Abstract
Religion is an indelible aspect of Filipino culture. It has been challenged by different modes of discourses and has resulted to a variety of sects (kapatiran) and cults (samahan). In the contemporary dispersion of human capital, Filipinos have been caught in the suspension of the performance of religiosity. It is on this context that Internet has been utilized to develop significant network connections among Filipinos in diaspora. This paper seeks to examine the interface between religiosity and the Internet use of Filipino migrants in Japan. Drawing from the textual analysis of online postings on Timog.com, it is evident that Filipino religiosity is reproduced as a form of long-distance ritual practice and cyber pilgrimage. Through the interchange of affective subscription to one's religion, Filipinos develop connections among online migrants and with the sacred homeland.
Highlights
Ferdinand Marcos, proved that Filipinos have the ability to re-form and re-signify Catholicism according to their national needs (Ellwood Clayton, 2003)
This paper provides insight into the relationship between religion and the Internet
It looked into the online Christianity of Filipino migrants in Japan
Summary
With the Spanish and American colonization being the first two consecutive formations that Filipinos experienced, Pertierra and Ugarte (1994) argued that the third formation is the cell phone revolution. The Filipinos had found the interactivity and mobility of this technology and had used this in calls for protest actions and political agenda – all for nationalism There is another love that is a significant domain in the texting phenomena in the country – the sacred love: the relationship between SMS (short messaging service) and God. The use of cellular phone as a medium in sending and receiving spiritual messages confirms the built-in tendency of Filipinos to find interstices between their faith and technology This meeting of religion and communication medium, too, substantiates the unstoppable convergence of premodern and postmodern cultures to initiate a compromising and livable world mired by politico-religious divisions, diaspora and migration, and transnationalism
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