Let me fill you in on two important Christian blogs: SmartChristian.com and RedBlueChristian.com. SmartChristian is one of the most popular blogs in the Christian blogosphere, drawing 3,000 visitors a day. RedBlueChristian is brand new, just launched 11 days ago.

Dr. Andrew Jackson

Both blogs are hosted by Dr. Andrew Jackson. Jackson, ordained in the Evangelical Presbyterian church, has multiple seminary degrees and has written several books. He serves on the ministry staff of Word of Grace Church in Mesa, Arizona. Meanwhile, he is the sole writer of SmartChristian, which has been described as “the Christian Instapundit” (Instapundit is one of the top-ranked blogs in the world).

This month Jackson launched RedBlueChristian, a group blog on politics from a Christian perspective, written by 23 contributors from a broad range of Christian and political viewpoints. One reason I’m mentioning RedBlueChristian now is that Dr. Jackson has invited me to be one of those contributors, and I have agreed.

SMARTCHRISTIAN.COM has been on our blogroll for some time. Check it out and I think you’ll enjoy it. Many of Andy’s posts are just a sentence long, with a link to some gem found elsewhere on the web. Like many of you, I don’t have time to look at several dozen websites a day to keep up with all that is being discussed out there, so I appreciate SmartChristian for pointing me to some of the best information each day. Andy’s main topics include U.S. politics, the Middle East, church and theology, a lot about the emergent church movement (more than I think that “movement” deserves) – and, of course, blogs and blogging.

REDBLUECHRISTIAN.COM was just launched on July 18. Its 23 contributors include:

• Dr. Jackson

• Dr. Scot McKnight, writer of the popular Jesus Creed blog, and professor at North Park University, Chicago

• Dr. John Mark Reynolds, a philosopher at Biola University and one of the most respected Christian bloggers in the blogosphere.

• Joe Carter, writer of The Evangelical Outpost, voted Best Religious Blog in the 2005 Weblog Awards.

Not all of RedBlueChristian’s contributors are profs and pastors – others are in real estate, insurance, communications, anthropology, and one homemaker/homeschool teacher.

Jackson explained the idea behind RBC in his inaugural post:

We believe that our biblical faith should inform our political engagement, and not be artificially separated from it. The purpose of the RedBlueChristian.com is to provide Christian bloggers — whether Conservative RedChristians or Progressive BlueChristians — the same blog space to post, discuss, and debate essential and important issues related to the Kingdom of God and American politics. We desire to promote a healthy biblical approach to politics as opposed to the adversarial “us” vs. “them” stance…

One reason for the timing of the RedBlueChristian launch, says Jackson, is to have the blog in full swing for the 2008 presidential election.

I recommend your perusal of both blogs.