Evangelizing Geek Culture

Geek culture is a true culture. “Geeks”—as I am applying the term—are not simply a group of people who love sci-fi, fantasy, or horror genre media; rather geek culture represents a social grouping of those who make that love a major part of their identity and community formation. Some members of geek culture are not open to the Gospel because they perceive a hostility and rejection by the Christian community. Yet this culture expresses aesthetic and psychological needs that can only be fulfilled in the Catholic faith. Geeks not only belong in the Church, as all belong in the Church, but the Church itself can be seen as the apotheosis of geek culture. Some geeks feel alienated because they may be socially awkward and different, and are drawn to genre media because it often expresses profound alienation and loneliness. Another reason geeks can feel isolated is that their genre media reinforce their social isolation by making it into a common identity-point. To remedy this sense of isolation, they will look for a community of people with similar speculative media-passion and a similar sense of alienation. If geeks see the Church as a manifestation of that exclusionary mainstream culture, they will be very difficult to evangelize.