Thursday, March 5, 2009

What are you giving up?

If you've been following my blog, you know that I gave up drinking sodas on January 1st as my New Year's resolution. It was part health related, part fun, and mostly an experiment that I thought of for myself, to see if I could do it for the whole year, and if so, how much weight would I lose. So far (64 days and counting) I have lost 9 pounds. Now that Mardi Gras is over, Catholics and other faiths who participate in Lent, have had to decide what to "give up" during this time before Easter (a 40 day period) to draw believers into a closer relationship with God and their faith. Traditionally many people choose to give up certain kinds of food, like chocolate or candy. Others get more creative. A neighbor down the street has decided to give up gossiping. My wife has not disclosed what she is giving up, claiming that it is personal. Today, I read a story that I found very interesting. The Catholic Church is recommending some ideas for people:

"The Italian branch of the Roman Catholic Church wants its followers to forswear text messaging, social-networking Web sites and computer games in the run-up to Easter."

For the full story, click here:

Thou Shalt Not Text Until Easter, Italians Told

What makes this even more interesting to me is that I have read where the Catholic Church wants to embrace new technology by having a presence on facebook and UTube and other social networking websites. The St. Louis Archdiocese has even told people to sign up on their website for a text message to announce the new St. Louis Archbishop as soon as the Vatican makes the official announcement. So is this a contradiction? We want you to use facebook and text messages to communicate with the Catholic Church, just not during Lent? Ultimately, each person must decide what her or she will give up for Lent. While I am not Catholic, I consider myself a friend of the Catholic Church, as I am married to a Catholic. So while I am not giving up anything for Lent, I will continue my Water Experiment, which may not be a religious endeavor, but it is a noble one. At least I think so...I better lay off the chocolate anyway, the dentist told me I have 2 new cavities yesterday! Bummer.

2 comments:

Jeff Geerling said...: I don't think it's so much a contradiction... There is a very legitimate place for texting, Facebook, and other forms of socializing through technology. The Church in Saint Louis is trying to communicate exciting news to its members in the most effective way possible.

The Church in Italy has found that a lot of people have become so entrenched in communication via texting that their personal and 'real' social relationships are suffering. Thankfully, that seems not to be a major problem in the U.S. so far, but I can definitely see that as a possibility.

When one goes too far into online social networking, and doesn't ground any online actions in reality, he risks losing his personal relationships—even those he might need to foster between himself and Christ!; March 5, 2009 at 11:25 AM
Scott Wheeler said...: Thanks for your comments, Jeff. I agree with you completely. One must have a balance. Even a good thing can be bad if done to the extreme.; March 5, 2009 at 7:16 PM