Changes

In 2006, the Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture indicated:

In 2006, the Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture indicated:

{{Cquote|The Internet is also changing the ways people of faith spread their beliefs and make converts. Many examples of online recruitment by religious groups exist. Various books and online resources have been created to provide guidance in what has been referred to as “e-vangelism”—for example, Careaga (1999) offers guidelines for doing “surf evangelism in online conferences” or through visiting web sites. Online recruitment can take different forms through groups creating web sites to inform people about their religion and community, or through individuals visiting chat rooms or joining an e-mail list with the aim of presenting a purposeful religious presence in that group of online users. While in some cases religious organizations promote and encourage these activities in a topdown manner, providing resources, in many instances individual Internet-savvy religious practitioners undertake these tasks on their own. Many Christian organizations have described the Internet as a potential “mission field.” Ministries such as the Billy Graham Center (www.gospelcom.net/bgc/) and

{{Cquote|The Internet is also changing the ways people of faith spread their beliefs and make converts. Many examples of online recruitment by religious groups exist. Various books and online resources have been created to provide guidance in what has been referred to as “e-vangelism”—for example, Careaga (1999) offers guidelines for doing “surf evangelism in online conferences” or through visiting web sites. Online recruitment can take different forms through groups creating web sites to inform people about their religion and community, or through individuals visiting chat rooms or joining an e-mail list with the aim of presenting a purposeful religious presence in that group of online users. While in some cases religious organizations promote and encourage these activities in a topdown manner, providing resources, in many instances individual Internet-savvy religious practitioners undertake these tasks on their own. Many Christian organizations have described the Internet as a potential “mission field.” Ministries such as the Billy Graham Center (www.gospelcom.net/bgc/) and the International Bible Society (www.gospelcom.net/ibs/) have produced online resources and even offer conferences to train would-be online missionaries. Otherweb sites are designed as interactive tracts, such as Who is Jesus? (www.whoisjesus-really.com/main.htm) presenting an apologetics argument about the person of Jesus Christ. Yet e-vangelism is not just an evangelical or Protestant phenomenon. E-vangelism has been given official sanctioning and support by the Catholic Church in official Vatican online documents (Pontifical Council for Social Communication, 2002a, 2002b) and in a book by Catholic educators presenting a theology of ministry for the Internet (Zukowski & Babin, 2002). Using the Internet as a tool for proselytizing is also found amongst other religious communities. One interesting example is how some sectors of Ultra-Orthodox Judaism have developed web sites as tools to reach out to secular Jews, examples being Chabad.org (www.chabad.org/) and Shofar News (www.shofar.net/site/index.asp). Many creative uses of the Internet for missionary activities continue to surface online.<ref>[http://cscc.scu.edu/trends/v25/v25_1.pdf Religion and the Internet] by Heidi Campbell, Texas A&M University, Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture</ref>}}

the International Bible Society (www.gospelcom.net/ibs/) have produced online resources and even offer conferences to train would-be online missionaries. Otherweb sites are designed as interactive tracts, such as Who is Jesus? (www.whoisjesus-really.com/main.htm) presenting an apologetics argument about the person of Jesus Christ. Yet e-vangelism is not just an evangelical or Protestant phenomenon. E-vangelism has been given official sanctioning and support by the Catholic Church in official Vatican online documents (Pontifical Council for Social Communication, 2002a, 2002b) and in a book by Catholic educators presenting a theology of ministry for the Internet (Zukowski & Babin, 2002). Using the Internet as a tool for proselytizing is also found amongst other religious communities. One interesting example is how some sectors of Ultra-Orthodox Judaism have developed web sites as tools to reach out to secular Jews, examples being Chabad.org (www.chabad.org/) and Shofar News (www.shofar.net/site/index.asp). Many creative uses of the Internet for missionary activities continue to surface online.<ref>[http://cscc.scu.edu/trends/v25/v25_1.pdf Religion and the Internet] by Heidi Campbell, Texas A&M University, Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture</ref>}}

==References==

==References==

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