Curious Christian

One of the primary aims of Journeys In Between is to encourage interfaith conversations on the web, so I thought it was time I put together some tips for bloggers who are willing to try it or want to get better at it.

My regular readers might recall I recently wrote on the seven dimensions of cross cultural communication as defined by David Hasselgrave in his book “Communicating Christ Cross Culturally”? I want to say up front that I will be using those seven dimensions as my launching point, but I also want to preface that by saying I do believe what follows should be equally applicable for non-Christian bloggers who are looking to dialogue more effectively. So, on with the tips.

1/ Do the unexpected. I think a great way to start engaging with people in interfaith conversations online is by challenging common perceptions and clichés, by saying or doing something that people stumbling across your blog don’t normally expect from someone following your pathway. After all, if people coming across your blog think they already know everything you are likely to say, why should they interact? This is something I experienced personally many years ago. When I first met my wife, as a non-Christian, she was studying environmental science. I thought, “What’s an evangelical doing studying environmental science?” That piqued my interest and drew me into conversation when normally I would have avoided talking to an evangelical. The rest is history as they say. This very point was the original impetus behind the iconoclastic Christian art collection you see hosted on this blog. I wanted to convey at a glance that this was not your normal evangelical blog. So I recommend spending some time experimenting how you might do that in ways that suit your own style. Could your introductory sentences and bios do with some reworking? Could you post some convention challenging articles directed at visitors from other faith paths? Think about it.

2/ Learn how others think. I won’t say much more here other than read my previous article on “asking others to share their stories”. The more you do that, the more you’ll develop a gut instinct for what might work on your blog. But never stop learning.

3/ Mind your language. I must confess I still struggle with this one myself. Bilingual and multilingual blogging is hard work. And that is truly what this is, for even when everyone in the conversation is speaking English you still each have your own insider dialects and place different nuances and meanings on different words. For this reason I experimented with two blogs for a while, one directed at Christians and the other at esotericists. I do things a little different these days and try to use secular language, particularly psychological and self help language, wherever possible, only resorting to Missional or Esoteric jargon when I have a particular point to make or a particular audience in the foreground. But this too can be problematic as all sorts of assumptions can be inadvertently freighted in along with it. And neutral langauge makes search engine optimization difficult. No easy answers here; just work at it and be alert for misunderstandings in the feedback comments.

4/ Aim for unshockability. If you are involved in interfaith conversations for any length of time, online or off, you will sooner or later encounter something that truly spins you out, that offends your tastes and sensibilities and intelligence. Culture shock is somewhat inevitable. My advice at this point is, if this does happen during the course of a conversation leveraged off your blog, resist reacting till you’ve had time to reflect on it. Your religion looks weird to them too. Don’t say something in the heat of the moment that will kill the conversation. Pray about it, read up on it, listen more; only (re)act after that.

5/ Reciprocal link with interfaith bloggers from other religions. If you are only prepared to link with bloggers from your own religion, why should you expect them to link to you? Consider this: your interfaith traffic will be significantly enhanced if you are prepared to forge blogging alliances across religious boundaries with other people who are prepared to do the same. Now, some Christians may be back away from this for its potential to lead the innocent astray, or for brethren to interpret your linking as an endorsement of everything that is said on these other blogs. A valid concern – put a disclaimer in your sidebar if you think it might help with your audience. You might note I have highlighted in my comment policy that I don’t expect to agree with everyone and everything that is said. Be upfront about your stance. But yes, you will need a tough skin to do this; I cop heresy accusations and insinuations regularly from legalistic gatekeepers. But then, so did Jesus. What’s more important?

6/ Be aware of the limitations of the blogging medium. If 75% of human communication is non-verbal it should be immediately apparent that blogs have some serious limitations when it comes to interfaith conversations. The potential for misinterpretation of humour, of all sorts of gaffs, is multiplied online. So blog with the limitations in mind and be prepared to spell things out where necessary.

7/ Find an interfaith niche you can become an expert on. People will generally decide in the first few seconds if your blog deserves closer inspection so make sure the decision is easy. It is a general blogging principle that it’s better to be a big fish in a small pond than a medium fish in a big pond. So rather than blogging on say, Christian responses to Buddhism one week and Christian responses to Atheists the next, find a corner of the interfaith conversation that grabs you more than most and blog consistently on that. Become a recognized authority on it. You’ll note that although my blogging attention meanders all over the religious spectrum I continually come back to Paganism-Christian dialogue and that is the subject that drives a lot of my interfaith traffic. In sticking to that, over time I have developed cred amongst both Pagans and Christians, and now bloggers from both paths refer people to me. Find an intereligious niche that you can blog consistently on.

Now, maybe you have some tips yourself from your own blogging experience? Feel free to add to the knowledge base!