Wednesday, February 08, 2006
A Word To The Godblogosphere
Is it just me or is our little world of Godblogging changing? I think we are getting coarser. I think because that seems to be where the traffic is.
When I started blogging the thing I liked most was that it was a community, a bunch of people really committed to God. There was a diversity of opinion to be sure, but there was grace in the expression of that opinion and a shared desire for the Word and for God's kingdom.
Lately I am seeing words like "apostate" and "unregenerant" a lot. Lately it seems like there is a lot of deciding who is a "real" Christian and who is a pretender. Lately it's striking me more like all the stuff I thought I could escape in blogging.
Maybe it is just me, but I'm not that sure. The thing that really bothers me is that its just blogging, its just words. Words matter, yes, but how can I declare someone's status in the community of faith based on just words. I'd much prefer a person of good character with bad theology over a sexually deviant, offering stealing preacher of golden tongue and seemingly amazing insight.
And it seems that making such condemning, or at least labelling, statements is attractive to bloggers, because people who make such statements seems to get lots of traffic. That would indicate that we are happier with defintive statements than we are with true ones - "I don't know" often being the truest statement possible. But as bloggers we are supposed to be the smart ones. We are supposed to know what we know, what we don't know and be comfortable with that.
And mostly I don't like the fact that "success" seems to breed attitude. The ones with all the traffic begin to sound like Moses coming off Sinai and everybody else begins to sound like a retriever panting for the next ball to chase coming down from that mountain.
When I started this enterprise I found brethren and sistern. They are still here and I still enjoy reading and interacting with them. But lately, we seem relegated to the corner somewhere, lost in a wave of controversy for hit's sake. Maybe we always were, I don't know.
Somehow, right now, the state of the Godblogosphere does not strike me as healthy.
Any comments?
Related Tags: Godblogging, Godblogosphere, coarseness, apostate, unregenerant
When I started blogging the thing I liked most was that it was a community, a bunch of people really committed to God. There was a diversity of opinion to be sure, but there was grace in the expression of that opinion and a shared desire for the Word and for God's kingdom.
Lately I am seeing words like "apostate" and "unregenerant" a lot. Lately it seems like there is a lot of deciding who is a "real" Christian and who is a pretender. Lately it's striking me more like all the stuff I thought I could escape in blogging.
Maybe it is just me, but I'm not that sure. The thing that really bothers me is that its just blogging, its just words. Words matter, yes, but how can I declare someone's status in the community of faith based on just words. I'd much prefer a person of good character with bad theology over a sexually deviant, offering stealing preacher of golden tongue and seemingly amazing insight.
And it seems that making such condemning, or at least labelling, statements is attractive to bloggers, because people who make such statements seems to get lots of traffic. That would indicate that we are happier with defintive statements than we are with true ones - "I don't know" often being the truest statement possible. But as bloggers we are supposed to be the smart ones. We are supposed to know what we know, what we don't know and be comfortable with that.
And mostly I don't like the fact that "success" seems to breed attitude. The ones with all the traffic begin to sound like Moses coming off Sinai and everybody else begins to sound like a retriever panting for the next ball to chase coming down from that mountain.
When I started this enterprise I found brethren and sistern. They are still here and I still enjoy reading and interacting with them. But lately, we seem relegated to the corner somewhere, lost in a wave of controversy for hit's sake. Maybe we always were, I don't know.
Somehow, right now, the state of the Godblogosphere does not strike me as healthy.
Any comments?
Related Tags: Godblogging, Godblogosphere, coarseness, apostate, unregenerant
