I just don’t know…
Yesterday I went to the sl church that i’ve been attending on & off since i joined sl & i consider it ‘My’ church, as you would in rl. The Pastor & his wife are lovely people & i have made some friends who, even tho i don’t talk to every day, sometimes for weeks i still consider them important friends.
After not being able to attend the services for a while due to rl commitments, i returned a few weeks ago to find it has now become a playground, where a child avatar runs around during the service sometimes accompanied by their ‘Sister’ & there are prim babies that leave comments in chat: ‘(Name) frowns because he wants attention’ or ‘(Name) is happy to be feeding’ – along with sound effects – this was a minor annoyance that i think should not have been allowed to take place, it is a church after all, despite being a VR one myself others go there to listen to the word of God; it was however, a minor annoyance.
Yesterday tho, things got out of hand, 2 prim babies were baptised, not rl babies, but prim ones & i was absolutely amazed & pretty angry that this mockery was allowed to go ahead. i could understand if the ‘Babies’ represented rl ones, but this was not the case & i felt it was wholly inappropriate.
Throughout the service i tried to concentrate, but i couldn’t really & i managed to speak to a friend who saw my point of view & without knowing it she helped me feel a bit better about my anger (i hate getting angry, it’s a horrible negative emotion – i’m pleased i rarely feel it).
After the service a lot of us stood outside the church, i really should have left, i’m not sure why i didn’t. i felt a little angry towards the ‘Family’ of the ‘Babies’ but not angry enough to not want to help one of the ‘Fathers’ who was suffering from lag – i tp’d him out of a corner.
One of the prim ‘Babies’ made a noise & its ‘Mother’ delightedly exclaimed in chat that it said ‘Mom’ – this confirmed that it was all just roleplay & my anger levels grew & even more so when i was asked to ‘Step aside’ by the Pastors wife while the families of the baptised children had their picture taken – this was the last straw, so i politely excused myself & tp’d home.
i don’t think i’ll go back to that church, they made a mockery of God & his teachings by blessing prim babies; i have tried to see this from the Pastors point of view – perhaps he’s happy to do this in the hope a bit of God’s teaching will get through to people some how, but although sl is a great place for those who want to role-play (& i have nothing against this, apart from child avatars that is), a place of worship be it real, or be it virtual is where people go to hear God’s word & not struggle to look past the scripted comments (Perhaps i should have muted them), but this was just beyond a joke, & it was my poor partner who had to hear all about it & put up with my distant behavior (i felt drained & had a bit of a cry).
i’m not going to name the church & the people involved, i am still fond of the Pastor & his wife, i just think the whole thing was totally inappropriate & it left me feeling angry, miserable & drained.
I’m not a particularly religious person myself, but I will tell you that I completely see your point of view. I don’t know how I feel about churches on Second Life in general – we have a couple of them at Lionheart Estate and they admittedly make some residents feel uncomfortable. But anyways… I do see why this would upset you.
On the other hand… There are so many people on Second Life who do the family thing because they simply can’t in real life. You never know… this may or may not have been one of those people. In some strange way, this could have very well be someone’s plea to God for children, to show Him how badly they want this to the point that they are willing to have it any way that they can.
Again, I see why that annoyed you. But I do encourage you to remember that it’s not your place to judge them – it’s God’s. Let Him decide their fate for their actions… even the virtual ones.
Hey Sookie
You’re totally right about the judgement thing, & i try not to do that at all; i do feel better about the situation now, but unfortunately i don’t want to return to the church. i just felt the whole situation got out of hand & it made me uncomfortable.
Thank you for your words, i’m going to try to post blogs more often, so please feel free to comment any time.
jellie.
My dear friend, I completely understand your concerns. It saddens me to hear that you were so hurt by the happenings. But, I must point out a few things. First of which, are you sure the pastor new about the prim babies? I know that he did not, so he made the best of a bad situation and tried to turn it into on in which we could all learn about the traditions that were carried on long time ago, ones that are rarely seen anymore.
SL can be a place of learning, but not everyone uses it for that and are so stuck on it being a playground that that is all they see and do. There are those however, that try to use SL spread the words and teachings of GOD. The “teachers” are the ones that have the struggle to try to keep order amongst the chaos. As the “teacher” it is also hard to know what new issues each “player” presents. Asking a preacher to move from the podium? Disruption by “child avatars” as they role play in their little world? How is this suppose to be handled? Where you there when he was literaly verbally attacked by several in attendance at a service? Have you asked the preacher how he felt or feels? I know how he feels and felt when this sort of thing happens, and it isn’t good, he is extremely disturbed by the lack of respectm, and yet, he is there to deliver the message to those of us who do choose to listen and learn. Should the pastor have to stop at every turn and try to deal with these issues, or should they be ignored and the message carried on?
Church is a place for all to come and hear the word of GOD, and the preacher does his best to get that message across, he can’t be held accountable for those that choose to disrupt things because they don’t know any better, or they intend to be disruptive. You would also assume that people would know that this sort of behavior can be very disturbing to others, sadly not everyone understands that. Maybe a message should be said at the beginning of the service “please turn off all huds, attachments and gestures, and no talking during service”. Who will be offended by this?
I might also point out that it is difficult for the pastor to know who is hurt and has issue with certain things unless it is brought to his attention, or maybe his wifes. It is unfair to expect him to read the minds of all individuals and be expected to make everyone happy, this is both impossible and unrealistic.
My hope in writting this was not to upset you further, but rather for you to see that there can be several sides to a story and without all the facts it is unfair to blame someone. It is also my hope that you return, and help the church to grow and become stronger, because it is on the strength of the faithful that issues like this are less likely to occur and with your help (saying a kind word to the offender), the message can be carried out.
Love you my dear friend.
**btw, I tried to mute them and it couldn’t be done**