The Wardman Wire

In response to a request on the forums (currently full of - well - tumbleweed) yesterday I put together a few thoughts on why I am looking for regular or occasional writers on current affairs from a perspective informed by a religious tradition (whether one you follow, or understand, or have been formed by, or perhaps even have left behind).

Basically, I think that these are viewpoints that need to have a place in the debate, but currently do not to a sufficient degree. And that means that more extreme views (on all sides) to get more than their fair share of attention. At the same time, the focus of this blog is politics, so I can’t take a number of new writers in this area, unless at lewast some are occasional.

If you might be interested in writing here, drop me a line at mattwardman at gmail dot com, preferably with a link to something you have published before - and I’ll take a look.

Here’s a short explanation of where I am coming from on this. Comments - and critique - are welcome.

Debate around religion is often quite crude

One of the things I have observed was that a lot of “dialogue” around religion is conducted in stereotypes through megaphones - whether rejection of “The West” by some Islamic writers from particular viewpoints or rejection of “religion” by some who try to paint all religion as being simply a threat. This seems to apply equally to Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and other religions equally much of the time. I want a more nuanced dialogue.

And does not happen very much in the Political Blog niche

Within the Political Blogging niche, there are relatively few blogs which publish writing about politics viewed through the lens of religion. The most prominent are Archbishop Cranmer and some of the contributors to Pickled Politics. There are others - Bartholomew’s Notes, Paul Linford on occasion, Yahya Birt, Osama Saeed and others (sidenote: if I have missed out anyone who reads this article, my apologies - I don’t read all of the political blogs ;-). I have still to find many Hindu, Sikh bloggers etc.

There are others who are in the various “religion” niches who touch on politics and society - Bishop Alan Wilson, various “emerging church” bloggers - and I’m sure the same is true for all religions. But because these are not “political blogs” they don’t very often get into the “political” debate.

There is also relatively little thoughtful public debate elsewhere

A thoughtful public dialogue is largely missing with respect to all religions - with the possible exception of statements by the Pope himself, and occasionally by Bishops. Even in these cases, reporting usually follows well-worn lines. For example, it is a quip in the Church of England that there are about three stories: “church in decline”, “church in split”, “church broke and wants more money”. “Vicar runs away with Parishioner’s Wife” has now been replaced by “priest in child abuse scandal”.

Wardman Wire Ethos

This site has been quite eclectic since I started it 15 months ago, and one of the aims from the start was to encourage debate across different blogging niches (it is also a good way to grow a blog quickly where there is relatively little competition, and gives several growth points :-). That’s why I go out of my way to try and cover everything from Welsh politics to slightly technical aspects of blog promotion (to encourage political blogs to develop audiences outside the niche).

I try to do this with religion and politics - I want viewpoints based on faiths/religions to be debated in the “public square” rather than to be excluded. Since this site has a political audience it can be a (small) platform for a contribution to that debate. If you like I’m trying to do my bit to provide an alternative to the megaphones.

I think that that type of debate - and it will be robust - is important.

Wrapping Up

There’s a longer version of this article in the Forums.