While many of us give up social media for Lent, social media kind of exploded with Lenten fervor last week for those of us who haven’t given it up. Churchmojo.com encouraged its followers to spread Lenten devotion around the web with the ashtag hashtag, and it took off. You can see their original post below, along with some other thoughts on social media and Ash Wednesday from First Things.
We’ve also got an article from Christ and Pop Culture on loving your neighbor’s Facebook feed and one from The New Atlantis on St. Francis and biotechnology.
If you missed it last week, we started a series of Lenten reflections on spirituality and technology this past Wednesday. Stay tuned for a new reflection this Wednesday.
Take an Ash Wednesday Selfie and Use #Ashtag – Church Mojo
Want to spread the word about the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday? There are plenty of ways for your church to do so. And here’s an easy way for you and your friends to do so.
Giving Up the Bible for Lent – First Things
On this, the first day of Lent, I was dismayed to find this message from a Christian ministry in my Twitter feed:
“What are you doing for Lent? Take a photo and hashtag it #VivaLent to enter to win prizes weekly”
This tweet is emblematic of the Lenten takeover of social media and the corresponding social media takeover of Lent. It starts with people letting their friends and followers know they will be fasting from Facebook and Instagram and ends with the smart aleck who tweets that he will be giving up virginity for Lent.
Anti #Ashtag – First Things
When the famous Ellen DeGeneres Oscar selfie appeared on my Facebook wall on Mardi Gras, modified with ash crosses, I laughed. But on Ash Wednesday, I began to worry.
Loving Your Neighbor’s Facebook Feed – Christ and Pop Culture
You can follow me on Twitter (please). You can be my friend on Facebook (please, please). You can (please, please, please) read my articles. You can learn who I am (hi). You can become familiar with my preferences, opinions, foibles, and gifts. You can choose to love me or reject me (love me). And all of this, you can do without ever even knowing me.
Dante For Lent: The Reality Of Sin – The American Conservative
Read along with Rod Dreher as he works through Dante’s Purgatory for Lent.
St. Francis, Christian Love, and the Biotechnological Future – The New Atlantis
But now, armed with the powers of biotechnology, medicine has found a new paradigm, one of liberation: technological transformation in the quest for happiness and human perfection. Slowly but steadily the role of medicine has been extended, driven by our appetites and ambitions, to encompass dimensions of life not previously considered matters of health, with the effect of altering and revising the very frame of nature. Increasingly, we expect from medicine not just freedom from disease but freedom from all that is unattractive, imperfect, or just inconvenient. More recent proposals, of a still more ambitious scope, include projects for the conquest of aging, neurological fusion of humans and machines, and fundamental genetic revision and guided evolution — for transhumans, posthumans, and technosapiens.
