Myspace
There's great concern over Myspace expressed through the media that it is a notable field for child predators to surf and attract unsuspecting kids toward serious trouble. This is really true about Blogspot and Xanga as well, I'm sure.
How is it that we can convey convincingly of the dangers of such internet activity and protect our kids and friends?
It's also curious to note how some kids will post or comment just about anything from intimate dialogue to photos, as if they were doing so from the safety of their room or computer keyboard.
There's incredible potential in these types of communication...incredible good...incredible bad...Let's be about the redemption of anything and everything that needs to be redeemed.
Leviticus 25:24 (MSG)
24 "You must provide for the right of redemption for any of the land that you own."
How is it that we can convey convincingly of the dangers of such internet activity and protect our kids and friends?
It's also curious to note how some kids will post or comment just about anything from intimate dialogue to photos, as if they were doing so from the safety of their room or computer keyboard.
There's incredible potential in these types of communication...incredible good...incredible bad...Let's be about the redemption of anything and everything that needs to be redeemed.
Leviticus 25:24 (MSG)
24 "You must provide for the right of redemption for any of the land that you own."
posted by Jim Knaggs | 8:50 PM
8 Comments:
Well said. You know my opinions on this subject. We CAN redeem the things Satan has tried to defile and steal.
We need to protect the sheep. The best way is to know where they are and try our best to shepherd them through the danger.
Hi Colonel,
Thanks for your comments on this subject. I greatly appreciate how you model a middle-ground on this subject.
I recently had a discussion about this same subject on my blog (http://stevebussey.blogspot.com) - asking the question of whether Christians should be using these new forms of social networking media. It's interesting to read the comments which have emerged out of this discussion.
There are dangers out there in the virtual world, and these could be fatal to our emerging generation. However, it is at such a point that our sheep desperately need shepherds to guide them. The grounds they are grazing in are dangerous, but the need for (social, spiritual, intellectual, emotional?) nourishment will often drive us to these virtual fields. Ironically, the 'virtual' world IS our part of our 'reality' today.
This is why I think it is important to have virtual shepherds in this environment - to guard, protect, guide, lead... This all requires the shepherd's immediate and constant presence. This is the very definition of pastoring. I think this embodies why it is vital that we see this as a field of ministry opportunity.
I think that this is a subject which desperately needs to discussed, and goes to show our need for a theologically solid, media literacy. Maybe it would be worth setting up a forum on this subject?
I think that it's really important for us to be "as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves" on this subject. Life in this media-saturated age is a balancing act between danger and opportunity. This type of redemptive theology is true to our Salvationist heritage.
Thank you for modelling this wisdom, and choosing to be a shepherd in the virtual grazing grounds,
Steve Bussey
Yeah, I was forwarded an email that the East has decided to completely ban mySpace. I'm hoping our territory won't follow this model. We absolutely CAN redeem the things Satan sas tried to defile and steal, as Larry said.
So we're concerned because mySpace is a haven for sexual predators to seek out underage kids. The last thing we should do is remove our presence. Put another way, we leave (ban) mySpace, and who's left? The predators and 13 year olds.
Steve's right on the money - our heritage is one of redeeming the tools the devil has claimed for his own. Instead of packing up to leave, we should be preparing an onslaught of Christian influence in this sphere.
Grace,
Phil
Intelligent and appropriate comments here. Thank you. Look for some movement on this.
It really bothers me when Christian's knee jerk reactions are to run away from things that are percieved as 'bad'.
Personally, I think that all things are redeemable. It's our TRADITION to sanctify those things that are less-than-holy into something beautiful that God can use.
By God's grace Our army has consecrated drinking tunes, dance halls, hookers, mobsters, drunks, and even chair factories. Why NOT myspace?
I'm not sure I agree that mandating our exclusion from MySpace is a great idea or the right approach. That said, Christin, let's be careful not to over-reach. The things you mention (tunes, dance ahlls, chair factories, people) have been overtaken in their entirety for sacred use. With MySpace we're talking about a minority just trying to make a dent.
Until the Army is ready to get into the blogging business by purchasing a controlling share of MySpace, this is a completely different animal than those situations.
Hey Chief,
I sent Major Munn an email about Myspace today. I was dissapointed to find out last week that myspace was "turned off" I thought the myspace server was down when most of the girls from our teen dropin center went whom because "myspace was broken".
In stapleton we have developed a teen outreach center that depended on two areas of technology to bring teens in from our rough neighbohood. Videogames and Myspace.com both ministry mediums seem to create more than alittle contreversy however both mediums have also been highly successful.
in 9 months we hav an avarege drop in attendance of 30 teens we have more than 20 coming to church and on our biblebowl teen which is currently first in the division 7 of the 8 members are new to the army in the last 9 months through the drop in program.
Not only do i think Myspace.com can beused redemtively i believe that by pulling out of it the Christians have in other areas to culture we abandon it to the enemy. and acually make it more unsafe.
We used Myspace.com extensively until a few weeks ago. (Incidently we are inforcing the ban even though we disagree in princible. Our teens had figured ways around it by the next day.)
I asked My Outreach Director aaron to write an email explaining how we use myspace for ministry and below i have posted it.
I have used myspace as a tool to help build relationships with my teens as well as bring people into the Cross-Box Program.
Most of the teenagers that use the computers in my drop-in center, do not have computer access at home. They have no other place to get online, besides school, and that is usually firewalled. Well, also, I know that a lot of my teens have moved to Staten Island from various other places, and they use myspace as a tool to keep in touch with old friends from past living places. So, to block this is to deny my teens access to former friends, which in the end, means less relationships.
Also, I have used myspace as a way of "checking-up" on my teens at various times. Days when my teens seem upset, but don't feel comfortable talking to me, many times, they post blogs on myspace about their problems, and I can log onto myspace and read their blogs, and it's a way for me to understand what they are going through if they don't want to talk to me face to face about it. Another is a way in which I can keep tabs on teens who may not be around as much lately as they had been, and I can get onto their page and see if they're starting to make their pages inappropriate with language and such. It's a way for me to understand where they stand in the Spiritual walks as well as what and how much the media is influencing them. For example, if I check one of my teens pages, and their page is covered in rap where the language is inappropriate, I can then turn around and offer that teen a Christian alternative to that rapper, etc.
These are all just ways that myspace can be used to help us enter into the minds of teenagers of the Internet Age. Without myspace, I would be out of the loop on many thing effecting my teens today.
One short story is this. One day, one of my teens went on myspace and posted a bulletin talking about "If you're a pimp, read this. Ladies don't read." So, curiously, I opened the bulletin to find that this particular teen was selling condoms to anyone who needed them. Without myspace, I may not have been able to find this out, and the kid might still be selling condoms and his views on sex might degrade more and more. However, at this, I was able to pull the kid aside and talk to him about what he was doing and how it was wrong. Now, he was punished with a week off the computer, but now he is much more honest and open to me about things that are going on in his life, knowing that I can listen, understand, talk to him and help him to figure out what is right and wrong, and all this because myspace opened the door into his mind for me to enter.
Salt and Light come to mind.
Salt - to prevent decay; Light - to dispell darkness. Our purpose is to do both, but we can't if we're not making our presense known in places that are dark and/or decaying.
Checking out mySpace... I see a lot of hurting souls. I believe the challenge to "go for souls and go for the worst" is still a mandate for us - we do it well in many areas of social and spiritual decay... It's scary to go into unchartered territory, but we do so in the power of the Spirit (or so we pray). If this is where youth are, we have a mandate to reach them.
The challenge comes to us to disciple our youth - and leaders as well - to be in but not of... In order to do that, we somehow need to help them stand "in" without becoming "polluted" themselves - and ourselves. That's not an easy task, but necessary.
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