“For Christ’s sake, stop!” declared the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Rev. Frank Page, pleading for civility in the Baptist blogosphere.
Episcopalians and Anglicans duel incessantly over their faith and future in the Anglican Communion.
Catholics focus on every topic from liturgy to law to spirituality.
These are faith bloggers ”” uncountable voices who contest, confess and consider religious beliefs, doctrines and denominational politics in their posts.
Although every faith has its bloggers, U.S. Christians may be among the most vociferous of the watchdogs, philosophers and ecclesiastical groupies.
Wasn’t there a similar outcry against printing?
God help us when the laity get a voice that really reflects what they think and believe because then the anomalous character of delegates is exposed. Seems to be true in the mainlines throughout. The only thing liberals fear is the discovery of their agenda prior to its complete enplacement. Opposition arises then and they can be thwarted in their agenda.
Alas. But- what?!- no criticism of politcal blogs? It’s only the religious blogs that are ‘uncivil’?
I pasted the article in an e-mail to a friend who works at a major university. The university’s spam filter quarantined the e-mail under “sexual discrimination,” I would presume because of David Virtue’s moniker for Louie Crew (quoted by USA Today).
Well, that is…what it is.
Just for the record, during a radio interview at General Convention last year, Virtue derided bloggers and the role they played in convention coverage. He and his webmaster insist theirs is not a blog, but an Anglican “news service” a la AP or Rueters. Then USAToday wants to do a story on religious bloggers, and all of sudden Virtue is a blogger.
In fairness, Virtue’s site is a unique hybrid. The forum is an old-school bulletin board, while the news articles (whether quoted from elsewhere, or Virtue’s analysis) allow blog-style comments. (At least, that’s my recollection; I haven’t visited in some time.)
Rocco Palma’s site is a daily read for me. His is probably the most truly news-oriented and (perhaps wisely) he does not allow comments.
As I’ve told comfirmation classes, religon is deeply personal, or it’s not worth bothering about at all. It is hardly surprising that points of view about religious issues are highly contentious to the folks participating on blogs. Laodiceans have little to say and little reason to read the religious blogs.
Jeffrey A. Roberts
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