Field Guide to the Wild World of Religion: 2011 Edition. Pamela J.D. Dewey
Religion
Fifty years ago it was a major effort for an aspiring new guru to find prospective followers. Now he can grab them as they surf by on their way to check the latest forecast on Weather.com! With the right web-design software and just a bit of programming savvy, a single individual can have a religious website that is as elaborate and impressive as that of a major church denomination. And he can be as formal or as folksy as he chooses, setting the tenor of his ministry. No one need know it is just one man and his PC in a small apartment in a small town. He can craft a persona to present to the public that has nothing to do with his real world. He can even go online himself to get a variety of degrees and credentials from questionable, unaccredited cyber colleges and other institutions, and string BA, MA, and ThD after his name on his home page—next to the digitally touched-up picture of himself and his lovely wife. Few potential supporters will bother to look up the details of the source of his academic credentials.
When his ministry grows, his website can grow with it. What was first just a few pictures and articles can grow to include daily sermons in streaming audio or video. He can post whole books outlining his own theology online to read, daily news reports of the progress of the ministry and its projects, and forums on which supporters can share their enthusiasm for what they are learning from their chosen guru with others of like mind. At the bottom of every page of the site can be the link to click to immediately make a credit card donation to the ministry.
Fifty years ago, the average preacher had to get on the sawdust trail, preaching in tent revivals across the land, if he wanted to get a wide audience to pay attention to him. Now a preacher can gather supporters while sitting at his own desk, and enter the living room of every one of them who has a computer every day—even multiple times a day. And he can create the illusion of a personal relationship with each one.
The Internet: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
There is no way to turn the clock back, of course. The appeal of the Web is so wide now that it’s hard to find groups or businesses that don’t have a webpage, from small town Little League teams to village tanning parlors. Virtually anyone who wants to make use of the Internet can make use of the Internet. Even homeless people around the country can have their own virtual home in Cyberspace! They can obtain an email address from one of the free email services such as Yahoo. They can check their email and surf the Web at free Internet connections at their local library. Indeed, right from that library connection, they can even create their own “home” on the net—a homepage on one of the many free website hosts on the Web.
And the good, the bad, and the ugly in the Wild World of Religion will be right around the cybercorner from them … and from all the rest of us. The greedy charlatans, the mentally-unbalanced megalomaniacs, the self-appointed apostles and prophets of new “end times prophecy” sects, and the self-proclaimed miracle healers—all can all set up their wares on the same Internet cyberstreet as the sincere, legitimate ministry outreaches to the poor, the biblically-sound Bible teachers, and the truly God-inspired motivational preachers. It has never been more important for the “consumer” to be aware of how to sort out the claims of all of these groups and individuals that are competing for their attention as well as their money.
Therefore, it is certainly convenient that the medium that allows the charlatan to sell his wares is the same medium that can best equip the public to investigate his claims. For millennia, religious con-artists have relied on the fact that most people have very short memories. A prophetic guru could dogmatically set a date for the Second Coming of Christ, and when the date came and passed, he need only wait a few years—maybe only a few months—for people to forget what he had predicted. Before long, new people would come along who were totally unaware of his record of prophetic failure. Then he could hang out his prophetic shingle once again, set a new date, and gather around himself a new set of starry-eyed disciples.
Or the pious head of a small religious group could be exposed as a philanderer who was secretly attempting to seduce the wives of a number of his followers. If he could escape town before being caught and tarred and feathered—or worse—by the husbands, he could travel to another state and set up a new ministry again, gathering a new following of the gullible.
The rise of the Internet has really put a cramp in the style of such men. Computers don’t forget in the way people do. And distance means nothing when communication between Alaska and Florida is instant. A person who posts a prophetic proclamation on the Worldwide Web needs to understand that others can capture and store it on their computers. Therefore, even if he removes it from his own website when it becomes obvious it has not come to pass in time, the record still exists. And the man whose ministry is the subject of a carefully-documented investigative report by the local newspaper in his own town, revealing him to be misusing ministry funds and deceiving his supporters, needs to realize he can’t “move away” from his record and start fresh. That local newspaper likely has a website with archives of their articles. Any web-searcher using Google to look up the minister’s name will have access to the record stored in those archives.
For the ministry with integrity this is no threat, of course. The records on the Internet of good deeds are just as permanent as the records of evil deeds.
The Web has also put a damper on another type of religious gimmick. Many religious groups have historically relied on being able to very carefully ration out information about their beliefs to prospective members over an extended period of time. They may have doctrines and practices which seem so ridiculous on the face that they know they ought to reserve revelation of those until the new member is firmly committed to the group. Thus the door-to-door evangelists for the group, or their radio preachers or magazine authors, will focus on putting the most benign, most appealing façade possible on the organization. For centuries, this has worked. Such groups were able to keep their most esoteric beliefs, and the inner workings of their system, hidden from prying eyes. Actual entry to group meetings is often by invitation only, and only offered after a careful screening process to assure that the prospective member is ready for the “deeper” truths.
But the Web has thrown open the doors to these hidden sanctuaries, and has made information about the secret doctrines and practices of such groups available instantly to all who are looking for more information than they can squeeze out of the evangelists at their door. Disillusioned former members often put up websites outlining “the rest of the story” that most have only discovered in the past after it was too late to turn back.
Of course, just because such information is posted on the Web doesn’t necessarily make it The Gospel Truth either. Sometimes, former members of groups have unreasonable grudges and personal agendas that color their commentaries. What is most useful from such sources in the long run may well be the fact that most do not limit the information on their websites to personal opinion, but provide solid documentation. They will post scanned copies of original documents, excerpts from recorded messages in the form of sound clips or transcripts, reports from public news sources, and more. Thus readers are able to reconstruct some of the reasons for the opinions shared on the website and come to their own conclusions.
Religious Research on the Worldwide Web
There are a wide variety of websites on the Internet that critically evaluate the teachings and activities of certain religious teachers and groups. They are sometimes referred to as cult-watch sites. These sites represent a wide variety of perspectives on religious movements.
Secular Cult-Watch Websites
To the average secular—perhaps atheist or agnostic—observer, the bickering among Christian teachers and groups over doctrines, methods, and styles of authority may seem silly. Not wishing to get into any debate over these “in-house” differences, their concern about religious cults is limited in most cases to those they believe may be actually physically dangerous to themselves or others. A group which is alleged to be involved in physical or sexual abuse of children, or to be in danger of mass suicide within the group, or whose teachings—such as perhaps racial hatred—may possibly lead to physical harm to outsiders, is viewed with alarm. When such groups are profiled on secular cult-watch