A Christian Blogging Manifesto?

There has been much controversy over this manifesto for Christian bloggers by JesusJournal.com. I’d like to throw in my $0.02 about this. First of all, I want to say that I believe JesusJournal.com means well. This is why I wanted to make sure I could respond without the irritation I felt when I first read the manifesto.

Why was I irritated? The whole idea of forming committees and enforcing a “Code of Conduct” rubs me the wrong way. Blogs are just individuals expressing their thoughts and opinions. Why should bloggers who are Christians be subjected to this regulation?

Unfortunately, this is the downside of the word “Christian” being used as an adjective...”Christian Music”, “Christian TV”, “Christian Books” and now “Christian Blogs”. Christians end up being relegated to some sort of ghetto. Christians end up being put in a box and separated from the “secular” world. And when that happens, Christians stop being relevant to the world.

Look at what has happened with Christian music. It became its own industry. It also became ghettoized and thought of as a “clean” alternative to all that dirty “secular” music. Now, there are musicians who are Christians who go out of their way to avoid getting trapped in the whole CCM thing (or desperately try to get out of that trap). They just want to be artists whose art is put out there for anyone to enjoy. They don’t want to be marginalized and just preach to the choir (or preach at all, for that matter).

I don’t want to see this happen to Christian bloggers.

I believe that blogs4God is a wonderful resource because it allows you to find blogs of people who share your faith. They have not sought to try to control a diverse group of bloggers. They have not tried to regulate or marginalize us.

I think the JesusJournal.com weblogger manifesto, while it means well, is an attempt to do just that.