It's good to get out every once in a while

So I was trolling around in the blogosphere lately- and found this great article about Rob Bell, Mars Hill, Emergents and "Christian progressives". Really enjoyed the article, but then started reading the comments pages. There were 349 comments. Probably half were from two guys who actually started off agreeing about what a load of bunk Christianity is- but then they started attacking each other- one who didn't believe the Holocaust happened, and the other who saw all religious belief as an inherited mental illness. Occasionally someone would try and chime in with an attempt to get these two to actually discuss the article or even some attempts to rebuff their amazingly complex, strongly held and outlandish vitriol. The length of the comment entries, the number of them, and the passion with which they continued venting all sorts of fringe beliefs really alarmed me. I mean, here are just 2 guys with unlimited time and energy spewing all over just one blog. How many times is this repeated all over the web? And these are the guys who fancy themselves liberal intellectuals. What about those who would just rather stay on the porn sites? Or maybe all of the aryan nation holocaust denying sites? How about 4th amendment guys? I could go on- but my point is that while I am glad these folks are getting this stuff out in a somewhat productive way- what do they do when they are say, in the grocery store line? And how many people do they represent?

See, my local world makes me feel a bit intelligent- (at my local coffehouse I saw a sign warning people about an Allergey Allert). I love the internet and its ability to connect me with people all over the world- to level the playing field- to expose us all to a bigger world out there. My worry is that it also gives people who are seriously imbalanced a platform to feel intelligent, powerful, and like there are others who are like them- and if they choose to go grab an 18 year old girl and rape and kill her- there is probably someone out there to tell them how to do it, celebrate their 'conquest' and make them feel 'accepted' for their deviant behavior. Whew. All from leaving my bubble and reading what's out there.