Ales Rarus

Dr. Andrew Jackson of Smart Christian is concerned that bloggers need to be reminded of 1 Corinthians 1:10-16.

"I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, 'I follow Paul,' or 'I follow Apollos,' or 'I follow Cephas,' or 'I follow Christ.' Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)"

Andrew writes,

"As much as we would all like to declare 'we aren't like the Corinthians,' unfortunately, I do not think much has changed in the church, and yes it is often reflected in the Christian blogosphere."

"We all need to allow Paul's words to the Corinthians help us reevaluate how we blog. If we are not careful, it is very easy for Christian bloggers to become identified by which Christian leaders or preachers or teachers they declare their allegiance."

"Does your blog loudly and publicly declare 'I follow John Piper, Brian McLaren, Jim Wallis, John MacArthur, or R.C. Sproul?' I could easily name others. "

I can't say run into that problem much (if at all) on Catholic blogs, but I've definitely seen Charles Spurgeon get a lot of hero worship on Protestant blogs. It amuses me that some of the same people who spout Spurgeon quotes as if they were Scripture are allergic to the deutercanonical (aka apocrypal) books of the Bible.

Anyhow, Andrew's concern casts Adrian Warnock's recent request in an interesting light. I wonder how he'll respond.