9 Blogging for Jesus

Recently I’ve been reading “Wide as the Waters; the story of the English Bible and the revolution it inspired,” after earlier reading in November “In the beginning; the story of the King James Bible and how it changed a nation, a language, and a culture.” Both books clearly show that having the Bible in English dramatically resulted in questioning the authority of the church and the king. Eventually it led to a constitutional government. Also, increased Bible reading then led to the production of other books and a huge increase in literacy among the English.

Fast forward several centuries, and look what amateur “journalists” are doing on the internet that affects the churches. Sounds very similar to the revolution that the Bible in the vernacular English and German languages started. Bloggers in all denominations are debating and discussing church issues without the filter of their church’s hierarchy.

"Nothing's a secret anymore," he says. "Bishops in the church can no longer do things quietly. Anything that's put out quickly goes around the globe. The Internet has allowed people to challenge assumptions, critique them and given ordinary people a chance to raise questions that would not ordinarily be raised." Washington Times article about Episcopal bloggers.

“Of course, we're told that we need contemporary worship since this will be what we listen to the other six days. Of course, we've been listening the other six days, so it might have never occurred that, umm, we don't want to have the same crap shoved down our throats six days a week by corporate radio shoved down our throat again on the seventh! There is always the whole mystery thing.” Random Thoughts of a Young, Confessional Lutheran writing about “boomer music” in the Lutheran church.

“Methodist pastors often seem as uneasy with this world-view dissonance as laity. . . Sermons emphasizing the Bible's ethical teachings are much more numerous than those resonating classical theistic themes. Even at Easter, the day of all days to affirm God's power, the resurrection seems to have less to do with the power of God than the moral obligations Christ places on us. I agree with John Hick's observation that usually, "statements about God, instead of referring to a transcendent divine Being, are expressions of ethical policies" of Christian living.” One Hand Clapping, a Methodist minister, former career military. [Note: Rev. Donald Sensing increasingly comments on political events.]

Sacra doctrina by Joel Garver is beautiful to look at and to read. Michael Phals writes Bishop’s Blog. Both are Presbyterian. There are also websites that track Christian blogs and several lists of “10 best” that I haven’t taken the time to work through. Religion News Blog provides a lot of articles (from the secular press mostly) for Christians to write about.