Bloggers beware....

I understand the antipathy many of my friends have towards the blogosphere.

Kim Riddlebarger recently made this point well, showing how the web instantly makes 'everybody a theologian'! I wonder if it's yet another variation of the 'every member is a minister' confusion that is well-intended but not always well-founded. There are a lot of people 'blogging' that simply don't know what they are talking about.

An even greater concern to me is the level of vitriol that often ensues when discussion/debate demonstrates two (or more) groups on the opposite side of the fence. And this is where the blogosphere (just as e-mail has been for the past decade) is a two-edged sword. It has a great potential of disseminating helpful information...but it disseminates a lot of vitriol of people that would be better off guarding their tongue. Indeed it can be a fire, a world of unrighteousness (James 3:6). Blogging is yet another extension of the tongue.

But I wonder sometimes if people would say in person the same things they write on their (and other) blogs. It's a worthy question to ask before you post anything to the public or respond on someone else's blog.

This is one reason why I rely so heavily on journals and books from established schools and publishers. I just don't have time for empty rhetoric with no substance. Just give me your Biblical, exegetical, theological or historical argument.....back it up with documentation....and leave all of the personal antidotes out!! That doesn't mean everything in journals is worth reading. But on the whole, it's a more productive use of my time.

Life is just too short to be wasted reading armchair theology.