Tuesday, August 06, 2002

Theological Value of Weblogs Weblogs seem to be such a theologically sound communication tool.  I have long thought it important for the Church to make it possible for the people to express their calling;  to find their place of expertise and passion and exercise their abilities toward addressing it and having some role in a solution;  in other words, do a ministry;  a service of some kind.  Problem is,  like many other "communities" or attempts to be so,  in our scoiety,  we have precious little opportunity to speak it.  In Churches it seems particularly common that we meet in programmed contexts,  and time is increasingly horded by communal observances.  Worship is meant to be communal,  but I think we have somehow seen most of the relational aspects of a personal history with one another get lesss and less time and programmatic effort ,  so that the communal is lacking in the sense of inter-personal.  we don't know one another. In Weblogs,  there is a vast territory set aside for the weaving of a personal tapestry,  and several possibilities for personal entry into the life of the author by its readers.  The backdrop for the weblog is well provided for by the plethora of tools that are being developed to LINK the thinking that gets spilled onto the pages of a weblog with the events and information we find available from the Net at large,  much of it from other Weblogs.     There are ways of linking to and keeping track of new addtions to other Weblogs to which we have "subscribed",  so that we can be kept "in the loop" with those whose concerns and passions are similar to ours,  or who consistently dig up news and offer comments on that news that give us food for thought and reflection,  and impetus to do the same for our own weblog audience. Linking to the related events in our world also keeps us "aware" and so helps us to root our faith as a response to the real world.  To view the world with a particular perspective is to do theology,  and a community which encourages the "doing of theology" in a communal sense is sowing the seeds that make for a powerful community.  Powerful in the sense of sowing action steps originating from people in dialogue with eachother about the world,  and powerful in the sense of building a deeply related company of individuals who are in constant dialogue about the world and how it affects them....and the insights into each other's "coping" with what the world means to them.   The expectation of the Weblog community for the LINK as a key blog element encourages this "Journey Inward, Journey Outward" "dialogical stance. comment [] 9:54:19 PM     Doc has some profound stuff to say in response to some (whom he mentions) that are suggesting and encouraging that we "show those Arabs" who's boss,  and this is actually supposed to be teaching them something. ( which is basically a civilized front for a basically inherently racist, selfish, west-centric, war-glorifying, Rambo-complex way of thinking)   There.  Does that show enough disdain and lack of respect for that point of view?  Good.  I meant for it to.  Amen, Doc for your words: The Doc Searls Weblog : Tuesday, August 6, 2002: "In other words, The most effective form of social organization on the planet is going to flatten a country to teach something the winner has no faith that the loser can learn. Which means we're really not talking about education here. We're just talking about humiliation. And what makes this okay is that we're humiliating the right people." comment [] 6:33:19 PM

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