August 13, 2002
christian blogging: thoughts
As detailed in Petals and Meditatio, TheSiteWhichMustNotBeNamedOrLinked is attempting to create a grand consortium of Christian blogs.
I must say, at this point, my sympathies are swinging waaaaay towards Jen and Brianna. And not just because I've been reading Brianna's wonderful journal for a while now.
I can see why the SWMNBNOL's editor was a bit miffed at their desire to be unlinked. He seems to have a worldview wherein all Christians will band together and make their presence known wherever they are, and the idea that they might not want to be seen as Christian Bloggers, but rather simply bloggers who are Christian, seems to be interpreted as wanting to blend in and disappear instead of aggressively evangelizing.
But that view is flawed. Creativity doesn't exist to be exploited for evangelization-- if you're a Christian and an artist / writer / musician / etc., you shouldn't HAVE to beat the Message into other people's heads. If you're doing your job right, it will be naturally present in your works as a matter of course. If you really try to stick a Christian Meaning into everything you create, it will come across as heavy-handed and artificial, because it is.
U2's band members are Christians, yet U2 is not considered a Christian band, along with P.O.D., Pedro the Lion, Creed (to an extent), etc. They strenuously resist this label because Christian Music has a reputation for being saccharine imitations of mainstream styles. Why? Because as soon as you're labeled a Christian band, as has happened to a large extent with Jars of Clay, your range is stifled. You can't say all that you would like, because you're under immense pressure to be a Real Christian Band which leaves only a certain allowable room for individuality and movement. You can't evangelize effectively, even if you want to, because only Christians listen to Christian music. Hence, all the good bands avoid the label. Thus, CCM sucks, which in turn reflects badly upon Christianity as a whole. After all, how can Christians claim to be backed up by the Creator of the Universe, but not even produce a decent song?
Don't even get me started on Left Behind's supreme crappiness and the state of Christian fiction.
I think this is exactly what will happen, if TSWMNBNOL's manifesto is carried out. There will be scads of happy, shiny, cookie-cutter Christian blogs out there, along with a small number of Christians with blogs who fight the label Christian Blogger tooth and nail because of the reputation it brings with it.
I would say more, but I think everyone else said it first, so... my two cents.
I must say, at this point, my sympathies are swinging waaaaay towards Jen and Brianna. And not just because I've been reading Brianna's wonderful journal for a while now.
I can see why the SWMNBNOL's editor was a bit miffed at their desire to be unlinked. He seems to have a worldview wherein all Christians will band together and make their presence known wherever they are, and the idea that they might not want to be seen as Christian Bloggers, but rather simply bloggers who are Christian, seems to be interpreted as wanting to blend in and disappear instead of aggressively evangelizing.
But that view is flawed. Creativity doesn't exist to be exploited for evangelization-- if you're a Christian and an artist / writer / musician / etc., you shouldn't HAVE to beat the Message into other people's heads. If you're doing your job right, it will be naturally present in your works as a matter of course. If you really try to stick a Christian Meaning into everything you create, it will come across as heavy-handed and artificial, because it is.
U2's band members are Christians, yet U2 is not considered a Christian band, along with P.O.D., Pedro the Lion, Creed (to an extent), etc. They strenuously resist this label because Christian Music has a reputation for being saccharine imitations of mainstream styles. Why? Because as soon as you're labeled a Christian band, as has happened to a large extent with Jars of Clay, your range is stifled. You can't say all that you would like, because you're under immense pressure to be a Real Christian Band which leaves only a certain allowable room for individuality and movement. You can't evangelize effectively, even if you want to, because only Christians listen to Christian music. Hence, all the good bands avoid the label. Thus, CCM sucks, which in turn reflects badly upon Christianity as a whole. After all, how can Christians claim to be backed up by the Creator of the Universe, but not even produce a decent song?
Don't even get me started on Left Behind's supreme crappiness and the state of Christian fiction.
I think this is exactly what will happen, if TSWMNBNOL's manifesto is carried out. There will be scads of happy, shiny, cookie-cutter Christian blogs out there, along with a small number of Christians with blogs who fight the label Christian Blogger tooth and nail because of the reputation it brings with it.
I would say more, but I think everyone else said it first, so... my two cents.
# posted by Liadan @ 12:34 PM 
