Cyber Church brings God online

[U-T]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/05/12...urch/index.html

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Leaders of the the Christian church in Britain fear an age old message is falling on deaf ears.

But a "new means of communication" may just help them reach out and touch someone.

It is the Church of Fools -- created by the minds behind Ship of Fools, a none-too-stodgy online Christian magazine.

In their non-denominational virtual church, you can log on and come dressed in your cartoon best to worship and attend services.

It is the first 3-D online church service launched in Britain. The ministers who preach have their sermons appear as cartoon-style "thought bubbles."

Worshippers can log on and put money in the collection box without ever leaving home or work.

The organizers say the initiative aims to make Christian worship accessible to Web surfers who may never darken the doors of their local church. Lead sponsor is the Methodist Church.

 

[MemphisVol]

You've got to wonder about the copywrite issue: How can there possibly be any form whatsoever of a cartoon christian which one American diocese or another doesn't own all rights to via the rules of "prior publication?"

Just using the public absurdities of a single sub-group alone, while Tinkie-Winkie may or may not have been a gay stereotype, is there any doubt that the people who said he was were pretty cartoonish stereotypes themselves?

I just can't help feeling that, by definition, any promotion of cartoon christians is not only a poorly-veiled attack on conservative American protestants, but a violation of the copywrite-by-tradition which conservative American protestants have established over the course of the last 300+ years via their pioneering of the field.