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It is certainly true that a popular government cannot flourish without virtue in the people - Richard Henry Lee

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“Think, as well as read; and when you read yield not your mind to the passive impressions which others may please to make upon [it]. Hear what they have to say; but examine it, weigh it, and judge for yourselves. This will enable you to make a right use of books; to use them as helpers, not as guides, to your understanding; as counselors, not as dictators, of what you are to think and believe.”

~ Jonathan Edwards

Blog, by Hugh Hewitt
©2005 by Nelson Books,
A Division of Thomas Nelson Publishers (www.thomasnelson.com)
ISBN: 0-7852-1187-X

Senator Trent Lott is no longer the Senate majority leader. John Kerry is not the president of the United States. Dan Rather resigned as head anchor for CBS.

What do these three events have in common? They would not have happened without the help of the blogosphere.

The what??

The word blogosphere refers to the growing number of web logs, also known as blogs, on the internet. Blogs have become an alternate news source for many people, and, according to Hewitt, many are actually more reliable that the mainstream media or, the MSM. (So what’s new? My dog is more reliable than the MSM.) While the average blog is written bi-weekly by a teenage girl to update her friends on her life, there are many which are of interest to politically and evangelically active Christians. (See a list of my personal favorites below.) Blogs already made a huge impact on the political scene – take what happened to Senate majority leader Lott. One “oops” comment at Strom Thurmond’s one hundredth birthday party, and the blogs grabbed for and ran with it. While the MSM was at first reluctant to cover the story, the blogs kept pushing, and eventually the big boys caught on.

Hewitt’s book is a fascinating look at the history of information technology. He uses the novel illustration of the effect of the printing press on Martin Luther’s Reformation to demonstrate the potential effect of blogs on the information reformation. Just as the invention of the printing press allowed for Luther’s 95 Theses to spread like wildfire all over Europe, the arrival of blogs on the scene has allowed information to be put out to anyone in the world at lightening speed.

While Hewitt seems to focus a lot on how businesses can use blogging to help increase their revenue, he also includes information on how Christians can, and should, use the blogosphere to make a difference. Any Christian who is interested in impacting the culture should read this book, and make use of it. Blogs are read by people all over the world, and the potential to change the course of history is right here at our fingertips.

So what are you waiting for? Go blog!

My personal blog favorites:

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