Everyone is welcome to join MicahsCall™. We do have a community agreement that we'd like you to read as you consider joining. When you're ready to join, just click the "Register" link on the home page. (Until then, feel free to read what others have posted).

Welcome to MicahsCall: We seek to build community locally, nationally, and internationally, among Christians and all people of faith and good will who seek to heed the prophet MicahsCall, to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.

MicahsCall is a self-governing, inclusive space where all people of faith and good will can find opportunities for action, reflection, and connection, and become agents of change in a common search for peace, justice, and dignity for all people.

Robert McAfee Brown—theologian, teacher, and preacher—promoted both prophetic speech and actions that are based on ”convictions without arrogance, insight without absolutism, commitment without coercion, and democracy without demagoguery.”

MicahsCall members represent God's wildly inclusive diversity, where all are welcome to:

• participate in conversations in our Speak Out area,
  
• post offers of assistance, needs, prayers and calls to action in our Action Center, and
  
• alert MicahsCall visitors to upcoming happenings in our Events/Calendar area.
  

As you tour MicahsCall, you may encounter people whose beliefs differ from your own. We hope that you will approach these encounters in a spirit of acceptance, recognizing the rights of others to follow freely their own beliefs, even if they don't match yours.

MicahsCall COMMUNITY AGREEMENT

• We accept MicahsCall to "do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.” (Micah 6:8)

• We are concerned by the lack of compassion for others, dismayed by seeing poverty in the midst of abundance, and discouraged by the propensity to take up arms to solve conflicts.

• We are committed to becoming agents of change—caring for people, community, and environment; advocating for peace, justice, equality and dignity for all peoples; and guarding freedoms and civil liberties.

• We are guided by the Golden Rule: “Treat others as you would have them treat you” (Matthew 7:12)—taught by Jesus and all the great religions as the highest ethical and moral imperative.

• We are committed to respectful dialog and agree to communicate with courtesy and respect. Expressions of violence, hate, vulgarity, and insult will not be tolerated.

We are committed to protecting a high level of freedom of expression, and to maintaining a welcoming and safe community in which that expression can flourish. We will not censor members for expressing an opinion, within the limits of our Rules of Conduct. We will take action against any behavior that disrupts conversations and community on the site. MicahsCall has the right, but not the obligation, to remove or move any member-generated content for any reason, without notice. These Rules of Conduct reflect the standards of behavior our members find acceptable. By registering as a member of MicahsCall, you agree to the following:

Rules of Conduct

1. Courtesy and Respect: You agree that you will be courteous to every MicahsCall member, even those whose beliefs you think are false or objectionable. When debating, express your opinion about a person's ideas, not about them personally. You agree not to make negative personal remarks about other MicahsCall members, including negative remarks about their age, disability, gender, ethnicity, race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, intelligence, character, appearance, health, mental health, education or any other personal characteristic. You agree not to create posts and discussions intended to criticize or ridicule other members personally. You agree not to engage in derogatory name-calling, including calling anyone evil, a liar, Satanic, demonic, antichrist, a Nazi, or other inflammatory comparisons.
   


2. Hate Speech: Even if religiously motivated, you agree not to engage in hate speech on MicahsCall. You agree not to allege that groups or individuals deserve violence, or attempt to dehumanize or degrade them on the basis of age, disability, gender, ethnicity, race, nationality, religion, or sexual orientation.
   


3. Violence: You agree not to advocate illegal violence against or harassment of groups or individuals, even if religiously motivated.
   


4. Proselytizing: You agree not to make aggressive, repeated, or unwanted attempts to convert another member's religious beliefs. Please respect the rights of others to follow their own religious beliefs, even if you think those beliefs are false.
   


5. Disruptive behavior: You agree not to disrupt or interfere with discussions, forums, or other community functions. Disruptive behavior may include creating a disproportionate number of posts or discussions to disrupt conversation; creating off-topic posts; making statements that are deliberately inflammatory; manipulating topic lists to disrupt conversation; posting in a language other than English without providing an accurate English translation; expanding a disagreement from one discussion to another; or any behavior that interferes with conversations or inhibits the ability of others to use and enjoy this website for its intended purposes.
   
   
6. Partisan Politics: You agree NOT to endorse specific candidates. While it is perfectly approporiate to discuss issues, the discussion can not appear in any way, shape, or form to promote or critique any one candidate or political party. (Click here if you need more clarification.)
   


7. Local guidelines: You agree to observe the rules and guidelines posted for specific areas of MicahsCall. These guidelines are linked to at the bottom of each page in that section. Each area is unique and therefore has unique guidelines.
   


8. Repeating Posts: You agree not to repeat substantially the same text in more than one location.
   


9. URLs: You may share a web URL that other members may find useful, but you agree not to post URLs repeatedly or for the purpose of promoting a website or service. You agree not to post a hyperlink to a site URL that violates our rules. You will not reproduce chain letters, pyramid schemes, mail fraud schemes, or any other unauthorized advertising.
   


10. Copying posts : You agree not to post or forward transcripts of e-mail or other personal communication without the author's express permission. You agree not to reproduce material from MicahsCall (including member posts) without express written permission from MicahsCall. You agree not to copy or link to MicahsCall member posts with less than friendly intent. You agree not to expand disagreements from one area to another.
    
11. Privacy: You will not collect or use information about users of the site without express permission from both MicahsCall and the users. You agree not to reveal personal information about someone else. MicahsCall will remove any post containing a personal telephone number, real name, address, or any information that might reveal someone's geographical location without their permission. You will not send e-mail to MicahsCall members that would violate these Rules of Conduct. Cautionary Note: Because MicahsCall areas are public, and may be indexed by Google and other search engines, we advise members against revealing any personal information about themselves. If you choose to display your e-mail address to other members, please be aware that MicahsCall has no control over who uses your e-mail address or for what purpose. If you believe you are the target of a cyber-stalker, please refer to http://www.wiredpatrol.org/stalking for more information.
    


12. Vulgarity: You agree not to display words, information, or images that are vulgar, obscene, graphically violent, graphically sexual, harm minors in any way, exploit images of children, or are otherwise objectionable. You agree not to post URLs of sites where such words, images or information are displayed. Permission for exceptions to this rule must be obtained from MicahsCall staff.
    


13. Images, Text and HTML: You agree to refrain from using visually disruptive or excessively large font sizes and/or images. We suggest that images be no larger than 300 pixels in width or height, and that you not use font sizes larger than 18 points. You agree to use HTML and styles only for text effects (such as bold and italics), to post images, or to create normal hyperlinks. You agree not to upload to MicahsCall or link to any other code, tags, scripts, audio, animations, file or program. You will not upload, post, link to, e-mail or otherwise transmit any harmful component to MicahsCall, or deface the site.
    


14. Minors: You agree that you will not invite a minor on MicahsCall to contact you for any reason. Adults are asked not to post on the Youth Portal area.
    


15. Copying Content: MicahsCall discussions are intended for interactive conversation; members are encouraged to express their own ideas in their own words, not to parrot the words of others. You agree not to create posts that consist substantially of material copied from another source. You agree to respect intellectual property rights when posting on MicahsCall. You agree not to post copyrighted or trademarked images on MicahsCall, or to engage in "bandwidth theft." You agree not to post articles or other text from another publication (copyright or not) except as follows: you may quote a small sample, credit the source, post a hyperlink to the author's original, and include your own comments in your own words. You may quote sacred texts in the context of discussing them, but you must include your own comments in your own words. Permission for exceptions to this rule must be obtained from MicahsCall staff. You agree that you will not modify, sublicense, translate, sell, lease, reverse engineer, decompile, frame, mirror, or disassemble any portion of this site, or offer to do so.
    


16. Illegal activities: You will not solicit or promote the use of an illegal substance, promote illegal activity, or discuss illegal activities with the intent to commit them.
    


17. Impersonation: You agree not to impersonate or spoof MicahsCall members, employees, hosts or volunteers. You agree to create and use no more than one MicahsCall username, without explicit approval from MicahsCall staff. You agree not to use the name of a revered religious figure or well-known public figure as your MicahsCall username. You agree not to express or imply that any content or materials you make, submit, or post are endorsed by MicahsCall or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity.
    


18. Your Contact information: You agree to provide a valid e-mail address in your MicahsCall registration. You may choose to conceal your e-mail address from other members, and you may manage your mail preferences. However, MicahsCall staff must be able to contact you by e-mail if necessary to discuss your account. If the e-mail address in your profile is not valid, your posting privileges may be suspended; should this happen to you, please contact us for assistance. Community staff members will keep your e-mail address confidential. Please refer to MicahsCall's privacy policy for more information. To update your e-mail address, click the My Micah Preferences link on the right side of any page.
    


19. Complaints: If there are problems on MicahsCall, we want to know about them so that we can attempt to fix them. You agree to report community-related complaints and problems appropriately: to report a violation of these Rules of Conduct, or to complain about another member or the action of a volunteer Community Host, e-mail your complaint to MicahsCall staff, who will review your complaint and take appropriate action. You agree not to post problem reports and complaints publicly on the site, or to comment publicly on host or staff actions. You agree you will not harass volunteer Community Hosts and MicahsCall staff. You will not engage in behavior that requires MicahsCall staff and/or volunteer Community Hosts to expend excessive time and/or resources.

In addition:

• These Rules of Conduct apply to anything you upload to or create on MicahsCall, including posts, screen names, member profiles, discussion titles, or any other text or images.
  
• We have the right to suspend or terminate your membership for violation of the above rules.
  
• We have the right to reprint from MicahsCall discussions any post or portion of a post (along with the username of the MicahsCall member who posted it) somewhere else on the site or in any other medium (such as in a MicahsCall book, in a MicahsCall television commercial, etc.).
  
• We neither endorse nor are responsible for any opinion, advice, information or statement made or displayed in these forums by third parties, nor are we responsible for any errors or omissions in such postings, or for hyperlinks embedded in messages. Under no circumstances will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information obtained in these forums. The opinions expressed within MicahsCall are solely the opinions of the participants, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the MicahsCall team or any of its funders.

CREDIT: This agreement and these rules of conduct are based on those developed by beliefnet.org and are gratefully used with their permission.

 

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