I’ve been occupied for most of this weekend by our diocesan convention, and haven’t had much opportunity to post new entries. But I have continued to monitor your comments, and I’m aware that the temperature on the blog is rising. This has been instructive for me, and I want to preview briefly an idea I hope to develop more fully tomorrow.
Do you suppose that an online community could agree to focus on one another’s welfare to the extent that civility would actually be the least that was expected? Would it be possible to have a group of people who decided that despite their differences they would meet online for discussion and prayer, a community that would be based on relationships rather than debate?
What I am describing, obviously, is not this blog as it is currently constituted. It would require a greater degree of accountability from everyone involved, It would mean a set of rules that would need to be enforced by both the moderator(s) and the community. And maybe it isn’t possible. But the idea intrigues me, and I will try to flesh it out tomorrow. In the meantime, I’d be interested in your initial reactions.
If we were to move in that direction, I’d still pursue the possibility of having a blog on faith and popular culture. But that blog, even if it works extremely well, would be like any number of blogs that are already out there. So, at the moment, I have a bias toward developing this idea further.