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The Internet,
not gay bishops will kill off the churches
03 July 2008- Kenya- On Sunday, Conservative Anglican leaders
ended a rebel summit without formally breaking away from the global
Anglican Communion which they criticise – those that consecrate openly
gay bishops and priests.
A columnist in
the Ugandan Sunday Monitor thought the sight of
African bishops breathing fire and taking a hardline against
homosexuality was comical, to say the least.
He wondered
whether their priority should be what is happening far away in Europe
and North America, or the poverty, corruption and hunger which are
wasting the lives of millions of Africans.
Besides, how could
the ‘‘men of God’’ forget the scandals of bishops, priests, and all
manner of pastors snatching their parishioners’ wives, or robbing them
of their hard-earned money with promises of “miraculous” cures?
These, he argued,
are far more important than the fact that Gene Robinson, a gay
churchman, was consecrated bishop by the US Episcopal Church.
The Anglican and,
indeed, Catholic bishops, however, have a bigger problem to their
churches’ future beyond the threat of homosexuality.
For the last two
decades, both the Anglican and Catholic churches have been losing their
flock to the multitude of independent “saved” churches.
In the US, these
new evangelical churches pushed a very conservative political agenda,
sweeping George Bush to power. But now, their clout is in decline, with
a lot of alternative and progressive trends challenging their hold.
It would seem
that, finally, a new religion is challenging all churches. This religion
is information and communication technology (ICT) in the form of the
Internet, mobile phones, iPods, and video games.
Even in the most
religiously conservative societies, more people are spending more time
on the Internet and with their mobile phones, than they do in church.
Research has also
shown that too often, more people make a call or send an email message
as a going-to-bed ritual, than say their prayers. An increasing number
of people are becoming more distraught by the loss of their mobile
phones than of their relatives – or parish priests.
The fate of the
heroes of many video games and interactive sites are more important to
more young people than Jesus Christ.
Online communities
like YouTube and Facebook have a hold on their adherents than few
sweet-tongued pastors will ever have over their flock.
There are those
who think the Internet and mobile phone are the work of the Devil. They
are partly right. After all, the Internet has paedophiles and
pornography. But there are many extremely profitable sites on the
Internet.
However, it took
many years before companies and individuals could make money on the
Internet. For a long time, no one was turning in a profit. Then, slowly,
people figured out that the only exception were the pornography sites.
Dirty it might be but, as Newsweek was to report, by studying the
success of pornography sites, clean folks figured out how to sell books,
financial services, and other important things to our lives over the
Internet, and grow rich doing so.
So, how come the
Internet is becoming the new religion? For starters, it is very
democratic. Whether it is the old Catholic church in Africa with the
Italian priest saying Mass with his back turned to the “natives”, or the
dancing and screaming dodgy pastor wearing gold chains and wowing
thousands at Uhuru Park, these churches have one thing in common – an
authority figure.
He is the fellow
who understands the Bible and the intentions of God better than the mass
of the followers.
The Internet,
especially the social sites to which users contribute content, are
perhaps what Marxists had in mind when they spoke of a classless society
of the future. In several of these, everyone is equal, and contributes
to the rules of the site.
The mobile phone
freed children from overbearing parents, and – especially – wives from
the torment of controlling husbands.
The old figure of
the “head of the house” sitting grimly in the living room reading the
day’s paper, with everyone who had to use the phone asking him for
permission; speaking in soft tones when they answered a call; or
explaining “who was that” on the phone are history. Now everyone
encloses themselves in their rooms if they don’t want you to hear what
they are saying, and yak away.
The mobile phone
has subverted despotic domestic authority. In the past, as the “man of
the house”, your power came from, among other things, controlling access
to things like the house phone. Today, your credibility with the
children comes from the opposite – enabling access through provision of
money for them to buy air time!
In the past, some
authority figure in the house, church, or school kept the key to the
post office. The chap who collected the mail knew who was receiving
letters, and could interrogate you if he saw one from a suspicious
address.
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