The social media phenomenon offers both challenge and opportunity for the church. Social media reaches people \u2013 millions are on Facebook and Twitter every day.\u00a0The church cannot ignore them. They are interactive, however, and don\u2019t work when conversations are one-way. They involve dialogue, something not always welcome by clergy, teachers and other leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I said so\u201d doesn\u2019t cut it in social media, a fact regretted by parents and leaders who for ages have resorted to the phrase when exasperated with the petulant \u201cBut \u2026\u201d and plaintive \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
For oldsters, such dialogue takes getting used to. A few years ago I took a course in church social teaching. It was to be an intellectual treat \u2013 until I got into the classroom with students who sought to debate the prof. The lecturer loved the interactivity, but I groaned inwardly at each sidestep. A former teacher, I appreciated the back-and-forth that helps minds expand, but I wanted the teaching clear-cut and wanted to soak up all the renowned prof had to offer. It may have been my inner dinosaur peeking out.<\/p>\n
The church has a solid history of such top-down didacticism. It has libraries of tomes that explore theological truths. But that is only one part of the church.<\/p>\n
Another side of the church \u2013 the pastoral side \u2013 is open to dialogue. It has validated such conversations as far back as the Gospels (see woman conversing with Jesus at the well). On the one-on-one level, the dialogue that ensues after a \u201cCan we talk?\u201d encounter has been an integral part of the church for years,\u00a0a comfort to worried parents, frustrated spouses, abused workers and confused children.<\/p>\n
Perhaps social media can help the church engage more in such dialogue. It is not easy. It takes energy, especially emotional energy. Talk \u2013 or dialogue \u2013 is work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Read the rest. <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Catholic Church is still new to the whole social media phenomenon \u2014 and Sr. Mary Ann Walsh from the USCCB looks at why the Church needs this particular dialogue: The social media phenomenon offers both challenge and opportunity for the church. Social media reaches people \u2013 millions are on Facebook and Twitter every day.\u00a0The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging","category-media"],"yoast_head":"\n
Church and social media: can we talk?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Catholic Church is still new to the whole social media phenomenon -- and Sr. Mary Ann Walsh from the USCCB looks at why the Church needs this\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/church-and-social-media-can-we-talk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Church and social media: can we talk?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Catholic Church is still new to the whole social media phenomenon -- and Sr. Mary Ann Walsh from the USCCB looks at why the Church needs this\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/church-and-social-media-can-we-talk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-06T18:11:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-09-30T21:36:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/deaconsbench\/files\/2011\/10\/ceiling-e1317924608774.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/church-and-social-media-can-we-talk\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/church-and-social-media-can-we-talk\/\",\"name\":\"Church and social media: can we talk?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-06T18:11:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-30T21:36:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\"},\"description\":\"The Catholic Church is still new to the whole social media phenomenon -- and Sr. Mary Ann Walsh from the USCCB looks at why the Church needs this\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/church-and-social-media-can-we-talk\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/church-and-social-media-can-we-talk\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/church-and-social-media-can-we-talk\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Church and social media: can we talk?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\",\"name\":\"The Deacon's Bench\",\"description\":\"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\",\"name\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Church and social media: can we talk?","description":"The Catholic Church is still new to the whole social media phenomenon -- and Sr. Mary Ann Walsh from the USCCB looks at why the Church needs this","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/church-and-social-media-can-we-talk\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Church and social media: can we talk?","og_description":"The Catholic Church is still new to the whole social media phenomenon -- and Sr. Mary Ann Walsh from the USCCB looks at why the Church needs this","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/church-and-social-media-can-we-talk\/","og_site_name":"The Deacon's Bench","article_published_time":"2011-10-06T18:11:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-09-30T21:36:56+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/deaconsbench\/files\/2011\/10\/ceiling-e1317924608774.jpeg"}],"author":"Deacon Greg Kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Deacon Greg Kandra","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/church-and-social-media-can-we-talk\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/church-and-social-media-can-we-talk\/","name":"Church and social media: can we talk?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-10-06T18:11:12+00:00","dateModified":"2016-09-30T21:36:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970"},"description":"The Catholic Church is still new to the whole social media phenomenon -- and Sr. Mary Ann Walsh from the USCCB looks at why the Church needs this","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/church-and-social-media-can-we-talk\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/church-and-social-media-can-we-talk\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/church-and-social-media-can-we-talk\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Church and social media: can we talk?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970","name":"Deacon Greg Kandra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Deacon Greg Kandra"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7618\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/sites\/56\/2011\/10\/ceiling-e1317924608774.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n