'Ten Commandments' for Christian bloggers

As a student studying theology, one of my more unique assignments involves exploring the relationship between religion and the internet. I wanted to consider the effect that the internet and progressing technology has on religion and religious people, and was pointed towards this recent article in The Times.

The article describes a new set of commandments for Christian bloggers. The commandments are based on and closely related to the Ten Commandments God gave Moses in the Bible. They were written with the intention of reducing friction and negative criticism between Christian bloggers – or as the Evangelical Alliance (the group behind the conference that created the commands) describes it, to ‘disagree agreeably’.

A lot of the feedback from the readers on The Times website suggests people are unimpressed that such a list of commands is necessary. I guess this is because people view Christians as amicable, well-behaved people, who shouldn’t need such a strict list of commands to direct them to appropriate behaviour on the internet. However, I’m more inclined to agree with one reader, who pointed out that a core Christian belief is that we are all imperfect human beings, and so are prone to mistakes and bad behaviour. Is it better that we have a list of commands designed to guide Christian bloggers towards appropriate Christian behaviour on the internet, or that we trust that as good Christian people they shouldn’t need such commands? Evidently the former is favourable, since there is obviously disagreement and bitterness between Christians on the internet.

As a result of looking at this article, I intend to focus my blog on the conflict between Christians that has arisen as a result of the internet. I will be looking at how the internet has facilitated negative communication and criticism between Christians in a much harsher way than occurs in ‘real life’, and what new issues of conflict have arisen because of this progression in technology – for example, the need for ‘ten commandments’ for Christian bloggers.

Hannah

Ps. I also found the comments of the OAP lady on this video (from the Evangelical Alliance) very interesting, as she describes how she uses her blog for evangelism because she’s too old to be a Church youth group leader!