Fasting from Facebook

Modern Lenten discipline reawakens spirit

By Lisa B. Hamilton, March 13, 2009 [Episcopal News Service] Before Ash Wednesday, the Rev. Cathie Caimano "probably spent a couple of hours on Facebook" each day. Even her dog has a page on the popular social-networking website that allows friends to keep in touch. So when one of her parishioners at St. John's Episcopal Church in Wichita, Kansas, jokingly said to her, "You should give up Facebook for Lent," she thought, "That's a terrific idea."

Her reaction might seem surprising, but, she explained, "I'm a huge Lent fan." Taking on the ancient practice of a Lenten discipline is "creating a space in life for a deepened relationship with God," she said. Every year, she gives up alcohol and sweets -- and something else. Last year, it was television.

Caimano is not alone in her dedication to Facebook. About 175 million active users post photos and videos, exchange private or public messages and join groups of people with common interests. More than 100 groups -- started in the days and weeks leading to Ash Wednesday -- encourage Facebook members to forgo it for Lent's 40 days.

Besides giving up things, Caimano takes on something each year. This Lent, she's starting the day reading from the early church fathers, such as Justin Martyr. And she's praying intentionally for her Facebook friends. "I'm so grateful for all the people I've been able to reconnect with, including a friend from sixth grade and cousins from Italy," Caimano said.

Although Caimano misses her Facebook interactions, she said, "I think I'm going to make it. After all, if I cheated, people would know, because there's no way to keep logging on to Facebook a secret."

Time to 'wander'
English professor Greg Garrett chuckled in describing how he, like Caimano, announced his intent to abstain from Facebook. Garrett's intent is also serious.

"Lent is the right time to notice that I need to wander in an electronic desert for a while," he said. Before Lent, he "checked Facebook about every hour and e-mail every five to 10 minutes," said Garrett, who teaches at Baylor University in Texas and is also a lay preacher, writer and speaker.

Since Ash Wednesday, Garrett has kept his cell phone ringer off and checked it only twice a day. He allows himself e-mail but waits until Sunday -- the same day he checks his Facebook account -- to respond to personal messages. As he explained, in the Episcopal Church, Sunday is a "feast day," when one may break a fast.

Murray State University senior Cristin Laird of Memphis, Tennessee, who also gave up Facebook six days per week, finds herself missing her former "addiction" more as the week goes by and friends are making weekend plans. "Practically everybody I know, even my parents, even my mother's jazzercise group, uses it. It's like the reinvention of the telephone."

But, she said, "I was spending an obscene amount of time using Facebook as an excuse to procrastinate." 

For Marie Harkey, a student at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, "Lent is about answering: 'How do I engage more deeply with God during this time?'"

Several Lents ago, Harkey said, she gave up fast food. "Every time I drove by a fast-food place those 40 days, I had the opportunity to think about what I was using to fill an empty place in myself. What I hungered for, of course, was God, but I was trying to fill myself with French fries."

More recently, Harkey found an answer, in part, to that hunger for God via blogging (keeping an online diary), which she called a "way toward deep spiritual reflection." Noticing that the time she spent on Facebook was replacing time she once spent as "a reasonably prolific blogger," Harkey gave up Facebook for Lent.

It's difficult because Facebook connected her to a variety of people and "even improved my relationship with my mother because we feel more part of each other's lives," she said. Yet Harkey said she was beginning to find renewed spiritual nourishment in her blogging and hoped that, even after she resumes using Facebook, her blogging would continue to make her "more attentive to what catches my eye about God."

Staying connected
The Rev. Tim Schenck, rector at All Saints Episcopal Church, Briarcliff, New York, considered giving up Facebook completely for Lent. But, he said in an e-mail interview, "since I view social networking sites as ways to connect with people, I didn't feel this was an appropriate Lenten discipline. Plus, my parish has its own group on Facebook made up of parishioners. Lent is a time to stay connected."

Instead, Schenck is denying himself Facebook, e-mail or Internet surfing after 6 p.m. during Lent.

"So far, so good," he reported via an e-mail sent at 2:36 p.m. "Though the first few days were brutal (especially when I heard my BlackBerry buzzing during dinner on Ash Wednesday)." When he checked in the morning, the message was spam.

Meanwhile, Schenck has found time to read a Bible story with his young sons each night. They decided to take on this spiritual discipline after their father explained his Lenten practice to them.

"I've always seen Lent as a way to 'get back to (spiritual) basics,'" Schenck wrote. "And nothing strips away the clutter of modern life quite like unplugging yourself for awhile. By being accessible to others 24/7 -- and feeling the need to respond immediately -- the potential exists to put ourselves rather than God at the center of our lives. Intentionally unplugging, even for brief periods, helps realign that balance."

-- The Rev. Lisa B. Hamilton is correspondent for Provinces I, II, III and IV.