FROM THE ROMAN ROAD TO THE
INFORMATION HIGHWAY Making Use of Technology: A Historical Perspective
BISHOP ANDY C. LEWTER Author New Life Publishing 631 842-7091 bishopacl@mindspring.com bishoplewter.com
FROM THE ROMAN ROAD TO THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY
From the Roman Road to the Information Highway A Presentation By
Bishop Andy C. Lewter, D. Min. At The 2014 Theological Intensive Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA October 13, 2014
Introduction When Jesus departed from the earth realm over 2000 years ago, few would have imagined that the faith system he left would have a global reach and become one of the major religious expressions in all the world. However, today Christianity is a leading religion with literally millions counted amongst its faithful.
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It is hard to imagine that a faith founded upon a man who never ventured 50 miles beyond where he was born would have the reach and penetration that Christianity has enjoyed over the last two millenniums. And yet, it goes without saying that all four corners of the earth have been exposed to the teaching of the young rabbi from Nazareth. His operation as the son of God is even more aptly illustrated when one acknowledges that expressions of Christianity can be found on every continent in the world. The purpose of this presentation is to argue that the extraordinary ability of the church to reach a world-wide audience is because of its ability to adapt and change to the most advanced technologies at any given time. And while there may be those who are slow to embrace the tools of modernity today, the truth of the matter is that Christianity and the Church has been one of the most ardent users of technology over the last two thousand years. While volumes of material can be presented here to illustrate my point, I am choosing to identify four specific areas where the church has taken the lead to use the technology to historically expand the church and spread the Gospel. My point is that the church is not “anti-technology�, but rather it has one of the most stellar records of using technology over the last 20 centuries. During the course of this essay I will use the writings of several scholars to argue that technology is not foreign to the church, but rather it has been a dedicated ally to the church in making sure that the message of Jesus Christi would reach audiences that would have otherwise been untouched by Christianity. The areas that I would like to concentrate on include: The Roman Road The In Invvention of the PPrinting rinting PPrress The Usage of TTelevision elevision and R Radio adio The A Adoption doption of the Int Internet ernet I am certain that you will see, as you read these next several pages, that the church has always viewed technology and media as effective tools to evangelize and stabilize its organizational momentum. I am hopeful that as
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you read these next several pages you will come away with an understanding and appreciation of how current technology has always been a productive utility of the Christian faith community.
The New Roman Roads
By Bobby Gruenewald The "Roman roads" of today are the Internet, the smartphone and social media. The famed Roman Roads of the Ancient Empire were among the foremost technological advances that helped Christianity spread so rapidly. Their construction was strategically well-timed to the Incarnation of Christ and the subsequent missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul. The building of these continent-connecting arteries started in 500 B.C. and ultimately spanned over 250,000 miles. They not only enabled the Roman Empire to grow, but also propelled the Gospel forward. The new roads are having a similar effect. Some Christians, churches and Bible agencies have caught on to the fact that someone else has already paid for these new roads to be built. These electronic avenues are open and ready for a million journeys of faith and witness. One group of techno-evangelists have caught one and already made remarkable advances is the team behind the "Bible App" (aka YouVersion.com) and their founder, Bobby Gruenewald. The Bible App and YouVersion sites make numerous forms of the Bible available to the reader and Bible student for free. While reading various electronic versions the user of the Bible App can also track their journey through a variety of reading plans and keep an online journal of their reflections and prayers. Users may also embed videos and article links they either may want to come back to personally or offer public access and interaction. This month the "Bible App" reached a mile marker of 50 million downloads, a rare accomplishment in the App World. While the Old Roman Roads connected major towns and cities; the new ones are connecting homes and individuals. Not only is there an information
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component to online Bibles that is changing our use of Scripture, there is a social one, as well. New York Times columnist Tom Friedman recently said, "The world is no longer just connected; it is now hyper-connected." There are currently an estimated 400 million smartphones across the globe and growing. Mark Brown, the creator of Facebook-the Bible Page (8.4 million users and frequently the "most engaged" site on FB), says "more and more people are doing everything on their smartphones." He estimates that in the next few years the numbers will rise to a full billion smart phones. I recently interviewed Gruenewald for an article in Christianity Today called "The Social Network Gospel" (June 2012 issue). As it turns out, the Bible App idea came to Gruenewald while in an airport. Four years ago while checking in his luggage it suddenly occurred to him that because of technology everyone has a virtual "printing press" in their home. This posed incredible possibilities for new forms of interaction with and around the Bible. Immediately he went online and reserved the URL www.youversion.com. Soon thereafter he began to assemble what has come to be known as the YV "Digerati" Team, the technological brains behind the project. A finance major at a Nazarene School, Gruenewald did well during the Internet financial bubble; he started (and sold) two tech companies in 1999. Craig Groeschel, Lead Pastor of LifeChurch.tv and best-selling Christian writer (i.e., Soul Detox), took note of his business savvy and asked him to join his pastoral team. Initially Gruenewald thought his entrepreneurial spirit would be under-challenged in a church environment. On the contrary, he became the "Innovation Pastor" at LifeChurch and has been much of the creative genius behind the rapid online development of YouVersion and LifeChurch.tv (a congregation of some 30,000 located on 14 campuses and online). On the heels of Gruenewald's early experimentation with the YouVersion site, he found out about Apple's plan to launch an App Store in July 2008. His team was fortunate enough to secure the simple name "Bible App." When the app first launched, Gruenewald's goal was 80,000 users by the end of the year. Instead, they gained 83,000 in the first 3 days. At that point, he knew he was on to something. The church decided to pull out the stops and invest much
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into the site which is currently gaining more than 3 million new users every month. The immediacy of technology has changed the game of Bible reading. Printed Bibles have to be duplicated, bound, packaged, shipped, displayed, sold, taken home and then opened and read. Digital Bibles, however, begin as electronic bytes on a server and can become a thousand or a million (or more) copies on the faces of smartphones in just a matter of seconds. That's a game changer. Several Bible publishers and license holders, however, have allowed sites such as YouVersion and BibleGateway to publish their versions digitally since they have found it has not hindered print sales, but has actually increased them and provided broad network of promotion. Gruenewald says, "I believe that this generation could become the most biblically engaged one in history." Five hundred years ago the prime technologies of Bible advancement were not Gruenewald, but Gutenberg, the developer of the earliest European printing press. For Martin Luther, this new technology was something truly glorious. He praised its timeliness and encouraged its potential. Luther had recognized a new "road." Now, another one has arrived. How Christianity Spread in the Roman Empire
By Rohiranna Wilfelise There are, sometimes ironically, certain traits the Roman Empire possessed which contributed greatly to the growth of Christianity. The Roman Empire, most importantly, united a great variety and cultures and peoples into what in effect became one nation; the resulting unity and communication between so many peoples eased the spread of Christianity all over known world. The very cruelty of the Roman emperors assisted in spreading the Christian faith; not despite, but aided by their persecution Christianity grew rapidly. Finally, the oppressed and downtrodden nature of the plebeians made them very susceptible to and desirous of the Christian message. The unity and ease of travel between many different peoples which the Roman Empire provided greatly aided in the sharing of the Christian message. 6
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The Roman Empire is the prototype for domination; at its height many hundreds of peoples were under its control. Roads led from Rome to every part of its dominion. Travel was made, if not easy, at least not impossible. This ease of communication made it possible for disciples to spread the Christian message all over the ancient world. If the Roman Empire had not existed, missionaries would have found it extremely difficult to cross the borders of very different and often warring nations without finding themselves accused and punished as an enemy, before they had a chance to spread the good news. The very cruelty and hate of Christianity that various Roman emperors exhibited actually worked in favor of that religion. As it is said, "The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church," for in many ways, persecution was beneficial to the new religion. Persecution gave the Christians a chance to flex their spiritual muscles, which many did, to great effect. The miracles that took place during these martyrdoms converted many of the pagans, which in turn led to more martyrdoms. Persecution served, essentially, to strengthen the faith of those already Christians, and to convert those who were not. By the very cruelties with which the emperors attempted to crush the young religion they actually aided it. The oppressed, poor, miserable condition of the plebeians and the people in the countries Roma had conquered was also a circumstance which served Christianity. Jesus loved the poor; he told his Apostles that the poor were more open to his message. There were plenty of poor in Rome and in the countries subservient to her; in fact, most of the city and empire was destitute. This made average person living in the Empire more open and susceptible to Christ's message, a message which gave them hope of a better life hereafter, despite present poverty and misery. If the lower class had been well-treated and prosperous, they would probably have been less willing to believe in the next life; since this world had made them happy, what did they have to do with the next? There were many factors which contributed to the spread of Christianity, but some of the most prominent and intriguing can be found in certain characteristics of Rome. The grand dimensions of the Empire, the fact that it
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encompassed so many different peoples, greatly aided in the spread of Christianity by enabling travel between such a great variety of nations over such a great area. The very cruelty of the Roman empires enlivened the faith of those already converted and converted yet more. And lastly, the oppressed nature of the subjects of the Roman Empire made the message of Christ welcome to these lower classes. God has a purpose behind everything, a plan guiding even the rise of the Roman Empire, writes St. Augustine. It seems to me that God allowed the rise of the Roman Empire so it could become the vehicle by which Christ's message would be spread throughout the ancient world.
The Printing Press
By St Stephen ephen KKrreis
He who first shortened the labor of copyists by device of movable types was disbanding hired armies, and cashiering most kings and senates, and creating a whole new democratic world: he had invented the art of printing. (Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, 1833) The Renaissance spread to Germany, France, England, and Spain in the late fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries. In its migration northward, Renaissance culture adapted itself to conditions unknown in Italy, such as the growth of the monarchical state and the strength of lay piety. In England France, and Spain, Renaissance culture tended to be court-centered and hence antirepublican. In Germany, no monarchical state existed but a vital tradition of lay piety was present was present in the Low Countries. The Brethren of the Common Life, for example, was a lay movement emphasizing education and practical piety. Intensely Christian and at the same time anticlerical (shades of what was to come!), the people in such movements found in Renaissance culture the tools for sharpening their wits against the clergy -- not to undermine faith, but restore its ancient apostolic purity.
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Northern humanists were profoundly devoted to ancient learning but nothing in northern humanism compares to the paganizing trend associated with the Italian Renaissance. The northern humanists were chiefly interested in the problem of the ancient church and the question of what constituted original Christianity. Two factors operated to accelerate the spread of Renaissance culture after 1450: growing economic prosperity and the printing press. Prosperity -- the result of peace and the decline of famine and the plague -- led to the founding of schools and colleges. In these schools the sons of gentlemen and nobles would receive a humanistic education imported from Italy. The purpose of such an education was to prepare men for a career in the church or civil service. Sometime in the 13th century, paper money and playing cards from China reached the West. They were "block-printed," that is, characters or pictures were carved into a wooden block, inked, and then transferred to paper. Since each word, phrase or picture was on a separate block, this method of reproduction was expensive and time-consuming. The extension of literacy among laypeople and the greater reliance of governments and businesses upon written records created a demand for a less-costly method of reproducing the written word. The import of paper from the East as well as "block-books" (see above), were major steps in transforming the printing of books. However, woodcuts were not sufficiently durable as they tended to split in the press after repeated use. Furthermore, a new block had to be carved for each new impression, and the block was discarded as unusable as soon as a slightly different impression was needed. By the middle of the 15th century several print masters were on the verge of perfecting the techniques of printing with movable metal type. The first man to demonstrate the practicability of movable type was Johannes Gutenberg (c.1398-1468), the son of a noble family of Mainz, Germany. A former stonecutter and goldsmith, Gutenberg devised an alloy of lead, tin and antinomy that would melt at low temperature, cast well in the die, and be durable in the press. It was then possible to use and reuse the separate pieces
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of type, as long as the metal in which they were cast did not wear down, simply by arranging them in the desired order. The mirror image of each letter (rather than entire words or phrases), was carved in relief on a small block. Individual letters, easily movable, were put together to form words; words separated by blank spaces formed lines of type; and lines of type were brought together to make up a page. Since letters could be arranged into any format, an infinite variety of texts could be printed by reusing and resetting the type. By 1452, with the aid of borrowed money, Gutenberg began his famous Bible project. Two hundred copies of the two-volume Gutenberg Bible were printed, a small number of which were printed on vellum. The expensive and beautiful Bibles were completed and sold at the 1455 Frankfurt Book Fair, and cost the equivalent of three years' pay for the average clerk. Roughly fifty of all Gutenberg Bibles survive today. In spite of Gutenberg's efforts to keep his technique a secret, the printing press spread rapidly. Before 1500 some 2500 European cities had acquired presses. German masters held an early leadership, but the Italians soon challenged their preeminence. The Venetian printer Aldus Manutius published works, notably editions of the classics. The immediate effect of the printing press was to multiply the output and cut the costs of books. It thus made information available to a much larger segment of the population who were, of course, eager for information of any variety. Libraries could now store greater quantities of information at much lower cost. Printing also facilitated the dissemination and preservation of knowledge in standardized form -- this was most important in the advance of science, technology and scholarship. The printing press certainly initiated an "information revolution" on par with the Internet today. Printing could and did spread new ideas quickly and with greater impact. Printing stimulated the literacy of lay people and eventually came to have a deep and lasting impact on their private lives. Although most of the earliest books dealt with religious subjects, students, businessmen, and upper and middle class people bought books on all subjects. Printers responded with
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moralizing, medical, practical and travel manuals. Printing provided a superior basis for scholarship and prevented the further corruption of texts through hand copying. By giving all scholars the same text to work from, it made progress in critical scholarship and science faster and more reliable.
Technology and Christianity
By PPaul aul FFlesher lesher What technological innovation has had the greatest impact? How about an advance in transportation, such as the automobile, the railroad, the airplane? Or, would you point to a communication device, such as the radio, television, or telephone? How about an improvement in modern medicine? There are too many possibilities to choose. So let’s narrow the question. What technological innovation has had the greatest impact on Christianity? Perhaps the invention that changed Christianity most is one invented in the fifteenth century, namely, the printing press. Printing not only made books affordable for many people, especially the Bible, but it helped spread reading throughout the populace by giving them something to read. Picture the situation in Medieval Europe, before Gutenberg invented the printing press. Books were copied by hand. Making just one copy of Genesis took a monk two months at the pace of a chapter a day. Few copies of books existed, therefore. They were valuable and kept in churches, cathedrals, and monasteries. To gain access, a person usually had to pass through many gates and doors to the library, often deep within the complex. Books were read there, in the religious setting, and could not be taken away for study. Such limitations did not really matter; most people who could read were priests or monks. Only a few, usually rich, lay people could read. The printing press changed all that. Copies of books could be printed in the hundreds or thousands. This made them more affordable. Churches saw opportunity in the increased availability of books, especially the Bible and
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other religious works. They expanded education outside the bounds of the monasteries into schools more accessible to the general public. In England, the oldest schools accessible to its citizens are those sponsored by the Anglican Church. In France, the Catholic Church was running schools even in rural areas during the seventeenth century—a time when anti-church, enlightenment thinkers pooh-poohed the notion of general literacy. The alliance of religion, literacy, and printing led to increased religious knowledge and understanding among church-goers. Early Protestant churches saw this as a boon. To make Scripture even more accessible, they translated it out of Latin into vernacular languages. Martin Luther composed a German translation in the 1500s, while John Wycliffe had produced an English translation in the 1300s, even before the advent of print! Martin Luther’s dictum “Scripture alone” emphasized the notion that the Bible was the sole source of truth. The desire of Protestants to know this truth firsthand encouraged increasing numbers to read. In colonial and postcolonial America, even communities on the frontier formed “Sunday” schools to teach children how to read so that they could read the Bible. So, the printing press gave the general populace physical access to the Bible, improvements in literacy gave people access to its contents. But what did the Bible mean? What meaning did Jacob’s and Solomon’s many wives hold for French citizens? How did David’s divinely established monarchy relate to the increasing power of the English Parliament? What did Jesus’ command, “Give unto Caesar, that which is Caesar’s” say about the government’s taxation policies? If everyone could now read the Bible, could not everyone interpret it as they saw fit? Potentially yes, but in reality most readers were guided by their teachers. In medieval Catholicism, the Church was a powerful guide. Even after the dawn of printing, the Catholic church taught reading within the context of its own theology. Although early Protestant churches opposed that theology, they created appealing theologies to put in its place. Indeed, it was often persuasive theological preaching drawn from the biblical text itself that attracted followers to Protestantism and led to their desire to read the Bible
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for themselves. Preachers attracted followers, and those who attracted enough created new churches: Lutherans, Presbyterians, Quakers, and Methodists, to name just a few. The theologies of churches such as these continue to guide the interpretation of most people reading the Bible even today. Yet the protestant impulse to interpret for oneself remains strong. Individual Christians often debate biblical meaning among themselves and with their priests, pastors, and religious leaders. Some people are so sure they have a new, correct interpretation that they form new churches. The United States has over 300 official denominations and thousands of independent churches. All of this derives from the printing press, which made the Bible accessible to all.
What Impact Did the Invention of the Printing Press Have on the Spread of Religion? by R Rita ita KKennedy ennedy
Gutenberg produced 200 copies of his Bible. Gutenberg produced 200 copies of his Bible. Related Articles How Did People Communicate Before the Printing Press Was Invented? Reasons Why the Printing Press Was a Great Invention Which Famous Person Invented Printing? How Did Buddhism Begin to Spread Outside of India During the Mauryan Empire?
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Johann Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press around 1448 had a significant impact on the spread of ideas in Europe and beyond. Printing technology traveled quickly across Europe and, at a time of great religious change, played a key role in the success of the Protestant Reformation. Reformation leader Martin Luther could only preach to a small number of people, but the printed word could spread his message to thousands more, points out Mark U. Edwards of Harvard Divinity School. Cost of BBo ooks The printing press drastically cut the cost of producing books and other printed materials. Prior to Gutenberg’s invention, the only way of making multiple copies of a book was to copy the text by hand, an laborious and intensely time-consuming occupation usually performed by monks. The materials involved were also costly: Monks wrote on treated skins, known as vellum, and a single copy of the Bible could require 300 sheepskins or 170 calfskins. Printing onto paper made copying cheaper and faster. Religious BBo ooks The first books Gutenberg printed with his press were copies of the Bible. The Gutenberg Bibles were immensely popular, and all 200 copies were sold even before the copying was complete. The text of the Bible has changed through time, and Gutenberg based his version on documents used in the Rhine area of Germany in the 14th and 15th centuries. The newly printed version Gutenberg created became the standard version and the basis for most future Bible texts.TThe Reformation Gutenberg’s printing press “meant more access to information, more dissent, more informed discussion and more widespread criticism of authorities,” observes the British Library. As such, the printing press played a key role in popularizing ideas associated with the new Protestant faith during the European Reformation, allowing the press to “shape and channel a mass movement,” says Edwards.
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Protestant thinkers used the printing press to spread their ideas across Europe, mainly through pamphlets. In the very early years of the Reformation, German-language printing presses produced hundreds of pamphlets by Reformation leader Martin Luther, outnumbering Catholic writers five to three and making up 20 percent of all pamphlets published between 1500 and 1530. The invention of the printing press removed control of written material from the Catholic Church and made it difficult for the church to inhibit the spread of what it regarded as heretical ideas.
Modern Evangelicalism
by M Michael ichael FF.. R Russell ussell and A Am my W Wall all There was no greater invention for evangelicalism than the invention of the television. If the goal of the evangelical preacher was to reach the masses, what better way to go than by means of a piece of modern technological equipment, whose very purpose is to reach a large a audience? Had Karl Marx been alive to see this invention, he might have accused it of being the opium of the masses, because of the hold it has taken over modern culture across most of the world. The A Adv dvent ent of TTelev elevangelism angelism Log on to the Internet and you can stream evangelists into your computer. Turn on the television and you can find Christian networks, such as the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) and the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). Even local television stations broadcast programs such as the Old Time Gospel Hour and the evangelist Billy Graham's various programs. Televangelists have been around since television began; however, the advent of cable and satellite television has seen a multitude of a new era of televangelists. According to the Trinity Foundation (not affiliated with TBN), there are more than 500 televangelists and about 350 religious television stations that are members of the National Religious Broadcaster Association.
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While this is true to the American tradition—spreading the word through the evangelicals—with the advent of mass communication, the Christian message can be heard not only all over America, but throughout the world as well. But there is a problem. Corruption on the A Air ir Many of the mainline churches, such as the Presbyterians, United Methodists, and Lutherans, take issue with the theology being preached by the televangelists, which many call a “prosperity” theology: “If you give to my ministry you will be rewarded financially by God”—a theme that is echoed many times by these televangelists. Isn't this what Luther objected to in the first place? Isn't this just a system of modern-day indulgences? And where does the money go, exactly? Abuse of PPo ower Jim Bakker, an infamous televangelist, was imprisoned for the fraudulent use of millions of dollars donated by his faithful followers—innocent of the knowledge that the preacher they admired was pocketing their hard-earned cash rather than turning it back into his ministry. Bakker told his audience that the money sent to him was going to be used to spread God's word. Despite the fact that the Bible says that adultery is a sin, and this is the message he spread to his followers, Bakker was also involved in an affair with his secretary, Jessica Hahn. Oral Roberts, another televangelist, abused his followers with his request for $8 million, which he wanted in the form of donations. Roberts locked himself in a tower and proclaimed that if he didn't get the money for his ministry by a specific date, God would “call him home.” There are of course exceptions to this—not all the televangelists are corrupt. Preachers like Billy Graham are greatly respected. Other televangelists have driven wedges through the multicultures of this country. Taking advantage of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, two well-known televangelists, Pat Robertson and Jerry Fallwell, on the
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700 Club (another TV outlet for the televangelists) claimed that certain groups of people were partially responsible for this attack. This was a blatant abuse of faith and freedom of speech, in that a tragic situation was used to push a completely unrelated conservative religious message condemning pro-choice supporters, feminists, and homosexuals. The two did come under fire from their critics, however. There are other television channels that offer Christian services without any hype at all. Eternal Word Television News (EWTN), a Catholic Channel that airs full Catholic Masses is one such example. Other channels offer Protestant services on Sunday mornings. This is an excellent use of mass communication as a means to reach the homebound or the elderly. But are all televangelists money-hungry, ultraconservative, sexist bigots? No, of course not. There are people of faith who believe they are doing God's work by preaching through the medium of television. The way for a Christian to identify the corrupt versus the legitimate is to see if they are more interested in selling you blessed holy water or personally signed Bibles (or just ask you straight out for money in the beginning, middle, and end of the program) than they are about preaching faith. As with anything, buyer beware!
Spreading the Word with the Internet
By Rob Rober ertt D Darnt arnton on
Information is exploding so furiously around us and information technology is changing at such bewildering speed that we face a fundamental problem: How to orient ourselves in the new landscape? What, for example, will become of research libraries in the face of technological marvels such as Google? How to make sense of it all? I have no answer to that problem, but I can suggest an approach to it: look at the history of the ways information has
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been communicated. Simplifying things radically, you could say that there have been four fundamental changes in information technology since humans learned to speak. Somewhere, around 4000 BC, humans learned to write. Egyptian hieroglyphs go back to about 3200 BC, alphabetical writing to 1000 BC. According to scholars like Jack Goody, the invention of writing was the most important technological breakthrough in the history of humanity. It transformed mankind’s relation to the past and opened a way for the emergence of the book as a force in history. The history of books led to a second technological shift when the codex replaced the scroll sometime soon after the beginning of the Christian era. By the third century AD, the codex — that is, books with pages that you turn as opposed to scrolls that you roll — became crucial to the spread of Christianity. It transformed the experience of reading: the page emerged as a unit of perception, and readers were able to leaf through a clearly articulated text, one that eventually included differentiated words (that is, words separated by spaces), paragraphs, and chapters, along with tables of contents, indexes, and other reader’s aids. The codex, in turn, was transformed by the invention of printing with movable type in the 1450s. To be sure, the Chinese developed movable type around 1045 and the Koreans used metal characters rather than wooden blocks around 1230. But Gutenberg’s invention, unlike those of the Far East, spread like wildfire, bringing the book within the reach of ever-widening circles of readers. The technology of printing did not change for nearly four centuries, but the reading public grew larger and larger, thanks to improvements in literacy, education, and access to the printed word. Pamphlets and newspapers, printed by steam-driven presses on paper made from wood pulp rather than rags, extended the process of democratization so that a mass reading public came into existence during the second half of the nineteenth century. The fourth great change, electronic communication, took place yesterday, or the day before, depending on how you measure it. The Internet dates from
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1974, at least as a term. It developed from ARPANET, which went back to 1969, and from earlier experiments in communication among networks of computers. The Web began as a means of communication among physicists in 1981. Web sites and search engines became common in the mid-1990s. And from that point everyone knows the succession of brand names that have made electronic communication an everyday experience: Web browsers such as Netscape, Internet Explorer, and Safari, and search engines such as Yahoo and Google, the latter founded in 1998. When strung out in this manner, the pace of change seems breathtaking: from writing to the codex, 4,300 years; from the codex to movable type, 1,150 years; from movable type to the Internet, 524 years; from the Internet to search engines, nineteen years; from search engines to Google’s algorithmic relevance ranking, seven years; and who knows what is just around the corner or coming out the pipeline?
Sharing the Gospel Using the Internet BY ELDER M. R RU USSELL BBALL ALLARD ARD Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles Adapted from a commencement address given at Brigham Young University–Hawaii on December 15, 2007.
With new technological tools, you can further the work of the Lord by joining the ongoing conversation about the Church. I am in my 80th year. By some accounts that makes me pretty old. Actually, some folks think some of the Brethren may be too old to know what’s going on in your world. Let me assure you we are very much aware.
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A Changing W World orld In the span of nearly 80 years, I’ve seen many changes. When I began my mission in England in 1948, the most common way for people to get news was through newspapers and radio. How different the world is today. For many of you, if you read newspapers, the chances are you read them on the Internet. Ours is the world of cyberspace, cell phones that capture video, video and music downloads, social networks, text messaging and blogs, handhelds and podcasts. This is the world of the future, with inventions undreamed of that will come in your lifetime as they have in mine. How will you use these marvelous inventions? More to the point, how will you use them to further the work of the Lord? You have a great opportunity to be a powerful force for good in the Church and in the world. There is truth in the old adage that “the pen is mightier than the sword.” 1 In many cases it is with words that you will accomplish the great things that you set out to do. And it’s principally about ways to share those words that I want to talk to you. From its beginnings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has used the power of the printed word to spread the message of the restored gospel throughout the world. The Lord, over the centuries, has had a hand in inspiring people to invent tools that facilitate the spreading of the gospel. The Church has adopted and embraced those tools, including print, broadcast media, and the Internet. There are perhaps few inventions that have had a greater impact on the world than the printing press, invented by the inspired Johannes Gutenberg around 1436. The printing press enabled knowledge, including that contained in the Holy Bible, to be shared more widely than ever before.
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The Internet: A Modern Printing Press Today we have a modern equivalent of the printing press in the Internet. The Internet allows everyone to be a publisher, to have his or her voice heard, and it is revolutionizing society. Before the Internet there were great barriers to printing. It took money, power, influence, and a great amount of time to publish. But today, because of the emergence of what some call “new media,” made possible by the Internet, many of those barriers have been removed. New media consists of tools on the Internet that make it possible for nearly anyone to publish or broadcast to either a large or a niche audience. I have mentioned some of these tools already. The emergence of new media is facilitating a worldwide conversation on almost every subject, including religion, and nearly everyone can participate. This modern equivalent of the printing press is not reserved only for the elite. Now some of these tools—like any tool in an unpracticed or undisciplined hand—can be dangerous. The Internet can be used to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and can just as easily be used to market the filth and sleaze of pornography. Computer applications like iTunes can be used to download uplifting and stirring music or the worst kind of antisocial lyrics full of profanity. Social networks on the Web can be used to expand healthy friendships as easily as they can be used by predators trying to trap the unwary. That is no different from how people choose to use television or movies or even a library. Satan is always quick to exploit the negative power of new inventions, to spoil and degrade, and to neutralize any effect for good. Make sure that the choices you make in the use of new media are choices that expand your mind, increase your opportunities, and feed your soul. As you know, the new media has already profoundly impacted the old world of newspapers and other traditional media. Once upon a time, as a Church leader I might give a newspaper interview, then wait a day or two for it to appear somewhere deep inside the newspaper. Then that newspaper was thrown away, and whatever impact it might have had dissipated rather quickly.
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Now, as I am leaving one appointment to go to the next, the report of my visit or interview begins almost immediately to appear on the newspaper’s Web site or on blogs, where it can be copied and distributed all over the Web. You can see how important the right words are today. Words recorded on the Internet do not disappear. Any Google or Yahoo! search is going to find one’s words, probably for a very long time. A case in point: In 2007, NBC television came to Salt Lake for an interview with me as part of a piece they were producing on the Church. Reporter Ron Allen and I spent an hour together in the chapel in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We discussed the Church at length. A few days later the story appeared, and in the four-minute segment that aired, there was one short quote of about six seconds from the one-hour interview. That was just enough time for me to testify of our faith in Jesus Christ as the center of all we believe. I repeat, just six seconds were used from a 60-minute interview. Those six seconds are quite typical, actually, for members of the traditional TV media, who think and air in sound bites. The big difference from the old days to today is that the reporter also ran 15 minutes of our interview on the NBC Nightly News Web site. And those 15 minutes are still there. What we say is no longer on and off the screen in a flash, but it remains as part of a permanent archive and can appear on other sites that reuse the content. People using Internet search engines to hunt for topics about the Church will come across that interview and many others. These tools allow organizations and individuals to completely bypass the news media and publish or broadcast their messages in their entirety to the intended audiences. For instance, last year the Church Public Affairs Department conducted an interview with Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Elder Lance B. Wickman of the Seventy regarding the Church’s position on same-gender attraction. In the old days, to communicate our message to the public on an issue like this we would have had to rely on the news media. But this probing interview was conducted by Church Public Affairs staff and posted in its entirety on the Church’s Web site, unfiltered by the news media. Joining the C Con onvversation
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There are conversations going on about the Church constantly. Those conversations will continue whether or not we choose to participate in them. But we cannot stand on the sidelines while others, including our critics, attempt to define what the Church teaches. While some conversations have audiences in the thousands or even millions, most are much, much smaller. But all conversations have an impact on those who participate in them. Perceptions of the Church are established one conversation at a time. The challenge is that there are too many people participating in conversations about the Church for our Church personnel to converse with and respond to individually. We cannot answer every question, satisfy every inquiry, and respond to every inaccuracy that exists. We need to remember that there is a difference between interest and mere curiosity. Sometimes people just want to know what the Church is. And some who seek answers want them to come directly from a member of the Church. They appreciate one-on-one conversation. All of you know that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are reminded and encouraged continually to share the gospel with others. The Church is always looking for the most effective ways to declare its message. Preaching the gospel of the Restoration has always been special to me. I loved being a missionary in England. I loved being a mission president in Canada. And I love my present calling, which allows me opportunities to share the message of the Restoration of the gospel to the world and to testify that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith in 1820. Through Joseph, the gospel that Jesus established in New Testament times was brought back. It had been lost with the deaths of the Apostles of old. I can share with the world the knowledge that priesthood authority, the doctrine, and the ordinances of the New Testament Church are once again on the earth. This is the most important work that we can participate in. Now, may I ask that you join the conversation by participating on the Internet to share the gospel and to explain in simple and clear terms the message of the Restoration. Most of you already know that if you have access to the Internet you can start a blog in minutes and begin sharing what you know to
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be true. You can download videos from Church and other appropriate sites, including newsroom.lds.org, and send them to your friends. You can write to media sites on the Internet that report on the Church and voice your views as to the accuracy of the reports. This, of course, requires that you understand the basic principles of the gospel. It is essential that you are able to offer a clear and correct witness of gospel truths. It is also important that you and the people to whom you testify understand that you do not speak for the Church as a whole. You speak as one member—but you testify of the truths you have come to know. Far too many people have a poor understanding of the Church because most of the information they hear about us is from news media reports that are often driven by controversies. Too much attention to controversy has a negative impact on peoples’ perceptions of what The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints really is. Recently a columnist writing in a major U.S. newspaper was irresponsibly inaccurate in his description of the Church and our beliefs and practices. Dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of Church members and others who understand our beliefs commented on the newspaper’s Web site, correcting the misconceptions he was spreading and calling for accuracy.
Ex Examples amples of W What hat YYou ou C Can an D Do o Let me give you a few other examples of how Church members are using the new media. A Church member living in the Midwest of the United States makes a concerted effort to share the gospel every day, in person. He then writes a blog about his daily endeavors to share the teachings of the Book of Mormon and to give pass-along cards to all he meets. His effort to share the gospel so diligently is admirable, and his further effort to write about it no doubt inspires many others to do the same.
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Others have recorded and posted their testimonies of the Restoration, the teachings of the Book of Mormon, and other gospel subjects on popular video-sharing sites. You too can tell your story to nonmembers in this way. Use stories and words that they will understand. Talk honestly and sincerely about the impact the gospel has had in your life, about how it has helped you overcome weaknesses or challenges and helped define your values. The audiences for these and other new media tools may often be small, but the cumulative effect of thousands of such stories can be great. The combined effort is certainly worth the outcome if but a few are influenced by your words of faith and love of God and His Son, Jesus Christ. The Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ has no doubt had a powerful impact on your life. It has, in part, shaped who you are and what your future will be. Do not be afraid to share with others your experiences as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. We all have interesting stories that have influenced our identity. Sharing those stories is a nonthreatening way to talk to others. Telling those stories can help demystify the Church. You could help overcome misperceptions through your own sphere of influence, which ought to include the Internet.
Things tto oA Avvoid Every disciple of Christ will be most effective and do the most good by adopting a demeanor worthy of a follower of the Savior. Discussions focused on questioning, debating, and doubting gospel principles do little to build the kingdom of God. The Apostle Paul has admonished us to not be “ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16). Let us all stand firmly and speak with faith in sharing our message with the world. Many of you are returned missionaries and can carry on a meaningful conversation in the language you learned on your mission. Your outreach can be international. As you participate in this conversation and utilize the tools of new media, remember who you are—Latter-day Saints. Remember, as the proverb states, that “a soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger” 25
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(Proverbs 15:1). And remember that contention is of the devil (see 3 Nephi 11:29). There is no need to argue or contend with others regarding our beliefs. There is no need to become defensive or belligerent. Our position is solid; the Church is true. We simply need to have a conversation, as friends in the same room would have, always guided by the prompting of the Spirit and constantly remembering the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, which reminds us of how precious are the children of our Father in Heaven. May the Lord bless each of you that you will have a powerful influence on those you come in contact with. As I said in the beginning, the power of words is incredible. Let your voice be heard in this great cause of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Summary I would imagine that several more pages could be devoted to this topic, however I trust that what you have read in the last several pages has convinced you or how pivotal and critical technological advances have been to the church. I can not say what the future will hold for the church over the course of the next 100 years, but I am convinced that whatever tools the culture we live in adopts, innovative minds who are members of the faith community will find a way to use those advances for the spread and expansion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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