Saving souls in Second Life

If someone is saved in Second Life, are they saved in First Life too?

Many of you know of the phenomenon of Second Life, but for those who don’t, the easiest way to explain it is that it is an online world where you can live out your life as someone else. It is kind of like being in a cartoon with a real person behind every character you meet. And you can fly. For more details, see the description on the Second Life website. There are now over five million (yes, million) participants in Second Life.

There seems to be a growing movement by different ministries to begin doing evangelism in Second Life, seeing it as a way to interact with people who may have no interest in going to church in this world. One particular ministry I have been following is LifeChurch.tv, who have been early adopters and innovators in many different areas of technology. They held an Easter service in Second Life this past Sunday, but I have yet to hear of any feedback on how it went. The picture is a representation of their building within Second Life.

So, back to the question, if someone is saved in Second Life, are they saved in this life? I don’t think so. After all, the persona used in the virtual world has no soul. However, by by exposing a participant in Second Life to the gospel, it may spur the person behind the avatar to search for answers back in real world. And in the case of LifeChurch.tv, they have the perfect real world answer: an online campus of their church! Of course, that leads to more questions, but that will be covered in another post.

Thoughts about Disneyland

I took my family to Disneyland yesterday. We live close by and have annual passes, so this is a somewhat regular event. Disneyland is celebrating its 50th anniversary and has a quite spectactular fireworks/multimedia show. Until last night, the centerpiece of this show has been Sleeping Beauty’s castle, which gets lit up to match the theme of the current segement of the show. For example, during the segment on the Haunted House, images of ghosts are shown flying over the castle.

Last night, we had the privelege (and luck) of being told about a new addition to this show at the “It’s a Small World” attraction. For the first time, they duplicated the fireworks show over this area of the park and, most spectacularly, they projected digital imagery on the facade of the Small World ride itself. For example, during the Haunted House segment, we got to see images of the ride itself, including the stretching elevator and hitchhiking ghosts. This, combined with the fireworks and music, was just something amazing to behold.

So all this fantastic entertainment got me thinking: what is the morality of spending the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of dollars on amusing people? I am big Disney fan for the most part and enjoy taking my kids to the parks, but this got me thinking of how much value we, as Americans, place on being entertained: Amusement parks, movies, television, video games. If we have enough money left over after paying the bills to use it on entertainment, then don’t we have enough money “left over” to support another missionary or help our church?

As my children grow up, I need to be sure they understand this. We will probably still keep the Disney passes, but to ensure that they understand the privelege they have in going to Disneyland and the choices we (as parents) have made in order to get the passes must be made clear.

Categories: Disneyland, entertainment