Rev. Cedric Miller, pastor of Living Word Christian Fellowship in Neptune, N.J., after counseling church members' adulterous Facebook activities, has mandated that all church staff stop using Facebook.
UPDATE 4/6/11: Facebook and Christianity a bad mix, Chicago parish warns
UPDATE 1/24/11: Pope says online social networks can help spread the Gospel
-- From "Pastor to his church: Thou shall not Facebook" Los Angeles Time 11/17/10
Miller told the AP that, over the last six months, 20 couples at his church have run into marital problems after a spouse reconnected with a former love interest on Facebook.
Because of the troubles, the pastor is forcing about 50 married church leaders to delete their Facebook accounts. If they won't give up Facebook, they'll have to resign from their leadership positions at Living Word, the AP reported.
In the past, Miller had asked married church members to share their log-in passwords with spouses, but that didn't seem to be a good enough solution.
"The advice will go to the entire church," Miller told the AP. "They'll hear what I'm asking of my church leadership. I won't mandate it for the entire congregation, but I hope people will follow my advice."
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From "For Houses of Worship, the Two Faces of Facebook" by Lauren Green, FoxNews.com 11/19/10
Danielle Hartland, communications director of Grace Church in Erie, Pa., says Facebook itself is not the problem, because it's morally neutral. "The thing is, Facebook is neither evil or good; it just exists," she says. "What you do with it determines what it becomes."
But it's hard to demonize a technology that has become a major force for keeping the faithful connected to a church's core beliefs.
People are more inclined to spill their hearts over a pressing personal issue in the anonymity of an online chat, Hartland says. Eventually, she says, a pastor then will try to convince the person to come in for some face time.
She also says that singling out Facebook as the root of potential adulterous affairs is giving the site too much power. Facebook only exposes a deeper issue within marriages.
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