[Originally posted at Bene Diction Blogs On June 1, 2010]
If evangelist Faytene Kryskow is sad after getting rhetorically pummelled in Marci McDonald's book, The Armageddon Factor, there is a curious little blog that might cheer her up.
It's probably innocent, but this blog is curiously timed, as I'll explain.
It's called Honouring Faytene Kryskow For All She Has Done, and it has been online for about a month now. It was set up by a Canadian, judging by the spelling of "honouring".
I am a great believer in encouragement and Christians saying thank you, but I am a little puzzled why this needs to be done in public. Not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing and all. Wouldn't Faytene be as blessed by doing this privately and quietly?
It is a great idea for people to thank people for their work, but I would caution that setting up a blog for this purpose could lead to hagiography, when I am thinking that a blushing Faytene wants to appropriately credit Jesus for happening to work through her and her friends.
Perhaps it is the fact that I have been reading The Commissar Vanishes that brings this to mind, but "cults of personality" are always bad. ("Follow Fateyne and fulfill the revival Five Year Plan!" :) )
Something else that makes me go "Hmmm..." Remember that Faytene wrote on her website that she wouldn't dignify Marci McDonald with a public response after The Armageddon Factor came out.
Well, this new blog started compiling posts thanking Faytene starting on May 3, roughly as the book was about to come out and there already are 12 different posts up, which is pretty fast for a little blog.
I think that this is probably innocent, as there are well-meaning Christians who do such things. I doubt that Faytene herself knows about the blog. But I do have to admit that there is a possibly that one of her interns has come up with this and told two friends about the blog, who told two friends and so on...
Let's hope that this is merely a providentially-appearing blog to cheer Faytene up. But the fact that it appeared anonymously as she was being roughed up a bit on the blogosphere might seem convenient to the sceptical minded.