Maura McCarthy - MPhil Thesis submitted to the University of Oxford May 2000
Some Protestant Christian
evangelists are consciously attempting to change perceptions of fundamentalist
Christianity and attract new converts through manipulation of secular symbols
presented in tandem with the evangelical message. This is being done on the
Internet through the development of evangelistic websites that adapt to the
genre norms of secular websites. Evangelistic sites of this kind are described
in this paper as adaptive websites. Examples of this broad type of site
are the Michelle Akers Homepage, which targets youthful soccer/football
fans; Hollywood Jesus, which targets film enthusiasts; and Stonewall
Revisited, which targets the gay, lesbian and transgender communities.
Adaptive websites ‘succeed’
if they are capable of presenting themselves in one of two positions relative
to the online Christian and secular communities in question. Integrative
websites with be able to establish authenticating links (through hypertext
links and real-life social links) with both the secular community and the
Christian community. In doing so, the integrative site enables visitors to
imagine themselves as members of both the secular and Christian communities
simultaneously. Hollywood Jesus is an example of this type of site, as
its creator is able to establish links with the film industry and film
enthusiasts’ websites, as well as offering evangelistic content, links, and
information about other evangelistic organisations and efforts. Transformational
websites act as transitional gateways between the targeted secular
community and the Christian community, attempting to transform members of the
former into members of the latter. Stonewall Revisited is an example of
a transformational site, as it uses the symbolism associated with the gay
rights movement to attract site visitors, convey its message of ‘gay recovery’
and affirm the power of Jesus Christ as an active force in the life of the
individual. Integrative and transformational websites are able to attract a
specific audience by acting as Gellian ‘traps’ that are created with the
intention of drawing in a particular group while evading the notice of others.
This ‘trap’ effect is executed on two presentational levels within the site.
First, through manipulation of the site layout and visual symbols; second,
through the language registers used in the creation of the site’s text.
This development in
evangelistic approach is seen as congruent with evangelistic use of mass media
over the last century, and as part of a measured response to negative public
perceptions of evangelicals resulting from scandals surrounding several major
US teleministries in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Primary research was
conducted online over a period of eleven months, looking at approximately fifty
loosely affiliated non-denominational Christian websites from the US, Canada,
the UK, Australia and New Zealand. To be included in this study, individual
websites had to meet the following criteria: they must be non-denominational in
their evangelistic message;
fundamentalist/’Bible believing’ in doctrine; written in English; ‘adaptive’ by
the above described standards; recommended by a prestigious Christian source in
the evangelical community. Five sites were chosen for more detailed analysis
(four from US-based producers, one from Canada). Each of these five sites was
then compared to another secular site intended to appeal to the same audience. This work is intended to form the basis for
a more detailed study of evangelical use of new technology. Future research
techniques will include methods associated with participant observation while
in a more conventional, geographically located field in addition to interaction
with the online community of ‘virtual’ evangelists.