The Pope Embraces The Digital Age

Believe in Santa; believe also in me

The Bishop of Rome wrote, yesterday, on the 45th World Communications Day, and in it attended to the issues surrounding "Truth, Proclamation and Authenticity of Life in the Digital Age" 

I must confess to being mildly surprised that Pope Benedict XVI has a view on a world that seems now to be characterised by Facebook, MySpace - and in Christian circles, to blogging and Tweeting. I am pleasantly surprised too - not least of all because I clearly talked about this first a couple of days ago and it is always nice to pip a leading Christian to the post!

By way of summary, the Pope likens the advent of the digital age to the Industrial Revolution in terms of its scope and impact on the life of a large number of people. He points to the new possibilities for this new mode of communication and its implications not just for faith, but life as a whole. In summary:

• The digital age brings a new appreciation of communication as a whole.
• 'This means of spreading information and knowledge is giving birth to a new way of learning and thinking, with unprecedented opportunities for establishing relationships and building fellowship'
• Communication in a digital age can be at risk from being 'one-sided' and selective - that the communicator discloses only what they wish to disclose and on their terms.
• Social networking, the main outworking of this new digital age for young people, brings with it a new way of relating to others, and allows 'new forms of interpersonal relations'.
• While the dangers (of forming parallel personalities in cyber-space) have to be heeded, people enter cyber-space in a search for authenticity - of themselves and others. 
• This raises the question of 'who is my neighbour' in a new world beyond the physical and geographic?
• Will this have implications for the quality of our presence in the 'real' world in which we exist physically?
• The risks of being distracted from our 'real' world (relationships, encounters) are to be heeded
• 'When people exchange information, they are already sharing themselves, their view of the world, their hopes, their ideals. It follows that there exists a Christian way of being present in the digital world: this takes the form of a communication which is honest and open, responsible and respectful of others. To proclaim the Gospel through the new media means not only to insert expressly religious content into different media platforms, but also to witness consistently, in one’s own digital profile and in the way one communicates choices, preferences and judgements that are fully consistent with the Gospel, even when it is not spoken of specifically'
• Christians should now be ready to account for the hope that exists within them when engaged in the digital world. 
• Care must be taken in the integrity of the message proclaimed
• Avoid popularity or a 'popular' view, or that which is intended to gain most attention
• Avoid dilution and maintain the integrity of the message
• The Gospel must be 'daily nourishment', not a 'fleeting attraction'
• The Gospel should still be rooted in the real, and not left hanging in virtual space
• 'Direct human relations always remain fundamental for the transmission of the faith!'
• Christians are invited, 'with an informed and responsible creativity', to engage with the digital age
• Ephesians 1: 10 - we are called to embrace this new field of existence
• We should emulate the Emmaus Road dialogue in how we draw people to new understandings
• Genuine testimony from those in discipleship to Christ are the main means by which the digital age will retain integrity and not a means of de-personalisation and deception. The human search for truth will mean that many will follow authentic testimony

Writing as a blogger, the needs for authenticity, integrity and responsibility are what ring out of this. So many blogs are hobby-horses, psychiatrist's couch or soap-boxes, partly written to play to a crowd like little mini Christian sects in an online church. That is where blogging fails. Where it seems to thrive is in its unique opportunity to allow everyone with a computer and a signal to communicate their faith authentically, simply and as it is experienced. The world doesn't need ranks of the perfect Christians telling them how it is or how it must be, but they desire real people writing about real struggles with real faith in real life. I have stated this elsewhere here many times. 

Catholic, Anglican or Free - all Christians who have a sense that the digital age represents more than a counter-Church fad will be edified by the Pope's sentiments. I commend them you you in those terms. 

Our Holy Land

I watched a programme during the course of week where the journalist Louis Theroux, under the title "Ultra-Zionists" examined life in The Holy Land. It was an uncomfortable yet compelling programme to watch.

Let me add some other things to this thought process as I try to work through it. I receive regular emails from a Jerusalemite Christian (I am on a circulation, they are not just for my own edification) who has much to say against Israeli Jews. I have other contacts through the social media who are Jews and speak eloquently in the opposite direction. I have a genuine belief in the proximity of Christians and Jews (and an association with the Council of Christians and Jews, and a burgeoning one with the ICCJ), and am still raw with the emotional wounds of visiting the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. I hear news stories about actions on the part of the Israeli government that cannot be justified (speaking of the attack and murder of aid workers on ships). I am ever aware of the insidious reach of Islamic extremist groups who favour nothing more than a warm moist bed of brewing Palestinian hatred. 

What is absolutely clear to me is that this is absolutely unclear. It is reminiscent of my short stint as a jeweller when I used to set to and unpick knotted fine gold chains with five pins. Even the name is hard to claim without hurting someone. Calling The Holy land 'Palestine' offends Jews, and to call it 'Israel' offends Palestinians. Add to this the fact that not all Palestinians are Muslims (some are Christians and some are indeed Jewish by faith), and that not all Jews are Jews (in the 'observant' sense). Add to that scriptural motivation (expediently or through conviction), political dabbling, their finances and military might - and frankly, if this were a soup of many ingredients it would defy classification, beyond 'unholy mess'. 

Politicians have worked over this issue (and its issues) for decades. It is so much part of the narrative of the world in which I live that until recently, it was like so much white noise. Middle-East, blah blah blah. Guilty as charged. But I was wrong. Why? Because I am a Christian and although not as a resident, I believe that my faith story gives me a stake there. We are talking of nothing less than my Holy Land, my sacred place, the seat of my faith.  I feel increasingly strongly that Christians should have a voice in this almost Titan struggle - yet in a year of blogging not a single post have I seen on the subject. There are people dying over our most revered and treasured shrines. The fights are taking place over the very stones that our Lord walked across, but we seem oddly quiet as a world faith community. I venture to say that Manchester United fans would have more to say if Old Trafford were the scene of such conflict!

I will try to work out my thoughts and feelings on this very difficult situation. I have no doubt that representatives from each 'side' will make their representations (and almost with exception, angrily - born of such hurt). As I write, I have reached no conclusion, apportioned no blame - but am ever of the view that I must have a care. This isn't just a fight between two groups external to me, or us. If this were a a playground, I wonder if the Church wouldn't be the kid standing by watching the other two kids murder one another. 

Judging Books By Their Covers

A film has made its way to my attention which causes me much consternation. The film speaks of judging a book. That is fine if you are a literary critic, or if you have something to say that goes beyond just destroying it or its reputation.

There is a man who seeks to do just that. He wants to take a tricky situation, in which there are already too many extremists, and add a further extremism. He offers his opinion as a chosen servant of Jesus Christ, and displays the same hospitality as Caiphas. He seems to want to wage a war of his own, make his name, make his fortune perhaps, by stoking the glowing embers of a fire that he just can't seem to want to let die.

It is an act of generosity and love that is required when regarding the sacred scriptures of any faith. I am not a Muslim, but I do not mean my Muslim brothers and sister any harm. Neither am I a Jew or a Hindu. As a decent citizen, I would not seek to insult something that people help very dear. It can only bring one result - anger and angry reaction. What do I gain by doing that? Nothing. 

I do not recognise the man in this film as called by God. A God who 'is love' does not set fires that will burn people. I do not condone any acts of extremism by members of any faith - all are poor, all harm, all fail to communicate a message except for hatred. They all divide people from other people, they end conversation and dialogue. This 'Christian' man does not speak for me.

Christians and Jews

Once again, it has been my good fortune to be considering some work with an organisation that seeks to increase understanding between Christians and Jews. I am glad of the invite. 

Until my visit to Jerusalem last October (see my separate, contextual blog), I must confess that my working knowledge of Judaism was text-bookish and informed by some stories that were around 2000 years old. I have since learned a great deal.

Added to this is the fraught issue of Israel and Palestine where lines seem to me at times to be blurred between Jew (religious) and Jew (Israeli), and in some cases there are clear distinctions. I receive regular pieces of correspondence from a Christian Jerusalemite with much to say about the treatment of Christians in Jerusalem and indeed the whole of Palestine. One day I must respond to him, and to challenge much that he says that troubles me. 

I am trying hard to piece all of this together. In my heart, I recognise that Jews and Christians share the same root system. We have lots in common, not least of all the great slab of Scripture that we share. Of course, we are different, but so much is similar. Jesus Christ was himself a Jew - and although he taught away from that corpus of Law, was nonetheless, an observant. 

There is too, the anti-Semitism that permeated much early Christian thinking. I understand, even if I do not share, the emotions of those who sought to judge the 'murderers of Christ' - ever mindful that the Grand Plan of our salvation demanded that the Jews did exactly what they did. I want to work out how my Christian ancestry and its world-view affect me in my time.  

In essence, I am excited about the possibilities for Jewish-Christian relationships. I believe it is one that can be a strong voice against oppression for either community. I have enjoyed worshipping with a Jewish community in Jerusalem. We are, after all, using the same words, about the same God. It seems important to me to have a feel for, a sympathy and understanding for, and dialogue with the Jewish community. I regard them as nothing less than brother and sisters in faith. 

I'll keep you all posted!