It’s been a while since I’ve blogged. Obvious I know. My excuses are as follow: The birth of my fifth child and first son Nathanael, I’ve picked up on some talent so blogging isn’t just a ‘me and Cableguy’ thing here at GLACC, old objections and questions about blogging as a Catholic have again plagued me.
It was November 26, 2007 when I—or was it Cableguy?-- had destroyed the original GLACC. Things in the chaotic Catholic blogosphere just didn’t make sense anymore. I wrote about the visceral attitude that blogs often convey. And since blogging has always been about my journey with the help of God, Deo Adiuvante was born. The goal was to become more focused on growing in my faith, to be more…oh I don’t know…spiritual I guess would be the right word barring the new age flakey connotation.
And it failed.
Miserably I might add.
I was fooling myself. I’m no theologian, philosopher, or even that great of a thinker. I like to think I have common sense, but more than anything I was just a regular guy who’s incredibly in love with Jesus. Even the Latin in my old blog’s name was an affront to my nature. Why have a Latin named blog if I didn’t speak a word of Latin? It was more of a farce then the Looney Tune posts of old (and new).
So I began, again, the strange journey into a multi themed blog. GLACC was reborn. Thankfully I’m not alone. There are others, who I might add are BETTER thinkers and writers then I, who are aboard the crazy train. They’re people who I’ve come to respect and trust. Whose faith constantly amazes me, and gives me inspiration to continue on. Bumps on the road towards the ultimate goal of eternity with our Lord come and go, as usual. I can only compare my journey to traveling at night on a very narrow mountain road with no guard rails, and the vehicle I’m driving favors drifting toward the side that will ultimately throw me into oblivion. I thank God for giving me friends, even those who have temporarily lost their way, who constantly bolster me. When I get near the edge, they gently tug the wheel enough for me to get back on track.
When I started Deo Adiuvante, I tackled the issue of what I would call the ‘poison well’ effect of the Catholic Blogosphere:
Other blogs, however, were anything but enjoyable. I’ve found that what could have been a fountain of knowledge is more of a poisoned well. The most damaging aspect of the blogosphere is the inability of bloggers to hash out disagreements rationally. Instead, difference of opinion is followed by slander and name calling. Comments are often misread by others, further damaging understanding and logical debate. The inability to look another person eye to eye has given some people license to be rude little trolls.
I won’t name any blogs or authors, but the guiltiest of being uncharitable and rude are those that narcissistically proclaim to have an error free understanding of Catholic social teaching. Dangerous is the blogger who claims this, and in the same breath say they are not partisan towards a left or right ideology…because in most cases they are, but are just too full of themselves to admit such a thing. All the while they are the worst offenders at sniping at other blogs. Because, you see, they are on the moral high ground, and the others are not. Their quest for holiness is complete, and nobody can tell them anything different. And though what they say is truth, it’s not the whole truth. Bloggers seem very skillful at giving you just enough to justify their position, and leave out the parts that hurt it.
Well, the well is still full of poison. Not much has changed. People still snipe; call each other names etcetera...etcetera. I’m not sure it will ever change, though I can honestly tell you I’m not as scandalized by it as I once was. The reason is this; there is nothing else out there. Some of these ‘harsh’ blogs are needed not because they are harsh, but because they are honest. I’ve come to learn…no ACCEPT…that there is a vacuum of leadership within the hierarchy of the Church here in America. There seems to be a culture of hide behind the desk hubris in what one of my good friends dubs the “AMCHURCH”. I’m not sure why there’s that vacuum. There just is. One thing is certain though, a lot of the warriors who ARE fighting to preserve the Church and push back at the tide of the culture of death in America belong to a phenomenon that the hierarchy in the United States hasn’t been able to grasp: the new media.
So yeah, it gets dirty out there. But until there is a positive change in the attitude of ‘leadership’, it’s all we got!
Am I worthy of this task? How do I balance the virtue of love as described by St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 with the blunt and often nasty world of the Catholic Blogosphere? What can I offer? Is it worth it? Why even blog? Why not just build a bunker and just wait it out?
These are questions that have again surfaced, and I again wrestle with. It’s going to take some time to discern the answers I need to either carry on this blog, or send it back to the graveyard. Until that time, I’ll try blogging as often as I can. There’s a lot going on even here in Alaska (yes, yet another scandal in our local Archdiocese has found its way to the national new media outlets) that deserve a little bit of ‘regular Joe’ perspective. And of course there are the amazing posts by More Mary and the deeply analytical posts by Florian to look forward to.
So there might be more activity from me. I do have a meme (thanks Dim) I have to write out. Aside from that…well, we’ll see.
I think that sometimes we lose focus of our blogging when we try to write "for our readers" - I think that what has helped me recently is writing posts that help me spiritually grow.
ReplyDeleteI also try and write things that I will find interesting to read in a few weeks.
As Catholics we are called by Canon 229 to defend the faith when necessary. I cant think of a place or time in more need of us to follow our duty listed in Canon 229.