The idea is to get folks to start paying attention to the message. If there is any real interest, that alter-ego will funnel them toward this forum.

[Denise]

Super awesome! It’s got that super hero feel to it, the Message is the Hero