Catholic missionaries are being encouraged to go into the virtual realm of Second Life to save virtual souls.

In an article in Rome-based Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica, academic Antonio Spadaro urged fellow Catholics not to be scared of entering the virtual world which may be fertile ground for new converts wishing to better themselves.

Spadaro warns the uninitiated that “the erotic dimension is very present” in Second Life, that people can buy genitalia for their avatars in a world that is “open to any form of erotic stimulation from prostitution to pedophilia”.

In other words, “You might get laid!”

While the virtual world might be a refuge for some people seeking to flee the real one, it is also full of people seeking something more from life, including, possibly, religious enlightenment, he said.

And try to keep from getting into fistfights with the dudes wearing white shirts who go door-to-door on bicycles.



  1. Cursor_ says:

    Where in the hell is SL so damn good?

    The eight times I have ventured into this horribly rendered cesspool of a virtual chatroom, and that is all it is, all that is happening is people crowded around infohubs or gambling places and ignoring noobs and chatting uselessly.

    Go out into the countryside and its like going into a desert. There are developed places all over the area but not a single soul in them most of the time. In some parts it reminds you of a bad post-holocaust city that got hit with a neutron bomb. All buildings intact but no living things.

    I can’t see why anyone thinks SL is such a hot thing. But if the catholics want to go in there and wander aimlessly around the place, go for it.

    They are wasting their time.

    Cursor_

  2. Jägermeister says:

    Hopefully it comes with a warning.

  3. I haven’t ventured into the Second Life world yet– the real world is enough with people trying to convert you to Christianity.

    I was taking a break once in Grand Central Terminal in nyc when two guys came over to me where I was sitting and leaning against the wall inside the concourse with a cup of coffee in my hand and they starting telling me how Jesus saves and not to despair. WTF? Do I look homeless or something? Last winter I leave my apartment close to midnight to get a snack outside where it was softly snowing. On the lonely dark street a good-looking woman approaches me. I think she is going to ask me for directions. She says hello and asks if I ever read the Bible. She pulls out a Bible and tells me to keep it and read it. “Where do I start?”, I ask. “Start with the Gospel of John”, she replies. Yesterday, I had a client who left her Bible open yesterday on her desk with the Gospel of John opened up. Then there are the Jews for Jesus on the streets these days in nyc and the ever-present “free” items given on the street with an invitaion to a church attached.

    The trouble I have with these missionaries is that they always want soemthing BACK.

    Maybe I’ll enter Second Life afterall to destroy the church by virtual fire.

  4. BubbaRay says:

    #2, Jägermeister, that’s pretty darned funny! 😆 Now if I could just get that picture on a bumper sticker and drive an invincible tank….

    Second Life — when your real life is so bad you absolutely positively have to be somewhere overnight.©

    Just my 2 cents (2 new gold dollars) worth.

  5. Timbo says:

    It’s only natural we Christians should go out to the raunch sites and share the gospel or at least the Christian perspective.

    We certainly get enough evangelical atheists dumping on our websites. Man, are they ever bigoted! They repeat the same garbage as the last one — and not stick around to hear the obvious answer.

    The best way to be peacemakers in the whole process is to go meet them on their turf.

  6. Mr. Fusion says:

    #2, jag,

    Yup. Nice bumper material there.

    #5, timbo

    The best way to be peacemakers in the whole process is to go meet them on their turf.

    And then what. Punch ’em in the nose for getting in your face.

    (‘scuse me. I’m effen cranky at the moment and not ONE Jehovah Witness in sight)

  7. OvenMaster says:

    Two things about this:

    1. I have tried to join SL so many times it’s not funny. No matter what name I select, it’s rejected. Methinks I’ll take Cursor_’s advice and just give up.

    2. Ten bucks says that the Jesuits are REALLY trying to join in order to find underage cybersex partners. Too bad most of them are fat men sitting around in their underwear. I can only hope some of them are cops and put them on Dateline’s “To Catch A Predator!” LOLOLOL

  8. Cursor_ says:

    Timbo, christians need to get into actually helping people not just TELLING them there is help. And no that does not mean you start up a soup kitchen and before they can eat they HAVE to listen to some rhetoric.

    Scripture states that you are to love God and love your neigbour as you would yourself want to be loved. So anything you do that would piss you off or seem like extortion or pressure that YOU would not want to happen to you, should not be done by christians.

    So instead of wasting time in SL how about going out and ACTING like your life is changed, instead of telling people you have changed?

    I think many people would have a greater respect for the modern christian faith if they did a little less talk and a little more walk.

    Cursor_

  9. Mister Mustard says:

    >>I have tried to join SL so many times it’s not funny.

    Why????

  10. ArianeB says:

    As someone who plays SL fairly often, hey the more the merrier. There are already large bases of Xian SLers though, they are not the first. (there is even a church down the street from me)

    If you are going to do an SL story this week, the big news was the outright ban on Casinos — a big chunk of the SL economy is disappearing as a result.

  11. Angel H. Wong says:

    They should go to the furry section of SL.

  12. Danijel says:

    Whats the difference between second life and active worlds that have been running for years now?

  13. ArianeB says:

    #12 Second Life is to Active Worlds as Quake is to Pac Man. Its about 8-10 years more advanced technologically.

  14. hhopper says:

    This site is free and is 100 times better than SL and it’s still not that great.

    http://www.there.com/

  15. jz says:

    “I think many people would have a greater respect for the modern christian faith if they did a little less talk and a little more walk.”

    Amen to that. That is how the Bible actually reads, FWIW.

    Since I read the Bible itself, I have learned that Jesus actually preached love, tolerance, and a lack of judgement. In other words, the very things that most Christians ( I call them PseudoChristians) lack.

    Unfortunately, most people who call themselves Christians are in fact pseudoChristians.

    If you get a chance, read about Gnostic Christians. They were a group of Christians who felt Jesus was more of a guide to God than God Himself. They thought sex was a thing of beauty, religion was a more a private matter and not an organized show. Of course, once the Orthodox Christians came to power (i.e. the Roman Catholic Church) they did the pseudoChristian thing and slaughtered all the Gnostics and burn their books.

    The Da Vinci Code’s reference to the love affair of Jesus and Mary Magdalene came from one of the Gnostic gospels. What all the pseudoChristians don’t want people to know is that some of the Gnostic gospels are as old as even our oldest copies of the new Testament.

  16. Mike says:

    “urged fellow Catholics not to be scared of entering the virtual world which may be fertile ground for new converts wishing to better themselves.”

    Gad damn it! 2nd life was one of the few bastions that hadn’t yet been infected with the religion virus!

  17. OmarTheAlien says:

    You can talk to God (pray) sitting on a stump in a field as easily as sitting in a church pew, and the dress code is more relaxed.
    All this place needs is a virtual down home tavern or pub, a few really young and sexy (female) avatars (Angel, your on your own) and SL wouldn’t stand a chance.
    We could even come in naked, but we’d have to be careful with the dart board.

  18. sdf says:

    just what second life needs – more wierdos

  19. OvenMaster says:

    #9: Because I was curious to see what all the hype was about. That’s why. Fair enough?

  20. Mister Mustard says:

    >>Because I was curious to see what all the hype was about.

    That might explain one or two times. But “so many times it’s not funny”? I think not.

    It’s a game, for pocket-protected geeks and pervs who don’t have enough to do in their mom’s basement.

    Better off checking out someplace like “getafirstlife.com”, where they have cool links like “Fornicate Using Your Actual Genitals.”

  21. joshua says:

    Great pic Eideard….love it. 🙂

  22. Eideard says:

    Thanks, joshua. One of my more “subtle” photoshopping jobs.

  23. Jägermeister says:

    #4 [#6] – Now if I could just get that picture on a bumper sticker and drive an invincible tank….

    Yeah, a normal car wouldn’t last long…

  24. Mr. Fusion says:

    #17, Omar,

    We could even come in naked,

    And who is to say many don’t already?

  25. OmarTheAlien says:

    24- I was speaking virtually, of naked avatars, etc. I was not speaking, and trying hard not to even think of, a bunch of evil ancients sitting naked before their magic windows hurling their wicked spells across cyber space to, uh, here.


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