I have been thinking a lot about blogging and criticism lately. It is a real problem in blogdom; everyone is a critic. Indeed, I find myself getting sucked into the vortex of criticism very easily. Everything about blogging encourages it. There is always fresh material of people doing and saying vapid things, so there is no need to actually assert anything. Besides, it is much easier to critique what another has said. To make matters worse, when you hit upon an especially juicy topic, you can be sure that the controversy will increase the traffic to your site.

So the presence of critics, even in Christian blogging, tends to increase, and since we are all so concerned with sound doctrine, we can very easily justify the tendency. At the same time, we tend to overlook the harshness and inconsistencies of fellow co-belligerents. This tends to mitigate any internal criticism against “the group” as they go about dissecting the error of whatever happens to be the latest subject of the criticism. In this way, a culture of criticism emerges, and a subtle trap is laid.

“A trap?” you ask. Most definitely! A culture of criticism tends to offer very little that is constructive; the best criticism can do is tear down and destroy. Of course, the thinking critic understands this but justifies the process, because whatever evil that they are addressing needs to be destroyed. The critic establishes a pattern that tends to promote both pride and bitterness within their own heart, as well as those who follow their diatribe.

But Neo…are you suggesting that we shouldn’t critique? No, but I am wondering something…What would happen if we changed the method of our critiques? I would like to propose a series of guiding principles that should hinder this growth of a culture of criticism:
1.) Critique as a friend: Treat every enemy as a friend (Luke 6:35).
2.) Critique yourself first: Identify how you manifest the same problem (Luke 6:41-42).
3.) Critique with care: Let the verbiage you use be peaceable, gentle, merciful, and without partiality (James 3:17).
4.) Critique proactively: Avoid the quarrels, and teach patiently with love; keep self-interest and pride as far out of the picture as possible (2 Timothy 2:24-26).

In fact, this last passage should be close at hand for our little circle of fundamentalist bloggers: “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”