Jesus Christ
There’s a blog I check in on infrequently, on blogger, that follows a film professor who reviews modern movies. Nothing fancy. This morning I was checking in, no new content, not like I can really throw stones on that one, and so I decide to take advantage of the “next blog” button at the top. It was a run-of-the-mill, I’m a mom for Jesus sort of blog, so I switched again. Now it’s I’m a soccer player, for Jesus.
You're saved, bro!
Through 10 blogs switches, 9 were directly religious, meaning there was a direct scriptural quote in the title of the blog, the first post, or the first three lines of the post. WTF? When did everyone become so hardcore? Of the roughly 20 people I know and interact with regularly, two of them are religious, and they’re very quietly so. Yet all 20 are active Internet users (which really, isn’t everyone?), yet my random sampling showed a far greater concentration of outspoken religious bloggers than you’d think.
And I’m ok with that. It’s just that everything these 9 people blogged about had to be dragged back to the Lord. They couldn’t have a good day without being “blessed”, couldn’t cite a challenge without also appending a bible verse to it. It doesn’t exactly make for interesting reading. Can you imagine if someone talked like that in day-to-day life? “Well, I was super-disappointed that Starbucks was out of scones, but as Psalms 34:18 tells us, ‘The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.’” Nope, friendship cancelled, lack of interest.
Maybe it’s some (un)conscious effort to score cred? An outlet for all those who are deeply faithful but not to the extent that they’re comfortable preaching to those they know – a way to demonstrate their willingness to spread the word without losing their RL friends? Whatever it is, it’s discomfiting. The comfortable distance that the Internet gives us seems to make angels or demons of us all – maybe there’s no middle ground.
Of course, I’m sure at least 4 of those 9 bloggers had a “normal” blog they keep updated for their friends, and give the religious address to their families. Why pigeonhole yourself?
