It could start out like any other chat conversation, but soon anything that is discussed on the Internet today, May 7th, could turn to God, the gospel and other topics of religion.
Today is Internet Evangelism Day, a day where thousands of Evangelicals swarm web chat rooms in an attempt to convert digital heathens, show them the errors in their ways and help them accept God.
Organizers tout the day as a resource to help churches, bible groups and other organizations mobilize and outreach. “God is using the Web to transform lives,” the site states, so now the Evangelicals have decided to answer gods broadband call by sitting at keyboards and clacking away to potential converters.
Of course, religious chat rooms are nothing new. Since the days of yore, when AOL chat rooms were the place to find conversations on everything from politics to cooking and Christianity, religious zealots have always used the Internet as space for a lazy mission.
But now, in its second year, the call for Evangelical Christians on the net has become organized, with a day dedicated to the bountiful exploitation of people who are looking for answers on the net (to the kinds of questions that aren’t found on answers.com). They are trained, eager and equipped with all kinds of bible passages to refute any argument.
More than that, the site is filled with MP3s, PowerPoint and Flash presentations all for download to help aid you in your day of proselytizing. It’s a multimedia effort. Watch out, the church has entered Internet 2.0.
So be careful if you start chatting today. They consider you prey, ripe for the killing. If your story is particularly heart-wrenching maybe you’ll get a highlighted story on their web page too.
Or, if you are really into it (although I doubt many of my readers are very religious), you could be like the author of Holy Mama, a christian blog. Another example of how the Christian community is slowly learning to take greater advantage of the web.
One thing I came across that was interesting, which will probably be another post in the coming days is the World Journalism Institute, which I think needs a new name. The World Journalism Institute hides its main focus, Christianity. The institute is dedicated to educating and producing christian journalists. So aside from my obvious point, that the name is a bit misleading, this organization requires more thought. Does religion play into how a journalist covers a story?
Perhaps a month from now we will be celebrating a different kind of Internet holiday. On June 6th, 2006 the date will read 06-06-06. I can’t wait for Internet Satin Day, can you?