Now here’s an interesting bunch of facts/opinions from what may be Australia’s first book about computers and the church:

* Guy Davenport’s ‘The Geography of the Imagination’ is must-read…

* Usury is probably the greatest evil in the world…

* The Melbourne Methodist Ladies’ College – back in 1990 – may have been the first school in the world to require all students to purchase a laptop. They called them ‘Personal Knowledge Machines’…

* Nicholas Negroponte’s ‘Being Digital’ predicts that computer networks will break the power of media conglomerates. (‘Tomorrow, ordinary people will be the producers as well as consumers of multimedia’, Bill Gates).

* TV has killed monological sermons as the key Christian communications medium: ‘[now] every sermon should contain multimedia elements’…

* The ACORN is a better computer for kids (and others) than the PC or Apple. It’s the leading computer in British education and in the schools of at least two Australian states…

* ‘The Internet is the last frontier of freedom. Polite speech is for polite people; free speech is for free people’…

* ‘The third millennium is only 3 years away. Can we afford not to be Cyberchurches in the 21st century?’

It’s interesting (must be if I read it straight through after midnight last night!)

The work is divided into two parts – the first an apologia for computers (‘Doubts, fears and hopeful musings’), the second an assortment of useful ‘Ideas, tools and helpful hints’.

It’s not all technical: we learn something about David (converted at the 1959 Billy Graham Crusade, he’s moved away from his childhood conservative evangelicalism in many respects; now he’s a pastor/chaplain/poet). He’s passionate about the benefits of computers for children – and for Church Sunday Schools – writes of kids getting excited about the Dead Sea Scrolls and Qumran! He got five computers for their Sunday School – total cost $700. David says his favorite dimension of the Internet is newsgroups (aus.religion.christian gets a mention!). And he’s aware of the two worst by-products of the Internet – Net addiction and pornography.

You can get this book electronically. Or David will print it off – for $12 – on demand: it’s 63 pp and spring-bound – now there’s a way to deal with the problem of overheads/unsold-stock-on shelves! All proceeds go to the Christian Technology Centre of the Blackburn North Uniting Church (Victoria). Contact him on (school-hours) 03 9274 6391 or

Rowland Croucher