Almighty Is Everywhere on the Net

Every Friday, as the sun begins to creep past its apex, Gemal Seede squeezes past the crowded rows at the Islamic Center of Southern California in Los Angeles.

A blank tape clutched in one hand, Seede prepares to record the weekly sermon, which he’ll upload into the virtual mosque at IslamiCity, a site he helps maintain on the World Wide Web.

Many hours later and a continent away, Ahmad Phelps slips out of bed and flips on his computer. A British Muslim living in Birmingham, he often prays with friends in silence.

But sometimes, when he is alone, he says, he logs on to IslamiCity and listens to a prerecorded file of the Adhan, or the call to prayer spoken in Arabic.

As the audio begins to stream from his PC, Phelps turns toward Mecca and begins to pray.

“There’s a whole invisible community of people beyond my screen,” said Seede, who works as director of technology for Warner Bros. Online. “We just want to pass along our philosophy and help people feel more connected spiritually.”

In an age when technological progress often overshadows faith, the Internet is emerging as a global pulpit for millions of believers.

Buddhists seek enlightenment in online sanghas at BuddhaNet, asking for insight to the meaning of life. Jews turn to thewall.org to type out messages, which students of Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem print out and place in the Western Wall. And in Southern California--home to several tech-savvy evangelical groups--the search for online salvation has opened an important new revenue stream, as fans log into the Crystal Cathedral’s Web site and make digital donations to the Garden Grove ministry.

Like the corporate world, the religious world has embraced the global network as a means of marketing its views and expanding its base. Each sect has its own approach and its own goals, but one thread unites them all: to remain relevant to an increasingly fickle audience.

While the Internet is the most modern way to save souls, it also is accelerating a global trend that challenges traditional religious authority.

For the masses, the Net’s potpourri of beliefs helps people take a do-it-yourself approach when finding faith. Interpretation becomes personal, and cyberspace a smorgasbord of rules and beliefs.

Some religious leaders say they must adapt to this reality or risk losing touch with their future flock. They note that the attitudes of a new generation of believers are being influenced by new media; a small but growing number of youngsters are turning to the Net for their religious input, according to a recent survey by Ventura-based Barna Research Group.

One out of six teens say they rely on the Internet to augment their spiritual needs now; by the millennium, they expect to stop attending brick-and-mortar churches altogether. By 2010, Barna researchers predict, 10% to 20% of U.S. Internet users will be relying solely on the Web for worship or to otherwise access their faith.

“We are seeing the beginnings of a wave of religious reformation, one as big as the one seen after the invention of the Gutenberg press,” said Quentin Schultze, a professor of communication at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., and author of “Internet for Christians.”

“By democratizing religion, our beliefs are being changed at a fundamental level.”

Those on Margins Stretch Tradition

Today, thousands of groups hawk salvation and spiritual guidance online with the same eagerness of Wall Street traders hyping the latest Internet offering. Many vie to achieve brand recognition and cultivate a loyal congregation.

“Traditionally, it’s not the mainliners who are innovative. It’s the marginal groups who are willing to take the risk to try to use the newest technologies,” said Brenda E. Brasher, an assistant professor of religion and philosophy at Mount Union College in Ohio.

Among Christian groups, the televangelical community has been among the first to embrace electronic commerce. For many of these groups, particularly those based in Orange County, the Net acts as a natural extension of a church’s fund-raising efforts by radio or cable television.

Trinity Broadcasting Network in Costa Mesa represents the quintessential approach to modern evangelical ministries. Its Orange County facility combines state-of-the-art production studios, high-end sound facilities and a virtual reality theater that depicts the death of Jesus Christ. It also has an extensive Web site that provides live video footage and an easy-to-use donation form.

The Rev. Robert H. Schuller also telecasts his hugely successful broadcast “Hour of Power”--services from the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove--across the Web.

Cathedral staff began offering live audio feeds of Schuller’s Sunday sermons as a way of tapping into new audiences. Today, the site draws about 10,000 independent listeners tuning in via the Web each Sunday, said church staff. Hundreds more turn to its online counseling service, where Net users can confess their troubles to volunteer counselors in text-based chat rooms.

“Obviously, real-life interaction is great. But we have a global ministry,” said Tim Milner, director of Internet activities for the Crystal Cathedral and Schuller’s television ministry. “Online communities are real, even if you can’t see them.”

The church’s Internet development team--which consists of four full-time staffers and a part-time employee--plans to grow next year, thanks to an annual budget of nearly $530,000, Milner said. One of the areas targeted for expansion is the cathedral’s electronic commerce ventures, which were launched last month. While listening to Schuller speak, visitors can fill out a donation form and browse through the group’s online store.

So far, sales are slow: In its first week, with no advertising, the television ministry raised only $680 in donations and product revenue.

“Paul went to the marketplace. Today, the marketplace is the Internet, and it’s Dr. Schuller’s goal to go where the people are,” Milner said.

Such solicitations have raised the ire of many Internet users. In newsgroups and mailing lists, supporters and critics battle over the propriety of getting people to give cash electronically.

“The mainstream followers fear that the televangelist scandals of the past could haunt this new space,” said Calvin College’s Schultze. “Sure, the evangelical movement is going to be very aggressive in this area. But right now, it’s more about creating credibility in front of a global audience.”

By offering new channels for religious dialogue, the Net provides a cheap and easy way to publish and practice spiritual beliefs. As a result, the traditional power structure is starting to crumble.

By leveling the platform among those proselytizing, the pope and the leader of a pagan clan can be perceived as equals. Most Christian churches are using the Internet but are far less aggressive with the technology than those outside the mainstream. Fringe groups and individuals who lack the resources to broadcast their message by traditional means are taking the lead and reaching a larger audience than was previously possible.

One of the most infamous online figures is Jacques Gaillot, the French bishop known for his pro-gay opinions and outspoken criticism of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1995, the church removed Gaillot from his post at Evreux in northern France and named him bishop of Partenia. The diocese in North Africa was a thriving one--about 1,500 years ago. Since then, the area has become a barren, nearly uninhabitable ripple in the desert sands of the Sahara.

Fighting back, Gaillot established a new Partenia diocese on the World Wide Web. Soon, a new congregation was logging on to Gaillot’s Web site and listening to his liberal sermons via RealAudio.

“It is the most effective way to communicate,” Gaillot said in an e-mail exchange. “For me, it became the only way to speak out, to fight against the exclusion, to listen to the problems of our society and to listen to the people.”

More important, the network unifies followers by belief--not geography.

Take the First Church of Cyberspace, a virtual nondenominational church that exists only on the Internet. Members don’t meet in person. Instead, they gather online for prayer sessions, debate morality and listen to weekly sermons streamed across the Web.

The site’s name is a bit glib, say followers, but its mission is serious: to bring Christian denominations together under one roof.

“We can be more effective in communicating the faith this way, rather than by trying to go it alone,” said the Rev. Charles Henderson, a Presbyterian minister who founded the site. “People aren’t loyal to one brand anymore, and the Internet is accentuating that behavior.”

Technology a Match for Missionary Zeal

This shift toward online proselytizing is an ironic commentary on the increasingly secular nature of Western society, in which the gods of economic development and technological progress reign. Yet it also marks the natural evolution of a timeless trend: Religious sects have always been among the first to adopt communication tools.

Technological prowess among religious groups dates back several millenniums. Leaders became acutely aware that communication tools could become a powerful force used to sway cultural standards. As science moved forward, so did the means for spreading faith--from papyrus to the Gutenberg Bible, from radio to satellite broadcasting.

“The modern missionary field is cyberspace,” said Mount Union’s Brasher. “They wander out, trying to keep people from accessing pornography. It’s the same as getting in boats to visit ‘savages’ on the islands.”

When the World Wide Web lured business entrepreneurs to the global medium in the early ‘90s, theological figures weren’t far behind in the rush to set up Web pages. Mostly passive enterprises, the sites served as modern newsletters for the congregations, listing local gatherings and charitable events.

Soon, however, the sites began to embrace the interactive potential of the Net. Mailing lists devoted to witchcraft and pagan religions helped revive oft-ignored beliefs, while newsgroups such as alt.bible.prophecy and alt.religion.scientology emerged as some of the most heavily trafficked areas on Usenet.

“Religious groups are even quicker than the porn industry to take up new technologies,” said Andrew Brown, author of “The Darwin Wars” and an expert in religious trends. “There’s a simple reason, really. God sells.”

Hoping to stem the flow of followers leaving churches for digital altars, some religious groups are trying to moderate what their congregations see.

In March, the Church of Scientology International introduced an online initiative, on-line.scientology.org.

In a speech that was later posted on the Web by church critics, Scientology official Mark Ingber told members that every Scientologist could have a Web site.

Church members were given a CD-ROM with a template that included space to provide information: “About Myself,” “My Success in Scientology,” “My Favorite L. Ron Hubbard Quote,” “Groups I Support” and “Favorite Links” to other Scientology sites. The form also includes a link to the church’s home page as well as a section where visitors can send their phone numbers and addresses to the site’s owner.

The template also embedded a long string of words that would be picked up by the automated search agents used by the popular search engines, which comb through hundreds of thousands of sites looking for keywords or phrases. These software tools could identify these member pages as highly relevant, even when a user would search for subjects as general as “illiteracy” and “education.”

The church’s initiative also included an Web filter for children and parents that is designed to block access to information that is critical of the church.

Critics insist Scientology launched the project to flood the Net with pro-church rhetoric and block information that challenges the group’s views. But the church insists it is only helping believers express their views and shield their children from online antagonism.

“We are determined to be heard,” said Aron Mason, director of public affairs for the Church of Scientology International. “It’s [our] duty to the world to make yourself understood and clear up misconceptions wherever they appear.”

An Ideal Medium for a Certain Hunger

As much as the Net is changing methods of religious practice, advocates insist the true shift is happening within ourselves.

The search for spiritual fulfillment, whether in the form of a god or a set of beliefs, lies at the core of civilization. Sociologists note that people have always sought after the intangible--whether for spirituality, transcendence or community.

Many people assume that salvation can be brought closer by discovering a bit of information that will help them figure out how to live their lives. So when the old answers don’t work anymore, people turn to new ideas and options. The Internet is an ideal outlet for this widespread desire for purpose and meaning in life.

As with other online communities, virtual congregations are a fluid lot. Members gather, share ideas and quickly disperse in search of the next intriguing thought. The conversations may be short-lived yet are rich with emotion and intensity.

But without longevity and context, what emerges is a belief system based on point-and-click, cut-and-paste.

Kerry Biddle, 24, a self-described pagan in San Diego, says she often joins her fellow believers in chat rooms on America Online and private channels on Internet relay chat. There, the group will talk in text, performing rituals in which the objects involved--bread, candles, salt, fire--are all virtual, mere descriptions typed out on the screen.

And afterward, she said, they chat about their day, swap recipes and organize brunch and movie dates.

“My mother is Catholic, my father Jewish and I’m a witch with strong Eastern mysticism leanings,” Biddle said. “When it comes to religion, I believe in a lot of things. Why should I limit myself to going to one church, when there’s so much out there?”