Digital Shepherds in Lebanon: Christian Witness, Sacred Algorithms, and Theological Mission in a Surveilled Age

Abstract

This article explores Lebanese Christian digital presence within the framework of Sacred Algorithms: Religion in the Digital Age. In a society marked by economic collapse, migration, and religious plurality, digital platforms have become vital arenas for Christian witness, reshaping authority, belonging, and mission. The emergence of online clerical and lay initiatives shows how spiritual authority today is hybrid: rooted in sacramental legitimacy yet co-constructed through algorithmic visibility. The study develops four lines of analysis: the rise of digital spiritual authority in Lebanon and its negotiation within local and diaspora contexts; the ethical and theological challenges of surveillance and religious freedom in fragile environments; the successes and limitations of digital engagement, including the impact on parish life; and a theology of digital witness framed by proximity, synodality, solidarity, and mission in a multi-religious society. The Lebanese case highlights that algorithms are not neutral but powerful gatekeepers of religious presence. The central question is whether digital witness can remain faithful to the Gospel’s call to proximity, community, and transformation without being reduced to metrics of popularity and visibility.

1. Introduction

Digitalization has reshaped how religion is practiced, mediated, and received. Algorithms, the hidden logics that govern visibility, now determine whether a prayer, reflection, or call to solidarity appears in a believer’s feed, shaping what is heard and what remains invisible. They are no longer neutral tools but cultural structures that influence how the sacred is communicated. In this paper, the term “sacred algorithms” refers to the intersection where digital code and theological meaning meet the ways algorithmic systems shape, filter, and sometimes reconfigure experiences of the sacred. These systems decide what prayers, reflections, or liturgical moments appear in a user’s feed; they become mediators of grace and visibility. Calling them “sacred” does not mean technology itself is holy but that the mediation of faith increasingly passes through algorithmic structures, inviting a theological reading of the digital age. To speak of sacred algorithms, therefore, is to confront the theological and ethical implications of a world where religious presence is filtered through systems designed for commerce and control.

To speak of sacred algorithms is to confront the theological and ethical implications of a world where religious presence is filtered through systems designed for commerce and control. This study therefore weaves together three interrelated strands: the lived experience of Christian witness in Lebanon’s digital sphere, the ethical and theological questions surrounding algorithmic authority and surveillance, and the broader missiological horizon that interprets these dynamics within contemporary theology.

Lebanon provides a critical case study. Lebanon, a small Eastern Mediterranean country of around 5.3 million inhabitants, is home to a mosaic of eighteen officially recognized religious communities, including Maronite, Greek Orthodox, Sunni, Shiite, Druze, and Armenian groups. Its confessional power-sharing system, distributing political offices and public responsibilities among these communities, has long shaped both civic life and religious expression. This diversity has fostered a rich interreligious heritage but also recurrent tensions between and within confessional groups, especially during times of political or social unrest. Since 2019, the nation has endured a severe economic and financial collapse, one of the worst globally in peacetime, accompanied by hyperinflation, unemployment, and mass emigration. The resulting fragility has eroded social trust, deepened poverty, and weakened institutions, leaving faith-based actors among the few stable sources of moral and social support. Within this context of fragility and pluralism, digital platforms have become essential for communication, solidarity, and pastoral accompaniment. It is in this crucible of instability that Lebanese Christian digital witness has acquired both urgency and visibility. The prominence of Instagram among Lebanese Christian influencers reflects both demographic and technological factors. In Lebanon, Instagram is among the most used social media platforms, particularly by youth and urban professionals, who constitute the most digitally active audiences for religious content. Its visual and interactive design suits the aesthetics of Christian heritage, icons, liturgical imagery, and short devotional messages, allowing users to share faith in appealing and emotionally resonant ways. Moreover, compared with Facebook, which has become more politically polarized, and YouTube, which requires higher data use and longer attention spans, Instagram offers immediacy and accessibility amid Lebanon’s unstable internet infrastructure. These features explain why priests, religious educators, and lay leaders have adopted Instagram as their primary medium for pastoral outreach and digital catechesis. Priests such as Fr. Elias Semaan, Mgr. Georges Abi Saad, and Fr. Joseph Eid, alongside lay initiatives like The Christians of the East and El_ Majd_La_allah, extend their reach far beyond parish walls. All the clerical and lay digital witnesses examined in this study belong to the Maronite Catholic Church, which constitutes the largest Christian community in Lebanon and is in full communion with the Holy See. Lebanon’s Christian presence, however, is richly diverse, encompassing Maronite, Greek Orthodox, Melkite Greek Catholic, Armenian Apostolic, Armenian Catholic, Syriac Catholic, Syriac Orthodox, Chaldean, and Protestant churches. These traditions maintain close collaboration through the Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops in Lebanon (APECL), a national body that fosters unity, coordinates pastoral priorities, and represents the collective voice of Catholic Churches in the country. The term “Christians of the East” refers broadly to these historic Eastern Churches whose roots pre-date Western Christendom and whose liturgical and theological heritage continues to shape Middle Eastern Christianity.

Although some posts include English or bilingual captions, most of the digital content produced by Lebanese Christian influencers is in Arabic. Instagram posts, reels, and stories generally use colloquial or liturgical Arabic, making them accessible to local and regional audiences across the Middle East. English is often reserved for short inspirational phrases or hashtags or when addressing the Lebanese diaspora, especially younger generations living abroad. While roughly 30 to 40 percent of Lebanese speak English as a second or third language, Arabic remains the dominant medium for religious expression online. This multilingual fluidity reflects Lebanon’s cultural hybridity and its ability to bridge local belonging and global outreach. Their influence illustrates both the promise and the risks of digital presence: authority is increasingly hybrid, rooted in ordination but co-constructed through likes, comments, and algorithmic amplification.

This study argues that Lebanese Christian digital witness reveals how the sacred is mediated by algorithmic systems that both empower and constrain mission. Four themes frame the analysis: the emergence of digital spiritual authority; the ethical and theological risks of surveillance in a fragile state; the successes and challenges of digital belonging, including the redefinition of parish life; and the contours of a theology of digital witness grounded in proximity, synodality, solidarity, and strategic mission.

The Lebanese case underscores both creativity and vulnerability. Digital presence enables proximity across borders, sustains communities in exile, and mobilizes solidarity in times of crisis. Yet it also risks reducing mission to metrics, polarizing debate, and weakening local parish commitment. At stake is whether the Church can inhabit algorithmic spaces in ways that preserve authenticity and depth. The central question, then, is not whether the Church should use digital tools, but whether it can do so without allowing algorithms to reshape the sacred into what is profitable and popular. Can digital witness remain faithful to the Gospel’s call to proximity, community, and transformation or will it be confined to the thresholds of algorithmic visibility?

Finally, this paper deliberately focuses on Christian influencers and communities. This scope is not meant to ignore the contributions of other religious actors in Lebanon but reflects the need for depth, manageability, and theological consistency in examining one tradition. By narrowing the lens to Christian digital presence, the analysis highlights concrete cases while leaving room for future comparative studies across Lebanon’s wider religious landscape.

2. Digital Spiritual Authority in Lebanon

This section examines how spiritual authority is being reshaped in Lebanon through the rise of Christian influencers and community accounts. While numerous clerical and lay figures are active on social media, the following case studies were selected as representative of the most active and impactful voices. They illustrate how legitimacy and mission are re-negotiated in digital spaces. The analysis focuses on three clerical figures, Fr. Elias Semaan, Mgr. Georges Abi Saad, and Fr. Joseph Eid, and two widely followed accounts, The Christians of the East (@eastern_christianity) and El_Majd_La_allah (@El_Majd_La_allah). These cases show how digital authority is no longer derived only from ordination or institutional sanction, but also from measurable engagement and community reception.

2.1. Rise of Online Preachers and Influencers

The first subsection considers how Lebanese priests are using Instagram to extend their pastoral voice and reach new audiences. These accounts are not exhaustive but highlight some of the most active and creative presences shaping Christian digital authority today.

Fr. Elias Semaan (@eliassemaan), a Maronite priest of the Diocese of Antelias, exemplifies how clergy are transforming Instagram into a catechetical and pastoral platform. His regular Instagram Live sessions allow young people to pose questions about faith, vocation, and moral challenges, producing a participatory form of catechesis. His posts, often daily reflections on Gospel readings, frequently attract hundreds of likes and dozens of comments within hours, far surpassing the audience of a typical parish meeting.

Mgr. Georges Abi Saad (@mgrgeorgesabisaad), a Maronite priest who previously served as head of the Maronite Seminary, has developed a reputation for theological clarity and brevity in digital communication. His short reflective videos, often under two minutes, address both perennial spiritual concerns and pressing ethical issues such as corruption, migration, and perseverance in prayer. Many clips attract several thousand views, especially among Lebanese diaspora communities. By compressing theological depth into short formats, Mgr. Abi Saad demonstrates how digital brevity can coexist with theological gravitas.

Fr. Joseph Eid (@fr.joeeid), also a Maronite priest, has adopted a hybrid style that blends liturgical excerpts, scriptural commentary, and reflections on Lebanon’s crises, economic collapse, migration, and political paralysis. By directly addressing national struggles through a theological lens, Fr. Eid creates a form of digital resilience. His account is a space where followers find both pastoral comfort and critical reflection, and his posts often elicit significant interaction in the form of shares and comments.

Together, these three clerical figures illustrate how ordination and Instagram intersect: sacramental ordination confers theological legitimacy, while digital presence expands pastoral authority into interactive, global spaces.

2.2. AI-Generated Religious Content

Before examining broader community accounts, it is important to note that Lebanese Christian influencers are beginning to experiment with digital tools beyond traditional posting. Some parishes have used AI-based design applications to generate feast-day visuals, while youth groups occasionally circulate AI-assisted reflections or prayers. Though not yet widespread, these practices foreshadow a future where the question of whether an algorithm can mediate grace or provide theological authenticity will become pressing. In this context, AI should be understood not as a separate reality from algorithms but as their most advanced expression systems that learn, classify, and rank content according to hidden computational rules. These same algorithmic logics now determine whose prayers, reflections, or pastoral messages appear in a user’s feed, raising the question of whether divine communication can still be discerned within such mediated architectures.

As Fernández and Papachristou (2023) observe, AI may enrich learning but risks reducing religious meaning “into modular and easily consumable fragments” if not guided by discernment (p. 214). The Lebanese context, where clergy already face fragile legitimacy, will demand careful theological reflection on AI’s place in spiritual authority.

2.3. Legitimacy and Community Reception

Digital authority raises the central question of legitimacy. In traditional ecclesiology, legitimacy is derived from ordination and institutional sanction. In digital spaces, however, legitimacy is increasingly measured by reception, followers, likes, comments, and shares.

The most striking example is the Instagram account Christians of the East (@eastern_christianity), a platform founded by twin brothers Giovani and Charbel Lteif, who are approximately 20 years old. Despite their youth, they have built one of the largest Eastern Christian accounts worldwide, with more than 646,000 followers (25 September 2025). Posts often receive tens of thousands of likes, and comments reveal gratitude and pride: “Thank you for keeping our identity alive”; “This makes me proud to be an Eastern Christian.” In this case, legitimacy emerges not from ordination but from community affirmation, expressed through digital reception.

Clerical influencers like Fr. Semaan, Mgr. Abi Saad, and Fr. Eid occupy a hybrid legitimacy. Their ordination provides theological grounding, but their digital authority rises or falls with the resonance of their posts. When warmly received, their authority is amplified; when criticized as superficial or fame-driven, their legitimacy is questioned. This dynamic demonstrates how Lebanese Christian digital authority is both sacramental and performative.

2.4. Case Studies of Successful Influencers

Success in Lebanese Christian digital ministry can be measured in multiple ways: numerical reach (followers), consistency of posting, theological depth, interactivity (comments on every post), and the capacity to transform engagement into solidarity.

• Fr. Elias Semaan’s Instagram Live sessions embody interactivity, giving youth a rare space for unfiltered theological dialogue.
• Mgr. Georges Abi Saad’s concise reflections meet the demands of short-form attention spans without sacrificing theological richness.
• Fr. Joseph Eid’s hybrid commentary weaves together liturgy and lived crisis, producing a theology of resilience that resonates deeply.

The community accounts further broaden the model. The Christians of the East, in addition to heritage storytelling, has organized fundraising campaigns for Syria and other crisis regions, transforming digital witness into digital diakonia. The account El_Majd_La_allah (@El_Majd_La_allah) focuses on liturgical prayers, scripture, and hymnody, often generating enthusiastic responses and prayer requests in the comments. This demonstrates that even traditional content thrives when adapted to digital formats.

Together, these cases show that Lebanese Christian influencers are not merely broadcasting content but are redefining pastoral authority through interaction, solidarity, and global outreach. Their success indicates that digital legitimacy in Lebanon is built on both metrics and meaning: the number of likes and followers, but also the theological and pastoral depth perceived by their audiences.

The sustained activity and measurable reach of these accounts underscore their long-term impact. Over the course of one year (from October 2024 to October 2025), the combined audience of the five profiles analyzed grew by approximately 18 percent, from 760,000 to around 900,000 followers. The Christians of the East (@eastern_christianity) alone added nearly 80,000 new followers and maintained an average engagement rate of between 6 and 8 percent per post, well above the regional average for faith-based content. El_Majd_La_allah (@El_Majd_La_allah) surpassed 106,000 followers, with weekly prayer reels consistently receiving between 25,000 and 40,000 views. The clerical accounts also demonstrated consistency: Fr. Elias Semaan posted roughly three times per week, while Mgr. Abi Saad and Fr. Eid maintained bi-weekly and weekly posting rhythms, sustaining interaction through comments and shared stories. These quantitative indicators complement the qualitative evidence of theological resonance, revealing that sustained pastoral engagement rather than viral spikes best predicts enduring digital influence.

3. Surveillance, Ethics, and Theology

This section examines the ethical and theological implications of digital surveillance for Christian digital authority in Lebanon. While Section 1 mapped the rise of Christian influencers and community accounts, this section explores the risks and limitations they face in an environment shaped by fragile infrastructure, sectarian oversight, global platform algorithms, and contested freedom of religion and belief (FoRB). The argument unfolds in four stages: Lebanon’s surveillance context, theological and ethical frameworks for analysis, risks to religious freedom, and a constructive proposal for a digital ethics of responsibility.

3.1. Digital Surveillance in Lebanon

Lebanon’s hybrid media landscape is deeply fragile. As El-Ibrahim (2023) shows, alternative and activist voices in Lebanon depend heavily on digital platforms but remain vulnerable to infrastructural breakdowns, algorithmic gatekeeping, and political pressures. For Christian influencers, this fragility translates into precarious visibility. Algorithms may promote devotional posts one day and suppress them the next, depending on opaque moderation rules. This volatility affects all digital users, not only faith-based ones; however, in Lebanon’s confessional environment, its impact is amplified. For Christian clergy and influencers, algorithmic fluctuations carry theological and social implications, since the visibility of Gospel-oriented messages is entangled with systems designed primarily for commercial engagement rather than spiritual communication.

Beyond platform bias, sectarian surveillance is a daily reality. The operation of Meta’s algorithmic systems, which govern visibility on Instagram and Facebook, remains largely opaque to users and scholars alike. Meta discloses only broad criteria such as engagement, recency, and user interaction that influence post ranking, while its detailed weighting mechanisms are proprietary (Meta 2023). For most religious influencers in Lebanon, the algorithm functions as a “black box”: they can observe patterns of reach or suppression but cannot fully explain them. Those who occasionally promote posts through paid advertising receive limited performance analytics, impressions, click-through rates, and audience geography, yet this information reveals little about the deeper logics of algorithmic moderation. Consequently, both advertisers and non-advertisers operate within partial visibility, interpreting fluctuations in reach through experience, intuition, and faith-based discernment rather than technical insight. Religious institutions in Lebanon monitor the online activity of clergy, wary of statements that may be politically provocative. In practice, this supervision operates primarily at the diocesan level. Each priest remains under the pastoral authority of his local bishop, who provides guidance on public communication and ensures that online preaching aligns with Church teaching and prudential discernment. At the national level, the Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops in Lebanon (APECL) fosters coordination among Catholic Churches and periodically issues recommendations on media ethics and pastoral communication. Although there is no permanent committee devoted to online preaching, bishops occasionally intervene when digital discourse risks political polarization or doctrinal confusion. Therefore, the term “surveillance” in this study does not denote electronic monitoring as in authoritarian regimes but rather pastoral vigilance, a form of ecclesial accountability and accompaniment. Yet such oversight also serves a doctrinal function: ensuring that no heresy or teaching contrary to the essential doctrines of the Church is propagated. In this sense, institutional monitoring is both protective and restrictive. It safeguards orthodoxy while potentially limiting theological creativity.

Political and sectarian actors also keep watch. A priest’s viral post that critiques corruption or sectarianism may invite not only ecclesial review but also state scrutiny or partisan backlash. Influencers such as Fr. Elias Semaan (@eliassemaan), Mgr. Georges Abi Saad (@mgrgeorgesabisaad), and Fr. Joseph Eid (@fr.joeeid) therefore operate within a gray zone: encouraged to evangelize online but under constant observation from church authorities, political parties, and algorithmic systems.

As Abboud and Fahed (2022) argue, freedom of expression in Lebanon is already fragile offline. Digitally, this fragility intensifies as surveillance intersects with sectarian interests, creating an ambiguous space where Christian influencers must continually calculate what can safely be said.

3.2. Theological and Ethical Reflections

To interpret these dynamics, theological frameworks are essential.

Catholic Social Teaching (CST) provides three guiding principles: dignity, solidarity, and subsidiarity. Wright (2017) stresses that each person’s dignity is inviolable, solidarity requires commitment to the common good, and subsidiarity insists that authority should be exercised at the most local and responsible level. Applied digitally, CST demands that surveillance respect personal dignity (privacy), foster solidarity (not division), and empower communities rather than concentrate control in opaque corporate algorithms. For example, when global platforms down-rank Lebanese Christian content in favor of commercially profitable material, subsidiarity is violated because the local faith community loses its voice. In the Lebanese context, the principles of dignity, solidarity, and subsidiarity cannot be understood in abstract terms. They emerge from a society marked by sectarian fragmentation, economic crisis, and political instability that continually test the moral and social fabric. Digital Christian witness seeks to embody these theological values in practical ways: affirming dignity by giving voice to marginalized and displaced communities, fostering solidarity across confessional divides through shared online prayer and fundraising campaigns, and practicing subsidiarity by empowering local initiatives and young digital creators to serve their neighborhoods. As the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church reminds us, “solidarity is not a feeling of vague compassion, but a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good” (Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace 2004, §193). Far from being a top-down framework, this theology grows from the lived experience of believers navigating daily uncertainty while transforming social media into spaces of communion and hope. In this way, theology becomes incarnate in pixels and posts, where solidarity and subsidiarity sustain faith amid Lebanon’s fragile pluralism.

From an Islamic ethical perspective, Elmahjub (2021) highlights maqāṣid al-sharīʿa (the higher objectives of Sharia), especially ḥifẓ al-ʿirḍ (protection of dignity), ḥifẓ al-ʿaql (protection of reason), and maṣlaḥa (the common good). These principles converge with CST, showing how Christian and Muslim traditions in Lebanon share an ethical imperative: technology must serve human dignity, protect reason, and promote the common good.

Lebanese theological voices add depth. Fahed (2020a) articulates “spiritual solidarity” as a pastoral imperative a commitment to dialogue and reconciliation across divides. Applied digitally, spiritual solidarity resists the isolating effects of algorithmic surveillance by fostering encounter and shared responsibility. The Arab Baptist Theological Seminary (ABTS, 2025), in its statement Fearless Theology in Polarized Times, calls on church leaders to embrace courageous theology even when surveillance pressures silence prophetic voices. Similarly, the study Christian Service Ethics in Facing the Challenges of the Digital World (2025) warns that digital engagement can weaken community bonds and foster self-centered content, but argues that theological norms, discipleship, pastoral presence, transparency, can guide responsible digital ministry.

Taken together, CST, Islamic ethics, and Lebanese theological contributions provide a theological lens to judge digital surveillance. When surveillance undermines dignity, fragments solidarity, or silences local communities, it is not only ethically questionable but also theologically deficient.

3.3. Risks to Religious Freedom

The intersection of surveillance and fragile governance poses acute risks for freedom of religion and belief (FoRB). He (2024) shows that in at least twenty countries, rapid adoption of AI and surveillance technologies correlates with declining FoRB, particularly in societies with weak institutions and sectarian polarization. Lebanon falls within this risk.

Although Article 9 of the Lebanese Constitution guarantees “absolute freedom of conscience” and the protection of all religious rites, reports show that this guarantee is heavily compromised in practice. The Hachem and The National Working Group on FoRB (2023) conclude that blasphemy laws, censorship of publications, and surveillance of digital expression create a “climate of fear” that curtails free religious discourse. The UN Human Rights Council (2025) likewise observes that religious and political institutions act as “gatekeepers,” silencing reformist or minority voices in the name of public order. The Rights of Religious Minorities in Lebanon Report (Hachem 2023) further stresses that Lebanon’s confessional system, a power-sharing arrangement that allocates political and institutional authority among officially recognized religious communities, shapes not only governance but also the public visibility of religious discourse and “often exacerbates sectarian divisions rather than fostering equality,” leaving unrecognized minorities without meaningful legal protection.

For digital influencers, these realities are tangible. Posts perceived as politically critical or sympathetic to marginalized communities may be censored, while algorithms can misclassify theological commentary as “sensitive content,” leading to shadow bans, a form of hidden content suppression in which social-media platforms limit a post’s visibility without notifying the user, comment-section harassment, and the chilling effect of constant scrutiny. In some cases, comments sections become battlegrounds for sectarian disputes, pushing influencers to engage in heavy moderation or self-censorship.

These restrictions directly shape the Christian mission in Lebanon’s multi-religious society. Influencers aim not only to pastorally serve their communities but also to strategically ensure that the Christian voice remains visible in the public square. Yet, as the FoRB Lebanon Report (2023) reminds us, FoRB “is not absolute and may be limited under certain well-defined circumstances.” In Lebanon, however, these limitations are often stretched to maintain sectarian privilege. The result is that Christian digital influencers walk a narrow path: they amplify the Church’s message while remaining vulnerable to surveillance systems that could curtail their freedom of religion, belief, and expression.

3.4. Toward a Digital Ethics of Responsibility

Faced with these risks, what theological resources can guide a constructive response?

Christian resources such as Fratelli Tutti (Francis 2020) and Laudato Si’ (Francis 2015b) emphasize that technology must serve integral human development, not domination or exclusion. Pope Francis warns against “a digital world that exposes us to the risk of radical isolation” (Francis 2020, §43), calling instead for technologies that cultivate fraternity and solidarity. Applied to Lebanon, this calls for resisting sectarian digital divides and promoting platforms that amplify messages of unity.

Islamic principles such as maṣlaḥa likewise demand that digital tools advance the public good. If surveillance fragments society or undermines dignity, it fails this ethical test.

Finally, the Lebanese tradition of interreligious dialogue provides lived wisdom. Initiatives described by Fahed (2020a), Fahed and Daou (2021) demonstrate how fragile societies can foster reconciliation through dialogue and solidarity. If applied digitally, these practices can transform online spaces into platforms of encounter rather than conflict.

For Christian influencers, this means their mission must be consciously strategic: to ensure that the Church’s voice remains visible and audible within a multi-religious society, despite the pressures of surveillance. Their role is both pastoral, providing care and teaching, and missional, testifying to the faith in a plural digital public square.

A digital ethics of responsibility in Lebanon, therefore, must be

• Transparent: platforms should disclose how algorithms affect visibility.
• Dignity-centered: surveillance must never reduce persons to data points.
• Solidarity-driven: digital authority should be evaluated by its capacity to build bridges, not deepen divisions.
• Subsidiary: decisions about content moderation should include local voices, not only global corporations.

Lebanon, with its pluralism and fragility, thus becomes a test case. If digital spirituality can flourish responsibly here, it can model practices of dignity, solidarity, and mission for other pluralist societies navigating similar tensions.

4. Digital Success and Challenges

Digital Christian witness in Lebanon has generated significant engagement, opening new horizons for pastoral ministry. Influencers and community accounts testify to the vitality of faith in online spaces, where prayer, heritage, and solidarity resonate across borders. Yet this vitality is marked by both opportunities and pitfalls. This section considers the indicators of digital success, the main challenges faced, the critical voices that accompany the rise of digital religious authority, and the metrics that should guide discernment.

4.1. Signs of Success

Several accounts illustrate the remarkable reach of Christian digital presence. The Christians of the East (@eastern_christianity), created by Giovani and Charbel Lteif, has gathered more than 643,000 followers. Its posts on heritage, icons, and solidarity campaigns generate thousands of interactions, demonstrating that digital platforms can amplify Christian identity globally. Clerical influencers such as Fr. Elias Semaan (@eliassemaan), Mgr. Georges Abi Saad (@mgrgeorgesabisaad), and Fr. Joseph Eid (@fr.joeeid) also cultivate significant followings, positioning themselves as trusted voices for spiritual guidance, commentary on national crises, and pastoral encouragement.

These indicators of popularity, followers, likes, and shares, serve as important key performance indicators (KPIs). Yet success is not limited to numbers. The more profound sign lies in how these accounts create a sense of belonging, foster solidarity, and make faith accessible to those who may never enter a church building. In a Lebanon marked by migration and displacement, the reach of digital presence is itself a form of pastoral resilience.

4.2. Challenges, Critiques, and the Changing Parish

Despite these successes, digital witness also faces significant challenges. The first is the temptation of performativity: influencers may be drawn to privilege content that performs well algorithmically rather than content that nurtures authentic faith. While metrics provide visibility, they risk reducing the Christian mission to numbers rather than transformation.

A second challenge is the risk of polarization. Comment threads frequently reveal hostility, sectarian suspicion, or aggressive debate. Influencers must navigate between welcoming dialogue and maintaining boundaries, resisting the descent into digital conflict.

A further pastoral concern is the shifting understanding of parish life. Whereas belonging was once rooted primarily in the local parish, where believers shared sacraments, worship, and community, today many Lebanese faithful draw nourishment from multiple digital accounts. They follow priests, theologians, and lay-led initiatives simultaneously, weaving a network of belonging that extends far beyond territorial boundaries. This broadens horizons and deepens theological understanding, but it can also erode local rootedness. Pastors increasingly observe that some parishioners engage more actively with online content than with their own parish community. The challenge, then, is to ensure that digital belonging complements rather than replaces embodied parish life, preserving the irreplaceable role of sacramental and communal encounter. This presumes the enduring importance of physical parish communities, not as a nostalgic ideal but as a theological necessity. In Catholic understanding, faith is incarnational: it is lived and celebrated through bodies gathered in space and time, particularly in the sacraments that cannot be mediated digitally. As the Second Vatican Council affirms, “Christ is always present in His Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, §7), reminding us that divine presence is encountered in the gathered community, not only in mediated representation. Digital networks can nourish faith, sustain community, and extend pastoral proximity, yet they cannot substitute for the grace conveyed in face-to-face encounter, Eucharistic communion, or the shared rhythms of parish service. Pope Benedict XVI similarly emphasized that “the Word became flesh, not a message or an image; faith is not an idea but an encounter with a Person” (Deus Caritas Est, §1). The Church’s mission therefore requires both digital outreach and embodied community, each enriching the other without erasing their distinct theological functions.

Finally, critics note that digital spiritual authority risks bypassing traditional ecclesial structures. Influencers may enjoy popularity without accountability, raising questions about theological depth and oversight. This tension underscores the need for discernment: digital presence is a gift, but one that must be integrated responsibly within the wider life of the Church.

4.3. The Ambiguous Terrain of Influence

Taken together, these challenges highlight the ambiguity of digital influence. Success is real and measurable, but it is also fragile. Popularity does not guarantee theological depth, and wide reach does not always translate into transformed lives. In Lebanon, where the Church must preserve its mission amid economic collapse and mass migration, digital influencers embody both promise and risk. They represent the Church’s resilience but also expose its vulnerability to new cultural logics.

4.4. Metrics Beyond Numbers

Another dimension of this ambiguity concerns the criteria by which success is measured. In digital culture, success is often equated with numerical growth: followers, shares, and engagement rates. While these metrics provide useful indicators, they cannot capture the deeper realities of faith formation, transformation, or discipleship.

For instance, a post may attract thousands of likes but fail to inspire meaningful reflection or action. Conversely, a modestly shared reflection may profoundly impact a smaller group of individuals, guiding them toward prayer, reconciliation, or deeper commitment. A theology of digital witness must therefore prioritize qualitative over purely quantitative measures. True success is not simply virality but fidelity: it is determined by whether digital presence leads to an authentic encounter with Christ and strengthens communal bonds.

4.5. Toward Discernment

Ultimately, the assessment of digital Christian witness requires discernment. Numbers and visibility are part of the story, but they are not the whole story. The Church must develop criteria that honor depth, integrity, and transformation. Lebanese digital influencers illustrate that faith can flourish in algorithmic spaces, but also that it can be distorted by them.

Discernment calls for a balance: embracing the opportunities of digital outreach without succumbing to its superficial logics. It means recognizing that digital presence is not a substitute for sacramental life but a complement to it; not a replacement for ecclesial accountability but a call to renew it in new forms. In this way, the Church can engage the digital age with creativity and fidelity, bearing witness to the Gospel amid the sacred algorithms that increasingly shape our lives.

5. Toward a Theology of Digital Witness

The preceding sections mapped the rise of Lebanese Christian digital influencers (Section 1), the ethical challenges of surveillance (Section 2), and the mixed dynamics of success and struggle (Section 3). This final section seeks a constructive theological synthesis. It argues that digital Christian presence in Lebanon can be understood as a form of digital witness, grounded in sacramentality, synodality, solidarity, and strategic mission.

To frame this theology, we must also recognize that digital ministry today is inseparable from algorithms. Algorithms are the invisible systems that decide which posts are amplified, which voices are heard, and which disappear into silence. For religious actors, algorithms now function as cultural “gatekeepers” of visibility, legitimacy, and mission. To speak of “sacred algorithms” is therefore to discern how God’s mission unfolds within systems that are technical yet deeply theological in their consequences.

5.1. Sacrament of Proximity in the Digital Age

One of the distinctive theological contributions of this paper is the articulation of the “sacrament of proximity.” This is not a sacrament in the formal sense of the Church’s seven sacraments, but a theological metaphor that expresses how presence, whether physical or digital, can mediate grace, solidarity, and hope.

As I have argued elsewhere, proximity has strategic importance: in fragile contexts like Lebanon, where wars, migration, and economic collapse often disperse communities, the Church’s ability to be present with the wounded is itself a prophetic witness. To draw near, even digitally, is to embody the incarnational logic of the Gospel: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Proximity dignifies the broken, sustains communal trust, and enacts solidarity even when resources are scarce.

In digital contexts, algorithms play a decisive role in shaping this proximity. When a pastoral message by Fr. Elias Semaan (@eliassemaan) is boosted by Instagram’s algorithm, it creates the experience of presence for hundreds of Lebanese youth scattered in the diaspora. When Al Majd Llah (@almajdllah) posts daily scripture or hymnody, the algorithm decides whether those words appear on followers’ feeds at the right moment to inspire prayer. In this sense, algorithms do not simply transmit messages; they actively mediate the possibility of proximity.

Thus, the “sacrament of proximity” is not neutral in the digital age. It is an incarnational practice filtered by algorithmic systems. To understand digital ministry as a sacrament of proximity is to insist that presence itself is theological, even when mediated by platforms designed for commerce or entertainment. For Lebanon, where so many believers are displaced, this sacrament is not peripheral but strategically vital: it keeps communion alive in exile and redefines mission as accompaniment in the digital commons.

5.2. Digital Synodality and Shared Authority

Pope Francis has called synodality “the path which God expects of the Church in the third millennium” (Address for the 50th Anniversary of the Synod of Bishops, 17 October 2015). He explains: “A synodal Church is a Church which listens, which realizes that listening ‘is more than simply hearing’” (Francis 2015a). This vision resonates powerfully with digital culture, where listening is expressed through comments, likes, shares, and digital dialogue.

Yet in the digital age, listening is not only interpersonal; it is algorithmically structured. Algorithms decide which voices surface and which remain hidden. They filter what the Church “hears” and what it ignores. In this sense, algorithms function as hidden participants in the synodal process. They shape the very conditions of listening, discernment, and shared authority.

In Lebanon, this becomes tangible. When Mgr. Georges Abi Saad (@mgrgeorgesabisaad) posts a two-minute reflection, Instagram’s algorithm decides whether it circulates widely among diaspora families in Canada or remains limited to a small circle. When The Christians of the East (@eastern_christianity) posts a heritage icon, the algorithm amplifies it across continents, effectively extending synodal listening beyond national borders. And when Fr. Joseph Eid (@fr.joeeid) comments on corruption, algorithms may classify his post as “sensitive,” thereby reducing its reach and muting the very voices he seeks to amplify.

Thus, a theology of digital synodality must be critically aware that algorithms are not neutral but theological actors. They can serve the Church’s call to listen, or they can distort it into an echo chamber. The challenge for Lebanese Christian influencers is to engage digital communities in ways that remain authentically synodal: to listen, to discern, and to walk together with their followers, even when algorithms filter or distort the conversation.

5.3. Ethics of Care and Solidarity Online

If Christian digital presence is to be authentic, it must embody an ethic of care and solidarity. Online platforms often reward spectacle, outrage, or entertainment. Yet Lebanese Christian influencers show that algorithms can also be harnessed for acts of solidarity.

The Christians of the East (@eastern_christianity), has organized fundraising campaigns for communities in Syria and elsewhere. These campaigns succeeded in part because algorithms rewarded their emotionally powerful visuals, boosting visibility and attracting global support. In this way, algorithms became unlikely partners in mobilizing solidarity.

But algorithms can also distort solidarity. Posts framed in algorithm-friendly ways, short, emotional, visually striking, may circulate widely, while posts with equal theological depth but less “marketable” aesthetics remain invisible. This creates what we might call algorithmic selectivity of compassion: some causes gain global attention, while others remain hidden. For the Church, this raises an ethical question: how to ensure that solidarity is not shaped by algorithmic bias but by Gospel discernment.

Catholic Social Teaching insists that solidarity is not optional but constitutive of Christian life (Wright 2017). Lebanese theologians such as Fahed (2020b) speak of “spiritual solidarity” as a pastoral antidote to fragmentation. Applied digitally, this means resisting the reduction of solidarity to what algorithms find profitable. It requires influencers to intentionally highlight marginalized voices, even if algorithms suppress them.

In practical terms, Lebanese influencers embody this ethic when they prioritize posts of prayer, charity, or justice, even knowing these may not “perform” well. When El_Majd_La_allah (@El_Majd_La_allah) shares liturgical content that gathers prayer requests, it demonstrates solidarity in its purest form: not for visibility, but for communion.

Thus, a theology of digital witness must see solidarity not only as an ethical imperative but as an act of resistance against the algorithmic commodification of compassion.

5.4. Strategic Mission in a Multi-Religious, Algorithmic Society

Lebanon’s religious pluralism makes digital mission inherently strategic. The country’s Christians coexist with Muslims, Druze, and secular currents in a fragile, contested public square. In such a society, algorithms determine whether the Christian voice remains audible or fades into digital obscurity.

Christian influencers in Lebanon understand this. When Fr. Joseph Eid (@fr.joeeid) links liturgy to national crises, he ensures that Christian perspectives enter broader conversations. When The Christians of the East mobilizes global heritage pride, it amplifies Christian identity not only for insiders but for the wider world. Algorithms amplify some of these messages, but they can also suppress them, turning digital mission into a constant negotiation with visibility systems.

Strategic mission therefore requires discernment: how to present authentic theology in forms that algorithms can amplify, without reducing it to spectacle. Influencers must learn to navigate what might be called sacred algorithms, recognizing that these technical systems now structure the Church’s mission fields. Just as the printing press reshaped the Reformation and radio transformed 20th-century evangelization, algorithms are now the decisive cultural structures of mission in the 21st century.

The Vatican’s own symbolic use of technology affirms this need for strategic engagement. The drone show marking the 70th anniversary of Pope Leo’s canonization demonstrated that the Church is willing to inhabit contemporary cultural tools to communicate timeless truths. For Lebanese Christian influencers, the lesson is clear: algorithms and new media are not external threats but contexts in which mission must now be lived.

In this light, Christian digital witness in Lebanon is both pastoral and missional. Pastoral, in sustaining faith within the community; missional, in ensuring the Church’s voice remains visible in a multi-religious, algorithmic society. The challenge is to inhabit these algorithmic structures with creativity, discernment, and fidelity to the Gospel.

5.5. Integrating a Theology of Digital Witness

The foregoing analysis suggests that a theology of digital witness in Lebanon must rest on four interrelated pillars:

• Sacrament of proximity: Digital presence mediates authentic encounter, extending the Church’s pastoral care across algorithmic thresholds.
• Synodal authority: Authority is co-constructed through digital listening, shaped by both human communities and algorithmic filters.
• Solidarity and care: Digital witness must resist algorithmic selectivity by ensuring that compassion is guided by Gospel discernment, not metrics.
• Strategic mission: Christian presence must be intentionally visible in Lebanon’s multi-religious society, engaging algorithms as the cultural structures of contemporary mission.

This framework insists that digital ministry is not marginal but central to Christian witness today. In a society marked by fragility, migration, and sectarian surveillance, Lebanese Christian influencers embody how the Church can remain resilient and dialogical in the algorithmic public square. Their work demonstrates that algorithms are not only technical tools but theological contexts, arenas where the sacred is negotiated, witnessed, and lived.

6. Conclusions

Lebanese Christian digital presence offers a compelling lens through which to reflect on Sacred Algorithms: Religion in the Digital Age. What emerges is not a simple story of progress but a complex interplay of opportunity, fragility, and theological reconfiguration.

Digital platforms have become vital arenas for Christian witness. They extend pastoral proximity beyond parish boundaries, amplify voices across the diaspora, and mobilize solidarity in times of crisis. Authority is no longer only sacramental but also negotiated digitally, shaped by interaction, reception, and the hidden logics of algorithmic amplification. The sacred now circulates within systems that prioritize visibility, and the Church must discern how to inhabit these spaces faithfully.

This dynamic has also reshaped the meaning of belonging. The faithful in Lebanon increasingly engage with multiple social media accounts, drawing nourishment from priests, lay influencers, and heritage platforms alike. Such diversity broadens horizons, deepens Christian understanding, and forges bonds that transcend geography. Yet this wider access also weakens the traditional rootedness of parish life. Local communities, once the privileged locus of sacramental and communal encounter, now risk being overshadowed by algorithmically curated networks of belonging. The Church faces a delicate task: ensuring that digital participation complements, rather than replaces, embodied parish commitment.

At the heart of this transformation lie theological insights that anchor digital ministry in proximity, synodality, solidarity, and mission. Synodality, in its deepest sense, refers to the Church’s way of journeying together, a process of communal discernment, mutual listening, and shared responsibility under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. As Pope Francis explains, “It is precisely this path of synodality which God expects of the Church in the third millennium” (Address for the 50th Anniversary of the Synod of Bishops, 2015a). This understanding, though emerging from Catholic ecclesiology, resonates with ecumenical notions of participatory discernment and fellowship found across Christian traditions. In digital contexts, synodality becomes a spiritual practice of attentive listening and dialogical engagement, where believers learn to recognize the voice of the Spirit even within algorithmically mediated encounters. Digital presence embodies a sacrament of proximity, makes listening a synodal practice, mobilizes solidarity while resisting commodification, and positions the Christian voice strategically in Lebanon’s plural society. Yet each of these insights is mediated by algorithms, which act as both enablers and gatekeepers of religious expression.

This study has deliberately focused on Christian influencers and communities. The choice of scope is not intended to overlook other religious actors in Lebanon but reflects the need for depth, manageability, and theological coherence in examining one tradition. Future comparative work across different faith communities could broaden and enrich the insights presented here.

The unresolved questions remain pressing. Can authentic Christian witness be sustained within systems designed to reward visibility over depth, or will the Church’s prophetic voice be confined to what algorithms privilege? And in a fragile, multi-religious society such as Lebanon, can digital belonging broaden horizons without hollowing out local parish life, ensuring that online engagement strengthens rather than supplants the irreplaceable communal and sacramental dimensions of faith?

The Lebanese case demonstrates that the encounter between the sacred and the algorithm is neither straightforward nor neutral. It is a grace-filled possibility that extends mission in creative ways, but also a risk that demands discernment and courage. To speak of “sacred algorithms” is to acknowledge both the grace and the danger of this moment: a grace that proximity, solidarity, and synodality can be extended into digital spaces; and a danger that the sacred itself may be reshaped by systems that privilege profit over truth. The task ahead is to ensure that Christian witness inhabits algorithmic spaces without being reduced to numbers, remaining faithful to the Gospel’s call to proximity, community, and transformation.

The structural openness of the digital world challenges every form of religious control. No ecclesiastical authority can fully regulate what circulates online, nor should it attempt to do so. The question is not whether the internet can be “trusted” for the Kingdom of God, but whether the Church can form digital witnesses who act responsibly and discern truth in freedom. The web is not a sacred space by nature, yet it becomes so when inhabited with integrity, prayer, and communion. As Pope Francis reminds us, “communication is at the service of encounter” (Francis 2016). The Church’s task, therefore, is not surveillance but accompaniment helping digital missionaries remain faithful to the Gospel amid the unpredictable logics of the algorithm.