A Course Blog for Elon's REL 204: Christian Traditions.
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Evangelizing with the Internet
After today's class, we learned that Evangelical Christianity uses the media, such as the radio and television, to spread this religion's message and beliefs. Evangelical Christians have a call to evangelize, so they try to use any means available to spread the word. Because of this, evangelizers take advantage of the cultural trends in society to enhance this movement. These people use technology and the media because individuals who are unfamiliar with the faith use these tools in their everyday lives, so they can relate to them. Evangelizers make use of the accessible and prominent tool of technology so that others can adopt and accept these beliefs more easily because they understand technology. This movement becomes more powerful when it utilizes social norms to connect a large amount of people. Also, using media and technology enables this message to spread quickly and expansively, which strengthens Christianity since a large amount of people are hearing the beliefs. Although there are many positive effects of evangelizers using the Internet to reach numerous people, are there any downsides of technology that can hamper the movement?
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In our group we talked a lot about how many traditions are dependent upon personal experiences and the community that is created through face to face interactions. While I understand the benefits of using the internet to evangelize, I find it hard to believe that those people who depend on the internet as a way to get their faith have the same community experience as those people who go to services in person. While there are chat rooms and other ways of communicating on the internet, there is something to be said for the power of communicating with someone in person. I believe that the internet can be a great way to supplement the physical action of attending church by providing information and reaching more people, but I strongly believe that part of having a religious experience is having a strong community that supports you on an interpersonal level.
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