'Real-life' conflict meets the internet: Todd Bentley

This week I’ve been giving more thought to the link between ‘real-life’ conflict and ‘virtual’ conflict. Conflict in the real world is heavily reflected on the internet, and resonates even further as chat rooms and forums provide the opportunity for people to voice their own individual opinion on any given matter.

One recent example of this is the controversy surrounding Todd Bentley. Bentley was involved in the Lakeland Revival – a charismatic Christian movement centred around healings and the revival of faith. Both Bentley and the Revival attracted a lot of media attention, and the movement was criticised by Christians and secular culture alike.

News of the Revival was soon all over the internet, and created a lot of controversy among Christians because it promised unconditional healing, which some Christians argued is inconsistent with the Bible’s teaching. Some of Bentley’s healings were described as unnecessarily violent, and a lot of reports on the internet suggest most of the healings are not medically verified – considerations that fuelled individuals opinions, intensifying the conflict.

This incident is one of many examples of how the internet can exacerbate real-life conflicts. Another more dramatic example is the recent issues between Russia and Georgia, where some people intentionally overloaded Georgian websites, with the intention of crashing the servers. Although these are not cases of conflict as a result of the internet, they do serve to show how the internet facilitates and expands conflict. The Lakeland Revival had people far from Florida expressing their views and involving themselves in the conflict via the internet.

Also, as part of the Lakeland Revival, many people claimed to have been healed via the internet. This phenomenon could be described as inevitable with the progress of technology and other religious practices online, yet it takes the controversy surrounding miraculous healings to a whole new level. I can understand that God may heal someone directly whilst they are looking at internet material surrounding the Lakeland Revival, but I find it hard to believe this healing took place actually via the internet (as some reports imply), as this suggests Todd Bentley and the others involved have some sort of superior power, that God must work through them and the internet in order to heal. However, I’m sure there are many Christians on the internet who would disagree with me.