A Civil Tone, A Sanctified Tongue

(In light of recent comments on SBCOutpost, I am republishing the entry that I wrote in October of 2006)

I confess an ambivalence about the value of blogs. While a blog allows creativity, an exchange of ideas, and an opportunity to encourage and to teach, it also hides inherent temptations. Most obviously, blogging is inherently ego-centric. It's MY opinion about what matters to ME and what I want others to think. It provides that little voice inside my head that constantly lies to me that I am so much more than a servant to infect others, too.

I am often dismayed by the carelessness with which words are used in some blogs. People are labelled, motives implied, accusations hurled, faults exposed, and questions raised, often with a smugness and a self-righteousness that forgets we are only servants, unprofitable servants at that. Who am I to judge another man's servant?

I don't mind disagreement. My former students Joel Rainey and Paul Cooper publicly disagreed with my defense of the IMB policy on baptism, but they did it kindly, graciously, mindful to distinguish between their love of me and their rejection of my arguments. Our disagreements pale in comparison to our love and respect for one another. Unfortunately, that kind of brotherly love and kindness often disappears in the blogosphere.

Jesus was straightforward in Matthew 18. If you have something against your brother, go to him. Don't write him a letter, and certainly don't take your concerns to others first. Go to him. Love him. Paul reiterated this teaching in Galatians 6. If a brother is overtaken in a fault, you spiritual ones restore him.

Many blogs fail to exhibit that attitude at all; others may not be so bold, but they are quick to link to the outrageous claims of another, saying something like, "Bart Clueless has an interesting post on latest controversy at Outback Seminary. Check it out here."

Blogs are unmoderated, unchallenged when one is writing. Though readers can respond later, they can't really temper what was originally written.

I have always believed in the power of meeting with people face to face, looking them in the eye, and lovingly telling them the truth. Blogs make us believe we have done that, when in fact we have not. When we post a disagreement with someone, we aren't going to them in love, we are telling an invisible audience what we think. Blogs encourage cowardice. Like an intellectual pornography, venting my concerns to a blank screen that is available anytime I want it is easier than finding the courage to relate to someone personally.

Furthermore, when I go to someone with an issue, I sometimes discover that my information or my impression was completely wrong. I got mad at a certain seminary president once over something trivial. After I went to him and vented I was embarrassed to discover he didn't even know about the thing that had bothered me so terribly. My anger was completely misdirected. What if I had taken my concerns to the internet? I would have wronged him greatly.

Words can't be taken back. They have an incredible power to uplift, encourage, guide, and motivate. On the other hand they can wound, stab, mislead, and defeat. Once they are out there, you can't take them back even if you take them down.

Blogs can be a distraction. They make us think we are doing ministry when in fact we are only talking about it. They deceive us into believing that we are participating in the process when all we have done is criticize the process. Reading them for hours at a time might widen our rears but never deepen our souls. If I can write about how little the SBC is doing to help the poor, I don't have to go work at a soup kitchen, right? I can share my views on pastoring even if I have never grown a church. I can criticize the preaching of others though no one is really listening to my own sermons.

This is a dangerous dance with ego.

Every Christian blogger needs to read 1 Corinthians 13 and then take an honest look at every word he or she writes. Do my words fulfill 1 Corinthians 13? Am I doing it in love? We need to disavow personal attacks, the judgment of motives, bitterness, ungodly anger, even an unchristian tone. Our words must have the effect of edification, not merely pontification.