The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet

by Brandon Vogt

Paperback, 2011

Status

Available

Description

We'er experiencing the biggest communication shift since the printing press. Millions have adopted Facebook, YouTube, blogs, and Twitter. What does this mean for the Church? How can Christians harness these new tools to reach out, teach, cultivate community, and change the world? Following Pope Benedict's call to evangelize the "digital continent", The Church and New Media explores the power and risks of New Media, while guiding Christians through this new environment. Book jacket.

User reviews

LibraryThing member ellynv
There was a time...when long distance phone calls meant very good or very bad news. Ambitious boys on bicycles brought a newspaper to your front door seven days a week. And the bulletin that the church usher pressed into your hand on Sunday morning was typed and mimeographed by the church secretary
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on Friday afternoon. That time wasn’t that long ago - I certainly remember it. That was then. And the misfortune for many Christians who believe in the Good News of Jesus Christ is that their attitude is still essentially stuck in that era.

Brandon Vogt has authored a wonderful compendium The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet that should be on everyone’s reading list, and furthermore should receive wide distribution among parishes to reassure and nudge those who are furthering the mission of the Church with one (or maybe both) feet stuck somewhere in the early 1960’s.

I have considered myself something of an “early adopter” in these areas. (Mommy convert homeschool blogger since August 2002. Tempus fugit!) But when I was told about the first of Fr. Barron’s YouTube videos my immediate reply was, “YouTube? Isn’t that the home for shaky videos of teenagers doing JackAss style skateboard stunts?” We all need a nudge sometimes. And this book has something for everyone, no matter where they fall on the ‘tech savvy’ continuum. [FULL DISCLOSURE: My friends of a certain age think I am a pretty hip, with-it, groovy and forward thinking girl. I am also someone who, within the past year or so, asked her children if it was possible to send a text message from a regular old desk phone. Think continuum . . .]

The Church is a gerontocracy. Which is a good thing and we should all hope to grow in age, grace and wisdom. But along with wisdom, we acquire an accretion of outmoded concepts and strategies. Contentment and/or fear holds us back and keeps us from utilizing the gifts at our disposal. Helping to dispel this fear, this book has salient quotes from Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. [“Without fear we must set sail on the digital sea, facing into the deep with the same passion that has governed the ship of the Church for two thousand years . . .” Pope Benedict XVI]

The table of contents here is something of an ‘old home week’ for anyone who has some connection with New Media in this new century and a chance to learn more and expand horizons. For those who are not familiar with the varieties of New Media, Vogt gives a panoramic view of all that is at our disposal. And the downside of these new tools is not glossed over. Tools can be used for good or bad. Vogt realistically addresses the pitfalls of shallow relationships, information overload, increased narcissism, online relativism and the obstacles to prayer and contemplation. But he offers so many examples of the good that can be done utilizing New Media that it is quite obvious that the abuse of technology does not negate its use. Wonderful tools are at the Church’s disposal. The more impetuous would say that it is time for those with too much of an attachment to old media to “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.” But here I must paraphrase a line from a favorite movie: “you're not supposed to choose ‘get out of the way.’ You should be leading - or at least following.”

I remember my parents talking about Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s TV appearances – which (while rather depressing in the way it shows my age) is quite impressive considering the my family’s lack of religiosity in my younger years. Here was someone from a different religion (religion, period!) capturing their attention and sharing the message of the Good News. As the cause Archbishop Sheen’s canonization progresses, I would propose that he someday be the patron saint of “early adopters” - those Christians who are ready to give new technological blessings a chance to bring Jesus to the world. As Fr. Barron said in the Summer 2011 edition of Extension Magazine, “Archbishop Fulton Sheen would have given his right arm to have what we have now in terms of technology.”

The Church and New Media is good news for those who want to share the Good News. Get it. Read it. (yes, you can get it on your Kindle) Check out its accompanying website. And please pass the word along to those who think the new media is a scary concept and useful for little more than Facebook stalkers, Nigerian scammers and “Keyboard Cats.”
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ISBN

1592760333 / 9781592760336

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