Response to a Discussion Elsewhere
In other arenas, there is a heated discussion going on regarding comments made about one or another of blogdoms many personalities. Here is a response I have posted.
In any blog course correction is needed. I too infrequently visit these most popular of blogs because I tire of the endless allegations, attacks, and insinuations against the Holy Father and the Bishops.One blogger may have been overheated in his rhetoric, and that is unfortunate if true. But sometimes when the heat is applied the flames spread. Perhaps it is time to give the whole set of issues a rest until we actually know something. The media light a fire and many of us run to throw gasoline. It's a fault, but it is very human.
So let this be the end to escalation. No one need know this blogger said anything about another had it not been stirred up to the top. Those of us who read these notes would have noted and either tsk-tsked or nodded our heads and moved on.
The art of blogdom often seems to be the art of stirring up trouble where none need be. My opinion of you, or any other blogger is just that, an opinion, unsubstantiated by close acquaintance and therefore made on the basis of words alone--often a faulty indicator of real feeling. I suspect that if we were to gather all the antagonists in a room and talk it out we would find underneath a great deal more agreement than disagreement. Blogdom does not really make that possible as we read the words in the isolation of our rooms without body language or other signals and then tend to impute motivation or meaning.
Peace to everyone. All of these things, even the seemingly most earth-shattering are things of the moment. They are straw for the fire--spoken and then vanished, done and then lost. They do, however, have echoes and ripples in eternity. Rather than amplify the damage, isn't it better to let those slights pass and move on--not sowing the wind to reap a whirlwind?
However we may feel, charity is always the best resolve. If the attitude of one blogger toward another needs to change, isn't prayer and private conversation a better first step than public stockading. Doesn't the Bible tell us to correct our brother in private first? We need not make a public spectacle of every errant opinion, and we better serve one another when we choose not to do so.
We need to be quieter, more temperate, kinder, and more Christ-like in our dealings with one another. True, there are pharisees, but I rather think the misled outnumber the pharisaical by a large majority and it is better to presume the lesser crime to start. Those who are misled should be corrected, gently, without overt provocation. This is not simply a lesson for blogging, it is a lesson for life. We are called to be peacemakers (in the nondiplomatic sense of that word). We are called to help each other achieve sanctity. How do we do that with endless sniping, complaints, and impugning. All the world is dross and all that happens in it fleeting and momentary. To use the language of the civil-rights era (and before) we need to walk forward our eyes on the prize--eternal life with God.
