On Blogging...

There is a funny sort of thing about Christian bloggers, or really anyone who writes, or even every person in general. We think we’re important and we assume that simply because we say/write something that seems right or insightful, or something that we saw on a bumper sticker or a random quote we read on Wikipedia that may or not may be right, that we are somehow tapping into the grand truth of the universe. Like we all suddenly become Mark Twain just because we can regurgitate cheesy and/or stupid theological musings simply because they are pithy and sound nice and neat to our ears

i.e. "Hate the sin; love the sinner."

Actually Gandhi said that, and it's not exactly Biblical. Or, some people say really stupid stuff that has no bearing on reality and in the end are just words. Or, there is just flat-out horrible Bible teaching, even in the idle words of obscure middle-school girls’ websites. Consider the following that I made up (though it’s loosely based on some of the non-sense I’ve read, and exaggerated a little for effect):

“Bible study was so fun and Bobby told Suzie that he likes her…somebody tore my Jesus fish off my car, must have been what it was like for the early Christians when they were persecuted for their beliefs…God is loving, and he/she loves us so much and I just know that he/she is behind me and supports my alternative lifestyle and I just hate all these fundamentalists always talking about God’s wrath…the cross is like investment banking, because God saw how valuable we could be, and he chose to invest in us to show forth all of our potential”.

It’s very tricky sometimes, because I find that clicking through friends’ blogs and the links they provide to other blogs, and reading snippets of some of these dumb blogs (just because I get bored sometimes), that often this type of language is, to make a gross understatement, sourced from people without much theological clout. Meaning that there is a certain type of person that just says “God” or “Jesus”, or any number of Christian terms and clichés that no one knows what they mean, every now and then and we assume that they are great saints of the pen among Augustine and Luther and that they deserve to be read and given a chance to voice their opinions.

Part of this frustration of mine is due to the perversion of technology that is our world today. Everyone has a blog, everyone has a website, and everyone has a little podium to stand on to voice their retarded agenda. And while this is an amazing breakthrough for technology and revolutionary for those that would use it for the benefit of humanity and the advancement of the Gospel, it also opens the door for any wing-nut that wants to say something. Sometimes it seems like going back to the days before the internet and the printing press may be a good idea, since with new opportunity for good thought and dispersal of good material, comes the same opportunities for evil discussion and pointless words being written. And while I do not condemn the open forum that the internet provides for people to voice what they think, this does not mean that everyone should speak and it does not mean that everyone is qualified to write about Jesus or anything of importance. Mostly, blogs are just little nuggets about what you did that day, how your job is going, or about spilling your fears and emotions, or about spreading gossip and rumors. While there may be some good that can come from some parts of that, I think the majority of it no one would miss if the plug was pulled (certainly my own crappy writing). There is also a certain corner of the blogosphere (what a nerd I am for using that word) that is greatly beneficial, guys such as Tim Challies and Justin Taylor, who are involved in the evangelical world of theological instruction and apologetics. But I also find the blogs of high-school/college-age dudes and girls that want to gush about their boyfriends or their iPods and throw in two words about God every now and then for good measure. Not to sound melodramatic, but I think this just may really show the condition of the fallen human heart, or it may just be a blog about girly emotion and crying, or perhaps both. But that’s not really my point, though it gets on my nerves. My point is that I find it a bit annoying, just enough that it gets under my skin, that anyone can log on, and post anything, good or bad, clever insight or repugnant tripe, or some devilish mixing of the two. (I realize that this is immediately hypocritical since this is all written in one of these blogs, but I still feel it is a valid point to be made. But of course this blog, like so many blogs should just be deleted and forgotten about, so whoa on me for even bringing it up. I fear I condemn the very thing I am doing, but there’s irony for you.)

But perhaps most annoying is people that throw in grand evangelical and biblical truths, or some romanticized twisting of a profound reality like “God loves us so much”, at the ends of posts with no explanation of what this means. Do we really comprehend the gravity of what God loving us really means? Is it because we’re such winsome and lovable people, or solely because God is holy and separate from us, and loves us despite of us spitting him in the face and crucifying him on a Roman cross? I would suggest that the majority of random “Christian” blogs (perhaps even this one), belonging to rich, whiny college kids with no jobs would show forth the former.

But do not misunderstand what I’m saying. I am not suggesting that I am somehow above the mess of common Christian blogging. No, I grudgingly realize I’m often somewhere in this pile of rubbish of non-important people with stupid opinions. I whine about stupid crap all the time. I am lazy, and I’ll be the first to speak ill of myself to reveal my sins, but I think I do however have the insight to recognize what I am and my great deficiency in knowing God and loving Him and having any right to voice anything, and hopefully having the wherewithal to try to get better by God’s power, to rise out of the trash heap of foolish human thinking and speculation and perhaps touch a lowly-dangling truth of God. Rarely have I done so, but I am optimistic for the future because God is great and can do anything even with a fool such as myself. And I would not dream of attempting to be so bold as to say that any of these people I don’t know are not truly followers of Christ. I merely make the point that most of this mess of today’s blog-technology-culture is done out of some peculiar, humanly attempt to show forth our own glory or some sick desire to get people to read it and say “wow, I wish I were that person.” And I realize that people are always in the process of growing and getting better and learning new things from God, and that at times we can really make fools of ourselves in what we write and say. We need correction from God and to be spoken to on the level we are at to exhort us to step up to the next. That’s the most amazing thing about God I find, and it’s really the heart of the incarnation of Christ, that God would actually stoop down and speak to us as His children, something John Calvin referred to as God’s “baby talk” to us. Please note that you now know I’m a strong Christian because I just referenced John Calvin, from a work I’ve never read and most likely will attempt to read and somewhere in the middle get so overwhelmed and lost in the sea of archaic language that I will put it back on my shelf and say something stupid like “I just don’t have time to read it right now, I’ll get back to it later when I can really focus,” as if my life is really that packed with important agendas (maybe they will be soon). But meanwhile I can put it on my blog and act as if I really have studied it deeply and therefore am some super Christian and impress everyone rather than just referencing what I’ve heard someone else say. Perhaps this is precisely what I am talking about. Funny how that worked out in the end.