JACKSON, Tenn. (ABP) — Like it or not, Baptist bloggers are here to stay, according to speakers at a conference on Baptist identity.
And those who want to bring healing to the Southern Baptist Convention should listen to the critique of the bloggers, added several speakers during the Feb. 15-17 conference, titled “Baptist Identity II: Convention, Cooperation and Controversy.”
Blogs maintained by Southern Baptist ministers and seminary students have become popular forums for debate over the past two years, particularly for the younger conservatives who have taken issue with the SBC's narrowing fundamentalism.
Bloggers played a significant role in getting SBC outsider Frank Page elected president last June. And they have influenced trustee actions at the International Mission Board and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
While the overriding theme of the Baptist identity conference at Union University was the need for more unity in the SBC, speakers acknowledged — and sometimes welcomed — the role of bloggers as the conscience of the convention.
Mike Day, a presenter who spoke on the future of Baptist associations, said blogs cannot be ignored by the SBC leadership.
“Some people have said ‘blog' stands for ‘big load of gossip.' So we ignore it,” Day said. “I'd suggest we better get to the point where we define ‘blog' as ‘better listen to the outpost guys,' because they're raising the questions that we need to answer.”
His reference apparently was to www.sbcoutpost.com, one of the early and most popular Baptist blogs.
Underscoring Day's point was the fact that, even as he spoke, groups of laptop-toting participants were typing away, posting passages from his speech in real time on their blogs and websites. Interaction with the bloggers was included as part of the conference program.
Day and four other speakers spent a significant amount of time talking about the impact of such blogging Baptists.
Gregory Thornbury, Union University's founding dean of the School of Christian Studies, even delivered an address titled, “The ‘Angry Young Men' of the SBC” that delved into the reasons for the proliferation of blogs.
Thornbury noted that bloggers are not homogenous, but most of them do feel estranged in some way from SBC leadership.
“Can we dismiss them?” Thornbury asked. “I am not persuaded. They can be irreverent, incisive, sarcastic and funny, but they are not overwhelmingly angry.”
Still, Thornbury said, the immediacy and anonymity of blogs could turn them into divisive tools as well.
He asked disaffected bloggers not to completely remove themselves from Southern Baptist life because of minor disagreements.
“Let us not too quickly abandon the Baptist ship,” Thornbury said. “It may not be the Good Ship Lollipop, but it is the best vessel we have.”
The limited time for questions after each conference presentation did not afford a true opportunity for open debate, but most of the bloggers said they were satisfied with the acknowledgment of their medium.
Several bloggers said they wished one of their own had been given a chance to address the conference, but they expressed gratitude for the comments by Thornbury and SBC president Frank Page in particular.
“I appreciate what they said about the bloggers,” said Tom Ascol, the executive director of Founders Ministries, who also keeps a blog. “We're so frequently decried as Internet graffiti. If everyone approached these debates with as gracious a spirit as Frank Page, we'd be a lot better off.”
-30-
Read more:
SBC narrowness calls for repentance, reform, disgruntled conservatives say
Dueling SBC groups angle to speak for conservative 'young leaders'