That wasn't their place or their business.

it's none of their business...should be left up to the parents

You could see it 2 ways. 1 way, he's really concerned about the younger generation & he don't want them to fall corrupt to daily temptations of sin so he tries to monitor them & keep them in line or 2. He's actually self motivated & is trying to display pediphile like qualities trying to be a perv. & look at young kids naked & pray to god for forgiveness for what he's about to do with himself!

I think that the church can explain what they don't tolerate but free will is going to dictate what is said on their myspace and "checking" up on it won't do a bit of good. It should be the parents decision anyways if they are minors.

I think he has overstepped his bounds. It is a parent's responsibility to monitor their child's internet use. He is making it very difficult to keep the lines of communication open for that congregation. I know I wouldn't like it if it happened to my family. Who wants their private life exposed publicly? That's very painful to the person being exposed. Even if there is something that needs to be addressed it should be done within the family and privately. I think this is wrong on all levels.

I think it is silly, not fair and to be expected. Employers, friends and family members regularly check on these social accounts to guage and monitor your activities, and enemies can use info on these sites to damage you,. . . you must expect it. There is no privacy on the internet. If you ever put out info on yourself, it belongs to whoever cares to look at it. So if you care what church members think, don't post anything that they would disapprove of. Just assume that someone is watching what you do, because someone probably is!

Just an excuse to get on children's myspaces. ...ahem.

This is absolutely disgraceful. If I were a member of the church I would dig something up on these nosy bodies and make sure that everyone in town knew about them. Making these bluestockings into laughingstocks should be easy even without discovering any skeletons in their closets. Remember this: the only men who look behind their wive's bedroom doors are the ones who have hidden behind someone else's wife's door. Turnabout is always fair play.

I think that older church people should be scrutinized whenever they are around children. Hours and with whom should be public knowledge.

it's not the minister's job to accuse and shame his/her congregants... it's their job to support and love them. This mindset/behavior is typical, unfortunately... As soon as they can discover the minister's account, I hope them set him up as a transexual prostitute... I'm thinkin' of Bonnie Raitt's song "Let's give 'em somethin' to talk about...."

I hate the idea. So much so I'd have a secret MySpace page if I had to.

First, I think it was the guy's reason for snooping. I think it's stupid. Sure, he could keep his own tabs on it, but to make a friggin brigade about it, is ridiculous. It's no one else's business what in the hell I put on my MySpace account.

I think he can go to hell maybe

not any of their business. "judge not lest ye be judged"

Pedophile.

It's intrusive and intimidating and I'd even go so far as to say disturbing.

Ok, I'm probably going to be booed here, but a church is considered a family, especially in smaller churches. I have many friends who have 'mom patrol' as their tagline, because in reality they are making sure they know what there kids are up to. Some parents, thankfully not myself, are not technically inclined and would welcome some support in keeping an eye on their children in the internet realm. It can be dangerous and damaging if children are posting information and pornographic pictures of themselves or friends on their pages. And kids need to understand that nothing they post on the web is private...I learned that the hard way once as an adult using yahoo with my hubby...eh hem. So no, he has made it public he is checking in on the kids and I'm going to assume that he is relaying questionable finds to the parents to deal with. It doesn't seem much different than if he took walks by the park an told parents if he saw the kids smoking or hanging out with questionable people. Parents ultimately decide how to handle the behavior. If they strongly disagree, they need to find a new church or speak to the church elders about the problem.

If I'm a parent, I'm going to check up on my kids' MySpace pages. Is that wrong? No, because I'm their parent. But what if I'm a computer illiterate single mother who works 13 hour days and doesn't own a PC? Yeah, I guess it's still my responsibility to know what my kid is doing, but if my friend in the congregation pulled me aside and said, "Hey, I know you may not have gotten a chance to check this, but you might want to have a look at your daughter's page" I wouldn't be angry. I would be grateful. This person is not secretly doing this, and he's not doing something anybody else in the congregation (or in the world) couldn't do. It's not an invasion of privacy, because the Internet is public. Anything on the page has been posted for the world to see. I don't see a problem if people know he's doing it and he's not airing the dirty laundry of the church. I know I once happened across the page of a student in my Sunday School class (I wasn't snooping -- just accepting a friend request), and I knew his mother would be appalled. I emailed him and asked him if his mom would appreciate his page. A week later it hadn't changed, so I took his mother aside and let her know -- because I know that there is no computer in their house and that she wouldn't have thought to go somewhere and look for one. I don't think that was intrusive, and neither did she. She thanked me profusely for looking out for her son.

People like that are just one of the reasons that I haven't been inside a church (except to get married) in the last several years. I don't fit inside "Molds" very well. Besides, ONLY my maker knows me for who I really am and is the only one who has the right to judge me. I think the "Straw that broke the camel's back", was when a Baptist preacher, whom I had known since I was about 5 years old refused to marry my current wife of almost 16 years & myself, because I had been married and divorced before by the age of 19. Long story short, I found a minister who DID marry us. I left that self rightious, sanctimonious, blowhard, Baptist preacher and his church in the dust and never looked back. I'd actually be worried IF I actually fit into their little clique anyway.

I say use common sense. If you don't want someone you know or someone who might judge you based off of your myspace make it private so that only the people you trust can only see it. no matter how hard anyone tries if you set it to private no one who is not your friend can access it. And plus if your that concerned don't post anything that makes you look bad. We live in a judgmental world everything is taken seriously and stereotypes and biased opinions float around like pollen in the wind.

Creepy jerk.

Interestingly enough, I just read a survey that stated that 50% of Christian men in the U.S. are addicted to porn. I don't trust surveys, but it got me thinking. Maybe the question is how this older church member knows about MySpace and why they're really regularly surfing it!! Sounds like the elders in your church need to sit this brother (or sister) down.

I'd switch churches.

Don't post *anything* on the net you don't stand by. It it doesn't come out now, it will in a few years. The net is a public place, so anyone can go there. If you think what you are posting is OK, have the guts to stand up to this "older church member" and tell them so. If you are ashamed of it, you should never have posted it. But just because some old fart disapproves of it does *not* make it wrong.

It's a parents job to check up on their kids... not the church. Can we say privacy issues. I've seen churches like this and they border on cultism. I myself was raised strict Southern Baptist and still find this unacceptable.

The idea of a gossip deciding what is "questionable or endangering" for my kids revolts me. No matter what this "Older" member calls herself she is little more than a nosy twit, who needs to be quashed. If not by the whole church, then by a few of the more intelligent members who understand what democracy is all about.

I would gratulate them for their modernity and kick them in the ass for their instrusion. This is certainly none of their business.

I don't really see how its any of his bussines, don't church members have better things to do, like help homeless, depressed people, and people who aren't having much luck in life, simply going onto someones site so you can judge it seems like a waste of resources and time. It doesn't seem like the sort of thing I would expect the church to do Get used to the fact that there are different ways of life then yours, how would you define "questionable" anyway... If doint something doesnt effect anyone else then its not a moral decision sure sending chain letters could be a moral decision as they grow exponentialy and quickly consume global bandwidth and they don't do anything... but the only moral decision when downloading porn is whether or not supporting porn will increase the porn out there in the world and thereby decrease internet speeds for more important uses as all our ISP's cables are clogged up with porn, however this argument isn't very strong, its like saying I shouldnt drive to the football because it clogs up the road for people who are driving to important events or driving for work... Questionable is a very subjective term aswell... intervene if it effects other people in a negative way, if it doesnt stay out of it.

More than anything, that is a reason to find another church or abandon organized religion completely. If a person has to be that nosy for religious reasons, you don't need religion!

MySpace is a public area. If you don't want people seeing your MySpace, make your MySpace page private. If you have something to hide... here's a hint... DON'T PUT IT ON THE INTERNET.

My thoughts would be to alter my page to make sure that my personal information was not searchable/publicly posted on my MySpace. If there's a way to limit how much non-registered users or non-friends can see on your personal page (I don't use mySpace, so I have no clue on that one), I'd take advantage of it.

My thoughts would be that the old bastard needs to take up golf or bowling if hes got all that free time.