electronic preachers and pedophile priests to realize that this is the fruit of
his own self-centered lusts instead of the rules and laws found in God’s Word
which are there to protect us.”
(BMH)
a curse, a blessing, and a challenge
One of the unique things about Pope Francis is that this 78-year-old pontiff
has embraced technology and especially social media to connect with people
throughout the world.
He “tweets” every day and calls the Internet “a gift from God” – a hightech upgrade of the Gutenberg press that had made possible the distribution
of the Bible to the masses.
But he sees the curse as well as the blessing. All of this technology – from
the Internet to Facebook and Twitter – makes the church more accessible and
approachable, especially in reconnecting disaffected young people. But he
realizes also that technology often drives disconnectedness and isolation, and
that it cannot replace the power of actual human encounter.
Meanwhile, the pope is opening up brave new worlds – and we might
learn something from him. Every day he sends simple messages of love and
mercy to some seven million Twitter followers in his English account, and
another 16 million in other languages. He has help with the technology but
seems to have a gift for packaging a powerful message within the Twitter limit
of 140 characters.
The General Church does not yet have such a commanding presence in the
Twitter universe, but Outreach deals with Internet inquiries every day from
all around the world. The Swedenborg Foundation is enjoying success with
creative YouTube videos that attracted 177,000 views – more than a million
minutes – in July alone.
The challenge – and it is the same one facing the Catholic Church and the
pope – is to maintain the quality, integrity and timelessness of our beliefs in a
technological world where everything is instant but nothing is lasting.
This “gift of God” has to be better than quick bursts of information, like
a flashy display of fireworks bursting and fading in a dark sky, but instead
opening up the wonder of an endless starry universe, just begging to be
explored.
(BMH)
‘incline our hearts unto wisdom’
The Information Age celebrates our thirst for knowledge and the fountain that
is the Internet. Need an answer about virtually anything? Google it. Never has
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