There’s a new website going around in Catholic circles that promotes chastity before marriage, natural family planning during marriage, and more. It’s called 1Flesh.org. It’s not exclusively Catholic though, as it seeks the very broad audience of those who use contraception, regardless of faith.
The catch? It’s edgy. Refreshingly edgy for some, uncomfortably so for others, the website uses its own versions of internet memes as attention grabbers and offers well-written, thoroughly researched articles to back them up.
I personally like this approach. I see two benefits.
First, I understand how this methodology is necessary to reach the current short-attention-span generation. YouTube tells its users that the first 15 seconds are crucial in determining whether a viewer will watch the whole video. Fifteen seconds. If that. So if you’ve got an article over 1,000 words, you’re going to need something to grab them in to even start reading it. The memes do that.
As in the beginning, the most effective evangelizing we can do will be when we meet people where they’re at. Just like Jesus dining with tax collectors and sinners. The articles do that. They aren’t stuffy. They don’t hold any punches and they tell the truth like it is. There’s no fluff or laying it down nicely like an easy to swallow pill. (No, that nonsense is reserved for the Evil One, justifying bad behavior with fluffiness, to make it seem reasonable.) To some, the memes are crude. But they tell the truth, as painful and strange as it may seem, all for the purpose of bringing people to a higher truth.
The second benefit is that it catalyzes those who do follow the Church’s teaching on contraception. It gives a voice to young people. It gives us something to share, so that we ourselves might be the evangelizers. Because, in reality, being able to help the general population to understand the amazing way the reproductive system really works will lead them to the divine architect of it all, the Heavenly Father. And isn’t that what it’s really all about?
The future is bright for 1Flesh.org. With prayer and the Holy Spirit’s guidance, it can make a big impact in helping spread the truth. Check it out, and see if you can find a way to help.
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