Yesterday, a place to get answers to any question you might want to ask ceased to exist.
“Yahoo! Answers” was an online forum where you could ask any question that you had and get an answer from the “Yahoo! Answers” community. It came to an end for various financial, legal and cultural reasons. It also likely came to an end because of the nature of the questions and the nature of the answers.
I am not familiar enough with it to understand what the layers of loss might be and who this might impact. One layer that is evident is the apparent comedic loss. It could be really funny.
When I heard a radio segment about the end of “Yahoo! Answers” I took note that it had apparently become somewhat dominated as of late by questions about horses. The big topics were horses and ghosts and another consistent line of questioning.
Questions were posted regularly that sought information on the religious status, the beliefs held by fictional characters. For example:
“Is the Joker a Christian?”
“Is Squidward a Christian?”
“Will the Loch Ness Monster get into Christian heaven?”
I loved those questions because in a way they get at the ridiculousness of such speculation. The questions (when they are sincere) come from a place with which I am familiar. Is “so and so” a Christian?”
The question implies the presence of a rigid line between people.
I think that this way of thinking has done a great deal to diminish a hopeful understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In all my years working as a pastor in evangelical churches it struck me that a very present belief for many people was the idea that most people are not Christians and therefore most people will not get into “Christian heaven”. There are at least a couple of different ways of seeing Christian faith. One is that some people are “saved” and most people are not (or they are “damned”). Another way of seeing Christian faith is that in the end all things will be renewed. You could construct a case for either of these from the Bible. I think that the case for the second way of seeing things is much much stronger.
The “Word of the Week” on Friday will offer more description on this matter. For now, enjoy a couple of my favourite “Yahoo! Answers” entries.