The Idea

Just over 1 year ago, I created an aggregate feed which I called Fundamental Reformers. I wanted to bring together the blogs that I see as reforming fundamentalism, and make it easy to follow them or learn more about them. The goal was to make a webpage with the latest posts from these blogs all together in one place. Plus you could subscribe to the feed and be notified each time one of these blogs posted new content.

Technical Issues

At the time, Blogdigger Groups and xFruits.com seemed to provide an easy aggregate feed (for free). But Blogdigger had some problems, and I never liked its format. I liked xFruits but it had problems too. So from time to time since then, I’ve been looking for an alternate method to create my aggregator.

In my latest search I came across Server.com’s NewsApp service (this is what Adrian Warnock uses for several of his blog groups, see sidebar here), that service looked great, but I couldn’t get it to work for me, with the blogs on my list. But then I discovered the solution was in front of me all along. xFruits.com allows me to easily create an aggregate feed, but it also can take any RSS feed and turn it into a static webpage. So I took my xFruits’ aggregate feed and made it into an xFruits’ webpage, and I think I’m in business. Although it still doesn’t list the blogs on the side of the page, it does provide a very easy format to read the blog posts in (with links to the blogs themselves), and if someone clicks around they’ll quickly find a link to a page on my blog with the complete list.

The Aggregator (& A Little About RSS)

So, here is the link to the new aggregator page: Fundamental Reformers. If anyone is interested in linking to it (especially you all who are listed in that feed), you can use this button I created a while back. Copy the button and use it on your blog (make it link to the aggregator, by the way).

And for any of you who don’t utilize feeds, you really should. It is like getting an email every time a blog posts, except the post (pictures and all, usually) or an excerpt of it appear in your feed reader program. Google Reader and Bloglines are 2 of the most popular. I’ve been using Google Reader and it lets me follow many more blogs than I could without a feed reader, and it lets me do other neat stuff for my blog.

The List of Blogs

Some of you were waiting for this part. Here is my new list of the blogs reforming fundamentalism.

• As For Me & My House (Ellis Murphree)
• The Big Orange Truck (“Regler Joe”)
• Bread & Circuses (Matt & Josh Richards)
• Bowing Down (Brian McCrorie)
• Ephemeros (Josh Gelatt)
• Fundamentally Reformed (Me, of course)
• The Misadventures of Captain Headknowledge (John Chitty)
• NeoFundamentalist (Tom Pryde, Joel Treteau & Charlie Eldred)
• Paleoevangelical (Ben Wright)
• Pensees (Bob Bixby)
• RyanDeBarr.Com
• The Reforming Baptist (Will Dudding)
• Scott W Kay: A Gospel-Centered Blog
• World from My Window (Don, Dan & Ken Fields, Matt Sims & Mike Hess)

Many of these are new additions, and there were some blogs that are no longer in operation. Of course right now you’re wondering what are my selection criteria. Why these blogs?

What Do You Mean by “Reforming Fundamentalism”?

These blogs all, from time to time, aim to help reform fundamentalism (the independent Baptist variety). Of course they post on a variety of other topics, but they deal with the problems of hyper fundamentalism in one degree or another. John Chitty, for instance, primarily blogs about all things Reformed, yet he often mentions his past as a hyper fundamentalist. And he has several posts devoted to the King James Only problem.

There is a wide spectrum here in this list, too. Some, like Josh Gelatt, have never had an actual history within the IFB movement, but he is confronted with these issues and addresses them. Others, like the Big Orange Truck and Will Dudding are still quite the conservative fundamentalists. They have a desire to reform and stay within the movement. Scott Kay, Ryan DeBarr and myself, with others, now find ourselves outside of mainstream fundamentalism (IFB). I guess I should use Joel Tretau’s taxonomy and admit I have type A, B, and C fundamentalists in this group.

I didn’t include other blogs because I either don’t quite feel they belong (or that they would want to be included), or most likely, I’m not familiar with them. Sharper Iron is not included because it is so big. It is a mixed bag, so to speak, and of late most of the posts seem not to be directed toward these issues. Lots of the good stuff on Sharper Iron is in the forums anyway. I also want the aggregator to promote blogs that could benefit from the promotion.

(I am open to being convinced that I should add other blogs that you all may know — even to add Sharper Iron. Just comment below.)

So How Does Someone Join This Aggregator?

If you think your blog qualifies, just let me know in the comments here (or on this page). Explain why you think you qualify (unless it is very obvious from just checking out your blog). I can’t guarantee I’ll include everybody, but I will consider you. Oh, and if someone is on the list and wishes to be removed, I’ll be glad to do so.

Now that you have the scoop, be sure to check out the aggregator! Here is the webpage version, and here is the actual feed. Enjoy.