Blogging and Loving Our Neighbor

Now that a new definition of blogging has been drafted by folks at despair.com (thanks to Justin Taylor for this), I think it's wise for Christian bloggers to rethink how their blogging affects their faith.

At that point I was reminded of something that Betsy Childs, an associate writer at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, wrote last year about loving our neigbors:

Because of the internet and global news coverage, we have twenty-four hour access to people all over the planet. We are now aware of the evils and injustice not only in our own communities, but also in Darfur, Iraq, Indonesia, and everywhere else. With the world as our backyard, our neighbors have become people of every tribe and tongue, and many of them suffer heavy oppression. On balance, I view this awareness of the larger world as a good thing. Awareness may move us to action, and the work of justice and mercy is exactly what the people of God are meant to do.

I am that we will substitute virtual community for real community. Trading emails and reading blogs may simulate some aspects of community, but the truth of the matter is, if you tire of your virtual neighbors, escape is a simple click away. When you live with people, you cannot shut them off when you are feeling selfish, tired, or tempted. Face-to-face relationships expose our sin and sanctify us in ways that internet relationships cannot. Listening to podcasts or watching church on TV is not a substitute for being an active member of the Body of Christ.

The question, "Who is my neighbor?" prompted Jesus to tell the story of the Good Samaritan. The man who was beaten and bruised was the Samaritan's neighbor simply by virtue of the fact that they came in contact with each other.

In our shrinking world we now have neighbors on the other side of the world. We have a responsibility to love those neighbors. But we must guard against passing by those who are literally in our path, whose needs have a claim on us, and who we, in spite of our pretensions to self-sufficiency, need just as deeply.