Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[NY Times]

Things went smoothly for the first hour of the Twitter experiment at Trinity Church in Manhattan on Good Friday in April.While hundreds of worshipers watched the traditional dramatization of the Crucifixion from pews in the church, one of New York’s oldest, thousands more around the world followed along on smartphones and computers as a staff member tweeted short bursts of dialogue and setting (“Darkness and earthquake,” “Crucify him!”).

The trouble began in the second hour.

Twitter’s interactivity — its essence — made it easy for an anonymous text-messager to insert an unscripted character into the Passion play: a Roman guard who breezily claimed, “I’ve got dibs on his robe.” When another texter introduced a rogue Mary Magdalene, the intrusion only confirmed the obvious: Twitter’s trademark limit of 140 characters per message is no bar against crudity.

Religious groups from Episcopalians to Orthodox Jews have signed up for Twitter, Facebook and other social media networks with the same gusto that celebrities and politicians have, and for some of the same reasons — to gain a global platform and to appeal to young people.

Still, many clerics admit to an uneasiness about the merger of worship and electronic chatter.

In online debates and private discussions, leaders of all faiths have been weighing pros and cons and diagramming the boundaries of acceptable interactions: Should the congregation have a Facebook page, or should it be the imam’s or priest’s? Should there be limited access? Censoring? Is it appropriate for a clergy member to “friend” a minor?

Some recoil at the informality and unpredictability of the crowds marshaled by social media, and at their seeming immunity — even hostility — to the authority of established institutions. More deeply, some in the clergy see a basic tension between the anonymous world of online life and the meaning of religious community.

“In Judaism, we believe that God resides in the community — among people in the same room at the same time, hearing each other’s voices and looking in each other’s eyes,” said Rabbi Gerald C. Skolnik of the Forest Hills Jewish Center in Queens, who also wanted it known that he carries an iPhone and a laptop and is talking with his congregation about a Facebook page.

“But can you tweet a minyan?” he asked, referring to the quorum of 10 people required for most Jewish devotions. “I don’t think so.”

Religious groups are answering many such questions for themselves — and, for the most part, signing up for interactive media, said the Rev. Bill Reichart, a Presbyterian minister in Atlanta who leads an informal network of Web consultants who work with people of a broad spectrum of faiths.

“If total control is what you want, social media will frustrate you,” he said, reprising his advice to the clergy. “But the trade-off is the ability to hear and learn, reach out in new directions.” Many clerics, desperate to connect with young people, have been like radio dispatchers using the wrong bandwidth, he said. “The young don’t do e-mail anymore,” he said. “They do Facebook.”

Evangelical Christian ministers were among the earliest Web networkers, and today, popular preachers like Rick Warren and Joel Osteen have thousands of followers on Twitter. At Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens, Pastor Adam Durso and his brother Chris, the youth director, keep in contact with their flock, sometimes hourly, on a half-dozen social media sites.

Leaders in other faiths are catching on, but moving slowly, said Monique Cuvelier, a Web consultant in Boston who attributes some of the resistance to the conservatism of any established institution, and some to a sense of privacy: Gossiping about the rabbi’s wife may be common in temple parking lots, “but having it end up on the Internet — that freaks some people out,” she said.

Read more here.

[From me]

I hear people lamenting the evils of technology. Sure there are bad elements to it. But you had better get on board or be left behind. The world is changing whether we like it or not. Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, My Space, texting, Looped, etc…. are the way people communicate. Some can say it is impersonal but they have probably not tried it.

I have reconnected with people I haven’t seen in 20+ years through social media. I have met people online and then actually met in person at conferences later because of social media. I pray for people and they pray for me. Are they relationships? Yes. Maybe not in the same way as the past but they are relationships. People can complain or chose to adapt. The church had better adapt or be swept away in the technological tsunami.

What do you think?

[Mail Online]

Footballer Michael Chopra has split with his wife of seven months after she dumped him on Facebook.

Heather Swan, 24, is said to have let her husband know their marriage was over by changing her status to single on the social networking site.

The former couple are now locked in a bitter war of words and the Sunderland striker, who earns £30,000-a-week, has updated his own page with the words: ‘Heather will have a new number tomorrow, ha ha,’ after cancelling her mobile phone contract.

Read more here.

[From me]

What happened to the days when people did it with real guts and used “text-messaging?” 

What do you think?

[CNN]

The minute news broke of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai, India, social media sites like Twitter were inundated with a huge volume of messages. With more than 6 million members worldwide, an estimated 80 messages, or “tweets,” were being sent to Twitter.com via SMS every five seconds, providing eyewitness accounts and updates.

Many Twitter users also sent pleas for blood donors to make their way to specific hospitals in Mumbai where doctors were faced with low stocks and rising casualties.

Others sent information about helplines and contact numbers for those who had friends and relatives caught up in the attacks. Tweeters were also mobilized to help with transcribing a list of the dead and injured from hospitals, which were quickly posted online. As Twitter user “naomieve” wrote: “Mumbai is not a city under attack as much as it is a social media experiment in action.”

Read more here.

[From me]

I’ve been using Twitter for almost 2 years. You can follow people on Twitter and see what they are doing. I’ve been prompted to pray for people and they have prayed for me.  My Twitter updates go directly to my Facebook status update.  Some may say it is TMI (Too much information) but in this new era, I like it.  I have met some really cool people via Twitter, blogs and Facebook that I have got to hang out with at conferences.  It is a new way of networking. Times are changing and you either jump on board or get left behind. If you want to follow me on Twitter you can do so here. You can add me on Facebook here.

[NY Times]

The online hangout Facebook is getting more serious about grammar. No more should users see jarringly incorrect declarations such as ”Debbie changed their profile picture.”

Users who haven’t specified their gender in their Facebook profiles will be asked to do so in the coming weeks. That way, Facebook doesn’t have to default to ”their” or the made-up word ”themself,” as it had been doing.

Read about it here.

[From me]

What does this mean for transgender people?  I want my “IS” back!

What do you think?

[SF GATE]

Now that Internet users have forged online relationships with the people they like, they can turn their attention to shaming the folks they hate.

With Enemybook, a new program that runs on the social networking site Facebook, you can connect to people you loathe, display their photos and evil deeds and give them the virtual finger.

Enemybook is one of several new online applications developed by computer-savvy twentysomethings who say they are tired of bogus online friendships. In a dig at the notion of virtual networking, they hope to encourage people to undermine, or at least mock, the online social communities that sites such as Facebook were designed to create.

Read about it here.

[From me]

Why?