This afternoon I heard from a friend and former law-firm colleague who has hung out a shingle and is building a Web site for his new practice. He said he was going to follow the lead of Rice University professor Jim Turner Jim Tour and include a statement of his faith on his professional site.
I had previously toyed with the idea of having one, consolidated blog. But I concluded that I wouldn’t be comfortable mixing my religious- and professional writing. Few of my religious readers would be interested in my legal writing, and on my legal blog (100 Feet Up), I figure I owe it to those readers to keep my religious opinions to myself; if they’re interested in my religious views, they’ll find their way here via cross-reference links, as my friend did
It’s like a restaurant chef whose guests do him the honor of visiting his place of business (as opposed, say, to being his house guests). We expect the chef at work to offer opinions about cuisine; that’s part of why we came. But unless the chef is aiming to establish a cult of personality, my guess is that most diners would probably prefer that he do them the courtesy of remaining silent on sensitive non-cuisine subjects like religion. (Unless asked, of course.)
I’m uncomfortable with mixing religious- and professional writing for another reason. Religious beliefs are unavoidably conjectural and non-verifiable. It therefore seems just a bit detrimental to a pluralistic society for the host of a professional-type Web site, who holds himself out as an authority on "factual" matters like science and law, to post a personal faith statement on the site. The better practice, I would submit, would be not to do so.
This is just my personal opinion; reasonable minds can surely differ on this point.
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