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Our Conference on Technology in the Black Church has been a success

Digital Divide Initiative
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Technology and the Religious Congregation

From the The Kojo Nnamdi Show, produced by member-supported WAMU 88.5 in Washington, DC. Tuesday, Mar. 23, 2010.

From video sermons to text-message tithing, technology is transforming the way religious congregations worship and communicate. On this edition of Tech Tuesday, Kojo looks at how faith communities are adapting to the digital age.

Guests: Anthony Evans, President of the National Black Church Initiative; Associate Pastor, Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Washington, DC
Martin Davis, Director, Congregational Resource Guide, The Alban Institute
Dudley Rose, Associate Dean for Ministry Studies, Harvard Divinity School

Digital Divide Initiative
The faith community recognizes how critically important it is to have a technically wise and wired congregation.

The faith community recognizes how critically important it is to have a technically wise and wired congregation. The access to technology and to IT education is critically important for the church to be on the cutting edge of this technological revolution. NBCI's initiative has two primary goals:

  • To make sure that every person in America, regardless of age or station in life, has access to technology.
  • To make sure that IT education opportunities are open to all regardless of income or race.

We plan to work with large technology companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google to ensure that we fulfill our mission.

The National Black Church Initiative States Its Position on Net Neutrality and Broadband

NBCI Supports BroadbandNBCI believes that broadband should be universally accessible despite geographic location or income and is vigorously pushing for both Net Neutrality and universal broadband access to become realities in America.

WASHINGTON WATCH: Changes In The FCC's Viewability Rule Could Mean You Won't See Your Favorite Black Pastors On TV

The FCC has voted to end its so-called “viewability rule” in December. If you're getting local TV stations over cable, and you still have an old-style, analog TV, you could lose your ability to see your favorite Black preachers.

Rev. Anthony Evans, President of the National Black Church Initiative joined Roland Martin on the set of Washington Watch to explain how this will negatively affect your ability to watch religious programming.

National Black Church Initiative States Position on Net Neutrality and Broadband

Stopping the growth of the Digital Divide
Washington, DC - The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI), a coalition of 34,000 churches across the United States, believes in the general notion of Net Neutrality. NBCI supports the idea that no one should be able to intentionally restrict the quality, content and access of information over the web based upon usage, race, income or any human division that would not make one user's access equal to another user. NBCI believes that broadband should be universally accessible despite geographic location or income and is vigorously pushing for both Net Neutrality and universal broadband access to become realities in America.

The Digital Divide exists because there are some segments of the population who have the economic means to acquire the technology that is necessary for high speed internet access, and there are other segments of the population who live in an area where that economic prowess is not readily available. This question breaks down to
race simply because the income to purchase new technologies is not readily available to minorities based upon the perpetual unemployment that engulfs the African American community. Therefore, NBCI believes that the government has a moral and constitutional obligation to make sure that high speed internet is available to these communities, there is proper web education and that these individuals are connected to the commerce of the internet. This subsequently helps everyone. If a poor African American child in a particular geographic area learns the essentials of the internet they are far more likely to become a productive member of society than those who have no access at all.
More than 34,000 African American churches across the country are helping their members make the transition to digital television (DTV), as the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the National Black Church Initiative (NBCI) announced today the national launch of their joint educational campaign.

Find out more about whether or not you will be impacted by the digital TV (DTV) transition.