Blogs -- Blessing and Curse

Sometimes, I feel guilty for not blogging more frequently. Some of the members of the parish where I preach every other week have kindly suggested that I post my sermons -- but my Baptist upbringing asserts itself in my preaching, which I prepare without writing a manuscript, so I must write the sermon down later, and the written version usually bears about as much resemblance to the original as the average Hollywood movie does to the books they bastardize.

However, in reading other blogs -- and particularly the comments sections attached to them -- I realize that perhaps it is better to err on the side of blogging too seldom. St. James says "for every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue -- a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God." (James 3:7-9)

If there is anything full of even deadlier poison than the tongue, it is the internet. Far easier to make a comment on a stranger's blog one has never met than to look them in the eye and say some of the things we say. And the very concept of the blog has further eroded the line between public and private. As a means of posting about current events and ideas, it is a wonderful medium -- but as a form of personal communication, it encourages us to make quite public matters best kept between family and friends. It can lead to both narcissism and voyeurism.

I hope and pray that God may preserve us from the sinful havoc this technology can enable us to wreak so much more quickly and widely than before, and may instead inspire us to use it for the greater good.