First-ever conference for "God Bloggers"

AP reports on the first-ever national conference for Christian bloggers. Among the observations was a comment by Joe Carter of evangelicaloutpost.com that blogging offered an unadulterated view into Christian thought on contemporary issues. I was also heartened to read about efforts of many Christian bloggers to break stereotypes. From the article:

Many bloggers are now writing about religious oppression, poverty and world hunger, instead of hot-button issues such as abortion, homosexuality and assisted suicide, said the Rev. Andrew Jackson, a seminary professor and pastor at the Word of Grace Church in Mesa, Ariz.

"With blogging you tend to break out of those circles and you see other points of view," Carter said. "There's a bigger world out there than gay marriage and abortion."

At one well-attended workshop — "When Non-Christians Read Your Blog" — Biola University professor Timothy Muehlhoff gave instructions on writing about faith without alienating nonbelievers.

He stressed that God blogging has the potential to be a "train wreck" because done wrong it can reinforce stereotypes of evangelical Christians as angry and close-minded "pit bulls of the culture wars."

"As Christians today we are embroiled in the argument culture and we have forgotten this one thing: 'Blessed are the peacemakers.'," he said. "Wouldn't it be nice if we could say we brought a level of civility back to the conversation?"

Jackson, who blogs at smartchristian.com, said he wasn't as sure what long-term influence blogging would have on evangelical Christians — but he knew it would be important.

"We are just at the beginning of what is going on," he said. "We need to start thinking about how we can harness and focus the Christian blogosphere for greater impact."

I guess you could compare Christian bloggers today to the first Christian "apologists" that helped explain Christianity to the first- and second-century Roman world. Cool!