
It is fashionable to disrespect blogging. State conventions have passed resolutions focused on the evils of our pursuit. The new NAMB president showed utter disdain for those of us who write online, saying that we all wear housecoats and live with our mothers. Several prominent bloggers have for various reasons either left blogging behind or cut back dramatically.
I have no doubts that blogging sometimes takes more of my time than I should probably give it. And there are certainly times when blogs get out of hand. Wild and unsubstantiated rumors sometimes fly, and people can dig their teeth into something and not let go (witness the White/Caner imbroglio). We sometimes give ourselves black eyes.
But in spite of all this, I love blogging. I think it has a lot of positive possibilities that blossom among the thorns and thistles. I’d like to spell out a few of the reasons I like to blog.
1) Blogging provides an audience for our ideas.
I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I have been writing stories since I was in high school. It is unbelievably hard to get books published. Maybe my books just aren’t good enough. I don’t know. But I have been writing all my life. For the most part, my books remain on my computer.
Blogging gave me the one thing that publishers have not yet provided – an audience. I write something, publish it, and people read it. Sometimes they like it. Sometimes they don’t. But people are reading and responding to what I write. And that is really cool.
I was at the convention in Orlando and was introduced to a man I had admired for quite a while. When he heard my name, he smiled and say, “I read your blog and I really like it.” A man I respected was reading my blog. That is an awesome privilege and I am deeply grateful for a forum. Each of us should take that privilege seriously.
2) Blogging is the most democratic of forums.
Why am I a blogger today? Because when a brouhaha broke out at IMB, I started reading blogs. Then, one day I went to Blogger and set up an account. It took maybe 10 minutes and voila, I was a blogger. I didn’t have to apply, I didn’t have to get approval. There was no committee that met to determine my qualifications. If you want to be a blogger, you can be a blogger.
In blogging, its not who you know, its how you write. I did not know a single person in the blog world five years ago when I got into this world. I just started commenting. Then I started blogging, interacting with people. I didn’t have to be part of the in-crowd or get a password that only the insiders could get. Even a nobody from Northwest Iowa could put his ideas out there for all to read.
There are few things in life more accessible, more democratic, than blogging.
3) Blogging taught me to deal with criticism
My first foray into online communication was an email devotional I used to send out a couple of times a week, called “Word Processing.” I started by sending it to family and friends and gradually added people as they requested to be on the email list. Several of the devotionals I wrote got picked up by other email journals and I began to get comments from around the world.
The vast majority of comments I got were positive. But I got a couple of negative comments and that just devastated me. I started to obsess about the handful of negative comments instead of the messages of support. I had a really good thing going, but the few criticisms I received cratered me and I stopped writing. I let a few negative words lead me to waste an opportunity God gave me.
Then, I found blogging and I had a new chance. If you blog at all you know that someone is not going to like something you write. If you blog, you are going to be told you are an idiot. I’ve gotten plenty of that.
I hope I never come to the point where I blithely ignore others opinions, but blogging has helped me realize that I can live through the pain of being criticized! One blogger, a man whom I have never met and never even talked to, diagnosed me with a mental disorder. He’s probably right. But a few years ago, his critique would have put me into a fetal position for a couple of weeks. Now, I laugh about it.
Okay, I still don’t like to be criticized. I think it would be a much better world if everyone agreed with me. But I’ve learned to live with the fact that there are people who don’t like me, who think I’m a jerk, or who think my ideas stink.
Blogging has helped me learn that lesson.
4) Blogging is educational.
Some folks won’t admit that. Yes, many comment streams descend into name-calling and stupidity. It happens. But there is a lot of substantive, educational discussion that can be found on blogs.
I got into blogging because of my opposition to what is often called the Baptist Identity movement. I spent a lot of time arguing with people from that side (and along the way, came to think of several of them as friends). Along the way, I sharpened my views of ecclesiology (still trying to convince CB of the city-church idea) and came to a better understanding of baptism. I wrote an article at sbcIMPACT explaining why I believe that divorced men should be allowed to serve in leadership in the church. There was some petty arguing, but Bart Barber came along and made some really powerful points that made me have to rethink my positions. I learned from his challenging my views.
Yes, there are some sites that specialize in the Baptist version of yellow journalism, or get bogged down in petty “gotcha” exchanges over silly issues. But there are substantive blogs where real issues are discussed in depth. “Between the Times” comes to mind. I could list several of my favorites here.
I’ve learned a lot from blogging.
5) Blogging makes friends.
Yes, blogging has made me a couple of enemies along the way. But I’ve made some friends as well – more than I have made enemies. At the convention, I hung out with David Rogers and Chris Johnson. I would not have ever met either of them if not for the blogosphere. I shared a meal with some fella named CB Scott. I went to Tony Roma’s with several of the guys from SBC Today and several other bloggers. I had a great time. Matt Svoboda and I became friends through the blogging process. I’m still trying to straighten out his eschatology, but that won’t be a quick fix.
I’m not trying to drop names here. I’m just saying that I would have never met any of these guys if it were not for blogging.
6) Blogging makes a difference.
This is the dirty secret that some in power do not want to admit. The SBC is different today because of the blogging phenomenon. In 2006, there were a couple of prominent names put forward for SBC president. Frank Page was also a candidate. Information was distributed in blogs that let everyone know that the two most prominent candidates had less than spectacular records of Cooperative Program support. I’m sure there were many reasons why Frank Page was elected in Greensboro, but I think bloggers has something to do with that. Would Frank Page be EC President today if not for bloggers? Who knows? But I doubt it.
The powers-that-be often want to treat us as irrelevant, as “bloggers in housecoats” who should simply be ignored. But what we do does make a difference sometimes.
7) Bloggers are, in a sense, the real “Baptist Press”
BP is essentially a public relations arm of the Executive Committee and the various entities. Articles about IMB are written by IMB PR staff. Articles about NAMB are written by NAMB staff. And when there is anything controversial or potentially negative, you have to go to ABP or elsewhere to read about it.
But we are providing, as bloggers, some of the independent analysis and debate that Baptist Press should provide. Yes, of course, that is sometimes mixed with wild rumors and slander – the downside of the blogging phenomenon. But we are providing a real service in getting information and analysis to those who want to read more than the sanitized official press releases of our entities.
I understand that blogging has its downsides. I think there is a tendency toward relentless negativity among some bloggers. Certainly, some among us seem more interested in tearing down than in building up. And blogging attracts more than its share of blathering bloviators. We are an imperfect forum with lots of room for improvement. There are no blog police to reign us in when we get lose our self-control. All of these are genuine problems.
But I love blogging and I am glad its here. I think the SBC is going to be a better place because there is a way for the people who are not in power to have a voice.
Next time you tell someone you are a blogger, don’t hang your head!
You got it, man.
I wouldn’t have the best friend I have today, were it not for blogging. I wouldn’t have gotten involved in SBC matters were it not for blogging. I wouldn’t really understand what it means to be Baptist, at least not the way I do now, but for blogging.
And I for sure wouldn’t ever have been quoted in the Greensboro newspaper, talking about Baptists and beer.
🙂
Give us the quote. I don’t get the Greensboro news.
I’d gone to the church Wade B was preaching at, the Sunday before the convention started. A reported was there and was interviewing him about the brouhaha going on, and asked what sort of folks read his blog. He pointed me out and she interviewed me; among other things, she asked me what I thought about the “hot issues” .. tongues and Calvinism. I said “I think they’re about like Baptists and beer drinking .. there’s plenty of it going on, but nobody wants to talk about it”.
We laughed about it a lot. He said he’s gone to the last 30 conventions, and NEVER got quoted or spoke from the floor and here I’m in the newspaper before he even gets there.
He still laughs about that.
My pastor said (good naturedly) that he didn’t believe he’d have said that; I asked him to tell me I was wrong. He said “Oh, you’re not .. I myself just wouldn’t have said that”.
“We” in paragraph 2 is me & my pastor.
Blogging is great fun but it always needs to be done with integrity and truthfulness. And the truthfulness needs to be measured with reason because sometimes its better not to broadcast the truth. Way too many Baptist blogs today are filled with inuendo, hate, and vindictiveness and as a Biblical writer said, “these things out not to be this way.”
Keep up the blogging and help us enjoy it.
Eventually, you’re going to find blogging subject to the libel laws that govern newspapers and news websites.
Let the frivolous lawsuits commence…oh wait…
These are great reasons why blogging is so important, not just for the reader, but also for the writer. I’ve been able to sort out my thoughts on a lot of significant issues because I knew those thoughts would be read by others . . . and remain in print. Blogging also helps me be consistent, because I know if I begin to change my positions, someone will catch me on it.
Perhaps most importantly for me and what I write about, blogging gives me an opportunity to reach an audience with good news they might not hear were I left only to the established means.
I think good blogging is here to stay.
Blogging gives pastors something to do when they have “sermon block”. 🙂
I’m just glad you’re no longer one of my deacons, Ken. You’d turn me in for all the time I waste with this hobby.
How are things? You guys like where you are?
The irony is that I wrote this about how much I love blogging just before I found out about the ugly incident that has dominated discussion the last few days. Not sure I would have written this if I’d known!
Nah, I still love blogging.
Are you speaking of the “Drinking at SEBTS” conjecture article?
Blogging is and interesting phenomenon. I note it has come into prominence just a most state mental institutions are closing and sending people homel!!!
The good points I see are:
*place where expression can be somewhat free
*easy to find out what people are thinking
*Keeps some crazies occupied from chasing cars
*Place to contront rumors
The minuses I see are:
*a little light on deep thinking at time
*a good place to start rumors
*seldom really explores subjects fully
*those becoming obsessed tend not to have demanding jobs
Then of course, there is the problem of you (Gene Scarborough) stating things about people, places and events in SBC life that are complete fabrications (lies) without regard to who you harm in the process.
The core nature of the problem is that you are not just mistaken when you say things that are untrue, but rather, you lie with willful intent.
Add to minus list = people like cb who constantly want to degrade their opposition in stead of what David Miller reminded me recently: debate the issue over fighting the blogger!
I’m doing just that in hopes you get the inspiration from example, cb, old fist fighter from Alebamie!
Hey, CB, you remember the other day where Gene-o said he wasn’t going to talk to us anymore because he said we’re not SBC?? And he has engaged us how many times since he said that? LOL
Yeah, it was kind of like when you said you were done with a thread yet continued to come back because you hadn’t punched enough kittens over the week.
Yet you kept posting and posting…
Just you, Joe “the blow”—not cb = this is your last from me, old mighty balsa wood caveman bat carrier!!!
As of now, I’m writing both of you off and will ignore your SBC related insults to me. How about that for an analysis
I note Al Mohler is using Twitter for his pontifications =
A Tweet from a Twit!!!d
I guess the above gentlemen would be:
d”A Blog from a Blowhard!!!!”
I’ll actually second the “sermon block” point.
I also like that I’ll blog topically, whilst preaching sequentially through the text. If I have an ax to grind or a rabbit to chase, I’ve got a blog for that, and it helps me stay more focused on preaching the text on Sundays. Not that I blog anything false (I don’t think I do, except some pro-Arkansas sports hyperbole), just that I blog things that aren’t quite fit for the important time called the sermon.
That’s a good point.