Item Detail
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30311
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0
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5
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English
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What Would Jesus Do in Cyberspace? A Comparison of Online Authority Appeals on Two LDS Websites Targeting Believers and Non-Members
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Dialogue : A Journal of Mormon Thought
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Winter 2018
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51
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4
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Farmington, UT
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Dialogue Journal
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25-48
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Religious practice is shifting from churches to the internet in what some critics call a “post-denominational era.” One early commentator predicted that “the web would reduce us to a virtual community of believers practicing a kind of ‘McFaith’—fast, convenient, but hardly nourishing.” These concerns were driven in part by the internet’s ability to undermine traditional religious authority. In today’s religious sphere, the web shifts the locus of power from clergy to the individual in much the same way the printing press empowered individualism and gave rise to the Protestant Reformation. It encourages new religious movements and compels clergy in established traditions to reconsider the way they interact with followers. Religious organizations are also increasingly turning to the web to attract followers. But entering cyberspace creates new challenges. Online forums allow detractors or the uninformed to propagate misinformation about church teachings. Furthermore, religious organizations face an uphill battle to appeal to a generation that seeks religious or spiritual fulfillment beyond denominational worship. How then does an international church use the internet to maintain authority when communicating to its flock? How does it use authoritative appeals to reach a generation of outsiders who often eschew denominational religion? This paper addresses these questions by analyzing how authority is constructed on two websites operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
[from author]