All bloggers act like Baptists!

At the Immanent Frame a group of writers discussed The new landscape of the religion blogosphere. I thought the following comments from Joe Carter, Web editor at First Things, are quite insightful and amusing.

Despite their importance, there is no council, diocese, presbytery, or synod that oversees and sanctions these religious blogs. But should these bloggers be able to teach large audiences without oversight from a higher-level polity? If a professor and ordained minister at a Presbyterian college writes regularly on issues about religion and theology, should her writing be exempt from denominational authority? Or what if a Lutheran layman and a Catholic priest hold a regular open debate? Should they not be held to account as if they were writing in a denominational magazine or journal?  

 I suspect that most religion bloggers will argue that their blogging should not be overseen or scrutinized by their college, local church, or other ecclesiastical body. They would claim that since their blogs are neither churches nor parachurch ministries, they should be free from congregational supervision—even when they are writing about issues concerning their denomination’s view of doctrine. If this view is widely held—and my own experience convinces me it is—it marks a peculiar shift in the decentralization of ecclesiastical authority. Whether they are Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Protestant, when it comes to religious discussions online, all bloggers act like Baptists.

Blogging as theological discourse

Ben Myers writes a widely read blog, Faith and Theology. Last year he gave a nice talk about blogging and theology at the AACC. The paper he developed out of that is now available.

An ethical dilemma?

Last week my wife and I really enjoyed watching the movie, Julia and Julie, based on the true story of Julie Powell who writes a daily blog as she cooks her way through all 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, in just one year. Incidentally, it is the first movie to be made about blogging. There is a great scene when Julie's husband gets angry about how narcissistic her blogging is. One thing we appreciated was that (unlike many Hollywood movies) the movie presented a very positive view of marriage, since both Julia and Julie had good marriages.

So since I liked the movie so much, why not recommend it?

Often after we watch movies Robin and I like to go online and read more background..... Unfortunately, in this case the "romance" was spoiled by reading about the "not so nice" life of Julie Powell since her success. This raises ethical questions about whether we should encourage other people to see movies (or read books) made by people who are not good role models but from our recommendations, will benefit financially and have a higher public profile.

Or are we taking this all a bit too seriously? Is this somewhat silly since many prominent authors and movie makes are bad role models? I fear if I researched most of these people I would find their personal lives are a mess. Is it inconsistent to not recommend a specific movie or book just because I actually know the details of the moral failures in that specific case?

Why pastors should blog

Abraham Piper has a good post, 6 reasons why pastors should blog, on the Desiring God site.

Indeed, I think the same applies to anyone in leadership.

Most viewed posts on this blog

2009 is the year I started blogging and I thought it would be interesting to see which posts on this blog have attracted the most viewers. I did this partly because I find sometimes the results of such an analysis surprising. My view of what people will find interesting, helpful, or controversial is offer different to others. Thanks to Google Analytics it is easy to find out how much individual posts are viewed. The top 10 posts (and number of views) from 2009 are below:

1. Schrodingers cat and all that (916)

2. Barth on astronomy (280)

3. J.S. Bach: soli deo gloria (185)

4. Angels and demons: fact or science fiction? (169)

5. Angels and demons: fact or science fiction? 2 (163)

6. Why does science work so well? (148)

7. Theoblogging at its best (96)

8. Scientists discover atheist gene (69)

9. Scientists who are Christian (63)

10. How to publish a paper in a theology journal (63)

I found this quite encouraging: both the numbers and the selection. I will keep going...

Can the Bible help evaluate new technologies?

The previous post about theoblogging prompted me to think more about Christians evaluating technologies. It seems to me that almost all technologies are morally neutral. The question is how we put them to use. What potential do they have for good? for evil?

It is striking to me that most of the criticisms of theoblogging that are given in the comments section of Ben Myers post (n.b. the irony of people using blogs to spread the message that theoblogging is bad!) can be made of most media: books, sermons, conversations at church, Christian TV, DVD's, websites, sermons downloaded from blogs,....

All media have their strengths and weakness, limitations and problems for theological discourse. I don't think the most important issues with blogs are necessarily that different from other media. The real issue is how people use these different media and what mix they use and in what context.

I should stress that I am far from advocating a "laissez faire" attitude or trying to minimise or ignore problems associated with theoblogging. Some might consider me a bit of a "ludditte". My family does not have a TV. I am not an active mobile phone user. I get the bus to work and walk home. I don't pick up the phone in my office if I am meeting with someone. ..... But, these are purely lifestyle decisions based on what I think works best for me personally.

The broader issues of superficiality, tribalism, lack of accountability, and poor content are not particularly new or unique. But, the Bible does provide a framework in which to consider them. Consider for example what the Bible says about speech and about money:

For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, ⁸but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. ¹⁰From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. ¹¹Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? ¹²Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

James 4:7-12

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

1 Timothy 6:10

On a related issue some might be interested in a post on my work blog, Think twice before you send that email!

Theoblogging at its best?

Last night, at the AA-CC conference, Ben Myers gave a really stimulating presentation, "Theology 2.0: Blogging as theological discourse". What was fascinating for me was to hear the paper and just now to read the blog post (AND the following 17 comments) he wrote last week as he was preparing the talk. I could really see how the quality and depth of the paper was arguably enhanced by feedback he received before the talk.