POC Blog

The random technotheolosophical blogging of Reid S. Monaghan

Found this on some Tech Web Sites

 
Engadget put out a story about a Jews for Jesus' tract entiteld "What's Next for the iPod guy." It has made its way to being mentioned on Digg, Gizmodo and a few other tech sites...I'm positive if this is real, but it looks to be from what I am able to ascertain. 

Perhaps this is a great example of a bad attempt at contextualization... 

Here is why this sort of evangelistic tool is not a helpful strategy in my opinion:

  1. It clearly will be perceived as being aimed at an individual - in this case Steve Jobs
  2. It appears to be an invasion of tech space by outsiders...rather than a wise move to share Jesus with tech people from tech people
  3. It is cheesy looking and a bit silly (the ole byte of the apple line)
  4. By sharing the gospel story this way, being techie-cute, it trivializes the transcendent importance of the message.
  5. It is funny - yes, it is pretty stinking funny.  But would it dull people to actually talking about the Messiah in the future?
  6. It may be easily dismissed by those who actually know the Apple story and the tech world.  The apple story has a bit of mythological feel to those who are computer industry insiders. 
Anyway, thought it would be worth sharing as an example.  Those T-shirts in the "outreach section" of the Christian bookstore (Got Jesus? Jesus like Resee Cups, etc) ain't no better.