In the last couple weeks I've been reminded of the power and influence which comes from the weird virus-like medium of weblogs. Recently, I was saddened to see that Cedarville College made a last minute cancellation of Shane Claiborne’s visit who was to speak at their chapel service’s a couple weeks ago. According to this Christianity Today article, Cedarville’s vice president felt like Shane had an important word for their students regarding issues of social justice. But the influential voice of a few bloggers (donors or alumni, perhaps) reached the ears of Cedarville’s admin and shortly after they chose to cancel Claiborne’s visit.
Because Cedarville bloggers believed Claiborne was loosely associated with Emergent he could potentially compromise the University’s reputation as an institution centered on orthodox biblical beliefs.
As one who attempts to keep up with the Emergent conversation, last week I ventured over to a site linked by Emergent Village. I was intrigued by the title of the article, so I clicked over, and made a few quick response comments. A couple days later I checked in again to see how the author responded to my comments and yowza! He blasted me for the questions I asked, called me names, and told me to buzz off. I know enough about Emergent to understand his comments are not representative of the overall voice of Emergent Villaget, but I will acknowedge his comments will taint my perspective a bit for awhile.
These two instances remind me of how powerfully influential the blogging world has become. It’s taken me a while to recognize that one of “Ryan’s musings” can actually change the course of an individual or even a much larger group’s perspective, opinion, or posture. It sounds obvious, but this reminder has served to help me realize that our words can lead people toward or away from Jesus.
So, to you who stop by, this is a recommitment to carefully considering the words and links I post on this site. And I’ll use this occasion to take a little site census. If you read this, let me know by a quick comment who you are, what you like about tallmonasticguy, and what you’d like to see more of here. Thanks a bunch!
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