A three-day conference at Biola University in southern California discussed the role of the divine in the world of the blogger.
While the University of Southern California was celebrating a victory at Notre Dame, the home of Touchdown Jesus, another university from the same area celebrated blogging and Christianity.
The GodBlogCon drew about 135 devoted bloggers to discuss how the new medium of expression could fit into Christian life. Blogging could do for religion what it has done for mainstream journalism, in helping to keep Christianity’s most visible public figures honest, USA Today reported.
One speaker, Joe Carter, likened blogging to Martin Luther nailing the 95 theses to the church door to protest the abuse of indulgences. He also noted how some bloggers have moved beyond the usual political hot-button issues to discuss other topics.
“With blogging you tend to break out of those circles and you see other points of view,” Carter said in USA Today. “There’s a bigger world out there than gay marriage and abortion.”
One live blogger from the conference posted from a panel discussion. Part of that discussion included advice on being a successful blogger:
1. You know one subject incredibly well, and yet cover a lot of subjects. That way people will come to your site whenever they have the question on that subject, and yet you have other stuff to attract them
2. Tone, tone, tone. Joe Carter’s Evangelical Outpost post on beginning blogging is excellent on this.
3. Take on tough subjects. It’s tough to talk about tough subjects and do it well, and it keeps people coming back.
David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
