We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks (2013)
We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks
An Alex Gibney Film
Rated M
Back in the 90s, one of my favourite “guilty pleasure” movies was a film called Hackers. It’s an early film of Angelina Jolie’s where her and a bunch of outcast friends are hackers, rewriting the rules of the Internet like 21st century wizards. Was this movie an accurate portrayal of the Internet and those who would hack it? Of course not. But I love it none the less. And the world of hackers was no less real just because Angelina Jolie rocked a keyboard like it was nobody’s business.
Perhaps the most well known, and most controversial, name in the hacking world is Julian Assange. To some he is an anarchist hero of the information age. To others he is a cowardly traitor putting lives at risk. Love him or hate him, he is someone you should know about. Because the issues his life brings up will come to define the Internet Age. We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks takes a look at the life of Assange and explores the ethical issues his actions have brought up. Alongside Assange’s story is that of Bradley Manning. He may not be as public a figure as Assange, but Manning’s story is just as important.
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Internet and Evangelism Part 1: The Internet is a Mission Field
I want you to picture the internet not as a place where you go to watch Youtube clips and play Farmville. I want you to picture the internet not as a place where you check the football scores, book airplane tickets or Google the answers to pub trivia questions. I want you to forget about how you use the internet as a tool in your day to day life.
Instead, I want you to think of the internet as a country. A country with billions of citizens who have their own culture, language, customs and currency. A country where people spend their waking hours interacting with each other, sometimes in strange and unusual ways. If you think of the internet as a country, the next logical step is to think of the internet as a mission field – a place where the opportunities to reach previously unreached people with the gospel of Jesus are rampant.
The internet is a mission field. And if you’re reading this, it’s a mission field that you already have access to. There are some countries in the world that won’t let you through the door because you want to tell people about Jesus. There are some countries you can’t get to because the expense of getting there and living there is beyond you. But the internet is a country where you already live. You know the culture and you know the language. So how are you going to approach your mission field?
Internet and Evangelism Part 0: Introduction
Last week I presented a lecture at Youthworks College for the Evangelism class on using the internet for evangelism. I had a great time, though it did take some time for the weirdness of going from student to lecturer wore off. The presentation used material that I’ve been working on and teaching for the last year or so. I thought that it might be good to get some of this stuff online for people to use. As always, this is a work in progress and I’m open to suggestions etc. I envisage this to be a 3 part series. The first part will be on viewing the internet not as a tool but as a mission field. In the second part I’ll discuss our online Christian identity. And in the third part I’ll look at how we use the internet and opportunities for growing God’s Kingdom online.
Part 1 should be posted next week. In the mean time, I’m keen to hear from you. How have you used the internet for evangelism? Is it appropriate to use the internet for these purposes? This is one of those online conversations we need to have!
Internet Church
The idea of an online church has been around for as long as the internet. This online church in Indiana has been getting 60,000 unique hits a week. Has any ever checked this out (or a similar online church community)? What’s the difference between this and downloading a preacher’s podcast each week? Is it able to move beyond being something you watch and become something you engage with? Church is not just something you witness each Sunday. It’s something you actively experience and engage with as you work together to build the body of Christ. This is the biggest challenge I see for online churches.
And would buying up Google search words like “Sex” and redirecting people to your internet church really be helpful? I can see a lot of people getting mighty frustrated and angry at the church for that.
Pop Culture Christ 
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