I follow quite a few blogs and I love the diversity of the blogosphere. Even though the blogs I read are generally written by likeminded people, I still come across a huge spectrum of different opinions and am often pointed towards people I havent heard of.
This was the case recently when I was pointed to a blog post by Brian McLaren about him fasting during Ramadan and his reasons behind doing this. In some comment discussion I was accused of deliberately reading his blog with a negative bias because of who he was, which took me aback somewhat. This comment prompted me to actually look him up and find out who he was, and to my surprise I discovered that he is a prominent figure in the emerging church.
My reading of his blog had nothing to do with that because I had no idea who he was. Not because I hadnt engaged with the emerging church at all, but rather because I try to deal with people as individuals. It would really annoy me if someone lumped me in with everyone else from anew frontiers church and assumed that they understood me and knew my views on various theological issues. Not because they are likely to be wrong (in general I will probably agree with new frontiers church leaders on most issues), but because I am not new frontiers or UCCF or reformed charismaticor any other label you wish to give me, I am Peter. So I try (although I often fail) to keep an open mind about people whatever their background and current allegiances are.
Who is Brian McLaren, well frankly I dont know, but I do know he fasted during Ramadan for the sake of relating to his Muslim friends.