Christian life in the age of Facebook and Twitter; It's Time for the Church to Grow Up...

It's Time for the Church to Grow Up
...We tend to think that maturity means perfection. But the New Testament clearly teaches that spiritual maturity is different from heavenly perfection. Spiritual maturity is presented (in passages like Heb. 5, Eph. 4, and 1 Cor. 3) as foundational in the Christian life. But our popular theology says things like, “We’re all just sinners saved by grace.” True enough, but that can start to sound like what Dallas Willard called “miserable sinner Christianity”: that no progress can be expected in this life...

Christian life in the age of Facebook and Twitter ...But this desire for digital connectivity is fueled by something else: the triggering of reward centers in our brains. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science that involved analysis of brain scans, researchers concluded that self-disclosure—the activity behind such things as Facebook status updates and tweets—arouses our central reward center, dispensing dopamine, the neurotransmitter whose effects are amplified by stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine. Consequently, some people turn to social media for this stimulation. “Humans so willingly self-disclose,” the authors write, “because doing so represents an event with intrinsic value, in the same way as with primary rewards such as food and sex.” Another study found that getting Facebook “likes” gives us the same neurological response. In an article in The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Daria Kuss and Mark Griffiths found that “extraverts appear to use social networking sites for social enhancement, whereas introverts use [them] for social compensation, each of which appears to be related to greater usage,” and “may be indicative of potential addiction.”...

...Beyond neurological stimulation, such compulsive behaviors are driven by the pursuit of “micro-celebrity.” In her book Camgirls: Celebrity and Community in the Age of Social Networks, Theresa Senft defines micro-celebrity as “a new style of online performance in which people employ webcams, video, audio, blogs and social networking sites to ‘amp up’ their popularity among readers, viewers, and those to whom they are linked online.” It is, as Senft asserts, a way of crafting one’s persona so as to make oneself irresistible to others. In Paul VI’s time, preoccupations with consumerism were thought to do the same. Today, however, this behavior is not limited to traditional conceptions of who is and who is not a celebrity, and virtually anyone can develop an audience online....

China Less and Less Enamored of Social Media, Study Finds
  ...But tighter management wasn’t the only reason social media was declining in popularity.

“Social media has penetrated into the lives of Chinese people and they now realize they are spending too much time on it,” said Sophie Shen, who led the Kantar poll, in a statement. “At the same time, they are receiving more low-quality and duplicate content.”

The No. 1 worry brought about by social media use, according to the survey, was reduced time reading books. Reduced privacy, sleep deprivation and worsening eye-sight were other concerns.

Overuse of the Internet is a common topic of conversation in China. The world’s second-largest economy has had a steady stream of dismal, and sometimes gory, accounts of Internet addiction, such as the recent one of a teen who evidently chopped off his hand (in Chinese) in an effort to stay off the web...

Judge Finds Christian Bakers Guilty of Discrimination, Fines May Put Company Out of Business  ...The Kleins could be forced to pay up to $200,000 for refusing the service. The couple now awaits a hearing March 10 to determine the exact amount they must pay. Christian News Network reports that the couple said last October that a high fine would “definitely” cause the family to declare bankruptcy...

Surrogacy motherhood: the European Court of Human Rights ratifies the sale of children

Anti-Semitic attacks more than double in UK

The march of the new political correctness I wonder how many of you know that you’re cis. Not very many, I’m guessing. So let me break this gently. You are almost certainly cis. It is short for ‘cisgendered’, which means that you ‘identify’ with the gender you were assigned at birth. To put it in everyday language, you were born male and are still male, or were born female and are still female...

Fox to Air Show About Lucifer?  
...In the DC comic book series, Lucifer was modeled after David Bowie and ran a piano bar. God isn't portrayed all that well (as if you couldn't guess.)

Here's the thing, the thing most people like about comic book characters is that for all their moral grayness, in the end they stand up against evil. I've read some people are comparing it to the comic turned television show Constantine. But in the end of that show every week, John Constantine, usually attempts to makes the right decision and tends to be willing to sacrifice himself for others. Gives the audience someone to root for.

Now, as Milton proved, it's perfectly believable that an artist could portray a story including Satan that could be interesting, engaging, and not blatantly anti-Christian. But I'm suspecting that's not what we're going to get from the creator of Californication which was criticized for attempting to use nuns for a sexual punch line...