Catholic Techie Jeff Miller

One of the first blogs I found lo those many years ago was The Curt Jester. I remember going into work (at the parish office) and telling Father, "You wouldn't believe what I found on the internet! A guy who laughs about Catholicism the way we do!"

Don't go thinking that Jeff Miller is anything but serious about his faith, though. Finding the humor in things takes a great deal of seriousness. And sometimes it takes a special way of looking at things.

That's just what I've always loved about Jeff. He's dead-on. He's someone who reads as avidly as I have always wanted to, who thinks as clearly as I have always wanted to, who makes puns and jokes as easily as I have always wanted to. (See a pattern there?)

Not so long ago, he jumped on board at Patheos over at Happy Catholic Bookshelf, and he's also over at The Weekly Francis with Jimmy Akin.

And if you don't already follow him on Twitter...well, your loss. He's hands-down one of my favorites.

But wait, there's more. I interviewed Jeff! :) So let's get to that...

Tell us about yourself in five words or less.

Catholic introvert geek book lover.

Of your pursuits, what's your favorite?

A hard question to totally define down to something simple. I would say my faith, but pursuit is not the right word since I was the one pursued as in Francis Thomson’s poem, “The Hound of Heaven.” Yet it is the Catholic faith that informs everything I do. So my inclinations toward lots of reading and using technology are combined into a workflow regarding blogging about the faith.

When you think of the New Evangelization from your approach as a "Catholic Techie," what excites you? What makes you want to continue?

First off the term “New Evangelization” annoys me. Too many things are prefaced by new as in “new and improved.” So in my head I always translate it to the renewed evangelization since that is certainly what Blessed John Paul II meant. So I will dismount that hobby horse and try to answer the question.

Growing up in the halcyon days of the space program I was always interested in technology. My life as a bibliophile started with a love of science fiction which continues to this day. Working as an avionics technician and then later as a programmer in the Navy, my love of tech continued. Yet it is the internet and the ability to reach out way beyond your own personal sphere.

Classic forms of communication such as voice, writing, and visual mediums are still the staples in evangelization yet the reach is so magnified by the world-wide nature of the internet. The biggest difference is that while some individuals in the past could get such an audience, now this can be true of the common man. Social networking has greatly expanded the ways people have always connected.

As an introvert this is especially true since as a Catholic blogger I have a voice and an audience that I would not have without the internet. In over a decade of blogging it is the very occoasional emails of thanks from people who felt that I had helped them to see a truth. That I can have any impact is humbling.

What's the most rewarding aspect of your work?

Strangely it is making people laugh. I was the typical class clown. The quiet guy who sits in the corner waiting for an opportunity for a one-liner. I love that I can mix humor with the faith. That so many saints had such a great sense of humor is something that so delights me.

In your spare time, what are we likely to find you doing? Do you have a gadget in hand or do you go native and screenless?

Well I am hardly ever gadgetless. I work as an application developer so spend my work days coding. In my daily commute I listen to audiobooks and podcasts on my phone. When I come home I fire up my various RSS aggregators to go through the news and blogs both learning and looking for things to possibly blog about.

Even in my blogging workflow I use forms of automation for both writing posts and archiving source information. As someone who now mostly reads ebooks, the majority of the time I am using my iPad to do so.

Even when it comes to prayer I use various Liturgy of the Hours apps as my 4-Volume set of the Liturgy of the Hours now draws dust in the bookshelf. Although I do drop the gadgets when praying the Rosary daily. So yeah I am rather addicted to my various devices.

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Copyright 2013 Sarah Reinhard