An article from a Christian ministry about the evils of blogging has attracted a fair amount of attention over the last few days. The gist of the argument is that blogs are vain, vapid, self-absorbed, and that they somehow give people a Voice that they shouldn't have. Blogs are at best tainted by the evil to be found on the internet, and should be avoided.

I've avoided mentioning this here because I don't have much positive to say about it, and joining the dogpile of criticism seems rather pointless. But I came across a post today at Opus that takes the "blogs are evil" argument seriously enough to respond to its thesis in a thoughtful and, I think, productive manner:

Everything under the sun can and will be abused. Everything under the sun is abused. You don't have to be posting on a blog to engage in idle chatter, or to spread offensive and malicious language. Gossip in the church foyer can be just as bad. So does that mean we should stop talking or stop attending church, lest we succumb to the appearance of evil?

Read the whole thing, and check out some of the related links at the end of the post.