{"id":68,"date":"2009-03-07T08:19:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-07T08:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2009\/03\/bishops-calls-for-hi-tech-fast-from-chips-and-bytes.html"},"modified":"2009-03-07T08:19:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-07T08:19:00","slug":"bishops-calls-for-hi-tech-fast-from-chips-and-bytes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/03\/bishops-calls-for-hi-tech-fast-from-chips-and-bytes.html","title":{"rendered":"BISHOPS CALLS FOR HI TECH FAST FROM CHIPS AND BYTES"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Cardinal explaining to Pope where he can hook up his Ipod in the Pope Mobile<\/p>\n

In a move bound to cause controversy with the young, Italian Catholic bishops have called for a high-tech fast during Lent, calling the faithful to abstain from Ipods, MP3 players, surfing the Net, and yes, gulp, fast Italian cars. The Diocese of Modena has in addition called for a ban on text messaging every Friday (but how will your friends know where to meet you for your fish dinner). The Modena diocese released a brief statement saying that the point of all this is “its a small way to remember the importance of concrete rather than virtual relationships”. I guess the point is moot if you have no relationships with concrete \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

The Turin diocese has called for the faithful to fast from TV during Lent, and in Trento the diocese has called for the faithful to ride a bike, take the bus, and turn off the Ipods, enjoying the silence. And you may ask— where can you find these appeals to abstain from the Net and Ipods and the like. Well, I am glad you asked— on the Diocesan websites of course! Meanwhile in January the Vatican launched its own YouTube channel with Pope Benedict welcoming everyone to this “great family without borders”. Benedict XVI in fact praised social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace in helping people forge friendships. <\/p>\n

After these mixed messages, the faihtful including some clergy have reacted cautiously to these Lenten requests. Stay tuned for the Easter message which will urge the faithful to rise up and text everyone you know that “Christos aneste!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cardinal explaining to Pope where he can hook up his Ipod in the Pope Mobile In a move bound to cause controversy with the young, Italian Catholic bishops have called for a high-tech fast during Lent, calling the faithful to abstain from Ipods, MP3 players, surfing the Net, and yes, gulp, fast Italian cars. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nBISHOPS CALLS FOR HI TECH FAST FROM CHIPS AND BYTES - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\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.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/03\/bishops-calls-for-hi-tech-fast-from-chips-and-bytes.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BISHOPS CALLS FOR HI TECH FAST FROM CHIPS AND BYTES - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cardinal explaining to Pope where he can hook up his Ipod in the Pope Mobile In a move bound to cause controversy with the young, Italian Catholic bishops have called for a high-tech fast during Lent, calling the faithful to abstain from Ipods, MP3 players, surfing the Net, and yes, gulp, fast Italian cars. The…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/03\/bishops-calls-for-hi-tech-fast-from-chips-and-bytes.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-03-07T08:19:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SbJ0rNEhsCI\/AAAAAAAACDw\/ZKEtfxYznPc\/s400\/Pope_Benedict__XC90_2.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"BISHOPS CALLS FOR HI TECH FAST FROM CHIPS AND BYTES - The Bible and Culture","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.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/03\/bishops-calls-for-hi-tech-fast-from-chips-and-bytes.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"BISHOPS CALLS FOR HI TECH FAST FROM CHIPS AND BYTES - The Bible and Culture","og_description":"Cardinal explaining to Pope where he can hook up his Ipod in the Pope Mobile In a move bound to cause controversy with the young, Italian Catholic bishops have called for a high-tech fast during Lent, calling the faithful to abstain from Ipods, MP3 players, surfing the Net, and yes, gulp, fast Italian cars. The…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/03\/bishops-calls-for-hi-tech-fast-from-chips-and-bytes.html","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2009-03-07T08:19:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SbJ0rNEhsCI\/AAAAAAAACDw\/ZKEtfxYznPc\/s400\/Pope_Benedict__XC90_2.jpg"}],"author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/03\/bishops-calls-for-hi-tech-fast-from-chips-and-bytes.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/03\/bishops-calls-for-hi-tech-fast-from-chips-and-bytes.html","name":"BISHOPS CALLS FOR HI TECH FAST FROM CHIPS AND BYTES - The Bible and Culture","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/03\/bishops-calls-for-hi-tech-fast-from-chips-and-bytes.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/03\/bishops-calls-for-hi-tech-fast-from-chips-and-bytes.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SbJ0rNEhsCI\/AAAAAAAACDw\/ZKEtfxYznPc\/s400\/Pope_Benedict__XC90_2.jpg","datePublished":"2009-03-07T08:19:00+00:00","dateModified":"2009-03-07T08:19:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/03\/bishops-calls-for-hi-tech-fast-from-chips-and-bytes.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/03\/bishops-calls-for-hi-tech-fast-from-chips-and-bytes.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/03\/bishops-calls-for-hi-tech-fast-from-chips-and-bytes.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SbJ0rNEhsCI\/AAAAAAAACDw\/ZKEtfxYznPc\/s400\/Pope_Benedict__XC90_2.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SbJ0rNEhsCI\/AAAAAAAACDw\/ZKEtfxYznPc\/s400\/Pope_Benedict__XC90_2.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/03\/bishops-calls-for-hi-tech-fast-from-chips-and-bytes.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"BISHOPS CALLS FOR HI TECH FAST FROM CHIPS AND BYTES"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/","name":"The Bible and Culture","description":"All Things Biblical and Christian","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426","name":"Ben Witherington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","caption":"Ben Witherington"},"description":"Bible scholar Ben Witherington is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland. A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}