Reading And Writing

Lisa Fox, one of my favorite bloggers (I like the way she looks at things), wrote about a conservative blogger who used an online tool to test the readability of selected conservative and liberal blogs. Take a look at Perpetua of Carthage's "Rating the Anglican Blogs for Readability". Here is her conclusion:

I was pretty much random sampling among the blogs I knew. I am not claiming this pattern of results would still occur in a larger sample. But in this sample, it appears that the conservative Anglican blogs (and some of these are very popular blogs) require a greater intellectual engagement than the progressive Episcopal blogs.

She says she didn't do a broad or scientific sampling, but her conclusion smacks of elitism, which I see as one of the great problems of the Episcopal Church. Not only are we seen as a denomination of the wealthy and privileged, we often perpetuate that image--and worse--by our elevation of scholastic achievement and attainment. Recently, our office received a voice mail request from a priest who was looking for materials to prepare adults for baptism and confirmation. I pulled together a list of our usual resources and gave her a call. She was familiar with all the resources I had, but they did not fit her needs. The people she was working with were all "blue collar" (her words) folks, many of whom had not completed high school and a couple who had not even completed middle school.

Where were resources that meet the needs of these folks? Why does our church assume that everyone who walks through the door has, or will soon have, a college education? What kind of message does that send to the world?

I admit that education has always been my biggest prejudice. I am constantly reminded in my everyday encounters with people that just because someone doesn't have a college education does not mean they aren't intelligent or wise. Three of my grandparents never went to college, and my paternal grandfather had only an eighth grade education. So how did I acquire this prejudice?

I don't know, and I struggle with it. As a person with a college degree and a lot of postgraduate work, it means a lot to me that this blog has a high school readability level. Just as it meant a lot to me when a former rector of our parish told me that he was impressed that I didn't use a lot of "fifty-cent words" when I preached. It means that my writing and speaking are accessible to a broad range of people. And isn't that the sign of an effective communicator?

Peace,
Jeffri