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A word about comments on CSMonitor.com

We've shifted our approach. Comments on articles aren't available on most articles. You can still contact us, though.

 To our readers: 

We've adjusted our policy for comments on our articles.

 In the past, most articles on our website allowed readers to comment. A few -- on subjects that experience had shown were not bringing out the best in some commenters -- did not have that option.

 As of today, we've shifted so that we do not take comments on our articles except when a blogger or writer specifically allows them. In other words, comments will be the exception now, not the default option.

 We've made this change after extensive analysis of the comments our articles have received over the past two years. Some have been thoughtful. Some have added useful information or pointed out our mistakes. Thank you for those. But many comments have been non-productive.

 You can still reach us to tell us you like or dislike an article, to give us a news tip or story suggestion, and/or to correct the record. In most of our articles, you can click the author's byline and follow the prompts to email that person. Or you can comment by going to the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of every page (be sure to refer to the article you are commenting on). And many of our staff-written articles are posted on our Facebook page, where comments are always welcome.

 Like most things on the Internet, this change is not necessarily permanent. We value our readers and want CSMonitor.com to dignify their intelligence, empathy, and civic-spiritedness. We will  be looking for new ways to support and engage those qualities .

 -- John Yemma, Editor

 p.s. -- By the way, I'm enabling comments on this post. Feel free jump in.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

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