The Church of Jesus Christ

There is a move afoot to limit the freedom of speech of religious bloggers – and it is coming from within the religious community. Recently, a blogger in Florida who has chosen to take on his pastor (who was making $300,000) for various things was unmasked with the help of Google. A deputy sheriff, who was a member of the congregation, had asked Google for the assistance.

Now comes word from James McGrath:

One of the recent conservative commenters on my blog decided to write to my pastor to make sure that he is aware of the sorts of views I have.

Other bloggers are speaking out, in support of the professor, here, here and here.

I have from time to time seen search terms which tell me that others, especially those that I am in communion with, are searching for this blog. I have heard reports that my own thoughts have been attacked, and my freedom sought to be impinged; yet, this is my blog, my work if you will, and I have yet to see anyone who can shut it down.

There are times when people think they know what is best for everyone else – the writer, no doubt gifted, who ‘turned’ the professor in, assuredly has spent a considerable amount of time on his own blog, preaching and teaching, so that he has authority over another’s flock. Surely, his great work is to patrol the highways of the internet to find and to report any and all deviations from his viewpoint – report them to someone who can rightly handle the situation.

I believe that God, His Church, His Scriptures, and the Faith are established, and some say static – but people are not. Israel wasn’t. If we hold to a literal view of biblical history, we see that many times, while God didn’t change, the People did. Then there would arise someone who would challenge the Court of the King, or perhaps the Presbytery of the Temple to stop the descent. Neither the People nor the Prophet was static, but either moving to or from God. This is not dangerous – to buck the trend, or to question the current practice. It is not dangerous to seek to make more sure your foundation, to work out your own salvation with fear and with trembling – and a little blogging.

McGrath ends his post in such a manner as this,

What is dangerous to Christian faith is viewing it as though it were something static, as though the understanding of it one has as a child should remain static throughout life, or that Christianity itself could or should remain static throughout history. But perhaps more dangerous still is the conviction that our own understanding is God’s very truth -that cannot but lead to a spiritual pride and arrogance that is incompatible with the Christian faith in general, and with the fallibility of the greatest heroes of the faith as depicted in the Bible in particular.

McGrath is right – our own understanding of the truth of God must change – not because the truth changes, but because we grow. When I am teaching my children biblical things, I can only teach them in their own words, but always with the emphasis of opening their minds to what God is trying to tell them. When I started this blog, I had a focus, but while that focus has not changed, my understanding of that focus has. I have grown because of this freedom, not past the boundaries of the Gospel and the Church, but within them.

I desire to never cease learning, and never cease bing taught. While the Church is perfect, I am not, and I must constantly seek to align myself with the Christian Faith as given to the Apostles by our Lord, Jesus Christ.

It is a very terrible thing to believe that one person has the sole capital of Truth. And further yet, that one person has not the freedom to explore the Faith.

So, you can have my biblioblog when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Tags: bloggers, Christianity, freedom of speech, religion