Friday, November 11, 2011

Threat of online communities on religious authority

There are numerous examples of online religious communities these days. In her article, Cheong argues that the development of new forms of online religion and religious discussion have challenged the authority in the church from the days of old. The new flow of information, and the ability of virtually anyone to be a "Theoblogian" has caused some tension between the people who subscribe to the online religion and the authorities within the traditionally structured hierarchy of said religion.
In the early days of the internet, the Vatican spoke out against its use and how it can be the portal of so many evils that the church wanted to protect its people from. The Pope and the Vatican were afriad that this new form of information technology would squelch their authority over religious law in the Catholic church.
It has been awile since the internet first came to be, and it seems now that the Vatican has taken a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" stance when it comes to the internet. The Vatican now has its own Facebook page, Twitter, and You Tube Channel. they still try to maintain a strict since of authority in that they do not allow comments to be posted, nor do they follow anyone else on Twitter. They maintain a certain level of authority while still reaching the masses via the internet. This will not stop the "Theoblogians" from sharing their doctrine, but at least both sides of the story can be found somewhere online.

http://www.youtube.com/user/vatican
http://www.news.va/en

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