My problem with anti-Net culture rhetoric

My problem with anti-Net culture rhetoric is that it is largely ignorant of the good that should be and can be sought.   Some would complain about my oft-expressed "complaints" about the Church's failures.  But my penchant for expressing grievances and frustrations there come from a sense of loss;  of "missing out" on the posibilities that exist amongst us.   I see ways in which the Church can address some of the "tendencies"  that Schultze identifies as the overarching themes of online culture,  but does so in a way that seems to serve the tendency to "devalue" the possibilites.  My enthusiasm for online possibilities is no more neccessarily utopian than hopeful talk abouth the Church.  Envisioning the ways in which Web Technologies can help us "extend" the Church into online culture is valuable stuff.  But it is not blind to utopian hype (that is often also ignorant of some of the spiritual matters which we perceive ourselves to be engaged) --- envisioning the possibilities,  on the contrary,  seeks to experiment with the best that we can glean from online technologies,  and seeks to apply it to the best we can envision for the Church.  Indeed,  the best envisioning for the wasy the Church can leverage online communication is bred in the best envisioning of what the Church can be.

Where I started to go with that argument was that it is no more "cyber-utopian" for Church people who are net-savy to be excited about opportunities for the Church in Web technologies than it is for Church people in general to be excited about the Church.  The Church has its problems and unfulfilled visions just as cyberculture falls short of the "best that it could be".  But the failures of the Church do not bring further envisioning and hope and faith in the Church future to a screeching halt.  This should be true no matter how pervasive and far-reaching the failures seem to be and reach.  We go on,  and we continue the struggle to envision what God's call for us is THIS DAY.  So too should it be with our stewardship of resources.  The misuse and abuse of some need not obliterate the opening of our envisioning into the field of online communication.  If the field of online communication and online technology has experienced the "fallen-ness" of humankind,   then it is redeemable.  We are not to "hand over" the reigns of any technology which affects human society;  we are called to be faithful stewards,  and to fight the good fight. 

© Copyright 2003 Dale Lature. Last update: 9/23/2003; 3:39:19 PM.