All of us who have grown up in rural churches know the spiritual dangers of the “prayer chain.” The concept is a good one; when a need arises in the congregation, one member telephones another with the prayer request who then telephones another, who then telephones another, and so forth. And yet, there is the persistent temptation to justify gossip through the guise of a prayer request. “I don’t know whether this is true or not, and I’m just telling you as a matter of prayer, but I heard Todd and Melba are having problems…”
I sense an even sadder and more dangerous temptation in the explosion of the blogosphere in recent years. One can sit in one’s underwear, or in a darkened corner of a Starbucks, and throw out all kinds of suggestions about the actions and motives of others, under the guise of “looking for comments” from the blogging world. And one can build quite a blog presence that way. Be the place where everyone can go to find that delicious morsel of bad news or, even worse, paint oneself as a martyr-blogger standing against the conspiratorial machinations of “The Man,” and one can attract as many onlookers as the little old lady who always knows who hasn’t been tithing lately. Gossip still attracts those who love it. It’s just not the local president of the Woman’s Missionary Union shelling out these days, but a thirtysomething sitting in a Starbucks all day with a laptop, a latte, and a microchip on his shoulder.
It goes without saying that gossip and paranoia deaden the heart. But even among those who flee such things, there’s still temptations to fight in the blogosphere. Without question, the blogosphere gives a platform to those who wouldn’t ordinarily have one. In many cases, that’s a good thing. Some of the most insightful blogs I read are from young pastors and some of my students. But, let’s be honest, blogs also tend to give a microphone to a kind of deadening cynicism and blind self-righteousness in the guise of taking on self-righteousness, legalism, and what-have-you. That’s a temptation for everyone, computer-literate or not, but blogging seems to be the newest way to mask paranoia, cynicism, and just plain pugilism.
C.S. Lewis once told us in the voice of a demon that, from the perspective of the Evil One, “Tortured fear and stupid confidence are both desirable states of mind” for the Christian. Let’s just remember that, these days, Screwtape knows how to blog.
