{"id":6967,"date":"2011-09-08T07:20:40","date_gmt":"2011-09-08T11:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=6967"},"modified":"2011-09-07T15:00:50","modified_gmt":"2011-09-07T19:00:50","slug":"ny-times-jesus-daily-on-facebook-surpasses-justin-bieber-other-celebrity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/ny-times-jesus-daily-on-facebook-surpasses-justin-bieber-other-celebrity","title":{"rendered":"NY Times: “Jesus Daily” on Facebook surpasses Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, NFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Jesus Daily” — which started off as a preacher’s son’s hobby now has the most highly engaged Facebook audience in the world, reports Jennifer Preston in the New York Times.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Dr. Aaron Tabor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The page hosted by Aaron Tabor, 41,\u00a0a North Carolina\u00a0physician, far surpasses\u00a0anything offered on Facebook\u00a0by celebrities and sports teams — and that includes Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and NFL Football.<\/p>\n

Dr. Tabor simply draws on the words of Jesus and posts them on Facebook\u00a0four or five times a day. He also has a daily feature on Beliefnet.<\/p>\n

He told Preston\u00a0that he grew up watching his father preach at churches in Alabama and North Carolina, and started\u00a0the Facebook page\u00a0in April 2009, he said, as a hobby.<\/p>\n

He also uses the internet social media\u00a0phenomenon\u00a0to market his diet book and online diet business — which includes selling soy shakes, protein bars and supplements. According to Preston’s Times<\/em> article on the front page of Monday’s Business section:<\/p>\n

For the last three months, more people have \u201cLiked,\u201d commented and shared content on the Jesus Daily than on any other Facebook page, including Justin Bieber\u2019s page, according to a weekly analysis by AllFacebook.com, an industry blog. \u201cI wanted to provide people with encouragement,\u201d said Dr. Tabor, who keeps his diet business on a separate Facebook page. \u201cAnd I thought I would give it a news spin by calling it daily.\u201d<\/p>\n

Facebook and other social media tools have changed the way people communicate, work, find each other and fall in love. While it\u2019s too early to say that social media have transformed the way people practice religion, the number of people discussing faith on Facebook has significantly increased in the last year, according to company officials.<\/p>\n

Amid pages for Lady Gaga, Texas Hold\u2019em Poker and Manchester United, Joyce Meyer Ministries is in the top 20, along with another page devoted to Jesus Christ, and the Spanish-language page Dios Es Bueno, or God Is Great. And Facebook got its first Bible-themed game recently, the Journey of Moses.<\/p>\n

But the increase in the number of people finding faith communities via social media platforms provokes the question of what constitutes religious experience and whether \u201cfriending\u201d a church online is at all similar to worshiping at one.<\/p>\n

For some, the Jesus Daily has become a faith community online, where people share their troubles and provide and receive words of support. \u201cJesus Daily reminds me every day that I am not alone,\u201d said Kristin Davis-Ford, a single mother and full-time student in Houston. \u201cEvery single prayer request I have posted has been answered,\u201d she said, \u201cand I know it is the power of God\u2019s children, coming together and standing in agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE to read more<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Jesus Daily” — which started off as a preacher’s son’s hobby now has the most highly engaged Facebook audience in the world, reports Jennifer Preston in the New York Times. The page hosted by Aaron Tabor, 41,\u00a0a North Carolina\u00a0physician, far surpasses\u00a0anything offered on Facebook\u00a0by celebrities and sports teams — and that includes Justin Bieber, Lady…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,8],"tags":[1526,1527,2201],"class_list":["post-6967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian","category-news","tag-dr-aaron-tabor","tag-jesus-daily","tag-news"],"yoast_head":"\nNY Times: "Jesus Daily" on Facebook surpasses Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, NFL<\/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\/news\/2011\/09\/ny-times-jesus-daily-on-facebook-surpasses-justin-bieber-other-celebrity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NY Times: "Jesus Daily" on Facebook surpasses Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, NFL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“Jesus Daily” — which started off as a preacher’s son’s hobby now has the most highly engaged Facebook audience in the world, reports Jennifer Preston in the New York Times. 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