
'Sin free Facebook' attracts thousands - jgrahamc
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-33409968
======
herval
For those unaware of the context, there's recently been a huge growth on
fundamentalist "christian" religious churches in Brazil. They have their own
parliamentary representatives and push the hate speech agenda pretty hard -
mainly against other religions, gay people and "communism".

In a recent episode, a 10-year old was attacked with stones for wearing
typical Candomblé clothes (an afro-brazilian religion). They've also been
asking the "flock" to not buy products from companies that advertise for a gay
public, and communism in all its forms (some of the leaders consider the
government giving money to poor people, be it through social programs or
straight cash, "communist depravity").

This specific project gained a lot of steam after Facebook's pride celebration
- all the rainbow pictures pushed some folks too hard...

Pretty crazy Twilight Zone/Black Mirror material.

~~~
mkr-hn
I read about this in a piece on the concurrent rise in gaybashing. It's sad to
see regressions like this.

------
rm_-rf_slash
I don't think these alternate social networks will ever displace Facebook, but
instead become the preferred niches. Facebook becomes the bland Starbucks you
can find everyone at, even if there's a trendier coffee shop a block away
you'd rather go to most days.

~~~
humanrebar
> I don't think these alternate social networks will ever displace Facebook

I think they could. The facebook model rules out certain kinds of very common
social interaction. There are certain things you only say or share when you're
pretty sure of some privacy (or otherwise drunk). I would argue that there's
definitely a need for a network that enables those kinds of interactions even
if the demand isn't obvious yet.

That being said, I'm not sure "Christian Facebook" encourages or supports
those use cases. I'd like to see more discretion-oriented (end-to-end
encryption, read-receipts, retracting sent messages, etc.) features on a
service that aims to serve Christian use cases.

~~~
rm_-rf_slash
If it's just solitary use cases, then we are in agreement. Some social
networks remove entire interactions away from typical hubs like Facebook, such
as in South Korea, where couples' social networks are popular places to share
the gooey romantic talk that would annoy anyone else.

But if you want to reconnect with old friends or announce that you just got a
book published or something, you'll still probably post to Facebook.

~~~
humanrebar
I agree. Facebook as the new 'white pages' makes a lot of sense.

Then again, I could see facebook being disrupted by a family of special-
purpose tools and sites the meet all the same needs. It happened to newspapers
when classifieds, opinion pieces, sports news, and various other use cases
each went to different internet sites.

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brillenfux
I just realized I don't even shudder at the quality of BBC's "journalism"
anymore.

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mkr-hn
Phariseesbook

> _Gay material is also banned from the social media platform._

I guess my gay religious friends aren't welcome there.

~~~
bargl
This was my first thought as well. Also, christian religions that openly
accept homosexuals are banned? That seems more like this is for a subset of
Christians and not all Christians.

~~~
pavel_lishin
No True Scotsman, etc.

~~~
mkr-hn
I am not willing to condemn my 100% accepting religious friends because of
that guy who shouts at traffic with a megaphone on the weekends.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Nor should you, my point was that any given Christian will have a pretty
unique definition of what defines a Christian, who is or isn't "really"
Christian, etc.

My Lutheran friends have claimed that Catholics aren't Christian; my Methodist
ones have made the same claim about Lutherans; and while none of them have
come out and said it, I'm sure there's at least a few who believe that
'practicing' gays can't be Christian either.

------
Torgo
How strict is their definition of Christian? Do you have to affirm the
Athanasian Creed and indivisibility and coeternity of the Trinity as part of
the signup process?

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sulam
"thousands!"

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butterfi
Putting Perl and TempleOS together is slightly hilarious.

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GBond
Please don't give the pageview for this bottom feeder level of "journalism".

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louithethrid
Be fruitfull and multiply, and if civil war ensues thus, plausibel deny.

Heretic 4.2

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arianvanp
there's thousands of us. thousands!

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vrnut
The article seems to be lacking a lot of context about several of the projects
it addresses... I don't think it makes sense to namedrop TempleOS as the
christian version of linux as much as a project that is very influenced by a
particular mental illness.

~~~
tessierashpool
quotes from the TempleOS charter:

* God said 640x480 16 color graphics is a covenant like circumcision.

* God said to use a single audio voice -- a single frequency with waveforms and, maybe, amplitude envelope.

(it's linked in the original, but just in case:

[http://www.templeos.org/Wb/Doc/Charter.html](http://www.templeos.org/Wb/Doc/Charter.html)

seems he thinks Jesus was a Commodore 64. I'm not into judging people's
religions but I will say that's definitely an unusual interpretation of the
relevant texts.)

~~~
ggchappell
Are there good reasons to think that this is supposed to be serious? It all
looks very tongue-in-cheek to me.

~~~
zxcvcxz
>Are there good reasons to thing that this is supposed to be serious?

Yes. The lone author is supposedly schizophrenic.

[http://motherboard.vice.com/read/gods-lonely-
programmer](http://motherboard.vice.com/read/gods-lonely-programmer)

If this is all just a joke it's a very elaborate one.

------
paulhauggis
At least it's honest. You know exactly what it's all about.

Unlike what we have now where you are publicly shamed for your religious
beliefs and the people doing the shaming not only deny it, but somehow think
it's morally correct.

~~~
lmm
Some religions are genocidal (probably most of them, if they take their holy
books literally). Aren't some political positions sufficiently horrible that
it _is_ morally correct to shame people for them? That such a political
position is a religious belief should not change how we treat it.

~~~
humanrebar
To someone who believes in God you cannot choose your god anymore than you can
change your race or sexual orientation.

There are clear lines to draw around justice issues like violations of human
rights, suffrage, freedom of speech, etc.

But you're painting with a very broad brush if you think it's morally correct
to persecute people for believing in a different (or no or any) God. I would
even call it closed minded.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Hm. Yet people change religion all the time. Claiming 'no true scotsman' isn't
fair. That leaves, people choose God.

And we can't call it coincidence that people of one culture mostly choose the
same God. Gotta be learned, right? So I'm not buying that line at all.

~~~
humanrebar
> Yet people change religion all the time.

And people always believe they have God down _this_ time. Someone wouldn't
say, "Yeah, I really had God figured out ten years ago but then I converted to
East Southern Pentecostal Community Catholicism. That was a bad choice."

> That leaves, people choose God.

The way Christians look at it, God is revealed, not chosen. If you choose your
own God, then your God tends to look suspiciously like an idealized version of
yourself (or what you wish you were). In other words, to the extent you choose
God, you probably have it wrong. That being said, you can't judge people for
seeking earnestly.

> And we can't call it coincidence that people of one culture mostly choose
> the same God.

One culture? Which culture? We're talking about a Brazilian social network. Is
that the same culture as the mountains of Kentucky or the streets of Rome?

To be clear, I'm arguing that people should be free to earnestly search for
God (or confirm lack thereof) in their own way. Claiming people choose God
presupposes He (or she or them) is already a mental construct.

~~~
waterlesscloud
Pentecostal Catholicism would make for some interesting services.

