In her February “From Your Minister” column, Jane asked the question: “Does your computer further your religion? We’d love to hear how.” Here are excerpts of some of the responses that readers shared—we welcome further comments on our Quest forum.
In response to the article by Jane Rzepka, I would like to tell my own story on the use of computers in advancing towards my religious and spiritual path.
I’ve been born in a strictly religious fundamentalist Islamic family in Iran. Even though living in England for six years during my childhood, I went to a religious school and had to attend every ceremony with my parents, including being forced to do the five times daily prayer. I was never given the opportunity to research and choose for my own.
Now by using the Internet in a strictly censored country where converting from Islam to another religion has a written law of death penalty, I found my spiritual path by taking a wisely designed quiz on tickle.com which proposes the best matching religion to your beliefs. Guess what? It was UU! Now I’m receiving a lot of advice and information through the monthly publications delivered to my mail and the Web site without the fear of any prosecution.
I’ve also used the Internet to find a lot of information about Christianity, Baha’i faith and the true roots of Islam (especially Shi’a—though having to bypass the filtering system on the internet sometimes). (Winking smile emotion)
—M. T., Iran
I use my computer to form relationships with very extreme or hard-core evangelical and fundamentalist Christians who have issues around gay people, see their religion as the only truth or seem to deny the great commandment of loving others. While I feel very strongly in the right of freedom of religion and people’s right to believe whatever they wish, I also take care of myself by speaking up if someone says something that my spirit disagrees with.
I have been a part of an AOL Christian chat for about five years now, and I have managed to gain the respect of many people who would never talk to me in the real world. As a Black, lesbian, UU-Quaker who lives in an urban city, I would rarely have the chance to talk to these Christians. It is a two-way process of me learning from other members, and they learning from me. But mostly I learn about myself, and what my buttons are, and how I need to change my thinking to promote peace and understanding.
In my discussions with these people and by my listening to and valuing their views as well, we have gotten to know each other and learn how to communicate with each in other in a manner that values each other’s sacredness and fragility as humans. My relationships have been a gift and hard work that has paid off in God teaching me the lesson that unconditional love and forgiveness will always create roads in directions that the human mind could never imagine.
The very best result of my online activities has been that my success has helped me to decide to earn a Masters and Ph.D. in interactive computer technology. It is my professional goal to build Web sites that teach nonviolence and tolerance of others. I also hope to do research to find ways to understand how to affect people’s views and actions towards others while using one’s computer and an online community.
—Alecia, Michigan
In law school I learned that the lawyerly and the right answer was “it all depends.” And, for me, that’s the right answer to this question.
Among other discord, being condemned and excluded from a committee because I did not have e-mail caused me to leave a Unitarian Universalist congregation close to home. If that had not happened, I would not be part of the Church of the Larger Fellowship. A lack of a computer furthered my religious journey.…
However, the Quest Forum helps me think through aspects of my belief and faith, and it is much easier to respond or to comment on items in Quest directly to their authors by e-mail. Once, an exchange reconnected me with my first Unitarian Universalist congregation. E-mail exchanges made vivid memories of the spiritual home and family that I had there. I’ve been able to follow and to share with those old acquaintances from 3,000 miles away.
So does my computer further my religion? It all depends...but I know that the computer cannot replace the print Quest that I can read with my coffee in the quiet of my morning meditation and that my e-mails and my contributions to the Forum begin with hand-written notes from that meditation time then entered into my computer.
But my computer is not a spiritual place.
—Elisabeth, Connecticut
