God’s WORD Should Guide Our Choices

I can be a blog junkie!

I read several blogs every day. Some I go to multiple times a week. I read the  archives, the About page, I follow links to new blogs, I download and read the free e-books they give away – I have one too, by the way,  if you’re interested just subscribe – see link below – and I’ll send you the link.

I read the comments, the rebuttals and retractions, I read blogs with lots of sports action. I read blogs on religion and music, movies too but blogs on politics leave me blue

OK, enough of that, it’s just silly!

I read blogs about food, comic blogs, blogs about and by comedians, history blogs, science blogs and about dogs – Bully’s to be exact.

Did I say “a lot”?

One thing I have noticed at several of the sites I am visiting – sometimes I make comments sometimes I just “lurk” – is that the blogger, as well as the comment makers, come close to blows when there is a difference of opinion. It’s both funny and scary sometimes how dark these exchanges can become.

In many cases, the post turns from a source of information or opinion into a “gloves-off” BASH zone.

Now don’t get me wrong, I believe we are all entitled to our opinion and expressing it is our right – being able to express it is after all why we all got into blogging in the first place.  It is one of the greatest things about the internet. That is not really the problem.

The issue I have is that I am seeing too much of this discord and vitriol – not on sites from either side of the political spectrum but on sites by people professing to be followers of Christ and the people that comment on their blogs.

Again, I am not telling people they cannot think or believe what they want or that they cannot or should not express themselves; but the way we express ourselves, as Christians – a term I find that I use less and less as the years pass – has to be done in such a way that it remains Biblical and falls under the authority of scripture.

Paul says in Ephesians and 2 Timothy, 4:29 and 2:14 respectively, that we must take care with our words not for our benefit but for the benefit of the “hearer” – or in our case the “reader” but the idea is the same.

When we argue, even making a valid argument, we make ourselves look disjointed and out of sync. What person is going to be interested in what we have to say about Christ, much less surrender their life to him if we cannot remain civil toward one another? And Paul makes it clear, it is OUR responsibility to do so, not the other person.

For me, if I become more concerned about who sits in the Oval Office, wins the “big game,” or that there is really no argument between chunky and smooth, than where your soul spends eternity, then nothing I say is worth listening to.

I found myself on blog the other day by a guy who was NOT a professing Christ follower. In fact, he openly and with a deep seeded hatred, lashed out and any and all that questioned his position. I too took exception to some of his assertions but in the end choose to not even comment – though I feel I might go back and just ask him why he’s so mad?  But I fear even this would be met with an unnecessary vitriol.

His blog, his rules. I get that, and the negative discourse is still discourse. P.T. Barnum is credited with saying that there is no “bad publicity,” and if the goal is to just pick fights, then sure, I guess.

Now, as a writer with a blog that desperately wants people to participate and make comments, I recognize that you, the reader, may not always agree with what I say, and that is fine – discourse is the only way we will discover other thoughts and ideas. So, I want you to leave comments EVEN if you disagree with me.

However, if you feel that your comment requires expletives or will be in a generally uncivil tone, then please email me and let’s talk – such as email exchanges are talking – about our differences privately. We can even exchange cell numbers and have an actual conversation.  That is, of course, assuming your goal is to have a discussion.

Why do you think we never hear about the fact that the “conversation” is nearly extinct?

For me, it is far more important to GET it right than to BE right

What do you think? Comment civilly – or not –below.