My fellow namesake Ed considered two weeks ago on his blog the question of ministering to geeks/coders. Almost immediately Josiah jumped in and called for a fresh relationship with our fellow geeks.
As usual, my office is a sorry mess of important things that never get done, buried under an ever flowing sea of urgent things “due yesterday” and constant interruptions, so this slipped away somehow despite the fact that I really intended to blog about this. And this idea is one whose time has come.
As a Christian, and a technology-minded one at that, I feel the duty and responsibility to offer some kind of Christian witness to my fellow geeks. I can confirm the statements made by Ed and Josiah about the state of the souls of the geeks they talk about. They are people who often are isolated, cynical, extremely abrasive, often with an extreme prejudice against Christianity, and in dire need of a Christian witness. They need the Lord Jesus Christ and His blood as much as we do.
Furthermore, and although you never should expect too much, I saw a growing trend in Slashdot and other examples of “geek” culture: It is now much more frequent to see Christianity defended against flames or attacks in a Slashdot thread or discussion. There is certainly hope.
What about role models? Well, we have certainly a battle here. For instance, we’ve seen our own Linus Torvalds being quite disrespectful about religion and Christianity (see his comment about being a “god”, although he regretted it later; his communist parent, and his general lack of respect for religion); Eric S. Raymond is a neo-pagan Wiccan and rabidly anti-Christian; and Richard M. Stallman is a dogmatic atheist. And there are many people who were raised in devout Christian homes but later walked away from faith. On the other hand, we have people like Larry Wall and Professor Donald Knuth unapologetically confessing their Christianity, so there’s hope too.
I really don’t know what to do or say. But I am certain we need to do something and the opportunities are ripe. Please pray with me on the matter.
Please pray for all of us that Christ would be apparent and not a turn-off. I agree that Christianity isn’t quite as harshly bashed as it once was. That’s good point.