Catholics need better engagement with online activism

American Papist gives five steps to help win the online war of ideas

Add online activism to your list of fasting, prayer, and demonstrations, says the American Papist, a blog affiliated with Catholicvotes.org. The blog's author Thomas Peters says Catholics aren't taking to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media networks to spread their message like other non-Catholic organizations do. He said Catholic enemies are social media savvy and that is a big reason those groups are successful silencing the Church's voice in society.

"The reason Catholics need to start winning at online activism isn’t about numbers on a scoreboard. Social media activism is a new major force which influences the outcome of battles we care about," Peters wrote.

He referenced how Planned Parenthood used an organized social media campaign to restore funding to their organization after the Susan G. Komen Foundation cut funding earlier this year.

"Planned Parenthood and left-wing social media won the battle to dominate the messaging war, mostly because they’ve invested time in training their supporters to be online activists," Peters observed. "Catholics are not well represented when it comes to online social activism. And many of us who are engaged are not well trained or intentional about how we do it."

Peters suggested five steps Catholics could take to make gains in online activism. He said the steps are not that difficult.

"We have to make social activism a habit, like sorting our mail and responding to text messages," Peters stressed. "Consider how much time you spend doing social media or surfing the internet and how much more you would have to show for it, or how much more you could be proud of it, or if you spent a portion of that time engaging in social media activism. The great blessing of social media is that, at the end of the day, the power of a message is based on how many people care enough to relay that message."

To read the full blog post click here.