Do Categories Actually Divide? (or Top 10 Reasons To Blogroll)

ESV Bible Online: Passage: 1 Corinthians 1



1 Corinthians 1:10 - 17

Divisions in the Church

10 I appeal to you, brothers, [1] 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. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 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.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.




I am amused at the recent discussions in the blogdom about unity and how blog rolls and other consolidated lists might disrupt it. In the U.S. a few years back it became trendy during a church plant to start a church calling it “Hill Valley, Community Church” but the church to have an affiliation with a denomination. (Mind you, “Hill Valley” here is the fictional place from “Back To The Future”.) I even know of a church plant that even went to great lengths to hide that it was a Southern Baptist congregation. I think the idea is that people want to express is that denominations are not important. They are loose lines which have a little bit of benefit. There might be the occasional desire to deceive in order to evangelize, but by and large, I think this kind of thinking was an effort to keep denominational affiliation from becoming distraction to the real conversation the community of faith was wanting to have with those who are interested in exploring Christianity. They wanted to talk about Jesus and not church politics. However, as I understand it, most people are not distracted by such titles. Most people take the labels as somewhat identifiers of certain distinctions but not a matter of much importance. Just because Adrian Warnock seems to disagree with me on baptism does not mean I'm going to depart from fellowship. Well, actually he was disagreeing with my pastor the Jollyblogger but anyway.

Adrian I invite you to check out my webpage on baptism.
(I'm really not expecting you to change your position.)

Those who make a big deal out of following Paul or Apollos are told to not do so. But the funny thing is that those who claim do a counter proposal of saying “I follow Christ” are asked if Christ is divided. The text implies that their transcendent claim actually works to heighten division.

Blogrolls, aggregators and the like are merely a sophisticated to link to somebody else. What are you saying by a link? I have developed 10 reasons people link:

10. He/she likes the other blog
9. He is of similar mind as the other blog.
8. She is related to the other blogger. (Parableman you are not the only one.)
7. He hopes to increase his chances of going up in The Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem, so he links to others so that they will reciprocate the link.
6. She wants to help people find another good blog, sort of a mini review of the other blog.
7. He is fond of linking.
6. She can't find the bookmarks feature on her web browser.
5. He likes to categorize blogs that he reads.
4. Linking is cool.
3. Linking makes it look like my blog is a happening place to be on the web.
2. Networking, as a safe way to tip one's hat to a fellow blogger without much risk.
1. Hey, everybody else is doing it. I like to stay with the herd.

One of the things blogging software does is categorize people. I often click through my blogger profile to find who else lists Biblical Hebrew and GIS as interests. I also found out that no one from my home town in Lebanon, Missouri is a blogger on blogger. :-( Categories are okay if we don't take them too seriously. I hope no one departs from fellowship from me because of the whole Frisbee golf thing.

Comments

Rebecca Stark said…
Frisbee golf? Isn't that listed in one of the anathemas?
Mark said…
Declaring denominations can have the positive effect in that the "label" helps people know what to expect when they walk through the doors. If they see Southern Baptist, they won't expect robes, incense, and Roman or Anglican high church (you can invent other similar examples).

How about charity as a reason to link. We link as a gift to the person linked. We enjoy to see yourselves linked, and pass that on. Courtesy might be another interpretation.
Jeremy Pierce said…
No one else from your hometown blogs with Blogger and lists a hometown. Many people don't fill out their whole profile.
Jeremy,

While you are right in one sense, I'm a guessin' no one's a bloggin'.

(Note: For those of you without a refined sense of tone, read the above sentence as follows. Before the comma use an Oxford tone and enunciation, after the comma sound like yer from th' Ozarks.)

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