FACT AND FAITHBOOK

Boy, you have to be careful what you say these days. This morning I noted the small story by Riazat Butt of The Guardian on the launch of something called 'Faithbook', which aims to promote dialogue between people of different religious persuasions. So I Googled to find out what it's about. As far as I can see (and I may be wrong), Faithbook is simply another page on the Facebook social networking site. Which doesn't seem quite such a big deal as the media interest (which is growing by the minute) might suggest. There are a variety of other, mainly evangelical, initiatives out there that use the term, by the way.

Anyhow, I "joined" the page and left a comment, which simply said, in a spirit of puzzled enquiry: "Um, is this it, then? Just another group on Facebook?" Lo and behold, a few hours later, I get pinged from a page on The Times, where Joanna Sugden duly informs the world that, in my capacity as co-director of Ekklesia, I have "criticised" Faithbook. Goodness. That's news for you. And to me, frankly! For the record, I'm a bit sceptical about the fuss, but if it promotes sensible conversation (as distinct from immediate pigeon holing), so much the better.