I’ve spent several hours in the past few weeks looking up Christian web sites for a school project. I’ve found the whole thing kind of depressing. In the past hour it’s been a frenzy of links, partners, counters, banners, and a Christian version of everything. I’ve never seen so much repeat content and interrelated webs. I suppose that’s what the web’s all about, but it’s just weird. How many online Christian music stores do we need? Do we need a site for Christian mouse pads? How about Christian backgrounds for your desktop? How about a Christian Banner Exchange Program? A Christian web counter? I’ve found Christian alternatives for virtually every site you could possibly be interested in. I can’t help but ask a few questions here. Is this healthy? Should Christians really be sucking in on themselves like this? Shouldn’t we be using the net to reach out? I also wonder how many of these sites are trying to make a fast buck? All most every single site accepted advertising. On the positive side, a lot of the sites I saw were well designed, at least from a graphics point of view. Of course you also have to take everything I’m saying with a healthy dose of irony. You are, after all, reading this on a Christian site on the web.

I just can’t help but wonder what happens when we flood the internet with cheap Christianity? Is it doing any good, witnessing to people online? Or do we need to step away from our computers and actually talk face to face with our neighbors?