FILM REVIEW: Marley & Me

Have you noticed how many movies lately are pro-family? There's Knocked Up, where a couple's personal agendas melt in the face of their new baby. There's Meet the Browns, which shows the lengths a good mother will take in order to raise and protect her children.

Also note: Not all family films are good to bring kids to.

Put Marley & Me in that category. On the surface, the film is a comedy about a lovable though rambunctious dog. But it's really about how he tests their limits for love, and in so doing, expands those limits. It also explores some very adult life choices.

Child or career? It's a question young couples often ask, especially if each mate is ambitious and talented. And John and Jennifer Grogan (Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston) fit that bill. He's a news writer for the Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale. She's a feature writer for the Palm Beach Post. (Full disclosure: I work at the Sun Sentinel and used to talk to John occasionally, though I didn't know him well.)

Their solution at first is a large, adorable yellow Labrador puppy. Naming him Marley, for the late reggae singer Bob Marley, they treat him like their child.

That is, if your child chews couch cushions, terrorizes a sitter, howls at South Florida's many thunderstorms and chases just about anything, dragging along whoever is holding the leash. Marley is even expelled from obedience school.

Jennifer finally becomes pregnant -- three times -- and leaves her job for the mommy track. The kids plus "the world's worst dog," as John calls him, cause quarrels. John withdraws, Jennifer calms down and apologizes, they make up.

But long before then, it's clear that Marley has pried open the Grogans' hearts. After all, if they can bear with a big, half-insane dog, they can surely care for human children.

Family values even figure professionally. Jennifer leaves her job to care for the kids. She also supports his decision to move to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

There, he crosses paths with a friend from the Sun Sentinel -- someone he envied for his job as a foreign correspondent. To his surprise, the friend seems to envy John, for his beautiful wife and three kids. Thought-provoking stuff on life's tradeoffs.

The cautions? Some "goddamns" and lovemaking scenes, with a bit of partial nudity (hey, it does portray a married couple, and it does have Jennifer Aniston to show off). There's also a squick-inducing scene where John has to sift through Marley's poop for a necklace he ate.

Another question mark is when John and Jennifer want to make love in an Irish inn, but not with pictures of Jesus and Mary in the bedroom. Oh, yeah, there's also when Marley humps the instructor's leg at obedience school (Kathleen Turner, in surely her most humiliating role.)

So, yes, Marley & Me qualifies as a family film. It reaffirms traditional marriage and shows how commitment can overcome difficulties. Just leave the youngest members of the family home.

TV REVIEW: 'Jesus in India'

A major Christian holiday is just around the corner, and sure enough, here comes one of those revisionist "documentaries" attacking cherished beliefs. For Jesus in India, the focus is on historical gossip that has Jesus traveling east during his youth to learn from Buddhist and Hindu philosophers.

The program (9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time Dec. 22) on the Sundance Channel, looks at the "missing years" of Jesus, between his 12th and 30th years, when the Bible reports nothing about him. During those years, some say, he studied ethics and mysticism in the East before returning to the Holy Land. There’s even talk that he escaped crucifixion, returned to India, and died and was entombed there.

Author Edward T. Martin makes a brave, and apparently well-funded, effort to ferret out links between Jesus and India. With Paul Davids as director, he visits St. Thomas Mount in southern India, where Christians say their forebears hearken back to Bible times. He talks to the Shankaracharya, a pre-eminent Hindu leader. He consults a monk in a monastery, where a library is said to hold an ancient account of Jesus' sojourn. He ventures into tense, violent Srinagar, where some locals say Jesus is entombed.

But you won't be surprised to know that Martin finds nothing definite; otherwise, it would have been on CNN before the Sundance Channel. Nope. The Shankaracharya says he knows the story of Jesus in India, but the sourcebooks are long lost. And the monk says the head of the monastery is away, and he's the only one who can approve a search of the books.

Some of the onscreen comments even contradict Martin's premise. In Srinagar, a police officer and a Muslim leader vigorously deny Jesus' body is there, saying it's that of another prophet instead. Jesus in India notes this, then blithely moves on.

Quality control may be one of the problems here. Jesus in India quotes decent sources like a Vatican official, a rabbi from Loyola and two scholars from Georgetown. But it also recruits Elaine Pagels of Princeton, who detours onto her favorite topic, the Gnostic Gospels -- a collection of third century Egyptian scrolls that she and others are trying to paint as lost Bible books. Incredibly, another source is a book by Elizabeth Claire Prophet, former head of the New-Agey Church Universal and Triumphant.

Jesus in India spends a lot of time on Martin's background -- perhaps to help us understand his viewpoint, perhaps to pad the program. Scenes abound of sleepy Lampasas, Texas, and the stark Church of Christ where Martin grew up, in a familiar portrayal of conservative Christians as crude and ignorant. However, the onscreen interviews don’t make them sound like the oppressive bullies that Martin makes them out to be.

It shows the immense shadow cast by Jesus that so many people -- Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, New Agers, broadcasters, even Bible revisionists -- want to claim him. But they're mainly trying to recast him in their own image. That’s a danger for us all, of course, believers or not. But to get closer to Jesus and his teachings, it's best to start with something better than revisionism.

Something about Mary

For millions of people, Mary is more than a mere supporting player in Christmas pageants. Devotees, in fact, claim to have seen supernatural apparitions of Mary in Spain and Portugal, Japan and Korea, Egypt and Venezuela.

For the Festival of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Dec. 12, let's take a look at Web sites that promote these appearances.

Catholic Online gives a typically crisp rendition of the Guadalupeapparition in 1531, to a Mexican Indian named Juan Diego. The story is remarkable for yielding an image of Mary on a cactus-cloth poncho -- a picture still visible five centuries later. (See a picture of the original image at the right, from http://www.sancta.org.) It's also unusual for being among the few apparitions that have gained official church approval.

Yet the many Marian Web sites, like this one and this one, cheerfully lump in the approved with the others. You'll see not only accounts of the approved Our Lady of Lourdes and Fatima, but the unapproved Garabandal and Medjugorje.

You can even see videos of some apparitions, courtesy of Google Video. One link leads to GodWay, a Coptic Orthodox site.

GodWay has some of the lesser-known apparitions, including Naju, South Korea, and Zeitoun, Egypt. The Zeitoun section has a collection of fuzzy-looking photos purporting to show a woman robed in light, walking the rooftops of Egyptian churches.

Taken together, the reported sightings reveal some unexpected things. One is a quiet, gentle rebellion against the Catholic hierarchy. Even if the Church doesn’t approve an apparition, people flock to them anyway.

Another observation: For many Catholics, even Jesus isn't enough. They seem to feel a need to see, not just believe.

Finally, some church thinkers are surprisingly indulgent about the apparitions. I once asked Eugene Kennedy, a Catholic psychologist, why people saw Mary so much. His answer: "Why are you surprised? The mother is one of the most powerful images we know."

I was amazed. He artfully left undropped the other shoe: that people may be inspired by the apparitions, whether they're real or not.

Fangs, but no fangs

Vampires get organized, though satirical, opposition from Fellowship of the Sun. This self-proclaimed watchdog group gets a ton of mileage from conspiracy-theory thinking. Not to mention movies like Twilight and TV shows like HBO's True Blood.

Like how? Place tongue firmly in cheek -- or, perhaps, fangs in throat -- and read on:

• Opposing the fictional "Vampire Rights Amendment."

• Warning that humans can be "perverted" into becoming vampires.

• Contrasting pictures of simpering, smiling humans with scowling, fanged vamps.

• Using blog-style shorthand like CoD (Creatures of the Darkness).

• Listing handy anti-vampire measures: garlic, crucifixes, lights around your porch.

• Planting family-style fearmongering: "What will you say when YOUR daughter brings a vampire home?"

The group also mocks merchandising, with silver pendants with the triangular FoS logo, and bumper stickers with lame slogans: "Vampires? No Fangs"; "Mortal On Board"; "Vampires Suck."

So, who is this site aimed at? Well, you think of groups against all kinds of folks: gays, Wiccans, Muslims, racial and ethnic groups. Except for the obit on the fellowship's founder: "Reverend Theodore Newlin, tireless crusader for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." So much for subtlety.

There is, however, a more nuanced look at vampirism and its religious-psychological facets. See Nicky Loomis' analysis on this Web site at the University of Southern California. It's thoughtful and measured. Something to sink your teeth into.

Heaven on earth?

"God is not the voice in the whirlwind; god is the whirlwind," says Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, on the homepage of World Pantheism. Devoted to the search for the divine in everything, the Pantheists don't look for God in the universe -- they see God as the universe.

Their stated beliefs sound nice, at first: the awe of staring at the stars, or the peace in walking through a forest. The group reveres and cares for nature, embracing science, and respects reason and evidence.

The Pantheists post lots of material in support of their beliefs. A History of Pantheism declares common cause with Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists, Confucians, native Americans, even Pagans and Wiccans -- as long as they see gods and goddess only as metaphors. The site even mentions Christian thinkers like Thomas Aquinas, though it properly calls him a Panentheist -- one who sees the universe as part of God, but not the whole.

It's when the Pantheists say what they're not, that another face shows. They shun "grovelling worship or the expectation that there is some being out there who can answer our prayers." They want to be "free from guilt about original sin." They value "reason rather than fanaticism," and "individual choice rather than pushing prejudice down people's throats."

You know, not like those ignorant, groveling, pushy other spiritual groups.

You can download some interesting back copies of the organization's Pan magazine, like an issue on ethics. And the Pantheists offer several lists to help find one another.

A cool device is the Flash map on Frappr.com. Dots on the map show men, women and local Pantheist groups.

Young faith

Simply Youth Ministry has a lot for sale, but it also gives away an incredible amount, gleaned from sources like Saddleback Church and Youth Specialties. You'll find videos, games, booklets, tips for mission trips, and good-looking guides for small groups and discipleship lessons.

Topics are earnest and relevant. A sound file discusses "God's Extreme Makeover." Young talking heads reassure us that "Everybody Hurts." A lesson encourages high school girls to resist society's obsession with appearance.

Click the "Forms" icon to find nuts and bolts of youth ministry: event planners and recaps, a thank-you card, a scholarship application, a first-time visitor survey, a student leadership agenda.

Most of the freebies are in .zip files, so you'll need WinZip or an equivalent to open them. Once unzipped, some are in Word format, some in .pdf, some in PowerPoint, some in RealPlayer, so you'll need those applications, too.

Finally, SYM has 36 free videos, on various inspirational or instructional topics. But watch out: The files are huge, some over 100 megabytes. If you’re on a church or other shared computer, try to pick a time when others aren't using the connection.

Rumi-nations

What a relief Jalaluddin Rumi is. A holy man who enjoys family and friends. And who sounds like he's had some experience with the opposite sex.

Take this poem, one of the 70,000+ he wrote:

Come to the orchard in spring.
There is light and wine, and sweethearts
in the pomegranate flowers.
If you do not come, these do not matter.
If you do come, these do not matter.

Start with Rumi.net, a very good assortment of poems, essays and biographies. The work of Jewish-Persian poet Shahram Shiva, the site tells of Rumi's wealthy upbringing in the eastern Persian empire -- and the tragedy that may have birthed much of his poetry.

Some of the poems seem to have a double meaning:

By day I praised you
and never knew it.
By night I stayed with you
and never knew it.
I always thought that
I was me -- but no,
I was you
and never knew it.

Don't leave this site without seeing some of the poems in Flash 10. First you see the poem in Persian calligraphy. Wave your mouse pointer over it, and it morphs into a transliteration. Another wave, and it becomes a word-for-word translation. Wave #4 makes it fluent English.

You can find more Rumi poems here and here. Also check out Rumi's masterpiece, The Masnavi. The six-book compendium holds his teachings about Sufism, the mystical Islamic sect he belonged to.

Another viewpoint on Rumi's life is in the San Francisco Chronicle. The 2007 article suggests that studying Rumi's forgiving nature could help ease tensions between modern Muslims and westerners.

Find your own beliefs

Don't know where your inner compass points? Try Belief-O-Matic, part of the incredible Beliefnet cosmos.

This cosmic version of 20 Questions asks what you think of things like the nature of God, the origins of life, morality, the afterlife, social ethics, eternal rewards and punishments, etc.

A nice touch: The answers are multiple choice, with six to eight options (didn't you love those in college?). Also nice: You don't have to answer all the questions. Nice touch 3: You can weight each answer with one of three grades of importance.

Questionnaires like this often have some weakness. With this one, some of the multiple choices overlap. Take the question, "Why is there terrible wrongdoing in the world?" One answer is original sin; another is "God-given free will plus a weak side." Some people would choose both.

Soooooo, will you divine your divinity by question 20? Wellllll, you may come close, but not necessarily a bulls-eye. I tested as a 100-percent "Orthodox Quaker" (I'm not). Another reply is at the start of the quiz: "Belief-O-Matic assumes no legal liability for the ultimate fate of your soul."

Beliefnet has a lot of other quizzes, too. They examine topics as questing as "spiritual intelligence," as earthy as your level of lustfulness, as silly as the spirituality of Britney Spears.

Pictures worth a thousand prayers

Traditions are one thing; seeing the spots that inspired them is another. Christus Rex brings them together, with photos and text put together by a Marian priest.

Bearing a distinctly Italian Catholic feel, Christus Rex has a lot of virtual pilgrimages, guiding you around holy sites with devotional as well as historical comments. A nice clickable map shows biblical highlights of Jerusalem, such as St. Stephen Gate and Hezekiah's Tunnel.

An evocative section shows the Via Crucis, or Way of the Cross, retracing Jesus' steps on the day of his crucifixion. But it does need some updating. The webmaster's idea of a standard page width is a mere 700 pixels.

Check out the Pater Noster Convent on the Mount of Olives. The convent houses plaques with the Lord's Prayer in 1,444 languages. (Pictured: Farsi and Sanskrit.)

Vatican City is shown in a lush collection of photos -- not only the familiar St. Peter's Basilica and Sistine Chapel, but also the little-seen apartments of the pope.

There's more: a Catholic calendar, an online lectionary, a celebration of the dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome (see why I said the site has an Italian Catholic feel?). Two other sections, though, seem out of place.

One section is on the 1989 student uprising in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, and the military repression that ended it. The other is on the medieval Khazar Empire, which converted to Judaism in 740 A.D. The section accepts the controversial theory of author Arthur Koestler that the Khazars became Europe's Ashkenazic Jews.

Honest to godless

Herewith the loyal opposition: American Atheists, founded by the notorious late Madelyn Murray O'Hair. The group has largely dropped the nasty persona that O'Hair cultivated, but stands just as ready to defend godlessness.

Instead, the American Atheists give themselves labels like "positive," "independent," "happy," and science minded. They do some deep though pejorative probing, like on whether Jesus existed, or his disciples, or even some of the New Testament towns like Nazareth. They also list alleged contradictions between Bible verses.

But some of Murray's old venom survives. In a reprinted address at Memphis State University, she calls the Judeo-Christian heritage a "disease." She also says that before creating the universe, "God was sitting on his ass in Nowhere . . . picking his nose and farting." (Pictured: Madalyn Murray O'Hair in 1983. From Alan Light on Flickr.)

The attitude carries over into the site's news section. One article snickers at an un-baptism ritual using a hair dryer. Another calls Sarah Palin a "fundamentalist right-wing Christian," although the cited article doesn't use such language.

Christianity, in fact, seems the main fixation. The main other target seems to be Islam. Spinoff Christian groups like the Mormon Church and Christian Science also get some pokes. But there's little on Buddhists or Hindus or Taoists or native Americans. The atheists say this is because Christians are the main culprits in trying to limit the rights of others.

To be fair, the site also has some self-criticism. It questions the scientific dogmatism of Richard Dawkins and the mysticism of Sam Harris. And there's some lively give-and-take on the often-updated NoGodBlog.

Messianic messing

Barack Obama as Christ? That's one surprise on Jesus of the Week. This site, published by the Village Voice, seemingly has hundreds of images sent by readers.

As you can imagine, the pictures range from the classic to the classically stupid. Examples:

Slam-dunking a goal in a yellow Los Angeles Lakers uniform.

A reverent painting of Jesus offering bread and wine.

Twin faces of Christ as earrings, his hair studded with diamonds.

A Rasta-locked Lord on a shoulder tattoo.

A cartoon Jesus surfing on a cross.

And assorted Jesus faces on light switches, bandages, sticky notes, black velvet, and of course airbrushed onto vans and motorcycles. And on and on.

You submit the picture -- or someone out there does -- and the Village Voice editors add what they consider witty comments. Like the suggestion that a sitting statue, with hand to the side of his head, looks like he's talking on an iPhone. Tee-hee.

What to make of this site? One lesson: Culture can get pretty silly, even with revered figures. Two: Ridiculing the sacred is funny, at least for some mentalities.

Conclusion three: Ignorance is no handicap online. Whoever wrote the snickering paragraph for a crucifixion painting totally missed that the artist was Salvador Dali.

Thanksgiving on the Web

Thanksgiving holds a peculiar status as a hybrid religious-secular holiday. It combines history, heritage, religious ideals, family values and an opportunity to reach out to people different from yourself.

The day is even more American than July 4, says rabbi-journalist Marc Gellman.

"On Thanksgiving we have it all: football and the Macy's parade, family gatherings combined with an atmosphere of civic virtue that effortlessly morphs into secular thankfulness for the nonreligious and thankfulness to God for the pious among us," his 2007 article in Newsweek says. "Thanksgiving Day embraces us all."

Mary Fairchild of About.com has a fairly crisp report on the purpose and origins of the day, with some interesting trivia thrown in. Example: Seven other nations -- Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Korea, Liberia, and Switzerland -- have their own Thanksgiving days.

The Pilgrim Hall Museum in modern Plymouth, Mass., has valuable information on the Pilgrims and how their faith affected their Thanksgiving observance. Among the museum's religious treasures is the Bible of Pilgrim leader William Bradford (shown below).

More info is at Plimouth Plantation, a reconstruction of the 17th century Pilgrim settlement. Its Web site has historical background on Thanksgiving, both on the Christian settlers' side and that of the native Wampanoag tribe. But it also questions how religious the 1621 harvest festival was.

Interfaith services are a large and growing Thanksgiving tradition, when people of various religious gather to voice gratitude together.
Here are some suggestions for planning an interfaith Thanksgiving service, from an official of the United Methodist Church.

Some tips: Talk with other faith communities on the meaning of giving thanks; discuss the look of the venue; plan food and drink afterward, so people can mix. The nice thing is that the plans also work for other occasions besides Thanksgiving.

Not that the spiritual facet is unchallenged. Even a year ago, Slate magazine carried a report on a cultural war brewing around Thanksgiving, something like that over religious themes in Christmas. Writer Andrew Santella wrote in somewhat snarky terms about the religious right alarmists who wanted to make everyone thank the same God as they did.

But Santella ultimately lands on the side of thankfulness: "Do we really have to choose between the extremes of calling Thanksgiving a religious holiday or a civic celebration? Can't we assume that the holiday has evolved as some more subtle mix of the secular and the spiritual, one that each of us can adjust according to our own values?"

Quite a lot to digest with our turkey and pumpkin pie.

The U.S. election: The U.K. view

Did the presidential election help or hurt U.S. religion? Five columnists weigh in at The Guardian -- and draw more than 130 reader opinions.

The exchange is part of a large religion page produced by the venerable, century-old newspaper in London. The many columns there reveal some fresh, Brit-style thinking.

An atheist art columnist acknowledges the power and beauty of religious images, though he rejects their theology. A religious affairs correspondent files a video from her recent pilgrimage to Mecca. Another writer says sermons are a good idea -- just not in stodgy church services.

The choice of items reveals what has The Guardian's attention. Anglicans, Catholics, Muslims and atheists get lots of content. Jews, Hindus and Buddhists get less. But Christianity in general, including evangelicals and mainline Protestants, gets a whole separate page.

There's also a bit of weighting. In a special report on Christmas, the Guardian cites several views of Jesus: as Son of God, as a prophet, or just a man who was close to God. No such diversity touches the reports on the Hajj and Ramadan.

Not all the thinking at The Guardian is equally sharp, of course. A liberal rabbi predicts the demise of faith in a supernatural God within 30 years. That funeral has been said for more than a century -- and there are more believers, and more religions, than ever.

Just the facts on religion

Why do Hindus use a swastika? Why is the Cross of St. Peter upside down? And why do Scientologists weave an "S" through two triangles?

Those and more answers are on Religion Facts, which fittingly has the slogan, "Religion is interesting; knowledge is good." The anonymous religion student behind this site has kept his promise: straight facts, no manipulation.

And the 37 featured groups go beyond the usual world religions. It's also Aladura of west Nigeria and Cao Dai from Vietnam. It's the Druze of the Middle East and Zoroastrianism, which has one of its fire temples in Yazd, Iran (pictured here).

Each section has a short intro, then bulleted Fast Facts. Then comes a history of the religion, then beliefs and practices. Footnotes are plentiful and often lead to offline articles.

Better yet are the comparisons. A "Big Religion Chart" gives a quick rundown on each group. Other charts parse out differences among various types of Christians, Muslims and Buddhists.

Although the information is generally objective, the very choices inevitably raise questions. Is Deepak Chopra's center a distinct religion? Are ancient Greek Stoicism and Epicureanism religious? And should you put atheists, who attack the very idea of faith, on a list of faiths?

The author does urge us to continue our own studies. For those, he provides glossaries and book lists, some of them linking to eBay or Amazon.

Media well-done

Are theme parks part of the media? They are at Understanding Evangelical Media. Not only obvious ones like Walt Disney World, but also Creation Museum, Holy Land Experience, even Silver Dollar City.

Other Christian media? Comics, videogames, drama, robotic dinosaurs, even advertising and retail sales. They're all explored -- along with the usual TV, books and radio -- in this sweeping study co-edited by Quentin Schultze of Calvin College, a longtime sharp eye on religious media, along with Robert H. Woods Jr. of Spring Arbor College.

The site and book (IVP, 347 pp., $22) muster 40-plus specialists to examine 19 forms of media, with text, video clips and music samples. The site also posts much outside commentary on how well the Christian communicators are communicating -- or not.

As elaborate as it is, the site has a few flaws. Worship is listed as a type of media, but the fine arts are not, despite groups like Christians in Visual Arts. Three links are supposed to list chapters, topics and sources, but they all lead to the same Web page. Each topic also lacks a summary or introductory paragraph, although a few have sound-file commentaries.

But the links are so plentiful, the site is great for anyone who wants to explore this big topic of a burgeoning religious movement. For friends, enemies, or just the curious, Understanding Evangelical Media is well worth a bookmark.

Judaic wisdom

Simple to Remember is a study of Judaism that turned into a Web-based hobby. In the process, the author has amassed a treasury of wisdom.

The site covers some general questions, like "Why do bad things happen to good people?" and "Why don't the Jews believe in Jesus?" -- and interesting paradoxes like "Life is about pleasure, not comfort." It digs into spirituality and philosophy and "The Meaning of Life."

The writer -- who, as far as I can tell, never reveals his name -- stings our conscience with a long discussion of TV, calling it mostly a way to deliver audiences to advertisers. He also shows great concern for anti-Semitism, the cultural assimilation of Jews and the need for Jews to marry one another.

He cleverly alternates cute tricks with serious thoughts. On a page dealing with life and death, a clock made of words and numbers follows your mouse pointer like a spiral spring. But the article itself deals with a literally grave issue: Living a worthwhile life by remembering that one day you'll lose it.

Make sure to click Famous Jewish People, from the Web site of the Orthodox Union. That link actually starts before the people were called Jews, listing Abraham and Moses. It also includes luminaries like Hillel, Maimonides (called RAMBA"M here) and David ben-Gurion.

Many of the links point to the Web site of Aish HaTorah, an Orthodox Jewish educational organization. It's a good choice. Aish is an ace at couching ancient wisdom in modern words and trendy graphics.

You're a believer? You're dead

When a judge in Iran sentenced a man to death for the "crime" of converting from Islam to Christianity, Bishop Haik Hovsepian raised an international outcry. The convert was released, but Hovsepian vanished -- and his corpse was found later, with 26 stab wounds.

And the persecution isn't just in Iran. It's also in China, Eritrea, Kosovo, Cuba, Vietnam, Indonesia and elsewhere. Hence The Persecuted Church, which will sponsor its annual prayer day on Nov. 9 this year.

The site is an umbrella for 10 watchdog groups, including International Christian Concern, which lays out a table of the 35 countries where it says persecution or discrimination is worst.

Hovsepian's 1994 murder is remembered in A Cry From Iran, a documentary making the rounds in the U.S. Also poignant is Gospel for Asia, which has been monitoring the wave of brutal attacks on Christians in India.

What about others? Well, Persecuted Church says the plight of Christians dwarfs that of other faiths. But if you want a broader view, try Forum 18 News Service. Although it's a Christian organization, Forum 18 also sounds the alarm for other religions -- as in Azerbaijan, where a mosque was bombed, then kept closed by government order.

Also exemplary is the work of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. The commission monitors religious rights worldwide, marking 11 nations -- including Sudan, Burma, Uzbekistan and North Korea -- as "countries of particular concern."

Finally, have a look at persecution of Baha'is, especially heinous in Iran and Egypt. As of this writing, Iran has jailed 53 of them on charges of "illegally" teaching their religion, although the Baha'is say their main activities were teaching reading and hygiene to poor children.

The faith-based vote

Faith and religion permeated this U.S. presidential election perhaps more than any other -- and was probably scrutinized more systematically than ever, too. Here were three of the best studies.

The exceedingly sharp Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life went beyond blogging to actual numbers. Its poll on How the faithful voted looked at seven faith groups. Among the surprises: Most Catholics voted for Barack Obama, although they favored George W. Bush in 2004.

More tools are available on ReligionLink, a resource site for reporters but free for anyone. Its article Barack Obama and the future of religion and politics glitters with various facets of the election. One is the fascinating CNN exit poll, which teases out religious motives as well as others.

The ReligionLink article also looks religious-moral issues: poverty, the economy, gay marriage, the environment, the war in Iraq and the future Supreme Court. One segment even assesses Sarah Palin's chances for president in 2012.

Jay Toalson of U.S. News & World Report sounds like a prophet in his indepth study of religion and the election, way back in June. He accurately said that religious blocs were too complex to land snugly in either candidate's back pocket. And he said foreign policy statements wouldn't win religious votes any more than non-religious ones.

Ethicist David Gushee may raise your eyebrows with his opinion that not enough religion came up in the campaign. He wanted to hear more on "how a candidate's personal faith informs their moral values and, in turn, their policy choices." What he heard was "guilt by association" -- Obama's former attendance at Jeremiah Wright's church, Palin for having once been a Pentecostal.

Helping them help themselves

When governments talk about billions of dollars, it's hard to imagine that a few bucks can turn a life around. But Opportunity International does it for more than a million people in 28 nations each year.

The Christian-oriented group has mastered the art of of microenterprise: lending tiny amounts for individuals to support themselves. It also provides training and financial advice, and helps form community trust groups.

And yes. The organization, which holds the top four-star rating from Charity Navigator, supplies success stories.

A woman and her mother in the Philippines (left) support themselves by weaving colorful baskets, instead of scavenging at a nearby garbage dump.

A subsistence farmer in Indonesia borrowed $500 to dig 17 fish ponds, eventually harvesting 18 tons of carp per year.

In Honduras, a shoemaker stopped paying ruinous fees to loan sharks. He now employs six other fulltime workers.

A woman in Uganda used loans to buy bananas in bulk and sell them in Kampala. She not only supports eight children -- four of them for university educations -- but three AIDS orphans as well.

As you can see, the clients often use their success to help their neighbors. And 98 percent of trust group loans are repaid, Opportunity International says.

Is all this Christian? In answer, the group quotes Jesus: "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

Remembering G. K. Chesterton

Some people compress wit, word skills and insights into sparkling jewels of wisdom. One was G. K. Chesterton, an English Catholic writer whose life straddled the 19th and 20th centuries -- and influenced other writers like C. S. Lewis.

The Minneapolis-based American Chesterton Society has done a great job of gathering his quotes and other works. A sampling:

• "The reformer is always right about what is wrong. He is generally wrong about what is right."
  
  
• "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried."
  
  
• "Progress is Providence without God. That is, it is a theory that everything has always perpetually gone right by accident."
  
  
• "There are those who hate Christianity and call their hatred an all-embracing love for all religions."
  


• "The aim of good prose words is to mean what they say. The aim of good poetical words is to mean what they do not say."

There's more to Chesterton than quips, of course. He wrote a hundred books and hundreds of poems. He also wrote plays, novels, short stories and newspaper columns.

The Chesterton Society offers some of these, plus "nuggets," or digests, of some of his beliefs. It also publishes Gilbert magazine, with some thought-provoking sample articles by and about him.

A mis-directory?

All Things Spiritual shows both the beauties and pitfalls of creating a religious supersite. Meant to fill "the need of the time for greater connection to God," the site is easy to understand. It's also not well maintained -- and, in places, a little misleading.

First, the good. The unadorned design has fast-loading links. And you can hardly ask for more variety: Christian mysticism, Bible-themed museums, Hinduism-related toys, Tibetan singing bowls, Celtic flutes, a Virtual I Ching, Feng Shui tips, prophecies from Nostradamus and a host of others.

There's also meaty material like ancient Chinese texts, and historic Christian leaders like Francis Asbury. You can learn Carl Jung's beliefs on how personality affects spirituality. You can check out an intriguing mix of Judaic art and philosophy called Decoupage for the Soul.

The bad? Well, for one, many of the links are broken. Worse, some are misclassified. A site on yoga is grouped under Taoism. Soka Gakkai, a form of Japanese Buddhism, is under Shintoism. Sufism, a branch of Sunni Islam, is listed separately from that faith. And there's a link under Christianity to A Course in Miracles -- a metaphysical book supposedly dictated by Jesus.

The site's unnamed founders clearly take an interest in the stew of therapy, mysticism and esoterica that is often called the New Age. There's a subhead by that name here. But there are also several others -- Enlightenment, Mind-Body, Meditation, Shamanism, Spiritualism, Psychism, the Paranormal, Out-of-Body Experiences -- that are synonyms or subgroups.

Is that good or bad? Welllllll, I guess it depends on your own tastes.

The Halloween you didn't hear about

As Halloween looms, you'll no doubt hear the usual crossfire: conservative Christians and Orthodox Jews damning the "satanic" holiday, while pagans and secularists rant at "intolerant" fundies. But there are other viewpoints.

For religious opponents, surprising support comes from American Atheists. The article notes that Christmas nativity scenes are often banned from public property, but Halloween decorations are allowed. Yet Wiccans and pagans say Halloween is a holy day for them. "What does this say about the First Amendment aspects?" the article asks.

Last year, Halloween themes became all too real for theologian Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite when she heard of lynching nooses appearing on American campuses, and news of torture at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. She saw no use for a day of make-believe evil when real horrors haunt us every day.

More general ethical issues pop up on the Santa Clara University site. University fellow Rob Elder asks: Should Americans spend $6.9 billion on a holiday that promotes greed, vandalism and stomach aches?

Then there are the ecological evils of the holiday, according to MSNBC's Marisa Belger. You know, all those plastic costumes and pitchforks and candy wrappers. Belger suggests some ways to celebrate a green Halloween.

The day does have its defenders, such as psychologist Richard Beck. His blog says Halloween helps us "collectively process our eventual death and mortality" and "work through our fears of the uncanny."

Meanwhile, blogger and mother Diane Laney Fitzpatrick figures "if you can't beat 'em . . ." -- so she offers a Catholic activity for Halloween. She suggests religious education teachers actually set up graveyards for their students to walk through, shining flashlights on the headstones. There, they would read epitaphs of departed saints like Francis of Assisi.

A little weird, maybe, but still in the "spirit" of the original All Hallows Day.

Turning the three wheels

We wrap up our week of Buddhist sites with a fun vehicle:

Tricycle

Founded in 1990, Tricycle magazine sports a brisk style for western readers, with snappy writing and a sharp eye on social trends. Much of the content is for subscribers only, but there's also plenty of free Web articles.

One article examines sports spirituality. Another analyzes the recent Religious Landscape Study -- finding, among other things, that most American Buddhists are native born and college educated.

Another writer shudders at politics: "Traditional Buddhist images of hell seem all too familiar in a campaign year. Realms of ice and fire? Sounds like the New Hampshire and Arizona primaries. Demons, hungry ghosts, cursed spirits who hack at one another with iron claws? They're all on Meet the Press."

Nor does Tricycle gloss over Buddhist problems. One writer talks frankly about sexual misconduct even among sangha leaders. Another looks into a clash between Vietnamese Buddhists on how to deal with religious repression there.

Unfortunately, the articles have no print-friendly option. And many of the links to sound and video files don't work.

Navigation can be tricky. There's a mouseover menu, but when the menu options drop down, they often vanish before you can click them. Better to use the site map at the bottom of the homepage.

Tricycle has nice archives on Buddhist beliefs and practices. Especially readable is a short history of the faith. It even tells how Buddhism spread to places like Mongolia, and how it influenced western philosophers.

Woodsy Buddhists

For tonight's Buddhist Web site, we go old school with . . .

Forest Meditation

Tibetan Buddhists may get more media, with their dancing monks and their multicolored sand mandalas -- and, of course, the humble yet flamboyant Dalai Lama. But forest monks, from the ancient Thai Theravada tradition, have their own deep spirituality and supple thought.

Forest Meditation follows a familiar track in telling the story of the Buddha, though it leans heavily on direct quotes from the Pali Canon. But the emphasis seems to be practical teaching rather than tradition. There's lots of help on meditation: chants, breath control, historical background, suggested positions.

The articles can be long -- "Buddhism in a Nutshell" alone is nearly 17,000 words -- but internal hyperlinks mark the 11 chapters. That allows you to read a unit, take time to digest it, then return to where you left off.

Included are various chants and blessings in Pali, stored as mp3 sound files and sometimes text. But don't hop around the site, as you can do with some others. If, for instance, you skip the "Basics" unit, you'll miss definitions of oft-used terms like Dhamma and Vinaya.

Fortunately, footnotes in "Buddhism in a Nutshell" explain those and other concepts. A link to another Theravada site, Access to Insight, is another big help.

Oddly, though, an explanation of Forest Meditation itself -- history, development, its very reason -- is missing. That would have been easy to add, as shown on the Web site of the Abhayagiri Monastery, another Forest Meditation retreat.

Dead Buddhists Society?

Still touring the karmic side of the Web, we sharpen our knives for . . .

Killing the Buddha

"If you meet the Buddha on the road," the medieval master Lin Chi reportedly said, "kill him." For him, enlightenment was farther down the road.

In that spirit, the creators of this challenging Webzine favor the quest over the quick answers. The site died early this year when its three creators dropped it. But three others brought it back in June.

Their work leads largely with stories interwoven with their thoughts and feelings. One contributor shares a disturbing, crystalline memory of a boyhood meeting with his friend, the friend's dad, and dad's one-night stand. Like the other pieces, it's heartfelt and written so smoothly that you almost lose yourself in it.

Gone are the blogs and message boards where readers took casual swipes at Christianity; maybe that's why the editors call it "99 percent fatwa-free." The site does, however, retain its sneers about conventional religion.

Co-editor Ashley Makar disses "Holy-Ghost stories from sweaty preachers telling everyone how to live," although she herself is Coptic Orthodox. And contributor Andrew Boyd mentions the "corruption and backwardness of present-day institutionalized Buddhism in Thailand."

The new design is open and easy on the eyes, with large text on light gray background. But it still has rough edges. When I logged in for this review, the homepage had a big, blank box meant for a picture.

If you're nostalgic for the old KtB, a generous archive goes back to 2000.

Sangha long with us

A thousand pardons for pausing in my week of Buddhist site reviews; I was out of town for a half-week. Let's look next at . . .

Buddhist Wisdom

Siddhartha surely would have been pleased. The homepage of this site uses line drawings on black, relieved only by outlines of varied colors. Links lead to four sections: the story of the Buddha, basic teachings and scriptures, and some pithy sayings. Small pictures of lotus blossoms and the "Om" monogram abound.

An Flash-animated presentation presents some of the Buddha's teachings, including learning by observation and the impermanent nature of the self. The show starts with a Zen-like "bong" of a bell, then proceeds with cartoon-like panels.

The story of how a prince became a religious leader is told reverently and uncritically. The section explaining the Eightfold Path is especially good; most sites of the type simply list titles like "Right Thinking." Here, right thinking is defined as "the development of loving kindness, empathy and compassion."

The sayings are well chosen, drawing not only from the Buddha but others like the Dalai Lama and Lamya Surya Das -- even the Taoism pioneer Lao Tzu. The site also has the lucid, 423-verse Dhammapada, a collection of sayings from the Theravada Pali Canon.

For dessert, may we suggest Pearls of Wisdom, the parent site. It has metaphysical ideas by women, pagans and native Americans. Also interesting are inspirational lyrics by the likes of Enigma, James Ingram, Lenny Kravitz and Alanis Morissette.

Sights and sounds of Buddhism

On our third night looking at Buddhist Web sites, we gaze upon . . .

Visions of Enlightenment

An impressive, Flash-powered site from the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, Calif., this is a near-perfect use of the Internet for religion. It blends beauty and sound -- flute, chants, rippling water -- in sharing knowledge.

Exploring is easy. Simply pick one of four big icons, on the Buddha, Compassionate Beings, Buddhist Sites and Ritual Objects. Each section crosslinks to the others, letting you skip around without returning to the homepage.

For a gimmick-heavy site, Visions of Enlightenment has surprisingly detailed text. Fact boxes pop up everywhere.

Click a keyword in the text, like Theravada, and a box defines it. Roll your mouse pointer over the pictures, and balloons pop up to point out, for instance, why images of the Buddha have long earlobes, or why some begging bowls are made from human skulls.

The four Flash photo essays are a treat in themselves. One, Hollywood Buddha, shows the many ways that city has co-opted the Buddha and his concepts: names of restaurants, clubs and coffeehouses; rock groups like Nirvana; even a bobblehead Buddha for a dashboard.

Once intrigued, you may be frustrated by the lack of a print-friendly mode. But there's a way around that. Simply select the HTML option on the homepage instead of Flash. That brings up conventional text blocks with inline images.

Monkish advice

Welcome to the second night of our look at Buddhist Web sites. Fold yourself into your best lotus blossom position and prepare to . . .

Ask a Monk

What puzzles you about Buddhism? The Cloudwater Zendo community in Cleveland, Ohio, wants to answer it.

Practicing both the Ch'an (Zen) and Pure Land varieties, Cloudwater posts some breezy-sounding answers to common issues. The questions cover things like "Buddhism is just an offshoot of Hinduism, isn't it?" and the chuckle-inducing "Buddhism is the tradition that worships the jolly-looking fellow with the big belly, right?"

Even better: You can write your own question in an online form -- and specify how soon you need the answer. The site also has longer discussions based on reader feedback.

Those chains of questions bring out more nuanced teachings, like whether believers should worship Buddha, or whether human relationships help or hurt the road to enlightenment. Also explained are the differences between Pure Land Buddhism, and its Buddha Amitabha, from Jesus and heaven.

The Cloudwater folks explain concepts like Buddha-fields, transferring merit, and the relationship of a Buddha to a bodhisattva. A chart compares and contrasts Ch'an and Pure Land, but it has so many in-house terms, only a disciple would grasp it fully.

One glitch: Ask a Monk says Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and other religions basically teach the same things. Those who read my last column know my opinions on that. When a faith claims special insights, it necessarily creates differences. Choose any religion you want, but choose you must.

Lotus pray

Whoops, a bit late on the promised weeklong series on Buddhist sites. Without further delay, let's look at:

BuddhaNet

Here's a perfect example of what be accomplished with the Internet and one determined person -- in this case, Venerable Pannyavaro of Sydney, Australia. The Theravada monk started in 1993 with an old-school Bulletin Board Service. Now, BuddhaNet is a world-class publisher of text and music.

The site includes chants, hymns, mantras -- even whole albums of Buddhist pop music, both for adults and for children. It has scriptures of several traditions, including Pali, Chinese and Tibetan. A map-linked directory locates Buddhist centers almost anywhere, from Bolivia to Bahrain to Botswana.

A multi-level course deals with the life of the Buddha, as well as karma, reincarnation and meditation. Some content takes pdf, ebook or RealAudio form.

One refreshing article names 27 distinctiveness of Buddhism; for instance, that it acknowledges no supreme being. So many leaders these days pretend that all religions are basically the same.

And don't miss the site's BuddhaZine. It's full of mind-tickling content: computer art, crossword puzzles, cartoons, articles on psychotherapy and Buddhist architecture, photos from Bhutan, and those hand gestures known as mudras. It also has more traditional art, like the thangka of Buddha Shakyamuni above.

This otherwise lavish site does have a hole: an apparent lack of a FAQ file for western readers (yeah, like me). Such a file might deal, for example, with the clash between the western ideal of self-fulfillment and the Buddhist ideal of self-annihilation.

Some sites do address such issues. We'll look at one tomorrow night.

Tools for spiritual explorers

Fed up with being told how you should believe? Click around Explore Faith, a toolbox to help you find not only what you believe, but how you go about it.

One tool is a 10-question "spiritual profile" that places you in one of six categories -- believer, lover, seeker, maverick, thinker or companion -- then suggests more reading, linked from other places around the site.

The writers deal with matters like grief, forgiveness and how to learn from your dreams. They offer tips on keeping a journal or walking a labyrinth. They also have at classic questions, like "Why does God let bad things happen in the world?" and "Isn't searching for the God within just an excuse for narcissism?"

The site takes an Episcopal point of view, but the contributors couldn't be more varied. They include Bruce Feiler, author of the Walking the Bible bestsellers; Marcus Borg, a maven of the revisionist Jesus Seminar; Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh; Sylvia Maddox, a retreat leader in San Antonio, Texas; and Ram Dass, a 1960s-vintage guru who blends yoga, Buddhism, Sufism and Judaism. Also here are evangelical Christians like Francis Collins, director of the Human Genome Project.

Their writing styles and talents vary, of course, and they add up to a pretty wordy site: few pictures, no videos, no Flash effects. The animation, actually, is in your own mind and spirit. After all, you're the explorer.

STARTING SUNDAY: A week-long look at Buddhist Web sites.

Happy Hindu New Year

The Hindu Festival of Lights, starting this year on Oct. 28, is like Christmas and New Year combined. And it's celebrated not only in India, but wherever Indians have settled: the U.S., the U.K., Africa and South America.

Learning about Divali online, though, can be a problem. Most Web sites for the holiday are either 1) laden with Sanskrit terms, assuming you already know the stories being taught, or 2) glitzy online catalogs for holiday sweets, jewelry, artifacts, incense and the like.

But there are exceptions.

Start with this bare-bones site, from the University of Kansas Medical School. Part of a list of holidays, it has a nice, simple description -- no Flash, no pictures -- of each of the five days of the Divali observance. It also links to a Hindu site that explains why Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and fortune shown above, is honored on Divali.

Now you may be ready for the holiday site by Rangoli. VGreets has a concise explanaton of these seasonal designs sometimes called visual prayers. You can also find Rangoli galleries here, here and here.

Want more depth? India Travelogue provides a lengthy, 1,900-word essay on the festival, how it varies around India, and the three stories associated with the time.

Thanking Billy Graham

Tons of books, Web sites, TV specials and movies -- including the new Billy: The Early Years -- focus on Billy Graham. But two of his grandsons saw a gap: What about those he preached to?

Their answer is Thank You Billy, a message board for the many people who were touched by Graham's six decades of ministry.

Brothers Basyle and Aram Tchividjian put up the Web site last year, and it already has more than 500 anecdotes. Among them:

• A gang leader in New Zealand who became a Christian and turned his life around.

• A woman who vividly recalls a Graham crusade in Romania, 27 years ago, when the country was still under Marxist rule.

• A single mother who became a believer in Jesus from watching a crusade on TV, while stoned.

• A Georgia man who was not only inspired to live for Jesus through a Graham movie, but took up guitar after hearing the movie's sound track.

One glitch: If you call up a story, then hit the "back" arrow on your browser, it'll return you to the homepage instead of the story list. Use the "Close" tool on the message itself. But even then, you may have to scroll down to the spot you left.

Also here are six videos about Grham from a variety of people, including Pat Boone and Joni Eareckson. The videos introduce the Tchividjians' new book, Invitation, which has 40-50 anecdotes along with photos from the Graham archives.

Boone reappears on the tribute music video Thank You Billy Graham, linked from his own site. Singers include Faith Hill, Michael McDonald, LeAnn Rimes, Kenny Rogers and others, with an introduction by Bono. You can also download the song as an mp3.

Does God need spying?

"From politics to the arts, science to the economy, sexuality to ecology" -- it's an ambitious mission statement for Godspy. Taking a Catholic perspective, but accessible to others as well, Godspy is part news, part analysis, part repost from other sites.

The sleek, white-on-black site runs literate TV and movie reviews, like the new film version of Brideshead Revisited. It carries a New York Times article about belief in God being higher among physicists than biologists. And it mentions an effort by the Vatican to serve as a patron of fine arts, as it was during the Renaissance.

All those and more are lined up in 12 links across the top, although stories are often under two or more. But if those aren't enough, pore through the 40 topics down the left side -- everything from sharia to stem cells to secularism. You'll even find those good ol' church topics, like sin and love.

Some of Godspy sounds a bit defensive or belligerent. It cites a Vatican conference that concluded Pope Pius XII "spared no effort" to help Jews during World War II. And business writer Angelo Matera starts a column with, "If there's anyone in the mainstream media willing to listen to the Church these days (I doubt it) ..."

Have a look at the archives, too. They include a look at matters like religion and politics, the L'Arche movement, and Benedict XVI's call to a conversationist lifestyle. The page is pretty, but grab all the articles you can: At least half of the links are expired.

United we sing, and maybe dance

Sure, the world is awash in ignorance and prejudice, but what can one person do?

Ask Jack Bloomfield. In 2004 he founded One Planet United, an organization that brings together people as varied as Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and Pentecostal Christians -- all in the simmering melting pot of South Florida.

What does he get them to do? Talk out differences. Cool down tensions. Understand people different from themselves. And sing and dance together -- with choirs and soloists joining in annual concerts called Faith in Music.
Even better, you can do it, too -- with model plans, called "templates," on this Web site.

Like "Unity in our Community," a program using music, dance and drama in community celebrations. Like "Looking Glass Theater," a series of eight sketches with morals of acceptance. "Like OPU Clubs," where middle and high school students can promote dialogue and mediate intergroup problems.

The free documents, 150k to 300k long, don't take any expertise. Each project is broken down into committees, time requirements, press releases, program outlines. There are even suggested theme songs, like Where is the Love? by the Black-Eyed Peas.

A list of OPU-endorsed speakers is a bit heavy on the New Age, with the likes of Gary Zukav, Deepak Chopra and Neale Donald Walsch. But it also has a few conventional folks like Della Reese and Harold Kushner.

But that's the beauty of the templates. Whether you share all of Bloomfield's beliefs or not, the plans will still work for you. Imagine: trusting his tools with people he's never seen. That goes even beyond interfaith work.

Grace: Amazing, and unfair

Fog rolls in on a coastline, toward a lone figure on a rock. Philip Yancey's bearded, gray-haired face silently invites us to sit awhile and consider who God is to us -- and, perhaps, who we are to God.

Over three decades, Yancey has made an enduring impact in evangelical circles, with 12 books selling more than 14 million copies. This site hints at his insights and gift for words.

In an interview: "I can't think of any argument against God that isn't already included in the Bible."

In his travel notes: "I cannot claim that grace is fair. By definition, it's unfair: We get the opposite of what we deserve."

Sadly, Yancey has stopped adding to his notes. The last was in January 2005. At least we can still browse the site for photos, interviews, a biography and a book list.

The standout is the subsite for his book What's So Amazing About Grace? It opens with a synth treatment of the hymn Amazing Grace, with a photo montage of ... well, so many people. Bill and Hillary. Bill Gates. Mother Teresa. Timothy McVeigh. Mao Zedong.

Then the window moves to anecdotes from readers who have experienced grace in their own lives -- set to a soundtrack of howling wind and flapping shutters. The clear message: In a cold, uncaring world, we need a God who cares about us.

Many of the book thumbnails are broken; geez, where is that Webmaster? Use this link instead. It'll list all the books, in all their versions -- hardcover, softcover, audio, DVD, and several kinds of ebook.

Unearthing beliefs

Archaeology is more than stones and bones, you know. It's also about raging arguments and clashing worldviews. And Biblical Archaeology Review has been in the thick of it since 1975.

The editors naturally want you to subscribe (for $13.97), but their Web site has fascinating freebies.

One article is on a signet thought to have belonged to nasty ol' Queen Jezebel of the Bible. Another is "Gabriel's Revelation," an apocalyptic message on a 3-foot-tall block carved before the birth of Jesus. Still another is on a cave in Jordan that may have sheltered a church before 70 A.D.

A caveat: BAR sometimes enters the debates itself. Editor Hershel Shanks protested the 2007 Muslim digging under the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, saying it could damage ancient Hebrew artifacts. BAR also maintains a blog on the flimsy pseudo-documentary The Lost Tomb of Jesus, which flamed out on The Discovery Channel last year.

One of BAR's own buried treasures is a collection of picture galleries, three levels down and not linked from the homepage. Among the 17 galleries are artifacts from Greece and Masada, gold and turquoise jewelry from Afghanistan, and drawings of the Middle East from 1838.

Still another freebie: downloadable booklets, on things like the 2,700-year-long roots of the Olympic games. You have to sign onto BAR's e-mail list to fetch them, but that's free, too. And the list has news clips from other publications as well.

Faith made sight

Evangelicals are not known for artistry. Or so I thought. Then I came across Christians in the Visual Arts -- founded way back in 1979.

CIVA is Christian at heart, housed as it is at Gordon College. It also encourages refined artworks: sensitive, intelligent, skillfully rendered.

Appropriately, its Web site does little talking and much showing, with several online galleries. Media include photography, acrylic, collage, metal sculpture, even a mixed-media work of music with sound and light sensors.

Some of the pictures are religiously explicit, like an oil painting of the Annunciation to Mary. Some are enigmatic, like a wall hanging of woven teabags. Some explore general human themes -- like Mystical Marriage by Tanja Butler, shown here. One gallery experiments with the medieval triptych motif.

A minor gripe: The galleries could be easier to navigate. They're numbered but have no thumbnails, and there's no "Next" button on each picture. So you'll have to remember which number picture you're on.

CIVA acknowledges the hazard of visual art: People may see a variety of messages, and not necessarily what the artist meant. They're willing to take that risk, says Sandra Bowden of the group, to "lead the audience to a place of introspection."

Environmental spirituality

Church groups were once scorned by environmentalists as part of the problem; now they're valued as allies. Born way back in 1992, Earth Ministry is a veteran in creation care.

Unlike some environmental groups, Earth Ministry doesn't just rant about pollution and energy. It also looks at humans and the need to make a living. The group also helps people appreciate nature -- via stream cleanups, hiking and kayaking trips, and a music festival called the Celebration of St. Francis. And its think pieces come from real thinkers, like Bill Moyers, Calvin DeWitt and Frederick Buechner.

Earth Ministry still seems centered on Washington State, its birthplace. But it has a lot of resources that anyone can use. There's a handbook for "greening" a congregation. There's a book on agriculture, called Food and Faith. There are teaching materials for kids, from Catholic, Presbyterian and Christian Reform groups.

Take a long, careful look at the "Pattern Map": a sprawling organizational chart that interlinks the social, natural and economic realms into an ideal whole. It bristles with big ideas, like "ecosystem services" and "bioregional economies." But each is explained and may even sound workable. See what you think.

Also click the online pdf of the quarterly Earth Letter. It's nice-looking, but the posted sample is from winter 2006-7. (A cynic might suggest that it was chosen for its article from Barack Obama.) A subscription comes with a $35 membership fee.

Clicking a prayer?

Web-enhanced serenity may sound oxymoronic: Can one withdraw from the world by "plugging into it"? But the Irish Jesuits of Sacred Space claim that anyone can learn to pray -- even in front of a computer -- by following a few steps.

Those steps include the presence of God, freedom, consciousness, scripture, conversation and a conclusion. Click on each step and read each section -- a prayer or reflection or a biblical passage -- then click "Next" when you're ready. You can also backtrack and repeat steps.

The whole presentation is meant to impart peace and calm: simple language, mild mottled backgrounds, a pastoral picture on the homepage. Even the steps of prayer fade in and out as you click them, rather than switching abruptly.

Nor are you just a passive consumer. In a section called the Chapel of Intentions, you can post prayers of your own, for yourself or others. The list is sent to prayer communities, and some prayers are posted online.

If you don't know what to pray for, the Jesuits suggest sharing Pope Benedict XVI's current prayer concerns, or saying a novena (nine-day prayer series) for peace. The sample prayers come not only from Pope John XXIII, but also from Buddhist, Jewish, Jain, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim and Bahai sources.

Good stuff, with a caveat

As a superdirectory, the Christian Web Site is well worth a bookmark. Starting in 1995 as Best of the Christian Web, the site now lists more than 81,000 sites, one of the largest such directories.

But you'll have to take some of it with a grain of salt. More on that shortly.

The lively, well-organized homepage starts with founder Jeff White's recommendations, including software reviews, blogging tips and a free e-mail service. But the heart of the site is the directory of links in 24 categories -- from Apologetics to Chat Rooms to News to Software.

You can look up churches nationwide. You can learn Christian answers to questions from atheists, Muslims and others. You can see who is into paintings or films, dance or drama. It's a mountain of information, but the directory helps in several ways.

Each site is rated by users on a 10-point scale, and there-s a separate list of the top-rated ones. There's also a list of "Cool Links," the top 1 percent. Finally, you can use a search window.

Some of the sites, in fact, are better than White’s own essays. A recent article notes, disapprovingly, Coca-Cola’s plan to include the crescent and star on products for sale in Muslim countries during Ramadan. Then White rants that Coke is "targeting the terrorist market." Not a great show of Christian love or discernment, Jeff.

Another question mark: "Holy Land oil lamps" for sale. White says these old-looking lamps date from 200 B.C. to 100 A.D. He doesn’t say how he knows that, or why he would sell such artifacts for $69 each.

Christian Web site also has a large forum of message boards, with themes like movies, music, sports and politics. You have to register to write comments, but it's free.