A recent article on CNN.com reported that the number of young Muslims using the Internet to connect and learn more about their religion is increasing. One young Islamic woman even started a website “as a place for young people in the region to ‘show a different side of our religion and discuss topics big and small, taboo and not,’” the article says. How important do you believe technology is in giving young adults the ability to learn more about, and even challenge, the basic tenets of their religion?
One thing technology has done, in our denomination anyway, is change the way we approach religious education — which we usually call “spiritual formation” now.
In the olden days, young people learned the basic tenets of Christianity through Sunday school, which was modeled on the public school systems’ methods of imparting, absorbing and regurgitating information. There were books and handouts, even homework and gold stars for attendance. Teenagers memorized answers to the Catechism, in order to be confirmed in the faith. And all that was from necessity: Where else would they learn the Ten Commandments, if not at church?
