The Curious Case Of Angry Bloggers

I have not always written this blog or any of my previous blogs for the right reasons.  I have used this to grind my personal axes.  I have thought it was my responsibility and duty to let everyone know what I thought was wrong and screwed up in the Church and churches.  I have even written a few blog posts in the past after someone or something made me angry.

And I am not unique.

I read a lot of other blogs.  I check some out just to see what is going on out there in this massive world we call Christianity.

Guess what I find?

I find a lot of angry bloggers.

I can tell that some of them try to hide it.  Some of them, at least, don’t try to pretend.  They let their readers know every time someone out there writes or blogs something that they disagree with.

A few of them like to take on what I call celebrity preachers and writers.  They read these guys books and blogs.  They follow them on Twitter.  They listen or watch their videos that are posted.

And then they react.

They write their reactions.

They write their rebuttals.

They take on these guys head to head.

Why?

I don’t know.

I can guess.  But I don’t know their motivation.  Perhaps they know this will drive readers to their own blogs.  Maybe it’s because they have a book deal and they want to sell books.  Maybe it’s because someone will consider them an authority on these subjects and they will get to appear on CNN or NPR.

I don’t know.  I don’t know them and probably won’t know.

I wish more of these folks would take the attitude Ronald Reagan did when he ran for president against Jimmy Carter.  During a debate, President Carter began stating a position completely opposite of Reagan.  I think his hope was that Reagan would get mad and display his temper.  What did Reagan do?  He laughed and said, “There you go again.”

I wish that my brothers and sisters in Christ would take this attitude more often.  If someone says or does something that they don’t like, just laugh and move on.  Convince me and the rest of the world of your position instead of fighting someone else’s. 

Maybe that’s it.  Maybe they don’t have a position worth persuading anyone to.  Maybe they just want everyone to be caught up in their outrage.

These folks don’t make me angry.  I get a little sad when I read them.  They are talented.  They have tremendous ability.  They just seem angry all of the time.

Do angry bloggers turn you on or off?

Why You Should Be A Skeptic

I’m a skeptic and you should be too….within reason.

I don’t mean that you should go around and be a negative skeptic who throws a wet blanket on everything.  I have spent plenty of time in my life being that guy and you need to know something if you don’t already know it.  He isn’t fun to be around.  He can be a jerk and a host of other names that can’t probably be said in this family friendly setting.

What I mean is that you should always be questioning what you hear and what you see.  You should be measuring it against the word of God.  Not what your parents told you.  Not what your Sunday school teacher taught you.  Not what your preacher preached from the pulpit.  Not what Ben Franklin wrote in Poor Richard’s Almanac.

The Bereans in Acts were reasonable skeptics.  They received the word that Paul preached with eagerness.  They searched the scriptures daily to see if what Paul was saying was true.

See what kind of skeptic we should be?

We should be skeptics who receive the proclaimed word of God with eagerness.

Then we should search the scriptures daily to see if what is proclaimed is true.

It kind of reminds me of what Ronald Reagan said when dealing with U.S. -Soviet relations: Trust, but verify.

We should trust those who come to us wanting to teach us.  We should receive it as positively as possible.  Then we should verify what they have to say with the word of God.

Are you a reasonable skeptic?

***I would love it if you would do me a favor.  Would you like the Deuceology Facebook page?  You can do that just to the right of this post.***

Fight For Unity

In the 1960′s, while running for governor of California, Ronald Reagan subscribed to what became known as the 11th Commandment.  This commandment stated that “Thous shall not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”  This philosophy seemed to work out well for President Reagan.

Unfortunately, the same doesn’t seem to happen in the Church.

I don’t know about you or my fellow bloggers, but there seems to be a growing trend on Twitter  and the blogosphere.

I know this because  I’ve been guilty of this in the past.

It seems like rather than unity in the Body of Christ, there are fractures.

There is something that I would like to see more of.

I want to see a fight for unity.

Don’t get me wrong.  I know it can’t happen every single time.  I know there are some lines that have to be drawn.  We can’t always be in total unity with everyone.

The problem is that I continue to see more and more folks who want to focus on what they disagree with others about.  What I see is that some consider some things essential that aren’t truly essential in the faith.

In Ephesians 4, Paul encourages his readers to “be diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”  He says to do this “with humility and gentleness.”  I think we see what the problem is in this section of scripture.

I think there is a lack of humility.

I think pride is the problem.

I think we get our pride all worked up in these situations.  I think we want to get our soapbox and let some brother or sister have it.  We want to prove to them that we are right and they are wrong.

We fight with each other instead of fighting for the important things that unite us.

Let’s stop it brothers and sisters.

You disagree with someone?  Fine.  Promote what you believe.  Make a strong case for what is important to you. Convince us of what you believe.  Don’t tear down that guy or gal for what they believe.  Trust that the Lord is in control and that what He is for will win out.  I’ll respect you a lot more.

Have you noticed this trend of late?  Are you fighting for unity or just looking for a fight?

Don’t Say No To Dope

I grew up in the 80′s when Ronald Reagan was president.  It was back in the day when the Evil Empire was Russia, not the Boston Red Sox. (Yes, I am a New York Yankees fan and have been since 1977.)

If you were around back then, you might remember that Nancy Reagan had a campaign that said Just Say No to drugs.  I’m happy to report that I never consumed any illegal substance or drug.  I’m not sure that this was because of Nancy.  I think it was just a fear from when I was a kid that I would become addicted, end up in jail or die.

No matter how you slice it or dice it, I was never involved with dope.

So, for all you kids reading out there in Deuceology land, Just Say No to dope.

Google Images

Unless.

Unless you have a friend like Moe.  Moe is a blogging and Twitter friend.  He liked one of my blog posts the other day.  He tweeted it out to all of his followers.  I thanked him.  Guess what his response was?

Moe said that it was a dope post.

Now, I’m not the most hip guy in the world.  I’ve never gotten jiggy with anything to my knowledge.  But I could understand that what Moe said was a good thing.

Moe was encouraging me.

We all like that, don’t we?

We in the Church really need it some days.  We need someone to come along and encourage us.  We need someone to tell us that something is “dope”.

I appreciate Moe’s words.

Don’t say no to dope.

Now it’s your turn.  It’s Friday and it’s been a long week.  Encourage someone today.  However you want to.

Who would you like to encourage today?  What have they done?  Tell us about it.