Facebook is the new voice of temptation whispering to the church in the digital wilderness – Baptist News Global
In my various stints as a pastor, I have at times joked with friends and colleagues that one way to raise more money for the church would be to sell ad space in the bulletin or offer title sponsorship of specific service elements, the way sports broadcasts often do.
We could have the “T-Mobile Call to Worship” or “Prayers of the People, brought to you by People’s Jewelers.” I had fun coming up with farcical combinations.
Turns out Facebook sees this kind of thinking as an unrealized business opportunity rather than a jest.
A ‘virtual home’ for religion
The New York Times ran a feature July 25 reporting on Facebook’s new strategic outreach to churches and other faith organizations in a drive to “become the virtual home for religious community.” The features and apps they’ve developed specifically for this effort include tools for churches to receive donations in real time and show advertisements live during video streams.
So many red flags went up while reading this article that I lost count.
As Maya Angelou so prophetically advised, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.” What Facebook has shown the world in recent years about its true corporate intentions should cause the people of God to steer clear, not flock to sign up.
Sarah Lane Ritchie, a lecturer in theology and science at the University of Edinburgh who is quoted in the article, nails the heart of the matter: Facebook operates by collecting and monetizing information from its users. The potential for Facebook to harvest troves of personal data from congregants during worship and exploit that data for profit should create “enormous concerns” for religious leaders.
This apprehension is given more weight by the unnamed Facebook representative who confirmed for the Times that “the data it collected from religious communities would be handled the same way as that of other users.” In other words, from Facebook’s side, nothing here is sacred. Facebook will use any and all information it gathers from you, me and other online worshipers to make Facebook as much money as possible. That’s why they’re courting churches to take their relationship with Facebook to another level. They don’t really care about you, though. They mainly just want to pimp your personal data.
What could possibly go wrong?
Two things in particular strike me as most troubling.
One is the timing of this initiative. The Times article states that Facebook’s faith outreach predates the COVID-19 pandemic, when social distancing measures forced churches large and small to experiment with online worship formats. However, it postdates the 2016 presidential election. This timing suggests that what piqued Facebook’s interest in religious communities wasn’t the passion of people of faith reaching for God but the fervor with which people of faith spread viral (and often bogus) political information during the campaign and the early years of the Trump presidency.
“Facebook’s end game here is to get religious users more invested in their platform(s) so they can further stimulate those traffic patterns and capitalize on that behavior.”
From the article: “Facebook created its faith partnerships team in 2017 and began courting religious leaders, especially of evangelical and Pentecostal groups, in earnest in 2018.” It would thus appear that Facebook’s end game here is to get religious users more invested in their platform(s) so they can further stimulate those traffic patterns and capitalize on that behavior.
The second concern has less to do with Facebook and more with the posture of many of the faith leaders featured in the article. “The goals of businesses and worshiping communities are different,” Ritchie continued. Truthfully, those goals should be different; but you wouldn’t necessarily know that from reading the Times piece.
Facebook is clearly interested in faith communities because of the revenue potential they see in the relationship. That should come as no surprise. But these faith leaders seem eager to partner with Facebook for essentially the same reasons Facebook wants to partner with them, sans the data siphoning. They see great potential for Facebook to help them increase their numbers and their influence.
The article concludes with a big-time Freudian slip from Hillsong’s Sam Collier who is partnering with Facebook, he said, “to directly impact and help churches navigate and reach the consumer better.” Then he corrected himself to say that “consumer” isn’t the right word; rather it is to “reach the parishioner better.”
Church as a consumer product
This speaks to a larger and more pernicious trend that has developed within America’s understanding and practice of religion, especially within Christianity. Facebook’s faith partnerships initiative wouldn’t have reached this stage if certain influential religious leaders weren’t on board. And why are they on board? Because, in their spheres, church has become little more than a product for American consumers who happen to be Christians to consume.
“Facebook’s faith partnerships initiative wouldn’t have reached this stage if certain influential religious leaders weren’t on board.”
Faithfully following Christ has been distilled to packaging and marketing: Read these formulaic books, listen to these factory-produced songs, attend a weekly small group to chat about material from the aforementioned books, and then attend a larger worship service to sing the aforementioned songs and hear an uplifting and non-threatening message from your church’s pastor, CEO and aspiring lifestyle guru.
The warm reception Facebook’s overtures have received here portend the movement of pop Christianity even further in this pre-packaged, consumer-focused, number-crunching direction.
What is our calling?
To be clear, these critiques of Facebook’s faith outreach and those partnering with them in the endeavor aren’t to deny churches’ need for revenue or suggest that churches shouldn’t strive to reach more people with the good news of Jesus. We have a calling from Jesus himself to make disciples of all nations, and the world has migrated to online spaces. Churches need money to engage in ministry, and many churches are struggling right now to make budget and adapt to a rapidly changing and divisive cultural landscape. Wrestling with how to live out our faith in unpredictable and unfamiliar territory as the patterns and conventions of the previous age crumble beneath the weight of new pressures and long-overdue admissions is fundamental spiritual work.
However, as we do that work, as we search for new pathways and experiment with new media, we followers of Jesus cannot forget that the medium is the message. If Facebook — an unscrupulous media giant fomenting the digital pandemic of misinformation that is debilitating our Republic — becomes our medium, then Facebook becomes part and parcel with the gospel message we are attempting to proclaim.
Most of all, we cannot forget or forsake the example Jesus set for us in the wilderness as we seek new direction and new life. Succumbing to the voices (and forces) of the world who offer us convenient outs from disconcerting circumstances isn’t the way. History has shown that when faith joins forces with worldly interests, especially at their invitation, the resulting marriage is rarely equal. Faith takes on the interest’s name and starts marching to the interest’s beat, not the other way around.
“At some point, deacons and elders and finance committees will be tempted to use real-time giving numbers to influence, if not dictate, what worship directors plan and pastors preach.”
At some point, the companies whose banner ads you show during your video stream will want you to maintain a certain number of viewers. At some point, deacons and elders and finance committees will be tempted to use real-time giving numbers to influence, if not dictate, what worship directors plan and pastors preach. At some point, you’ll start to see online ads on Monday for items related to topics you discussed in church on Sunday. We cannot serve two masters.
The ways of heaven’s economy
The true way forward for the church in the 21st century remains the same as it was in the first century — to live in anticipation and imitation of heaven’s “kin-dom,” a reality that is calibrated to a different set of weights and measures than those used by our earthly counterparts and competitors.
The ways of heaven’s economy aren’t the ways of the free market. Heaven’s economy is an economy unmanipulated by corporate algorithms and uninterested in the exploitation of human bodies or the leveraging of personal information. It’s an economy in which the last shall be first and the first shall be last. An economy in which those hired to work in the vineyard at 5:00 in the evening are paid as handsomely as those who were hired at 9:00 in the morning. An economy in which enemies are loved and those who persecute us are prayed for. An economy in which priority is given to the needs of neighbors lying in ditches rather than the convenience of elites cruising along the road. An economy in which love is the currency and grace is the bottom line.
Truth be told, what America needs — and what America’s churches really need — in our unfamiliar, post-pandemic world is more Christian leaders willing to surrender more fully to the alternative serving economy of Jesus and fewer willing to sell out to a service economy goliath like Facebook.
Jesus never taught us to gauge our success by our size or our reach and certainly not by the number of “likes” we receive. Those ideas come from the powers of the world whispering to us in the wilderness of our desire and discontent.
Todd Thomason is a gospel minister, justice advocate and recovering white moderate who most recently served as senior minister at Kingsway Baptist Church in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He earned a doctor of ministry degree from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University and a master of divinity degree from McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University.
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Amy Roloff Celebrates with Girlfriends Ahead of Wedding: ‘Fabulous Time’
Amy Roloff recently enjoyed a fun-filled gathering with her girlfriends ahead of her wedding to Chris Marek.
The Little People, Big World star, 56, shared a photo on Instagram Friday of herself posing alongside several of her pals. She said the snap from their “fabulous time” together was taken a couple of weeks ago.
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“When girlfriends want to get together to hangout with you, can’t pass that up. Especially when one of the reasons is to celebrate my upcoming wedding (2 weeks away 😳),” Amy wrote. “I’ve known many of these wonderful fabulous good friends since our kids were young. Love them bunches and I’m so blessed to have them and their friendship in my life. We had a great time on the River.”
She added, “Thanks Christy fir [sic] hosting at your floating home and everyone fir [sic] hanging out. Girls just wanna have fun 😂. The best. 🤗♥️🎉. Two weeks I’m getting married. Woohoo!”
On her Instagram Story, Amy said that her engagement ring is currently “at the jewelers” and that she “can’t wait to see what it will look like as a wedding ring.”
Amy and Marek announced their engagement in September 2019. They are set to tie the knot on Aug. 28.
The couple shared on Little People, Big World in June that they will have their wedding at Roloff Farms, which is owned by Amy’s ex-husband, Matt Roloff.
“Initially when Matt offered us the farm, I thought it was just a given that we invite him and Caryn to join us, if they’d like to, you know, no obligation,” Marek said in a confessional on LPBW recently. “But then I saw where it could be awkward for some people that were going to be at the wedding and especially maybe for Amy.”
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Matt also explained, “We had a conversation and he goes, ‘Are you going to be offended if we don’t invite you to the wedding?’ [I said,] ‘Absolutely not, let’s just take it off the table, make it simple.'”
Though Matt won’t be in attendance, the reality star is getting Roloff Farms ready for Amy’s big day. He shared photos this week of construction that is underway on the property.
Amy Roloff Amy Roloff and Chris Marek | Credit: Amy Roloff/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/B23CECsg3hG/ Amy Roloff
“Racing at full speed to get the new building finished before the Big day, @amyjroloff and Chris’ wedding day,” he wrote on Instagram. “Pulling out all the stops … 16 days and counting! @rolofffarms is looking good. A huge thank-you to the team at @jeldwenusa windows. Not only a fantastic product (I’m a new friend for life). But they delivered on budget and ahead of schedule.”
Matt also said that they’re currently “hoping the @ccandlroofingpdx can get the new metal roof on so we can button this up before the wedding.”
Kewa artist Angie Owen uses techniques of her ancestors to craft award-winning jewelry
Aug. 15—Kewa Pueblo artist Angie Owen arranges tiny stones into mosaic clusters that evolve into dazzling necklaces and bracelets.
The winner of countless awards, including Best of Division at both the Santa Fe and the Heard Museum markets, Owen will be showing her work at the 99th Annual Santa Fe Indian Market on the Plaza on Saturday, Aug. 21, and Sunday, Aug. 22.
For the first time, this year’s market will be a ticketed event creating revenue for the nonprofit organization. Artists will be selling pottery, paintings, carvings, baskets, textiles and jewelry during the two-day event with music, dancing and a fashion show on the Plaza. Organizers are projecting about 60,000 visitors and more than 650 artists.
Owen learned her techniques from her mother, who made thunderbird necklaces at the pueblo during the Depression. The jewelers used 78 rpm records and old batteries because they were the sole available materials. Few artists explored the format, however, because heishi necklaces of rolled beads were much more popular.
Owen’s father sold thunderbird necklaces to train passengers. She came from a family of eight children.
“We were all involved,” she said. “My dad would make a big bench and we would drill on each side. My mom used to do all the grinding (of heishi) on the pueblo. She would charge a quarter a strand.”
Adopting the role of family salesperson, Owen worked under the portal of Santa Fe’s Palace of the Governors at 8.
“I thoroughly enjoyed meeting people,” she said. “Of course, I was told not to speak English. I sold more by not speaking English.”
When she returned home to the pueblo, Owen told her father everyone there was making the same heishi necklaces. She wanted to be different.
“He said, ‘Why don’t you go back to the mosaic like your mom?’ It came easily because we watched our mom do it.”
Encouraged by her husband and friends, Owen began researching the prehistoric styles of mosaic jewelry created by the ancient puebloan cultures of the Southwest. She traveled extensively throughout the region, studying early pieces in museum and private collections to learn the techniques of her ancestors.
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Today she uses a diamond slicer to cut all-natural turquoise, coral, spiny oyster, lapis, green Verdite, serpentine, pipestone, jet, melon, pin shell, olive and mother-of-pearl into constellations of pattern.
“In the beginning, we used to make our own drill bits,” she said. “Now we use dental drills.”
“I do it as I go,” she added. “Once in a while, I’ll draw a pattern for the earrings; otherwise, it’s free-forming.”
She decried the copying of hers and others' work done by mass producers from South America, the Philippines and China.
“It’s hurting our Native people,” she said. “It’s hurting our pocket book.”
At nearly 75, Owen relies on “Walmart glasses” to work her small palette while she listens to country music and old rock ‘n’ roll. Her work can be found in the Smithsonian, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian and more.
“I love to see my work on people,” she said. “It gives me such a big thrill to see a person wearing my pieces.”