I thought Jesuits In Space was just fiction: but no, it seems as though the bloody Jesuits get everywhere.
Mind you, theologically speaking if the Jesuits accept Second Life as an actual second life, what does that make The Afterlife they preach? Third Life?
Society of Jesus calls missionaries to Second Life
Saving virtual souls from ‘erotic simulation‘
By Cade Metz in San Francisco
Published Friday 27th July 2007 18:36 GMTJesuit missionaries may soon venture into Second Life, intent on saving virtual people from virtual sins.
Writing in the Italian Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica, whose contents are approved by the Vatican, Father Antonio Spadaro has told fellow Catholics that they shouldn’t be wary of venturing into Second Life’s virtual world, arguing that the online alternate universe might be the perfect place to land converts, Reuters reports.
“It’s not possible to close our eyes to this phenomenon or rush to judge it,” Spadaro said. “Instead, it needs to be understood … the best way to understand it is to enter it.” A regular contributor to the Jesuit journal, Spadaro has also lauded Tom Waits as a Christian role model.
Really? Tom Waits? Well maybe he has a point there…No! I refute the hipness of Jesuits. That’s how they get you, the sneaky buggers. First it’s science fiction, then it’s rock music, then it’s the internet…
With his latest piece, the 40-year-old academic warned that “the erotic dimension is very present” in Second Life, explaining that users often buy virtual genitalia for their virtual avatars and that Linden Lab’s 3D world is “open to any form of erotic stimulation from prostitution to pedophilia.”
I expect that last activity’ll have priests flocking to Second Life in their droves.
What is the Catholic church’s position on celibate priests committing virtual sin, anyway? Is it still a sin? Since it’s virtual and not actual hat’s worse, het or gay virtual priest sex or paedophiliac priest zex? After all, none of it’s really happening.
I was never a fan of Second Life to begin with, it seems no different to the first really, except with clunkier avatars and the ability to virtually fly. And once religion is involved then there really is no difrerence at all. So much for the new paradigm of online society.
But he also said that Second Life is home to various churches and temples, quoting a Swedish Muslim who says “his avatar prays as regularly as he prays in real life,” and though this sort of thing is far from the norm, Spadaro believes that many who venture into Second Life’s virtual den of iniquity may be calling out for virtual help.
Well if they are I’m sure they can find it with no help from bloody interfering missionaries.
“Deep down, the digital world can be considered, in its way, mission territory,” he said. “Second Life is somewhere where the opportunity to meet people and to grow should not be missed, therefore, any initiative that can inspire the residents in a positive way should be considered opportune.”®
What I want to know is whether these priests who’ll venture into Second Life will do so as priests or whether they’ll hide their true purpose and what they actually are behind a non-religious avatar. There are serious issues about honesty and integrity that arise from Second Life as just another channel for religious proselytisation for any religious group, not just Catholics : nobody knows who anyone is, what their age is or what their religion, if any, is unless and until they choose to reveal it. Messing with unknown people’s religious beliefs is playing with fire.
What would be fun, though, is if the Jesuits entered Second Life en masse and ended up being converted to Hinduism. Or if they all had Spanish Inquisition avatars…
