Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven
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| Sunny Days in Heaven Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven |
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Monday, May 20, 2002 Second Thoughts Mark Byron has a fine blog on verses of Paul's from Colossians; particularly regarding the nature of blog and journalism commentary. To be a writer who attracts interest, one thing is essential - a focus on conflict. Two other things are equally helpful - to be vehement in outrage and invective, and/or funny in savaging others. Both qualities of writing depend on name calling, categorizing the nature and type of another person so as to discredit their actions, positions, or beliefs. But for Christians, this poses a problem. We are forbidden to engage in name calling of any kind by Jesus (anyone who calls his brother, raqa - traitor - will answer for it before the Sanhedrin; or something like that). Thus, any pejorative name we use for another is equivalent to traitor since it always implies that the other person is letting the side down somehow. Even to call someone a heretic, an apostate, is to categorize. And it is this dehumanization by categorizing others that Jesus objected to. But being careful about what we call those we disagree with makes for duller writing. It takes more time to respect another's humanity castigating an opinion or belief and not the person behind the opinion. So and so is a fool! That is quick and to the point. So and so holds a particularly foolish idea! No, it doesn't really rock the paper and ink or screen, does it? Also, as Christians, our interest should not lie in devoting so much of our attention to conflicts in the world and with others necessarily. We should be spending more effort looking at the good in others and counting our blessings than complaining about every new outrage (until all we do is rant). For myself, I hate what the cardinals and bishops have done to my church (and no, I'm not going to look on the bright side or seek to know the good of these men since I feel certain they are corrupted by their offices), but I can't spend every day thinking and blogging about every new item of vice and corruption in the church as some others seem to be doing. For one thing, there will be no end of liturgical, canonical, official outrages in this world. The same with The Corner and NRO, Frontpage and so many other conservative websites that flush out from cover daily another egregious story of Man the Fool. I visit many sites, but I do a lot of skipping and skimming now. Many bloggers comment on the high quality output of James Lileks in his Bleats and Screeds, for his writing is colorful, funny, and vehemently apt in invective quite often; but it also means that Lileks is operating at a high emotional and inventive pitch (his similes, metaphors, and comparisons are incredibly rich and descriptive). He could not do this if he were worried about others' feelings, if he had to examine his conscience ( and measure it against Jesus' standard) and his right to call other people idiots, fools, nut cases and so on. (We're going to overlook those verses for this time where Jesus curses out various sorts with woes upon them, or when Paul lashes out in Corinthians and elsewhere just after he's been counseling patience, forbearance, and tenderness.) That's why I often say that to be a Christian is to be a dullard. We aren't allowed to be loud, obnoxious, offensive (in manner), vulgar, scornful, derisive, and so on - all the fun things that other people do who don't care what God has to say about Love. Generally, Mark writes analysis and not invective which is why I read him and a few others regularly even when I'm not interested in his subject matter. He tends to make it interesting to me because of his tone. posted by Mark Butterworth | 2:06 AM | |
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