A little more than a year ago, I made a decision to refrain from visiting blog sites dedicated to the ongoing “civil wars” tearing my beloved denomination from its spiritual home within my equally beloved Anglican Communion. The folks I serve know where I stand on these matters, but I slowly realized that the bitter tone and often nasty spirit (as well as occasional flat falsehoods) that so often find their way onto internet sites dedicated to these issues were making my own spirit brittle. Harsh polemics and personal invective permeate such sites at both poles. Now, I keep up with the goings-on in the larger church through ecclesiastical news outlets (knowing to take many with a “grain of salt”) and church magazines, as well as through personal conversations with leaders whose judgments I value. But I have not regretted for one minute scaling way back on my diet of blog commentary.
There has been much written about how electronic communication via websites and blogs often leads people to communicate less articulately, less reasonably, and less politely. I recently stumbled upon an excellent opinion piece on the website Arts and Letters Daily (http://www.aldaily.com/) by Alan Jacobs, Professor of English at Wheaton College, respected author, and fellow Anglican. I suppose I need to confess to some measure of self-satisfaction that I found here validation for my earlier decision.
His piece is entitled: “The Online State of Nature: Why has Internet Discourse Devolved into a ‘War of Every Man against Every Man’?” It is extremely insightful and, I hope, helpful for those who, like I am, are perhaps tempted to despair over the tone of so much online warfare or, alternately, to take up arms in this fashion: “I have thought a lot about why people get so hostile online, and I have come to believe it is primarily because we live in a society with a hypertrophied sense of justice and an atrophied sense of humility and charity, to put the matter in terms of the classic virtues.”
I strongly encourage a good read of Jacobs’ article here: