why? worry?
Live blogging now from the coveted after lunch plenary session. Props to the Biola tech team for making WiFi available to us!!
It’s a follow-up recap to the morning panel discussion, and it’s been more lively, even a little edgy, for a conservative evangelical Christian context, on a conservative evangelical college campus context.
When the panel was called on for being all male, heavily Presbyterian, there were a few ruffled feathers, a coupla gulps, but I didn’t hear the gasps. The (few) women voices in the audience were deferential enough, and we were only momentarily sidetracked. I was tempted to jump in and pull the race card, and rant about why there are so few Asians and minorities.
There’s been several disclaimers about how the attendees are Christians who happen to be politically conservative and/or Republican, and the plenary speakers have been good to disclaim their political views. But that’s exactly the telltale sign, that if it were an intentionally politically diverse attendance, then the disclaimers wouldn’t be necessary. I commented on the difficulty on getting a political diverse group together over at Bene Diction.
Some subtext I’m sensing underneath the presentations and the ensuing dialogue:
Purpose. Quite a number of questions revolved around why we blog, why we should blog, what kind of an impact we can have as bloggers, can we or should we change culture, how to influence politics. I’m of the opinion, when I’m asked the question of why do I blog, I say: why not? We should blog simply because we can, and it doesn’t have to have a strategy, or purpose, or meaning, or even focus. Now, a good blog in terms of wanting to gain readership, or to become influential, will need to have a recurring theme, regular frequency, quality writing, and passion, some kind of value to the readers.
Fear. Worry about who would read their blogs. Worry about the sustainable business model. Worry about misunderstanding and inaccuracies. Worry about limitation of virtual communication, and fear over the online world replacing church or face-to-face relationships. Worry and concern have been expressed by those who are connected to organizations and institutions, by theologians and philosophers, about the responsibility we have for communicating, and that what we blog (write) may not be appropriate for all people at all times. I’d prefer that the pundits would (also) talk about the responsibility of the reader to filter and to discern instead. Let’s move away from fear and towards faith.
My (short) answer: blog in faith, that the Spirit will move in the hearts and minds of readers, and we as the Christian blogger can write as the Spirit moves and enables us. The point here is to write, and not to hold back. I think it is okay to show our doubts, write and reveal our thoughts and feelings and struggles, even those things we’re still processing, because that’s what it is to be human. To not have the answer, or the perfect answer, or the right answer, is okay.
Missing is tech tips. One session that would help this audience quite a bit would be a quick tour around the current and emerging technologies. There’s lots of great tools that’d help us GodBlogCon bloggers a whole lot, would be to use trackback, technorati tags, flickr tags, and have them do the heavy lifting. Not to push podcasting or vlogging. Aaron will be here tomorrow for the vlogging. Too bad Nick Ciske’s not here to push trackbacking. 
Right now, what some kind and good people are doing is this: we’re emailing a person, to get them to link to us, onto the GodBlogCon blog. Great effort, could be a little easier is all.
Rats, couldn’t find the automatic RSS aggregator (not an RSS reader) that can aggregate blog RSS feeds into a “team blog” kinda thing, somewhat like planetemergent.org, but that one appears to require extra backend technology. 
Maybe someone out there can remind me or refer me to one?
[update: made a quick run to a nearby Best Buy, and got an SD reader, so I could upload my photos; see some 50+ of them online]
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