Washington Post Foreign Service writer Kevin Sullivan had a lengthy piece on religion and the Internet today. The article is full of details about how Indian Hindus use the Internet in their religious devotion. Here was one of the early paragraphs:
The Internet has become a hub of religious worship for millions of people around the world. Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs and people of other faiths turn regularly to Web sites to pray, meditate and gather in "virtual" houses of worship graphically designed to look like the real thing. Some sites offer rites from baptism to confession to conversion to Judaism.
Has become? Interesting choice of words. I can do no better than repeat what one of my colleagues said about the story:
In other "news" today ... Edison invents light bulb, Farnsworth invents television. Um. ’scuse me, but wasn't something similar happening a few years ago with prayers sent via Internet to the Western (Wailing) Wall in Jerusalem?
Countless books have been written about religion and the Internet, some of them over 10 years old.
I'm not saying the Post story isn't interesting, but honesty requires a better reason for the piece than that the Internet has become a hub for religion.