Functions of Online Religion

Users go online for various reasons. One is to satisfy needs. In his interviews with virtual church users, Jacob enumerated “hiding place”, “sanctuary”, “a place where people

can go and feel safe” as some of the responses users perceive. Simply, the virtual church

becomes a place to visit a specific need (Jacobs, 2007). Campbell’s When Religion Meets Media (2010) lists five ways the internet is seen by religious groups: “spiritual network” for

religious experiences, a “worship space”, a “missionary tool”, for “religious identity” by connecting with a global network of believers, and as a “functional technology” (Campbell,

2010).

Estes (2009) provided a framework on virtual churches by expounding on the

historical continuum of religion and relating it to present-day technology-led changes in traditional institutions. He addresses questions such as, “Is a virtual church a real, authentic, and valid expression of the church of Jesus Christ?” “How will virtual churches change the way we ‘do’ church?” “Are virtual sacraments and other faith practices possible or valid (or just inevitable)?” In his book, he also explored the issues of power decentralization as it

relates to traditional forms of authority and the concept of “telepresence”. Authority and source of information does not rest on the leaders alone, as it was in the old times when only the priests can read the Bible. These days, everyone can log in online to look for their own resources.

An important, yet often neglected, function of the church, is fellowship and community. The notion of community is central in the history and doctrines of religion.

Community is achieved when fellow believers gather in unity for a purposeful goal of

encouraging and building each other up. This, along with collective prayer and sacraments such as communion (which are also important element in traditional church practice), seems

unfeasible to attain in a virtual church. Castells (2010) elaborated on the idea of the “Network Society”, which is a displacement of the original community. According to Castells, whereas before communities are “based on the sharing of values and social organization,” networks

now are built by “the choices and strategies of social actors, be it individuals, families, or social groups” (Castells, 2010).

Young (2004) found that practices and beliefs of internet Christianity and its offline version are closely connected. Connections formed through online communication

technologies help enhance existing ministry. This means that there has to be an offline reality before online religion can have its maximum effect (Kendall, 2007).

The online world opened doors of opportunities for almost everyone to put up a virtual ‘something’, creating a ‘cyberspace’ which literally means that these are nonexistent

in the physical sense, yet present as an online activity. However, in Jacob’s Sacred Spaces (2007), the virtual church is seen as ‘supplementing’ a physical church, more than ‘replacing’

it. According to Hutchings (2010), studies show that online ministries primarily attract regular churchgoers who “left their local churches due to disability or disillusionment.”

Campbell (2010) similarly mentions that members viewed their online activity as “a

supplement to, not a substitute for, offline church involvement.” Here, online activity takes

on a different function and actually complements local activity by strengthening

commitments to local congregations and linking them with global Christian issues. Dixon also mentioned that “cyberchurch is not substitute for real-life membership.” (Dixon, 1997,

94).

Ferre (2003) explained possible responses of religious groups to media technology:

media as conduit, mode of knowing, and social institution. Media is seen as a neutral channel for delivering messages from the sender to the receiver. Media is a gift from God to do the work of the community. Religious users who hold this response embrace media as a communication tool for its innovative possibilities, without questioning whether or not it conflicts with their belief. This view holds that media technologies are mere modern extensions of traditional religious practices such as prayer, Bible text study, and sermons.

This positive approach towards media fueled the rise of tele-evangelism in the decades past.

Because media messages are closely knit to the medium itself, media becomes a mode

of knowing. Technology is seen as a force that promotes a distinctive world view. Therefore, those who hold this view of media are suspicious of media’s power in cultivating values

through the interaction that run counter to the faith. Here, media is rejected as a deceptive mode of knowing that shapes the culture.

Ferre suggested here that media can be an index of social values wherein both the production system and the user reception are understood. Instead of simply viewing media as

a conduit, media is seen as a creative venue to purposely shape content and form to be in line with one’s religious beliefs. In this approach, the role of users is very important wherein there is a burden on the user’s choice in shaping technology and not the other way around. This

human-centered approach, instead of technology-centered approach, also puts on

value-centeredness at the heart of technological engagements. Tasks, which in the case of religious communities are praying, Bible reading, teaching, etc. are applied through the application of technology (Ferre, 2003).

One of the advantages of making religion online is the availability of its access to everyone. “It gives outsiders a chance to look in.” (Kendall, 2007, 94). Conversely, however,

is that the ease in connection ushers in a probability of disconnecting further. Kendall in her study on instant messaging and the use of MySpace for teens notes that shared meaning is replaced by self-absorbed self-messaging wherein the gaps left by nonverbal cues are filled in with online guesses of what is hoped for rather than what actually exists. There is a shift to a system of self-messaging, quick encounters, and imagined responses (Kendall, 2007). The lack of emotional cues that can be gotten from nonverbal cues is also a challenge for online communication (Bente et al., 2008), but may serve as an advantage for those seeking help with sensitive problems.

In a similar vein, community formed through technology can “replace true connection with superficial flybys.”(Kendall, 2007, 56) The fragmentation of faith due to an online

access to faith is also an issue on hand. Situating God where and when it is convenient puts man’s image of God into a disproportionate perspective. “The Creator of the universe can

easily be segmented away as part of a few contexts here and there; taken out when necessary, hidden away when prudent.” (55) Another issue raised is the degradation of accountability

(Kendall, 2007).

Not a few research studies looked on the “missionary tool” approach of looking at the

internet. The internet is both a missionary field and a missionary tool for proselytizing

(Campbell, 2010). It has been a convenient means for groups who wish to propagate their own agenda. Hutchings’ (2010), The Internet and the Church: An Introduction, brought up

the topic of E-vangelism, emphasizing that churches should be founded where people gather,

and lists strategies for web evangelism. Lifechurch.tv is listed as one example of an

“evangelical megachurch” in the United States (Hutchings, 2010).

A website called Church of Fools and Ship of Fools, are interestingly weaving in evangelism with creativity. Stated on its ‘about us’ section is “We're here for people who

prefer their religion disorganized, says the Ship's editor and designer Simon Jenkins.” He was also quoted in Hutchings’ (2010) study as saying “we’d better go where the people are.”

In relation to the evangelistic pursuit online, Hutchings tried to falsify the theory of technological determinism by presenting three theories focusing on user-control over what information users receive from the internet. Jenkin’s Church of Fools exemplifies this in its

welcome page wherein upon clicking to enter the “church”, the user is advised to “choose a

cartoon character, enter the church, walk around, sit in a pew, explore the sanctuary and crypt, key in some prayers, and even ring the church bells.”

Dawson and Hennebry believed that though the internet poses possible strengths in evangelizing, “There is little reason to think that the Internet, in itself, ever will be a very effective means of recruitment…unless it is followed up by much more personal and

complete forms of interaction.” Therefore, the internet, instead of an all fulfilling evangelistic

role, plays a start-up means to a longer process of evangelizing, and with no pressure to commit until one is ready to do so.

As for the question on computer-mediated communication of the religious message itself, the online church may pose possible limits. For one is the transformation of meanings when the medium changes. Marshall McLuhan in 1964 theorized that the medium used in delivering a certain message influences message perception. Bente (2008) did a study on avatar-mediated networking wherein he studied net-based communication and inputted the concept of social presence and interpersonal trust. Whereas his study compared face-to-face communication with text, audio, video an avatar-mediated, his data results on media effects on trust and social presence would prove relevant to this study on online church (Bente et al., 2008).

Online religion, premised on the fact that ritual activity can be performed in non-traditional spaces, seems to be a positive option especially for those who are

geographically-challenged to come to a physical church. This convenience option has moved

onwards by making it possible to control certain happenings which are impossible in a traditional setup, such as pausing a sermon, leaving at one’s own pleasure, and multi-tasking

(Jacobs, 2007). This is parallel to Manuel Castells’ term of “timeless time”, or a new concept of temporality (Castells, 2010).

Prayer, worship, and encouraging each other—these are the main functions of the church as premised in Jacobs’ Sacred Spaces (2007). He explored a virtual church and temple put up as websites by two religious organizations, a Christian and a Hindu religious group.

He hypothesized that one can have a ritual encounter in cyberspace. Looking further into asynchronous rituals, wherein online worshippers can perform traditional rituals at their own convenience without synchronizing with the whole church body, he concluded that the virtual

church seems to be able to functionally provide an alternative for the traditional church.

There’s the prayer room for prayer request, a worship section connected to a Christian radio

station that would play pop songs with options to sing along with the lyrics, and a section that enables witnessing or sharing of faith through online postings (Jacobs, 2007).

In sum, this chapter examined the interface of religion, new media, and the

internationalization of students, as well as the cultural shaping of new media as manifested in

the relationships in religious communication. In the following sections, this research sought to investigate how foreign students in Taiwan approach the Internet and negotiate their religious ties with implications for their transnational faith. How foreign students in Taiwan negotiate transnational religious practices, online and offline is the main concern of the following chapters.