When I visited the Church of Fools this morning, I was warned that the “Church of Fools is currently not suitable for children.” Undaunted by the “often colourful and occasionally offensive” language that apparently litters the church, I knocked on its virtual door only to be told: “Sorry, but Church of Fools is closed at the moment.”

The Church of Fools is one of the newest ventures into what can loosely be defined as religion. The online church claims to be the United Kingdom’s first 3D, Web-based church, and its target audience is the religiously marginalized. The church began as three-month “experiment” on May 11th, and it draws a virtual congregation of up to 10,000 visitors a day. The pious may choose a character, sing, pray, and jubilantly exclaim Hallelujah!”

The Church of Fools website claims:

Church of Fools is an attempt to create holy ground on the net, where people can worship, pray and talk about faith.

The church is partly intended for people on the edges (and beyond) of faith, so please be aware that the language and behaviour in church is often colourful and occasionally offensive.

Church of Fools is a relatively innocuous and poorly orchestrated religious site, as evidenced by the fact that its operations have been temporarily shut down due to individuals logging in as Satan, hijacking the pulpit, and cursing. The BBC notes that it is the less pious, sneaking into the church from Australia and the United States, who are channeling Satan. The Church of Fools is currently developing a system of cyber wardens who will patrol the aisles and the pulpit; those caught blaspheming may be punished and consigned to a virtual hell by the virtual wardens.

Since various communities and networks — support groups, community bulletin boards, dating services, friendship circles, such as Friendster, and forums for political and social discourse — have migrated from the flesh and blood world to the ever-expanding and wildly accessible online world, it should be unsurprising that a religious community should establish its only place of worship online. The question should not be whether the Church of Fools can provide some sort of benefit, since some marginalized Christian or other will likely benefit from the online community. What we must keep in mind, rather, is that religion is an entity that is increasingly politicized, particularly with the current administration’s crusade-like rhetoric of good and evil in Iraq and Afghanistan. With organizations like the Church of Fools, religion is not only politicized but is happily bleeding into the realm of infotainment, total anonymity, and private demagoguery.  

Mimi Hanaoka