The First Church of Second Life (a response)

I just read this blog post from Out of Ur called The First Church of Second Life.  I have recently been intrigued by Second Life as it seems to be gaining in popularity and being mentioned more and more as the new and upcoming way to Social Network.  I created my own Second Life user with the name of Brit Quandry to check out exactly what Second Life was all about.  

Here is kind of my thoughts about the whole Second Life program.  I personally found it kind of creepy.  For one, I couldn't use my real name - now I know for many people this is actually a positive for them because they can become something different in their "second life" than they are in their first life, but that leads me to the second reason that I find it creepy.  I think it is creepy because people who don't like who they are in their first life end up with their alter egos in Second Life.  They can do the things that they only wish they could do in their real life.  If they secretly want to be a stripper - that is available to them in Second Life. If they secretly want to sell drugs - just do it on Second Life. My point is that Seconf Life seems to be a way for people to escape reality, which I don't think is necessarily a good thing.

Now I do want to say something positive that can come out of Second Life. I think that almost any of the Social Networking sites, whether that be Myspace, Facebook, or Second Life allow the minster to see into peoples lives and see the needs and struggled that they may not see in the course of the noemal day. People seem to be more open to sharing their personal life over the internet through a social networking site than they are through other means of communication. I think this gives the minister, whether that be the pastor of thr church or youth pastor or even children's pastor an avenue to minister to someone's needs more effectively because the need is known, rather than just guessing. So while Second life seems to me to have some real creepy qualities, I also see the value in it as a ministry, I truly hope and pray that those churches and ministries that are utilizing Second Life can be effective in ministering in cyberspace.