Rob Stevenson for New Media Connection
www.newmediaconnection.org

The most influential bloggers in the English-speaking world came together with the best of new media technology companies last Thursday and Friday. The delegates included Hugh Hewitt, Roger L. Simon of Pajamas Media, Yahoo, Townhall.com and all the other predictable big names in the blogosphere, but one group was unique in its heavy religious views and united sense of mission. Given these demographics, what brings fifty-nine born-again Christians to the Las Vegas Strip? 

GodblogCon does. This year’s GodblogCon, the third annual meeting of the minds for Christians in the blogosphere broke new ground, combining with The BlogWorld and New Media Expo in its inaugural conference November 8^th&9^th, in Las Vegas, NV.

That said, why is Al Mohler leading the all-star team of Christian blogging on a “D-Day” invasion of a secular trade show for new media technologies? The answer lies in a simple analysis of the history of Christian media influence, and few guesses at its future. 

By the 1920s, the emerging suburb Hollywood, CA was bustling with Cecil B. DeMille and D.W. Griffith pioneering a new medium: the motion picture. On the cutting edge of media tech was the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (BIOLA). With one of the first and most influential radio stations of the time and a drive to push their message to the forefront of cultural thought, they embarked on a mission to saturate their culture with intelligent fundamentalism, goals that echo in the evangelical movement to this day. It was only natural for BIOLA to take the helm and play the lead role in the creation of Hollywood.

Then tragedy struck. Many Christians, appalled by ‘sinful’ movies and a culture moving ‘to hell in a hand basket,’ left the industry, boycotted the movement and complained about inappropriate content. Pious or impious, I will not judge. Suffice to say, this move was stupid. 

Decades later, Hollywood has flourished without Christianity. Sitting on the sidelines bewailing the ‘inevitable’ didn’t stop the movies, but it did excommunicate smart Christians from positions of power. This mistake cost us the greatest tool of cultural influence in the twentieth century.

As we step anew into the third millennium, we are bound and determined to learn from our mistakes. The internet will provide pornography, intolerance, deception and hate, but it will provide these regardless of our compliance. It is for us, the Church, rather, to take our rightful seat at the table of new media and wield such influence as we may attain, directing the future of our culture to the Glory of God.

Today 12 students from Biola University are driving home from a week in Las Vegas. They do so in an attitude of celebration, knowing that by their small actions the world will be a better place: a place where God is not ghettoized to niche markets, but shouted from the highest rooftops of the technological world. Those who stand in the way of our cause will continue to address the culture, but they will not do so alone. As long as GodblogCon continues to meet, the Christian voice will be heard, and a small cadre of evangelicals will always be in the arena to stand for the message of the gospel.

We will not be silent.