Breasts, Marketing and Christian Outrage

[Nik P.]

At midnight, someone logged in and created a fake profile picturing a woman that could have been a porn star. She had an exotic name and God's dispenser of nourishment for her child poked through the thin shirt she wore. She promised to lead me to a land of free ring-tones if I would follow her by clicking her link.

The danger is obvious. I hope nobody followed the link to express their outrage. Who knows what viruses infest Free Ringtoneland? How many people fall for such traps, with such baits as sex and getting something for nothing? That is the way we market in America because that is what sells in America. That is our moral fiber.

The flip side is the Christian outrage. I log in to the "House of Worship and Prayer" first thing every morning. I pray for Unreached People and I write morning prayers to God. I saw the spam right away. I also saw outrage written on my profile and in private messages. I received messages on Facebook to come here and address it. For some time, it has been just me and my private accountability group (God's Gurls,) logging in faithfully. Today, I checked my Google Analytics and the traffic on this site has gone up 200% in the past 8 hours. Marketers actually do know how to drive traffic.

So, whether the breasts and free ring-tones attract by curiousity or outrage, they work. Controversy continues to be something that draws on-line traffic on Christian web-sites. What does that say about our moral fiber?

[Nik P.]

Thanks Melville,
It's nice to know that it was an innocent "you've got mail" notice that brought you here. Too bad is was trash mail.

[Melville Holmes]

There are so many groups and networks I can't keep track of them. This morning there was an email that someone had left a comment on my page here. I'd forgotten all about this group. Ah, so that's why I couldn't find Rick's coffee place on Healing Communities or House to Harvest.
When I got here neither the comment nor the person could be found, Perhaps it was part of this inflitration.

But guess which word caught my attention to even come to this post. I had to find out what in the world one was talkling about . . .

I don't believe the internet is "safe". It's enormously enticing, even with things that may seem innocent or innocuous, like looking up information or getting involved with discussions. I've kept my discussions limited to simple church and posted a blog I wrote there. I honestly don't know how some people can be members of so many groups and keep up with so many "friends". They must type like lightening and think even faster.

[Kathryn Brogdon]

I noticed that other people had comments left on their profiles that had disappeared, too. That explains it. Some times I have that problem on my blogsite, but there is a program with WordPress that gets rid of most of it. Still, I can see where the hits are enormous because of this stuff. Thank you for being diligent.