Reflections: Can avatars be Mormon?

Editor's note: Looking back at the stories of 2008, Mormon Times staffers reflect on a few that touched their lives.

Can avatars be Mormon?

It’s an interesting and valid question, and one I had never thought to ask until Mormon Times staff writer Michael De Groote decided to explore the virtual, role-playing world of Second Life in a two-part series in July.

While most people think of the LDS Church as worldwide, I doubt many, like myself, had ever given much thought to its presence in online communities on the Web such as Second Life until De Groote went traipsing around the Internet in search of religious people.

The story showed me how defining membership in the church can be for some people. They don’t just want to be Mormons on Sunday, they want to be known as Mormons everywhere they have a presence, even on hobby Web sites. I think it revealed one of the most fundamental aspects of religion — assembly.

No matter where individual Mormons are — Second Life or real life — or what they look like — 3-D, animated or otherwise — they gravitate to each other. Out of all the communities and places they could go, the people De Groote interviewed chose to be together, to congregate based on the common thread of their faith.

I think the detailed structures throughout Mormon Island on Second Life are telling of the ways in which members use the unique gifts they’ve been given to praise and worship. Keith Thompson (whose avatar name is Skyler Goode), creator of the Mormon community, gave his church a gathering place where there once was none.

He skillfully constructed a virtual Salt Lake Tabernacle in great detail, leaving no pillar unadorned or pipe unreflective. The hours upon hours he spent on the project were not for profit or gain but were his way of providing a sanctuary for Mormons like him in a world that is very real for millions of people.

E-mail: mfarmer@desnews.com