Westernization of religion and Identity

As I read the Heidi Campbell article Understanding the Relationship between Religion Online and Offline in a Networked Society the themes of  westernized religion and Identity kept popping out at me. The important things that I want to discuss here are how we can look at religion becoming westernized even in in a smaller group: the northwest. We can narrow it down even further and also see this change in our peers. I also want to touch on identity and how vital it seems to be in our online and offline religious affairs.

When reading about religion becoming westernized it seemed like the only variable was the technological aspect to religion. I see why there is importance put upon this aspect but I believe it is not the only aspect of a "westernized" religion we should be looking at. I believe that a key part of a "westernized" religion can be found here, in the Northwest. The Northwest is notorious for our lack of religion. I think that a large part of our "lack" of religion within this new online era comes from not being held accountable for our true stance while online, "cyber churches create the potential for an individualized. communal experience...with varying degrees of depth and affiliation", this to me says that because of the freedom that online churching (not a verb sorry!) gives is what will ultimately provide most of its criticism. how can one be religious when you are able to change your religion status with a button? being able to change your religion status is like a shield that could in fact be keeping you from finding your true religion. THEN AGAIN being able to customize a religion for yourself is something amazing, something that in my opinion is very Northwest (hipster) of us..THEN AGAIN AGAIN isn't following a religion essentially following a set of rules and regulations that are given to you by some omnipotent God or Gods?

The second aspect of this article that I would like to touch upon is the issue of Identity. This drips down from the Northwest idea in that identity is something that we can create on these religious websites. Campbell writes that "researchers have suggested that bringing religion online encourages religious experimentation in ways that may lead to alternative, highly personalized narratives of faith" is it just me or does this sound like a build your own fro-yo shop? one of the issues that comes up reminds me of something that I learned in research methods; the idea that we try to make ourselves look as good as possible in front of anyone that may be judging us. Is the online use of religion making it so that this type of facade can happen/ does this mean that people could not be as religious as they seem online? how can we be sure of the religious attachment a person really feels if all we can take from them is a religious affiliation?

"The study of online religious community shows that, rather than living in a single static religious community, people in contemporary society live in religious social networks that are emergent, varying in depth, fluid, and highly personalized." At what point does making it your own cause one to shy away from a religious experience offline that once drew multitudes in? does it? is religion ever too personalized? All questions I hope to discuss with you all!