A Quaker Post

I had an interesting exchange with Forrest of A Quaker Watering Hole about this post. I, in my pushy/helpful way, offered to help set up some kind of discussion/Skype group on "taking back Jesus" for Quakers and perhaps other lefty Christian seekers. He responded that "Back at the old blog, we're already getting rowdy on the old one-post-at-a-time system, which I'd expect to lend itself better to reflective comments."

My response:

I think in terms of reflective comments you may be right. It's the difference between sitting in a meeting and just talking, or, having only those who write a prepared statement ahead of time be allowed to speak. The prepared statements will definitely be more reflective but not everyone will participate. Those of us who have been blogging for a number of years sometimes pull our hair out over "lurkers," those who read but never comment.

Were the comments at the interest group meeting at Pacific Yearly Conference less reflective than if everyone there had written an article on the subject of "taking Jesus back" for Friends Journal?

Reflection need not be swapped for spontaneity in all cases: one of many reasons I go to Meeting.

He replied:

All right, I play go on dragongoserver.net and I don't necessarily think any longer about those moves than if I were playing a real-time game.

And thinking a long time is certainly no guarantee that the Spirit is being consulted in the process.

Neither I nor John have a copyright on the idea of "Taking Back Jesus." I asked him for permission to use his statement, because I had that opportunity, but my sense was that he didn't mind anyone reprinting it.

The real difference I see in a real-time game is that it ties me to the computer for the duration, keeps me there responding timely to the other guy's moves.

So if you start such a discussion, I'd like you to invite participants to also read & comment on 'my' site, but I don't see the advantage to joining in myself, under that time-constraint. Enjoy!

So this thread is for those who want to discuss the whole "blog post" versus "chat" dynamic, and also for those who want to join a Skype discussion on "taking back Jesus." Or you can just email me see sidebar. Thanks, Forrest, for your willingness to let me post this stuff.