I like to blog, maybe you’ve noticed. When I read the new blogpost by Dorothy Bischop about Brian LePort giving 5 reasons why students shouldn’t blog I thought it’s worth sharing both points of view here.

LePort describes the case of Christopher Rollston who wrote a blogpost on the Huftington Post titled “From Washington to Jerusalem: Personal Reflections on a Year to Remember” wherein he recounted the series of events that led to his forced resignation from Emmanuel College in 2012. 

“Rollston’s troubles began with a blogpost on the Huffington Post where he pointed out how women are marginalized in Scripture. Although he was a tenured professor, who was both well-like and well-respected by the students and most of his colleagues, he found himself on the wrong side of angry donors who disliked his view of the Bible, and as we all know, even in the Church, money makes the world go round.”

LePort concludes: “As I have learned as a blogger it is almost impossible to avoid writing something that will offend someone.”

I favor the answer by Dorothy Bischop:

“Yes, people who blog should think carefully about what they say and the impact it may have. Yes, it’s impossible to avoid offending someone somewhere, unless what you write is so boring and anodyne that nobody would want to read it. But I despair at the idea of a future generation so cowed with fear that nobody ever says anything original or controversial.”

I surely hope I haven’t offended someone by this post. I do think that researchers and students should blog. I do exercises with my own students in which they have to maintain a blog together in which they learn how to write for an audience.