Now, I know I’m behind in my posting, but this is getting ridiculous. A lot of the feeds in my RSS reader have been spewing up old news and this is one of them (although I can’t work out which it was, as I’ve had the tab open for ages). Still, it’s interesting anyway.

Apparently this video made the top 3 topics on the front page of Digg, bringing it to the attention of its host YouTube for the first time. YouTube deemed this “inappropriate content” and it was removed. Predictably enough, this was deemed ‘censorship’ by many in the YouTube community, and it was rehosted multiple times.

I’m not sure exactly what YouTube deems “inappropriate” in this case. One or two of the images used in the slideshow are vaguely offensive, but it’s mostly pretty puerile stuff.

blargfrit ‘YouTube Pulls Atheist Video After Making Front Page of Digg.com‘, disinformation (6/1/09)

Rabbi Ben Greenberg has collected a number of readings from the Torah – re-tweeted by a selection of Jewish users – into a book available from internet self-publisher Lulu.

Not everyone is pleased with the marriage of religion and social media, however, and Corey Hodges warned against obscuring Christianity beneath layers of entertainment, in his blog for the Salt Lake Tribune. Describing an unnamed church in Houston that encourages parishioners to tweet comments and questions during the sermon that appear on screens behind the pastor who later addresses them. Surely a greater danger is someone deciding to write “this sermon is lame” for all to see.

Social media and religion are not irreconcilable, however, as devotees of this fine blog are no doubt aware. Writing for Arizona State University’s State Press Joseph Hermiz draws the same analogy as A. Prof. Mark Goodacre of Duke, that in the 1st century Paul himself utilised the most advanced social medium of the time, the epistle, to evangelise the Mediterranean.

More traditional folk are still serviced by the digital revolution, however. The 1985 Jewish Publication Society translation of the Tanakh has been made into an audio recording, replacing the previous standard audio of the JPS’ 1917 translation. The audio stretches over 60 hours and is published online in weekly podcasts.

Joseph Hermiz ‘“Tweeting” the Torah, bringing religion online‘, State Press (19/10/09)
Corey J. Hodges ‘Tweeting in the pews? Pray it ain’t so‘, Salt Lake Tribune (15/10/09)

Freddie Mercury was a prominent Parsi.

One of the things that really interests me is how archaic and minority religions survive their various diasporas. AFP published a piece on how Parsis are using digital and social media technology to contact one another and bolster their religious identity. This can be anything from Zpeakerbox, an online zine for Zoroastrian youth to Facebook groups dedicated to Parsi cuisine. Prominent blogs like Parsi Khabar have a presence on Twitter. There’s even a Facebook-like social networking site for Zoroastrians called UshtaTeBook, named for the Zoroastrian benediction “Ushta Te”, although I wasn’t able to view it as entry is by invitation only (as was Facebook, originally).

One thing that struck me was the fact that, although Parsi sites often tried to include Irani Zoroastrians, just as often they were only interested in Parsis. There did not seem to be much of a presence, however, of similar Irani-centric sites. I wonder how much of this has to do with the relative population sizes of the different groups, or with Bombay being more of a technology hub than Iran. Anyone got any data?

Phil Hazlewood for AFP ‘Parsis use new technology to keep religion alive‘ (29/9/09)

by e³°°°, on Flickr

The Huffington Post, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and the New York Times have all recently grappled with the notion of ‘digital afterlife’ – the online legacy left by the deceased. I particularly liked the Huffington Post’s assertion that “In the virtual realm, there is life after death.” Oh what religious ideas that notion might spawn. I can’t wait.

In the meantime it seems like writers at the papers above are beginning to think about the issues that come with a life increasingly lived in the social media world. What we leave behind, in this digital age, seems to be challenging us to confront and contemplate death in new ways. The Canadian Privacy Commissioner recently forced Facebook to make changes to its policy that gives relatives of deceased users greater access. Of course, new businesses are also springing up to deal with the variety of problems that death after life online presents – Digital undertakers like Legacy Locker and Slightly Morbid, who can take care of your online affairs. This might include deleting email accounts or restricting access to social media profiles. The question is, will families and friends want their loved ones to be forever wiped from the online world, or will they want to maintain them to visit now and then like one would a grave site?

But back to the question of eternal life online; the digital realm is, for many, host to spirits and powers beyond human (I’ve definitely fought a few battles with my computers over the years). Maybe the internet will come to be seen as a medium through which we can interact with the dead.

Jose Antonio Vargas, ‘For Slain Youth, World Wide Web of Mourners’, Washington Post (3/4/08).

Michelle Slatalla, ‘Friends to the End and Beyond’, New York Times (14/1/09).

Duncan Jefferies, ‘Preparing for the Digital Afterlife’, The Guardian (30/9/09).

Continuing our consideration of God and Twitter A. Prof. Mark Goodacre, a New Testament scholar from Duke University, was asked by BigThink “What Would Jesus Tweet?”. He responded that Paul was much more media savvy than Jesus, and draws an analogy between everyone’s favourite micro-blogging service and that 1st/2nd century social medium: the epistle.

The whole God-Twitter thing continues, possibly because media outlets are OBSESSED with social media’s current darling and terrified of the possibility that their finger may be perceived as being somewhere away from the pulse of Today’s Youth.

This is another grab from The Washington Post‘s ‘On Faith‘ blog, which really serves more as a general religion news and opinion portal, from all sorts of contributors. Each comment to this post on God and Twitter leads to a thoughtful opinion piece on the subject, and kept me entertained for ages.

*subscribes*

Sally Quinn & Jon Meacham ‘Does God Tweet?’, Washington Post (11/8/09)

I left the the Political and Religious Views fields on my Facebook profile blank, partly because I don’t subscribe to any easily definable school and partly because they’re not really anyone’s business. But while I might be jealous of my own privacy, I have no compunction scouring other people’s profiles to see what they’ve entered. Most people enter either something conventional (“Anglican, Catholic”) or something in jest (“Ceiling Cat”), but a few have clearly tried to articulate something more unique and personal.

Thanks to David for linking this blog on The Washington Post.

apud William Wan ‘Soul-Searching on Facebook‘, The Washington Post (30/8/09)

Just like in the Stone Age!

Seminarians at the Redemptoris Mater House of Formation (peopled by those called from the Neocatechumenal Way) on the John Paul II Center for the New Evangelization campus in Denver (they can also be found all over the world, including Perth and Sydney) lead a more disciplined life than their brothers in other, typical seminaries. They are not allowed to keep their own money, but must instead ask for it from their superiors to make purchases of any sort. They do not keep mobile phones or personal computers. They must generally always be accompanied by a peer. This stands in stark contrast to the life lead by another, larger seminary on the same campus, St John Vianney.

SJV mirrors contemporary seminary life. The men take notes on laptops, carry Blackberries, live in single rooms, gather for TV-watching in a common room, maintain their own blogs and spread news about snow-cancelled classes on Facebook. Basically, that’s the rule when it comes to contemporary Catholic seminary life in the U.S.

The men of Redemptoris Mater — the name is Latin for “Mother of the Redeemer” — take notes on steno pads, must seek permission before hanging anything on their residence hall walls and share everything, down to a single e-mail address on a second-floor computer.

I’m reminded of a glimpse I had once through the window of the monastery at St Peter Julian’s on George Street from a bus stop across the road. All I could see was an ink-jet printer, and for some reason the mental image of a robed monk dealing with a paper jam has stuck with me since.

As far as I can tell, the Redemptoris Mater boys aren’t forced to speak (Vat.) Latin to each other at all times, so they should count themselves lucky.

apud Eric Gorski ‘Catholic seminarians embrace strict rules‘, msnbc.com (29/8/09)

Those naughty boys (and girls) at 4chan have been at it again, this time hacking a Christian dating site and using its user details to take control of members’ Facebook accounts. They used this control to cast their victims in an unfavourable light by posting racist messages, suggesting the promiscuity of members or making callous and derogatory comments about members’ friends (one commented that a picture of a friend’s baby was “ugly”).

apud Asher Moses ‘To Hell in a hack attack: Christians targeted on Facebook‘, smh.com.au (25/8/09)

Rowan Williams has described the current schism-in-all-but-name as a “two-track” communion, divided by member churches’ views on homosexuality. This lead to Times columninst and blogger Ruth Gledhill to ask tweet “Archbishop of Canterbury admits there are now two styles of being Anglican, two tiers, first and second class. Which r u?” Apparently prolific Anglican tweeter OTSOTO quipped a quick response: “Anglicans and Anglican’ts ? and what about the poor Methodists – where are they left ? in Steerage ?”