The Framing of Contemporary Christian Apostasy on the World Wide Web

Abstract

This article is a preliminary effort tomake conclusions abouthowapostate religious or- ganizations use theWorldWideWeb for information dissemination, evangelization, and proselytization.Ten Christian apostate groupWeb sites were subjected to a frame analysis that focused on perceived intent, protest, expression, justification, response options, and rewards offered.Theanalysis revealed most sites were perceived to use an information dissemination rather than evangelization or proselytization frame. Re- sponseoptionsandrewardsweremostlyconsistentwiththeexpressionof,andjustifica- tion for, apostasy.However, only 2 of the sites framed apostasy at its highest level.Most did not address the critical issue of worship service attendance, and most may put fol- lowers in a potentially awkward and ethically inconsistent position by not asking fol- lowers to disaffiliate from the opposed religious group while actively seeking followers’ disengagement from that group’s theology.