Blog Evangelism?
Though I’m thoroughly part of the wonderful postmodern generation - I own a cell phone, blog, email, podcast, surf the Internet, watch Youtube, watch movies – I have never been a huge fan. Two things mitigate against techno-mania in my life: 1) the fact that I love the outdoors, and 2) I have a history degree (ah, I think to myself, wasn’t it so much simpler back in the day...)
So, while I don’t advocate super crazy amounts of time using technology – I do think that if St. Paul used a ship to go across the Mediterranean to proclaim the Gospel, than we should use the modern ship of information technology to proclaim the Gospel. Cardinal Ruini, a top clergyman at the Vatican, sparked this whole blog idea off with his comments the other day: "I don’t understand the Internet, but especially young religious ought to enter blogs and correct the opinions of the youth, showing them the true Jesus.”Ha, I like that. He doesn’t even use the Internet, and he’s all for using it to proclaim Jesus :) And, while we do need to use technology to evangelize, I think some of us young techno crazy people also need to think twice about the amount of virtual contact we have with people versus real contact – especially when sharing Jesus with others – through a blend of witness and word – something hard to achieve online. For more on this subject see JPII's letter, Internet: A new forum to proclaim the Gospel.
Hat tip to my little sister, Julie for this blog idea.
Labels: evangelism, technology
posted by Pete Ascosi @ 3:18 PM
1 Comments
1 Comments:
Pete - Great post. The main complaint I have about technology in our lives is "over-complication." When we have cell phones, e-mail accounts, blogs, iPods, home theater systems, web sites, multiple computers, and the like, we have so many distractions. We spend countless hours setting up and maintaining all of this technology in our lives, not to mention keeping them "up to date". I constantly have to ask the question, "Is this stuff bringing me closer to my family, friends, and Christ?" If the answer is "No" then change is needed, which isn't always easy.
Technology can be great for advancing Catholic ideas and reaching out to people, but like you said, it's the personal face-to-face interaction that really changes lives. We meet our friends and family face-to-face when we put all of our techno-toys away, and we meet Jesus face-to-face in the Eucharist, plain and simple.
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