In developmental psych you learn about closed systems and open systems.

The ‘church’ can be notorious for closed system thinking and behaviour.
Rigid, controlling, inflexible, rule dominated, mocking….
Here is an example, told by a blogger who went to a Christian boot camp.

People in closed systems cannot handle being exposed to the larger community.
They attack to defend themselves against what they perceive as betrayal when someone speaks out.

There are nasty, nasty people on line, and certain places tend to draw them like flies. This is an example. If you dare have an opinion that Linux isn’t the OS that will save the world you get flamed, flooded, demeaned and slandered.
A troll took a Quantum Tea post expressing an opinion about Linux and posted it on a user thread.
Sadly, the results were predictable.
Read the Tea response post. Read the thread. They make Apple devotees look like a boys choir. These dudes don’t get it, do they?
Exposing their rhetoric to the larger community doesn’t win the OS or it’s users any support. They may use an open source system, but they themselves fall well into the category of a socially closed system.

gooddogbaddog encourages bloggers in the face of on line misunderstandings.

The Blogosphere has brought some space for honesty but sadly we seem to be very much the slaves of a medium conducive to pontificating, self aggrandisement, and faceless misunderstanding. Still, in spite of us, all is not lost.

I admire his deep cry for honesty, but I question whether most bloggers can show the right respect for pain honesty requires.

We must stop pushing one another to the place where we feel the need to hide behind our detailed disclaimers

Too many harsh bloggers help others to flee.

Looking at those two posts above, I was heartened to see relapsed catholic’s ‘G is for grace’ post.

If we don’t accept God’s grace, if we try to ignore those little pangs of conscience or strong urges of the Spirit, we squander a precious opportunity. But God loves us even if we hit the spirtual snooze button, and will continue to send us invitations of grace, just as the Prodigal Son’s father welcomed him back into the family.

Why would anyone say no to God’s grace? Who wouldn’t want supernatural help, in the form of a completely unmerited gift?

“All human nature vigorously resists grace,” observed Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor, “because grace changes us and the change is painful.”

Mark Byron cautions against denominational and branch bashing.

Spain and journalists
This is also heartening. Ididem, blogging from Spain, dug a bit deeper into an AP wire story to discover that journalists would not cower before the Spanish courts.

Blogging and Writing
This was a personal treat, a subject near and dear to my black heart.
DashHouse looks at the discipline of writing, and suggests that bloggers write for themselves.
I got a great response back in his comments section.
Meantime, Eye Level is also looking at writing and his blogging style and discipline in another thoughtful approach as both blogs look at Who are you writing for? (link isn’t working: Feb 9:7:57)

Blog Quiz!

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Link via A Voyage to Arcturus

Quote:

“TV evangelists say they don’t favor any particular denomination, but I think we’ve all seen their eyes light up at tens or twenties.” –Dennis Miller