The URL of the beast
The following piece appeared in the UK's Guardian newspaper, in their Shortcuts section of G2. Date: 20 May 2004.
It's not every day you encounter Satan in the pulpit of a church. But this wasn't any old church. My face-off with the Prince of Darkness took place last week at the opening of the world's first web-based 3D church.
The church is the latest unlikely religious project of Ship of Fools, an online magazine and community which specialises in debate, critique, satire and humour about the Christian faith. There's method in our foolishness: we want to offer people frustrated by the failings of trad Christianity the chance to vent and discuss the issues, and discover a community of sceptical saints at the same time.
We launched Church of Fools because we want to find out if it's possible to go one step further in online community and "do church" on the Net. Digital media agency specialmoves has worked with us to create a 3D church with a crypt downstairs, where you can log in as a cartoon character, sit in a pew, talk to other people from around the world, kneel, cross yourself and take part in regular, short services. We're running it as a three-month experiment, and already the chemistry is looking... well... interesting.
Church of Fools is a cross between a computer game and an 11th century Romanesque sanctuary. One visitor looked around with her five year-old son on her lap. "Wow!" he said. "Who's on your team and which ones do you kill?" – a sentiment many traditional churchgoers will recognise.
Anyway, back to Satan. I found him ranting in our pixellated pulpit. I was logged in as a church warden, who has a smite button capable of visiting an Old Testament-style logout on evildoers. "What are you doing?" I asked him. "Who is this who dares approach the Evil One?" he demanded. "Well... I'm the church warden," I replied. "Ah..." he said, before becoming disappointingly contrite.
One week into our experiment, and we're encountering bigger issues than a pantomime Devil. On the plus side are some lively theological discussions in the crypt and heartfelt prayers being exchanged. On the minus side are sorties by small groups who want to post racist slogans, religious abuse and experience the joy of shouting "fuck!" in a church.
We think the Methodist Church (who are sponsoring the project) has a good role model: John Wesley, who did the unthinkable in the 18th century and took preaching out of the churches and into the fields and streets, where the people were. He was pelted with eggs and abuse for his trouble. We're interested in the same sort of thing: taking church to where people are – on the Net. It's a small start, but 8,000 people are entering Church of Fools each day. That's a cathedral-sized congregation.
