Getting serious about blogging, 2
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As I was saying in the last post, Hugh Hewitt’s book Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation was a challenge and provocation for me. The more I reflected on it after reading it, the more I realized that in many ways my blog was, well, bland.
I hate to admit that to myself, because I feel that I’ve been pretty informative, encouraging, challenging and even edgy (heck, who else do you know that writes about butt boils?). However, I have rarely written about topics that are controversial. I have for the most part steered clear of politics (except for last year’s sales tax debacle). And I have been very vocal about my faith and love for Jesus Christ. It is the absolute foundation of all that I do.
Yet, Hewitt’s book bothered me. In a nutshell, it caused me to consider whether my writings were really influencing readers - or if they were merely informing readers.
When I was running MonticelloLive.com, I chose to not only report news but to dig deeper beneath our community’s noise and try to see what was making things “tick” and “go bump in the night.” I learned a lot about some people’s motives, ideals and agendas. Some of those were encouraging; some were disconcerting.
The times that I wrote editorials (1, 2, 3), I got quite a bit of negative feedback from some leaders in town and even from a few Christians. The gist of their complaint was that I was a pastor, and that I shouldn’t be saying the things I was saying. It’s quite a turn of events to realize that just 100 years ago, pastors were the moral leaders and opinion influencers in their communities. Heck, 500 years ago, pastors were the primary civic leaders and engines of community life. (Can you say Martin Luther or John Calvin?!) Imagine what things would be like politically and religiously if they had listened to folks tell them that pastors should just preach and not get involved!
That brings me full circle to what I am have wrestling with. It’s been obvious over the past year that local news outlets choose simply to report news. It’s like a reflex. Something happens; someone writes about it. There is not much of an effort to dig deep and find news. Truly getting involved and seeking to contribute to community life, however, requires more than that.
Edmund Burke said,
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” (Wayne Greeson has an excellent sermon on this topic here.)
It’s not just evil that triumphs when good people do nothing. Ignorance prevails. I think it’s time to do something. How about you? (to be continued)
July 24th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Preach it, Brotha Jeff! I whole heartedly agree. I mentioned in my last comment on this issue that I, myself, have been reconsidering what topics I post on my blog. Posting anything controversial is just plain scary. Finding a way to blog about something you are passionate about to INFLUENCE someone else to think like you (b/c obviously you think you are right.. not you.. but me lol)really can open you up to a lashing on the world wide web. I’m definitely becoming more sure on certain positions I hold, and less sure on others. The ones I feel Christ is nudging me into and practically throwing information at me about, I blog about. Not everyone agrees with everything I write, and I’m finally okay with that. That is a really hard concept for me.. that not everyone thinks I’m as smart as I do. ;)
Mandys last blog post..Super Easy Way to Be Greener Today
July 29th, 2008 at 11:07 am
I’ve been thinking about this post. I do think it’s important to distinguish between reporting the news and INFLUENCING the news…that’s the main problem I have with journalism today. I do think our society has a warped sense of what exactly is news and what is merely gossip. And quite honestly, I think our society as a whole wants to tell people how/what to think. I fear we’re becoming a society that doesn’t know what to think about anything until we’re told what our opinion should be. I think the result is a dumbing down of our country. I don’t want to know what a reporter’s slant on the story is. I want him/her to give me ALL the facts and let me draw my own conclusions. In light of the way our media works, I’m making a conscious effort to teach my children how to think. I want them to use logic to pull out the actual facts of the story and distinguish those from the editorials that have become mixed in with the facts.
July 29th, 2008 at 11:09 am
But to clarify further…..I read a blog knowing that I’m going to hear the writer’s opinion/thoughts/summation of a topic. I expect that. I don’t expect it from the newspaper or the nightly news.