I've been using Bloglines to read the feeds from about fifty Christian blogs. The service works well and allows a person a quick way of scanning updated feeds. I can read through those fifty blogs as they post in less than fifteen minutes. It's almost like reading through a copy of Christianity Today, except with a far looser editorial standard. And that's a problem. 
Since 2001, I've had a blog up. Cerulean Sanctum came about in late 2003 because I saw a need that was going unfilled, a blog that called people back to the heart of the first century Church. I've considered this blog to be a ministry for me; I've received many letters over the last eighteen months from people who have been blessed by this blog.
But now as I read all over the blogosphere, I wonder if we Christian bloggers are actually doing a disservice to people, especially to those who are struggling in the faith or are considering the claims of Christ for the first time. My reasoning? Well, as I go through my list of fifty blogs, I often leave them feeling confused, angry, depressed, and just about every feeling but the one the Lord wants to cultivate most in us, joyful.
This is not to say that there are no Christian blogs that are edifying. But as I read the blogs, see the dissension, note the snarky comments left, and take in some of the more extreme ideas out there, I am left with only one question, Is Christianity broken?
It's hard to escape that impression after a few visits to popular Christian blogs:
- The hardcore Calvinist blog torches the stalwart Arminian blog—and vice versa.
- The apologist ends his disassembling of some "lesser" theologian with a haughty comment about his opponent's cranial capacity or ultimate afterlife destination.
- The woman's blog done up in a soft-focus, pink flower design discusses how blessed it is to be your husband's footstool.
- The family blog offers that folks who don't have ten kids or who don't "do 'it' naturally" are nothing more than soulless zombies of Planned Parenthood, little Margaret Sangers hellbent on the destruction of The Family.
- The political blog is busy carving a copy of The Constitution out of the same Mt. Sinai rock that Moses brought down in the form of the Ten Commandments.
- The conspiracist/eschatology blog finds an antichrist under every Mideast pebble.
- The confessional blog lets us see that the author pines to know whether God will accept him/her despite the fact that he/she cheated on a math test in third grade.
- The heretic blog does a fine job unmasking the devil in every preacher or teacher who ever walked the face of the planet.
After a while you can't avoid the question. The blogs beg for it. The conclusion seems inescapable. Even writing about this seems to only add fuel to "Is Christianity broken?" If a cross-sectional reading of popular Christian blogs is any indication, the answer must be "Yes."
So on this Friday morning I'm wondering if those of us who blog are only making the Christian walk harder for people rather than easier. This weekend I plan on taking some time to ponder this question. I don't know what this means for this blog, but I'd like to hear what others think about how we Christian bloggers are portraying Christianity to the world. Truthfully, we have an enormous burden in an age when ideas are so readily presentable to the entire planet via the Internet. Maybe we just need to tone down our rhetoric and be a little less dogmatic in some of our thinking.
Or maybe all we need is to simply shut up and listen for a change.
Uh oh. This might apply to me. I have a feeling I might be joining you here from Calfiornia in thinking about this too. Right now, I have these thoughts:
First, I never picture non-Christians reading my blog. But perhaps that is an error on my part. Most of us have statistics as to the number of visitors, but not personal info about THE visitors of course.
Second, perhaps one way out of this dilemma and something I have been thinking about lately—that I need to do—is to present the problem, BUT then spend more time offering a positive, Biblical solution with a more upbeat focus of faith.
Great post, and one that every Christian blogger and reader should read. We immediately put a link to it on our blog and encouraged all our visitors to read it. It is well thought out and makes a valid point. We went on to add the fact that a divided house can not stand and that many lost people notice our difference quickly, which keeps them from ever seeing our unity.
Like Diane said, we think the best path is probably to present a topic and then at least put up some positive options instead of only negative comments about others. We try to do that, but sometimes on short post we wind up just putting a idea out there with no comment.
Thanks for the great post and for getting our mind going.
Stay strong, be couragous, fill the gap, and serve Him ONLY!!
Good post, Dan. Much to think about here. First of all I would like to offer that Christianity isn’t broken. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. People are broken. We are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God. Even Christians remain sinners to their last day on earth, and often succomb to temptation…especially when they imagine that they’ve been a Christian for so long that they might just be immune to sin.
Oops! Comments too long, once again. Check my blog for my full reply.
“Maybe we just need to tone down our rhetoric and be a little less dogmatic in some of our thinking.”
I’d vote for that. I’ve suggested it before on some Christian blogs. But the guilty parties don’t seem to recognize themselves, or just don’t care.
It’s so easy to forget that these blogs are public. I’m sure these folks would never make some of the offensive comments face to face.
Bugs
A little clarification:
When I talk about Christianity, I mean how it is expressed through us. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Lord! All the problems reside with us.
I think it is wise that we start providing more possible answers to the questions we raise. Just asking questions may not be wise. But in those cases when there are plenty of answers, not always are they delivered in a humble and loving way. It’s one thing to be right and quite another to rub people’s noses in our rightness. The tone of some of the posts I read is haughty, and that doesn’t play well.
And like I wrote in my post entitled “On the Brink of a Quantum Singularity with Calvin & Arminius,” perhaps we are even going too far to prove every jot and tittle of our beliefs in order to appear bulletproof. Maybe every issue isn’t a matter of dogma. I just read Acts 16 tonight and noted that Paul had Timothy circumcised even though in previous chapters it was—after much wrestling with the issue—decided that circumcision was not essential. Later on we find Paul railing against the Judaizers that insisted on circumcision. Obviously, the position on this issue fluctuated. Is there any flex allowed for us today or is everything carved in stone? Or am I a heretic for even suggesting this?
“When I talk about Christianity, I mean how it is expressed through us. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Lord! All the problems reside with us.” Among my like minded friends we have the term “churchianity” which we find useful to distinguish CHRISTianity from christianity.
Whatever your conclusions this weekend, Dan, I simply want to express continuing support and appreciation for the ministry God has given you in this blog. I don’t think you are guilty of the division you point out and this place on the net still remains true to its name. I need a “cerulean sanctum” I can retreat to when the world of net-churchianity becomes overwhelmingly saddening.
There certainly is a brokennes in churchianity and it’s no secret – it is on display for all the world to see on the internet – and I hope this widespread exposure of our shame will indeed lead to some soul searching.
Well, is this “the Quilt blog?” Seriously, you may be thinking to much about this. I too, think that in the world of christian blogdom, everyone thinks they are god of their little blog… not everyone, but many. I too, am concerned, and see your reasoning, but take a step back… most of us use our lips to do the same things with personal conversations. Books are written, and articles in magazines, seem to do the same thing… including emagazines on the internet, which I find that others take more seriously than personal blogs. Love and mercy must be our motto in life as we pursue the Truth…who is called Christ our Lord.
I think what’s being glossed over here is the fact that blogs are simply an extention of whatever state of mind the blogger is in. This applies to Christian, Buddhist, wiccan, atheist, etc. We all see Christ from different vantage points. We each describe the view from where we are. Since the main point of Christianity is relational, this might be more of a good thing than the original article lets on. If the blogger’s intent is to point out faults of those who don’t share his or her convictions on non-essential spiritual matters, then that’s one thing. Someone simply logging their thoughts on their life and faith so far, that’s another. But this doesn’t seem so much like a “christian blog” issue as much as it does a “christian people” issue. Blogs are just people’s thoughts. We need not all be clones for the advancement of the Kingdom. If we tend to disagree on particulars, and someone on the outside rejects Christ because of this, that has more to do with their apathy than our word-wrangling. Just my 2 cents.
Christianity in the modern western world isn’t broken, it has failed and continues to fail. God has not failed us, WE have failed God. Most people have no interest in overcoming sin. They do not want to know what dying to self means. In short, they do not want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This cuts across ALL groups and denominations. These are diseases called self and flesh and pride. They have infected every Christian group, whether charismatic, evangelical, fundmentalist or any other. Some of the groups that claim to be Full Gospel are the worst. I beleive only a small group of people in the United States (Maybe one percent of the whole population, at best) have any interest in obeying Jesus. They are not a part of any single group or denomination. They are the only reason God has not already destroyed this country. Everyone else just makes excuses. Jesus will reward those who OVERCOME SIN.
Quote: “Blogs are just people’s thoughts. We need not all be clones for the advancement of the Kingdom.”
I don’t know about this. Thoughts are powerful things and any thought pushed hard enough can become the next viral meme that influences everyone. It is important to “test the spirits,” even on a blog.
As far as being clones, we do not lose our individuality when we became Christians. We are what God made us. Our gifts, talents, and skills differ.
But in the same regard, we are all growing up in Christ and there is no schizophrenia in Him. The old aphorism is that a tuning fork tuned to “A” will be in tune with allother forks tuned to “A.” Substitute Jesus for that musical tuning note and suddenly one can make a claim that we should all be the image (clone) of Jesus.
Is Christianity broke? Of course it is, it always has been. Is the Church broke, Of course it is, it always has been. Would some unbeliever reading the Scriptures think the Church, as constituted in the Israelites and the post-resurrection community, broke? Just look at the lives of Adam, Abraham, David, Peter, the Corinthians community, the six churches in the Revelation, etc, etc, etc. Sure, of course anyone reading the Word could think the whole thing is a sorry mess.
But, isn’t that getting to the whole point of what God is doing? People who ain’t broke don’t need fixing, they don’t need a Redeemer.
Perhaps what all the blogs show is our capacity for pride and prejudice: self-justification and other-condemnation; it will simply mirror what we see about us in the/our fleshly capacity.
What is the heart of the first-century church? Is it not LOVE? It is the same heart of/for this-century church.
One thing I read of late, Dan, which had me thinking for quite some time, was your comment on Theophostic Ministry. I can’t find it now to check the details for sure, but I think you said, something to the effect of, it wasn’t legit because there is no Biblical example of it. And I got thinking, What are we actually permitted to do in this day and age? And, what constitutes a Biblical example of approved actions and behaviour (that is easy for a literalist to answer)?
What I did come to realise is that there is no Biblical example of thousands and thousands and thoudsands of Christians, of the common pew-sitting variety, blogging away; they are putting out into the world community their beliefs, experiences, understanding, hurts, frustrations, anxieties, joys, successes, and pride and prejudices, and their love.
Are we to ask, Should we not be blogging because there is no Biblical example of every man, woman and their Christian dog publishing their thoughts and experiences, good or bad?
Now I have been blessed through theophostic ministry, where the strongholds of evil have been broken down in my life, where I and others have been set free from believing lies about ourselves and others; we were living in places of self-doubt and condemnation mainly because of years and years of believing crap? But we have been released, unshackled, set free because we came to face the truth and see the love of God active in our lives (I am no salesman for TM, I am simply reporting my experience). Are not these actions of being made free in, through and to love, what God the Redeemer is on about? If so, then why, I ask, is it being marginalised, even rejected as non-Biblical? Doesn’t “Biblical”, in this sense, mean pro-truth, pro-God, pro-love?
I was broke and am getting fixed. And I believe we all are broke, you, me and every other believer; and we are now fixed, and in the process of getting fixed and of being presently and continually fixed.
Is Chritianity Broke? Sure it is. How is it fixed? By loving God and by loving our neighbour on a present and continual basis.
What are the implications of Christianity being broke for bloggers? The very same as they are when they aren’t at their PC blogging their socks off, simply to love and be loved. Are we to stop blogging because there is no Biblical example of it, no Biblical equal, or because it has the potential to cause harm, or because someone might take it to some extreme and do nasty things with it? I think not, but where the act of blogging is an expression of God’s love and his nature as Redeemer then it will be both crucified in the earthly and praised in the heavenly. We can be sure of that — just look at the Biblical precedants.
And so, in my mind it is simple: if we read a blog and it ” often leaves [us] feeling confused, angry, depressed, and just about every feeling but the one the Lord wants to cultivate most in us, joy”, then, don’t read it. We are to dwell on the truthful, on the good, and loving, and Godly, on the joyful and uplifting; and we are to let God do what he does best with those things that are broken, including various blogs.
So, for the believer shouldn’t blogging/living mean being pro-truth, pro-God, pro-love? I think so. What we aren’t to do is to try and fix everyone else — that’s God’s job and he is doing it just fine.
There can be no argument over the great responsibility any Christian bears who wishes to post publicly their own thoughts and desires and activities before a watching world. In our own age, those of us who have embraced this new cultural trend face an almost overwhelming duty that few seem to recognize they have taken upon themselves. It is a duty which previously only evangelists and those in positions of some authority which exposed them to cultures and lifestyles and ideas around the world would have been called to face. They would have taken years to prepare themselves for the task that they might represent Christ to all nations, perhaps following in the footsteps of those who came before them, sheltered under the wing of mentors who helped them to learn the ropes and bear up all well under temptation.
Now, today, virtually any Christian has the opportunity to be Christ to the World and no prior preparation is necessary, not even a sense of the grand obligations and indelible trials involved. Arrogance is steep and preparedness is often shallow and those who perhaps should not speak at all are given the louder voices and more than a few attentive ears.
There will be many, I expect, who will say to Christ in future that, “We prophecied in Your Name” and the medium through which they did so transmitted their preaching and teaching to the corners of the globe. Nevertheless, He will not admit to have known them at all.
Yet, it would be folly to suggest that dogmatism (the people of GOD in Scripture were very dogmatic) or a critical attitude are wherein the problem lies. If that were so, then your own critical piece to which I am responding would certainly place you squarely among them for it is certainly critical. As with all criticism of critical people, universal statements only further the confusion and it is clear that not criticism or dogmatism, per se, but only certain kinds of each are to be avoided.
I, for one, am saddened by much that is contained in your own entry, full of imperatives about unity while tearing down others without the integrity of honest criticism. Instead, I find paraphrases of ideas you do not agree with and no sense of understanding of the point of view from which they were written or even a semblance of sincere struggle with the Biblical tezts involved. I see only naked dismissal and no taste for a Berean nobility.
I must say that I find a few insuations in your text to be Biblically ignorant, particularly calling others “back to the heart of the first century Church” which seems to be derived from a less than Biblical notion of the ecclesia. If nothing else, looking back to a sort of golden age of the Church lacks wisdom and is not in accordance with GOD’s most obvious wishes and His work among His people to this very day. “Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this” (Eccl. 7:10). There is also this strange question of whether “Christianity is broken.” It seems a little simplistic to equate “Christianity” with the singular activities of professed Christians rather than with the Standard all Christians uphold (by word even if not by deed) as the expression of “Christianity.” That is, in fact, a logical fallacy. Is it not Scripture which reveals to us that we are depraved and continually sinning? How then is “Christianity” shattered by the reality of sin in the lives of Christians which that very “Christianity” teaches will always be among us?
Here then are a few examples of disagreements that I have with what you have written. Is it wrong of me to speak of such things so publically? I hope I have misunderstood you and it is not criticism or even passionate criticism (which we see even among the godly men of Scripture) which you are criticizing but simply a tendency to explore any disagreement with a gross lack of charity.
Perhaps, in displaying a lack of charity in your paraphrases of the views of others and in your own subtle dogmatism, you have gotten caught up in the very temptation that “blogs” continuously represent for those who own them and have grown somewhat comfortable with them: the belief that what is personal bears the stamp of a private property and the right to do with it as one pleases. Morally, there are no such rights and carelessness in expression betrays something of a lack of proper perspective (James wrote on this in his epistle).
At any rate, I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak openly on an issue that has occupied my own thoughts for some time now and concerning which I am always interested in another perspective. But I, as I expect you perhaps are, am only interested in other perspectives for something beyond themselves, for the purpose of evaluating them and not merely as a collector of ideas. Criticism is very important when it is done well and most assuredly when it expresses a burning but controlled passion, for I believe the Bible is clear that any morally important idea we encounter that does not incite passion expressing itself in action was never truly understood.
I will say this again, but more directly. Most Christians in the United States have no interest in overcoming their own sin. They have been told that God loves everybody and Jesus died for all sins, past present and future, both of which are true, and they take this to mean that they do not have to change their sinful behaviour. Jesus said, ” Do not be DECEIVED, God is not mocked, whatever one sows one will reap.”
Christianity in the United States has FAILED. Most Christians no longer try to OVERCOME sin. Ministers, priests and pastors no longer demand it. The whole body of Christ in the United States is spiritually weak and getting weaker by the day. If we do not stop doing church the same old way, this country will fall into chaos and destruction. It could happen and probably will, unless we all repent and start fully obeying the New Testament. This cannot be solved intelectually. Writing books and journal articles will not cure the problem. What our spiritual leaders learned in seminary will be of no use. WE need real faith.
Does anyone really care about this? Probably not. We are far too self involved, materialistic and full of lust. May God help us and forgive us.
Steve Thompson
Steve,
I do not disagree with the issue of sin (I wrote on this in “Whatever Happened to Sin?”—see the classic post link), but I am not sure if the lack of overcoming it is the sole reason that the Church in America is on life-support. In fact, the problem I am noting in the blogs more resembles a lack of love. If we believe that love overcomes a multitude of sins, then our bigger problem is not being loving enough.
I have been raised in church, gone to church camps, fell in love with girls at church camps innumerable times, and also been ‘saved’ at church camp innumberable times. I have been a trustee, taught Sunday school, told if I didn’t get the alcohol left over from our wedding out of the house I couldn’t teach Sunday school, been on the Pastor Parish comittee and seen good Christians, give really good Pastors the boot in a very mean spirited way and seen way too much in church to leave me as anything more than a cynic when it comes to Church, Christianity, and all that is acquainted with it.
But, I am still learning to Love Jesus, and hopefully become more like Him.
I have been on medication for depression, and made to feel less than a Christian. I have been prayed for healing for a paralyzed right arm. When these strong faithfilled Christians finished praying for me, and when my arm was still hanging useless at my side, I was told that it was my fault it was still paralyzed. I must have unforgiveness in my life or else I would have been healed.
They then chatted about how many times they had been ‘blasted’ in the Spirit in Canada and Florida at who knows how many conferences, who knows where. I restrained from saying that perhaps the only unforgiveness I knew of happened after they condemned me for God not restoring nerves that had been pulled out of my spinal cord as a result of hitting a bridge girder with my shoulder in a motorcycle accident. By the way, that accident contributed strongly to my depression for which I was taking the medication.
I could go on and on. Lately I have been dissatisfied by the ‘organized church’ like so many many that have written in. This has brought me a measure of comfort, seeing others with similar experience and emotion.
In the church as out of the church, misery loves company. Yet I am very concerned about a few things.
As I have said,I’ve been around church and been at some level of relationship with Jesus for about 40 years. I am 48 now. I was reminded just today by the Holy Spirit, just me and Him in the middle of lunch, of my first encounter with Christ. As a little kid I found myself in tears at an altar saying “God, I don’t know why I am here. But I know you love me and I want to love you. If you want to, you can use me.”
The church I grew up in was flawed. The church I just left after 36 years in attendence and at least 8 pastors was flawed. The church I have started to attend is flawed. Is there a pattern here?
Yep, I guess it is me. I am flawed.
I see and read blogs and e newsletters about all these unhappy Christians slamming the organized church and western Christianity and 20 and 21st century Chrristians… Slamming on how we give $ to this and $ are stolen and misused. How this is preached and that isn’t preached and how the worship is not this or too much that.
But, in the end it comes down to me and my response and guess what – I am flawed.
My guess is that if we are real, admit it to the mirror maybe, you might be a bit flawed too.
What really concerns me is that I see that in this Third Wave(?)or New Church, or First Century Church revisited, or the New Wineskin Model, or Apostolic Reformation of the Prophetic Baptist Neo Pentecostal Church of the Living Being Jesus is the Way Truth And Life Fellowship of First Street Downtown Your Town My Town USA onto the World….Anyhow… Don’t we get it? It is really simple.
The church IS flawed. It has always been flawed. I am flawed and I guess the church is flawed because it has people in it who are like me. Flawed.
I think we easily forget that’s why Christ died, and more importantly, that’s why Christ rose again. Because I/we are flawed.
It will be flawed until Christ comes back for the church without spot and blemish. When will that be? I don’t know. If it is dependant on me, we are all in trouble.
Thank God it is dependant on Christ who says that He is committed to being our righteousness. Isn’t that the message we are to share WITH THEM! The outsiders where we all used to be…and at times still camp out in our behavior.
Thank God for His grace, I know I am flawed, But dear Jesus help me!
Isn’t there some refernce about willing and then doing His good pleasure. Two areas where I find myself visiting on occasion…
What I see and read so much now is that this perfection will come and will only happen if we dismantle organized Religion, Organized Denominations and go to house churches.
Forgive my rant, WE don’t have it right yet. But where is the grace from the ‘Jesus people’ or Christians or whatever name they /we are tagging ourselves in 2005 – So let those who can only hear God in the Hymns let them hear God in the Hymns. If you hear God at Church Camp, go to church camp, but don’t slam me because I don’t like sleeping on an uncomfortable bunk bed listening to 20 guys who need to have their adenoids taken out to stop their snoring and besides maybe I hate bugs! If you can hear God better in a home meeting, go to a home meeting but don’t slam me because I can hear God in the organ music. When we were ready to move on in relationship with Him, he showed us where to go and not go. He did it with Abraham and a bunch of others down through history. People who have built on the foundation of Christ to get us to this point as “the Church’ to this point of ongoing Holiness and ironing out of the wrinkles. My goodness in little House on the Prairie days they heated the iron over an open flame. Now we have portable irons that fold up so nicely in our bags as we take them on our overseas mission trips and they will actually work on 220 AND 110 current. We even have steamers that get the wrinkles out with hot air. (I will let you draw you own analogy there.)
God can use and has used and will use different methods to get the wrinkles out of His church.
God is a great Communicator. I was in South Africa on a mission trip and saw little kids crawling through a smoldering dumpster looking for used metal to make trinkets to sell at the market place. How does that line up with my Western Christian world view? Heidi Baker with Iris Ministies in Mozambique has church in a garbage dump and God shows up. She has seen 5,000 churches planted as she shares the love of Christ in action. http://www.irismin.org/
God is a great Communicator. As I was seeing these kids in the dumpster in Africa and trying to sort the whole thing out in my head, my heart and my emotions, I heard Jesus say this to me – “I did not come to save them from their culture, I came to save them from their sin. As truly as I can speak to you on your back porch in Pittsburgh, I can speak to them where they are.
Folks, if I read my Bible correctly, and guess what, I don’t read it everyday, shall I get the whip for my flogging?, it says that Christ is coming back for a church without wrinkles. I still have wrinkles. The churches I have attended have not been perfect(I was a member)yet I heard God in them and my life has been changed. My life and walk of faith is changing still.
I don’t doubt that God is changing ‘church’ as we know it in 2005. A quick look at history and we can see He has been doing it for hundreds of years.
What I don’t see Him changing is the intentionality of His desire for relationship with us. He has done a bazillion things to get our attention, including allowing us to be uncomfortable in ‘church’ as we know it. Wherever it is. I think He has done this because He desires relationship with His Church. In whatever manner we can hear His voice. That relationship is based on His love and grace and mercy.
I am flawed. Please forgive ME! But we have such a tendency to fuss about what we don’t like instead of praying for the lady at Dunkin Donuts who had an allergic reaction to some hand cream.
Just Be the church. Be the church outside the home groups or cell groups or Sunday School class. Be the church to those who don’t know or care about what you don’t like about the church.
Can we who are dissatisfied with ‘church’ as we know it stop slamming ‘church’ and become the church?
Now I guess I have just done what I don’t like? I guess it’s the old beam in my eye getting in the way. Sorry, I’m still flawed. But I am still a Christian.
Thanks for the soap box…I guess I’ll use some of the soap to go clean up!
Bill
You know, these are really great questions you have asked. I don’t know if my blog is edifying or not. It simply presents my struggles and successes. I enjoyed your thoughts on this though. Keep it up.
I guess I’m just not reading the same blogs you are. I’ve seen a few of these things once or twice, and a couple of them come up too often by far, but the vast majority of them are things I’ve never seen. Most of the most prominent Christian blogs don’t seem anything like this to me. That doesn’t mean you’re wrong. I just haven’t seen this to anywhere even remotely near what you’re describing.
Ok the Roman Catholic’s turn.
I understand how you feel trust me. I struggle with the flaws of my church in recent times. The priest scandles and such. But then I did research and found out the Catholic Church was #3 in scandles of abuse…#1 are independent ministers. I was stunned. I ask myself how is this possible…IS CHRISTIANITY FAILING…similar to your question.
But then I remembered that in acts the apostles argued with eachother all the time…I also remembered in the Gospel’s they had a few battles with eachother…Paul started off as a persuctor of christians, he became one of the greatest apostles.
In short they were human too. I had the exact opposite reaction to the blogs you have had. I was thrilled when I searched the blogasphere for the first time…I couldn’t believe how many christian blogs I came across…I was stunned…and happy.
You see I live in a college that is very secular…we have a core group of christians…but believe me we are way outnumbered out here…Look at the blog from another angle! Christians all over the world are being heard through words! For every person who gets mad about someone’s blog another person reads the arguement or testimony they have been searching for and for the first time they are really considering God!
What we need to do is frame our debates better. Just because we are human doesn’t mean Christian has broken or has failed. It is rather silly when you think about it! Look what the Church and Christianity has went through for around 2000 years…perscutions, rapes, genocide, wars, scandles, divisions, seperation, the death of our God, lies, corruption, ect…
and yet look at this:
There are 1.1 BILLION Catholics…let me say that again 1.1 BILLION!!!
There are over 250 MILLION baptist!
That is two denominations…I did the research on this…there are over 10,000 christian denominations (including nondenominationalists)…10,000!!!
Imagine how many christians are out there!
I can imagine St. Paul hearing us say that christianity is broken back when he first started and there were around a 1,000 converts. I think St. Paul would hit us on the head with a stick and asks if that helped clear the fog any! (If St. Peter didn’t get to us first)
We are not broken! We have around 2 Billion christians. Flawed, divided, and HUMAN. If the apostles didn’t always get along, come on we are going to have our fights to. So the answer is not to say we fight to much (We know that), we are divided (we got that down to), or whatever.
The answer is to lead by example…that is what I am trying to do. Here is part of the entry from my recent post to explain why Catholics don’t believe Jesus had brothers or sisters. (Controversal topic right!)
“I have been planning this for some time…I want to give people a grasp of what, and the why, Catholics believe. So I am going to do it in multiple entries. This is not meant to convert, but if it does then God bless and welcome, it is meant to be informational. You are welcome to argue and debate or just comment, but please keep the arguments semi-reasonable and respectfull! Sorry this is going to be long…to present a good defense of this belief some length is required.”
and then I ended it with:
“Please comment on what you like…keep it civil and Catholics remember this is not to prove how right we are…it is to show that we didn’t just come up with this out of thin air! Its Informational. Remeber we are the body of the same Christ…May God unite us agian someday! God Bless!”
Once upon a time people wrote diaries and kept them private. The act of writing down these thoughts created a permanent but private record of a life at various points in time. But ideas, opinions and feelings change. The way we react to a given stimulus now may be vastly different to the way we reacted when we diarised it. Now we have blogs and the whole world knows our deepest thoughts, sometimes as soon as we are having them, and once they are out there you can’t get them back. I wonder how many people have read their old diaries and been silently grateful thay no-one knew they thought or said or did a particular thing. Blogging should be approached with care.
…and the good ol’ art of journaling private kept too…