The Digital Divine

Are social media tools a blessing or a curse for people of faith? Should we use digital technology to commune with the divine? Does God tweet?

Just yesterday God tweeted me. I was inclined to respond with sarcasm to someone, and suddenly I got a simple three-character message from the Lord: "No!"

That kind of thing happens to me often. Well, not a literal tweeting, of course. But for those of us who believe that God does speak to us today through such vehicles as church teaching, the Bible, and conscience, there is nothing really offensive about the idea of getting short and snappy messages from the Divine.

More importantly, there is no good theological reason why we can't use new technologies to communicate with God. One of my favorite pieces of spiritual writing is the journal of Therese of Lisieux (published as "The Story of a Soul"). She wrote her daily thoughts in a notebook. If she lived today, she might well have blogged, or maintained a Facebook page.

Albert Camus once expressed the conviction that the ultimate reality in the universe is silence. For him it was a dreadful silence. We people of the Book have an alternative story to tell. The ultimate reality is personal God who communicates with us. And we can communicate back--with even new and exciting means for doing so these days.

By Richard Mouw  |  August 11, 2009; 12:43 PM ET Save & Share:                 
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