My first introduction to the bloggernacle–before it was even called that–was several years ago when Jeff Lindsay started his Mormanity blog. I’ve always followed that and have branched out to many other blogs since then. I’ve seen many interesting, faith-promoting, stimulating, and Christ-centered things online. I’ve been kindly invited to write at two of the big group blogs (though I have yet to decently follow up on the more recent invitation). My spiritual life has definitely been enriched by blogs.
But I haven’t seen much good for a long while. Though it keeps growing in size, readership, and prominence, the overall spiritual worth of the bloggernacle has taken a sharp nose dive recently.
I’ve been thinking about this all year. Both in quality and quantity, the parts of the bloggernacle which I frequent have been increasingly disappointing. New posts come up less often, the material that does get published is less spiritual and less faithful, and more of the links are to things that are practically anti-Mormon. Comments from people who aren’t regulars tend to be received with quick rudeness and little grace. Authors who I used to look forward to seem to have disappeared. I see a drastically growing trend to implicitly impugn our leaders online, and that just isn’t acceptable.
Two chapters near the end of Jeff Shaara’s historical novel Rise To Rebellion focus on Thomas Paine’s incendiary pamphlet Common Sense. Shaara even includes a handful of choice quotes from Paine, making sure the reader understands that Paine was the common man’s advocate for independence, as opposed to the sincere but often elite (and therefore sometimes out of touch) leaders at the Continental Congress. It was Paine’s words more than those of Adams or Henry or Hancock or Franklin that won over the Americans to the cause of revolution.
