God Online

Eastern Orthodox Easter

2009-04-15T05:44:00.000-07:00

Easter ended on Sunday for Protestants and Roman Catholics, but it falls on this Sunday, April 19, for the world's 200,000+ Eastern Orthodox. And for this version of Easter, red eggs are better than chocolate bunnies.

Start with Fact Mon ster. It's a surprisingly lucid yet accurate explanation of why the Greek, Russian and other Orthodox churches don’t celebrate Easter along with their Catholic and Protestant counterparts. If you do want a more detailed explanation, you can get it here.

Of course, there’s no substitute for the original sources. For that, there’s the Orthodox Christian Network, with Podcasts and streaming videos. They're produced by St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, Fort Lauderdale, which has a production studio onsite.

Also click this link, from a newspaper in southern California, for a rundown of Easter that takes in several Orthodox branches -- including Russian, Serbian, Antiochian and others. The story is also handy for the pop-up notes for terms like "subdeacon" and "Holy Saturday."

A heartfelt article by actress Rita Wilson, wife of Tom Hanks, tells of Easter preparations growing up in her Greek household: the blood-red eggs, the braided cookies called koulorakia, the funeral procession as worshipers follow the Epitaphio, a stylized casket for a Christ icon.

Along the way, you’ll learn some fascinating lore. Like how Russian jeweler Peter Carl Faberge created those incredibly ornate eggs that bear his name. And how a priest reads the Gospel accounts of Jesus' resurrection on Easter in as many languages as he can manage.

Finally, click this link for an Orthodox Church in Anaheim, Calif., and see all the translations -- "Christos Anesti," "Chrestos Voskrese," "Al Massi eh Kam," "Kristo Ame Fu Fuka," "Ua Ala Hou 'O Kristo," " Ha Ri Su To' Su Fuc Katsu" -- that mean "Christ is Risen." That will give you a taste of how universal the Eastern Orthodox Communion is.

DVD review: 'Jerusalem: Center of the World'

2009-03-31T21:07:00.000-07:00

More blood and tears must have been shed over Jerusalem than any other city in history. Rather ironic for a city whose name means "City of Peace." But perhaps not for the literal touchstone of three enormously influential religions.

Its history is beautifully retold in Jerusalem: Center of the World, which premiered on PBS on April 1 and was released as a DVD shortly thereafter. Handsomely shot and diplomatically written, it is a rarity among documentaries -- a film on the Holy Land that's well done, but doesn’t graft someone's pet theory onto the topic.

The two-hour show traces the historical reasons -- still visible today in the holy sites -- why those few acres have grabbed and held our attention for four millennia.

With the sure, steady hand of PBS newsman Ray Suarez, Jerusalem: Center of the World plays it straight with biblical history. It tells of Abraham's call to move to the land, and how God tested his loyalty by asking him to sacrifice his son Isaac. It tells of the magnificent Temple built on the spot centuries later by his descendant Solomon. And it tells the grief over losing the land when the Romans scattered the Jews.

The documentary continues with the story of Christianity, and Jesus' final days in Jerusalem. It shows the Via Dolorosa, the winding street said to mark the 14 events between his arrest and his burial. It also ventures into the cavernous Church of the Holy Sepulchre, traditional site of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection.

But it moves on to tell of the importance of the city to Muslims as the "Farthest Mosque," or al-Masjid al-Aqsa, mentioned in the Quran. There’s an awe-inspiring walk through the Dome of the Rock, the golden-domed shrine that dominates nearly every photo of Jerusalem.

Not that the special swallows all the legends whole. It acknowledges that non-biblical evidence is scant for people like David, and for events like Muhammad's nighttime visit to Jerusalem. But it doesn’t air historical gossip or shifting archaeological fads.

Jerusalem: Center of the World tells how the Romans put down a Jewish revolt, then destroyed and rebuilt Jerusalem after 70 A.D. The film also covers -- perhaps a bit too lightly -- its rebuilding as a Roman city, then a Byzantine pilgrimage site, then the Ottoman period, heading into the 20th century.

The documentary producer, Two Cats Productions, clearly found a soulmate in the Muslim family entrusted with the key to the front door of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The head of the family is given considerable camera time explaining the complexities of caring for such a sensitive holy place.

Jerusalem: Center of the World also skirts controversy in saying that scholars agree the Temple once stood on Mount Moriah, but all evidence for the structure is gone. Left unmentioned are the arguments of Asher Kaufman and others that the Waqf, the Arab authority governing the mountain, has purposefully destroyed such evidence.

But it seems to lean toward the Muslim side in dealing with the Crusades. It relates the the brutality of the First Crusade, but stays silent on the destruction of all churches and synagogues in Jerusalem by the Muslim ruler Hakim a century earlier.

Still, Jerusalem: Center of the World is a welcome tone of moderation about a city so given to extremes. When PBS makes the DVD available, it will likely get bought up by a lot of libraries -- and by families who want more light than heat.

Film review: 'One Day You'll Understand'

2009-03-16T21:31:00.000-07:00

What if you thought your father might be a Nazi? How deep into public records would you dig? How far would you push your mother to divulge the facts?

Those questions plague Victor, a usually calm businessman at the center of One Day You'll Understand. In Paris in 1987, he listens with growing tension to media reports of the trial of Klaus Barbie, an accused Gestapo police chief in Nazi-era France.

Why is he anxious? Because his mother, Rivka, is a Jew, and his father may have been a collaborator with the Vichy government, a French version of the Third Reich. (Pictured: Hyppolyte Girardot as Victor and Jeanne Moreau as Rivka. Photo Courtesy of Kino International. )

How else to explain the father's SS dagger? Why else did he sign a document certifying Victor's sister as an "Aryan"? Why Rivka's silence about her parents, who died at Auschwitz? Was the father another Klaus Barbie?

Victor learns of a small village hotel where his grandparents hid out, and he drives there for answers. There he finds the room where they lived -- and he has a mysterious vision of that night when the Nazis finally found them.

The film is very un-American; it's low-key and talky -- in French, yet, with English subtitles. The film is short on the sex and blood and exploding helicopters that U.S. directors seem to consider vital ingredients. Yet One Day You'll Understand has its own neck-snapping suspense. The more Rivka deflects, the more you want to scream: "DAMMIT, JUST TELL HIM! GET IT OUT IN THE OPEN!"

But of course, she can't. Not after locking up secrets for four decades. And the film title comes true. When Victor finally grasps what she went through -- and what knowledge she protected him from -- he does understand.

The film troubles the conscience on several levels. One is the conflict of needs in a family: the need for truth versus the simple need to go on living, whatever the past may hold. Another is personal responsibility: How would we face a massive, genocidal force like Nazism? Would we flee? Join some guerrilla group? Lie to save our families? Or, as many did, collaborate?

Why do people act as they do? Or speak as they do? Or, sometimes, keep silent? We can only hope one day to understand.

A Noble Sanctuary for Muslims

2009-03-11T21:10:00.000-07:00

Explore the 35-acre quad in Jerusalem known to Muslims as The Noble Sanctuary via this attractive, fact-filled site. From the Dome of the Rock to Al-Aqsa Mosque to the Islamic Museum, you'll gain a glimpse of why this is considered the third-holiest site in the Islamic world.

You'll get a little history, starting with Muhammad's legendary ascension to heaven from the mountain. You'll see some closeups of the stunning Dome of the Rock, with its golden dome and its blue-and-white calligraphic tiles added by Suleiman the Magnificent. You'll learn how informal centers of discussion at Al-Aqsa Mosque gradually grew into the four main schools of religious thought.

You'll also see the vaulted underground prayer room sometimes called Solomon's Stables. This is the structure that drew much controversy a decade ago, when it was being excavated by the Waqf, the Muslim trust that administers the area. Some Israeli observers said the Muslims were dumping truckloads of valuable archaeological materials. As this site says, Muslims counter that it was actually built during an eighth-century caliphate.

The writing is fairly lucid and direct, with only a few of those pious expressions like "peace be upon him." Surprisingly, the site acknowledges that many people believe the mountain was the site of Solomon's Temple. Some Muslim leaders deny that a temple ever stood there, loathe to concede any Jewish claim on the land.

One quibble: The siderail with the crosslinks is blue text on a field of green, making it hard to read. Green is supposed to have been Muhammad's favorite color. But I suspect that unlike the designers of this site, he would have opted for function over form.

The Noble Sanctuary is a fairly complex Web site, and not all the sections are linked from the homepage. Fortunately, there's a Contents page, which works as a site map for the 21 main sections.

Christian yoga: Too much of a stretch?

2009-03-07T21:39:00.001-08:00

Yoga: Hindu implant or useful import? Christians don't agree on the answer. But there is a coterie of believers who try to merge the two, and their case in Christians Practicing Yoga is about as good as it gets.

"Christians connect instinctively with an embodied spiritual practice that inclines toward deeper prayer," the homepage says. "It is embedded in our spiritual DNA to go to God the way God came to us -- in and through the body."

The site offers a variety of approaches. There's the ancient devotional method called Lectio Divina. Contributor Lori Smith suggests chanting, a practice it shares with Christianity -- and with Sufism and native American religions.

Writer Bernadette Latin goes into satisfying, lucid detail about yogic values, such as Brahmacharya (moderation) and Ishvara Pranidhana (devotion to God). She draws some parallels between eastern and western beliefs, likening, for instance, the Sanskrit prana (life energy) to the Hebrew ruach (spirit).

Many Bible verses are offered, including Acts 17:28: "In Him we live and move and have our being." There's even a mini-directory of schools for face time with practitioners.

Much of the site is rather defensive. Latin, who seems to be the main ideologue, argues that yoga is a mere discipline that has been used by Hindus, Jains and Buddhists, and can be adapted to Christianity as well.

Father Tom Ryan, another site maven, supplies a helpful FAQ file for questions about mantras, Kundalini, and invoking Hindu deities. He even takes the offensive, saying that "incarnational faith" must include actions -- not just yoga but benevolence, human rights and social justice.

And the bleat goes on

2009-03-05T19:44:00.000-08:00

Sheeple, Churchianity, herd mentality -- churchgoing Christians often get accused of being meek, bland and mindless. But instead of rebuking or repeating the snark, Sheep Comics turns it into satire.

The strip starts with Lionel, a youngish sheep who feels disaffected when his church doesn't match what he reads in the Bible. When the pastor rebukes Lionel for questioning him -- and even threatens to excommunicate him -- Lionel concludes the church is designed to control access to the Great Shepherd.

Sheep Comics has gone on for 87 episodes like that, ever since it premiered in 1999. Various episodes skewer tithing, guilt, coercion, prayer meetings, denominational rivalries, theological quarrels, trite praise and worship music, "responsive bleatings," even Thomas Kinkade's "inspirational" paintings.

It's a clever, subversive idea to take a common criticism of Christians and make it the theme of a comic strip. But the site's unnamed Web Shepherd often blunts the effect with long "editorials" after the cartoons -- 4,788 words in the very first installment. How ironic that some of his strips rant against boring sermons.

Still, so little cartoon satire is even attempted in religious circles, it's worth your time to look through Sheep Comics. After all, to err is human; to forgive is ovine. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Jewish and secular: Is it possible?

2009-02-28T14:34:00.001-08:00

"Secular Judaism" may sound like a contradiction in terms. But according to at least one study, up to half of all American Jews believe in separating faith and public life.

For them, there's Cultural Judaism. Its creator, the Center for Cultural Judaism, aim to help secular Jews "celebrate their Jewish identity and pass it on to the next generation."

The main attraction is the back articles from the group's Contemplation magazine, contributing some fresh thinking. One article, by Jonathan Sarna of Brandeis, honors secular Jews from the 17th century thinker Baruch Spinoza to the 19th century feminist Ernestine Rose to the 21st century record manager David Katznelson.

Sarna sees a kind of renaissance of Jews in recent years. He says the Cold War gave secularism a bad name. But since the fall of communism, he notes the rise of institutions like Heeb magazine and the National Yiddish Book Center.

European Jewish writer Diana Pinto's essay is a sad irony. She argued that multicultural tolerance gave room for Jews to take part fully in European society. An editorial note says the 1999 essay predated a flare-up in anti-Semitism, but was again relevant since the outbreak faded. How sad: anti-Semitism has returned, since the Gaza incursion by Israel -- and European Jews once again have to keep their heads down.

Cultural Judaism also has some absorbing news articles, many from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The stories discuss matters like humanism, children of interfaith marriages and the "December dilemma" -- whether a blended family should celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah.

One of the articles is a review of Secular Culture & Ideas, a site worth its own bookmark. That site digs into issues like Hanukkah, female prophets, and Jewish involvement in sports.

Helping you find the way, maybe

2009-02-25T19:48:00.000-08:00

Explore dozens of faith-based topics -- meditation, tribal beliefs, prophecies, etc. -- on the ambitious All Things Spiritual. The 25 main categories on the homepage index the usual world religions, plus a few surprises: Enlightenment, Mind-Body beliefs, even Sikh, Confucian and Zoroastrian groups. But those are just the start.

Click "More" and you'll definitely get it: angels, ghosts, Nordic gods, Rosicrucians, African myths, benevolent "cosmic people." There's a collection of prophecies -- biblical, Mayan, Hopi, Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce, Our Lady of Fatima. There's some nice poetry from a variety of people, from William Blake to Omar Khayyam to Thich Nhat Hanh.

One site tries to show how England's Rosslyn Chapel -- featured in the movie The Da Vinci Code -- links the Masons with the Knights Templar. Another link offers a book titled Am I Crazy or Just Haunted? The free, downloadable book offers guidance on living with the paranormal.

As with any superdirectory, some of the classifications are up for debate. Yes, it's smart to put meditation and shamanism in their own categories; they bridge many faith traditions. But why is there a separate link for Sufism, a branch of Sunni Islam? Or for Veda, one of the Hindu scriptures? And why is native European spirituality separate from paganism?

It's also not great to see a lot of links that aren't so much resources as online catalogs. Sites like Cross Pendants Online, or the Bodyelement Yoga Studio, or the Eye of Horus Myth & Ritual Store.

Finally, although it may not need saying, "Buyer Beware." Just because it's on a Web site, doesn't mean it's accurate. An example: messianic groups -- i.e., Jews who became Christians -- are grouped under Judaism. Jewish communities object strongly to such mixing. The folks at All Things Spiritual should have known that.

Public faith: A different approach

2009-02-23T20:10:00.001-08:00

For people who equate conservative Christians with Americans -- and with the religious right -- Faithworks is a healthy antidote.

The UK-based organization began in 2001 as a campaign for the recognition of Christianity in local communities and an end to "discriminatory practices" in funding and partnerships.

From that start, the movement has broadened to helping local churches serve their communities. Faithworks has also developed a 6-point plan to reduce "fear of faith" in society -- especially the fear that it necessarily causes bigotry and divisiveness.

"We need to move beyond fearful, knee-jerk reactions to faith and develop an understanding of what it means to be motivated by faith and how active faith can actually benefit society," says Joy Madeiros, Faithworks public policy director.

The organization also posts the contents of its magazine and newsletter, in PDF form. A recent magazine issue deals with matters like rural and gang ministries. It also talks honestly about ethical dilemmas: family life versus public activism, and reducing personal debt versus fighting global poverty.

However you feel about separation of church and state, approaches like Faithworks are a cooling, calming way to address the issues. Maybe American Christians should take a few tips from their British brethren.

Some places are just ... different

2009-02-21T19:33:00.001-08:00

You've been somewhere like that. The place feels different. It may put you in a trance, send you somewhere outside yourself. Or maybe just the opposite: It may make you feel more awake than ever before.

Sacred Destinations has catalogued those places, in astonishing variety -- 1,200 buildings, mountains, lakes, monuments, etc.

Here you'll see the familiar ancient Stonehenge in England (below), and the even older Carnac Stones in France. Learn of the 42,968-square-foot Grand Mosque of Mali, the world's largest mud structure. Discover the huge, mysterious mountainside animal carvings at Samaipata, Bolivia. Dip into the holy waters of Crater Lake and the Ganges River, and sacred mountains such as Mt. Sinai or Mt. Shasta.

Look through 59 countries, on pages featuring those beautiful Google maps marked with the sites. You can also search by category, such as Roman or Hindu sites, sacred mountains, Mayan ruins, even paths for fans of C. S. Lewis or The Da Vinci Code.

Don't know where to look? Just tap your F5 key a few times. Each time the homepage reloads, it shows a different picture -- from St. Basil's Cathedral in Russia, to Chichen Itza in Mexico, to the Pashupatinath Temple in Nepal.

Even better: You can download a collection of the photos in a Google gadget, for your Web site for desktop. If you dont have a gadget, Sacred Destinations has a link to help you get one.

Not so stingy, guys

2009-02-20T22:23:00.000-08:00

As a superdirectory, the National Council of Churches has a lot going for it -- but it could have more if it gave away more.

The homepage has a good selection of religion news, analysis and other helpful information. A recent edition included an article on a mainline Protestant leader's selection to preach at the National Prayer Service after Barack Obama's inauguration as president.

Other links tell of the NCC's work in opposing human trafficking, as well as fighting the widespread abuse of women in the Congo. Other reports look at dangers of Christian Zionism and Islamic extremism. Still another has NCC's Rev. Michael Kinnamon joining Jewish and Muslim leaders in praying for peace

Many of those concerns get an ongoing look in EcuLink, a crisp, good-looking quarterly newsletter with more than 150,000 readers. Leave your mailing address and get it free.

Also click the link for Worldwide Faith News, a clearinghouse for denominational press releases and other documents. You can get them all e-mailed to you daily, but it's probably best to read them online -- unless you don't mind several per day.

So what's the problem with the site? Well, one is the link for the New Revised Standard Version , the NCC's elegant, accurate translation of the Bible. When you open it, do you get the Bible? Nope, just some sales talk and a price list. Other translators actually post Bible texts online -- such as the International Bible Society, with its New International Version.

Slightly better is the council's Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. It offers sample pages from the upcoming 2008 edition, plus the latest stats for the member denominations. It also has a directory of denominational Web sites, plus general sites like Ecunet and Adherents.com. For more, you'll have to buy the book.

All told, the NCC's resources offer many uses: sermon fodder, small-group topics, candidates for special appeals, subjects for personal prayers. But it could have been as generous as other such sites.

DVD Review: 'City of Ember'

2009-02-16T20:42:00.001-08:00

The underrated City of Ember deserved more attention during its brief theatrical run last year. Catch it on DVD and marvel how closely it tracks the apocalyptic beliefs of several religions.

The city is a Dickensian slum deep underground, an immense bunker lit by bulbs on the cavern ceiling and powered by a huge generator. It's a result of desperate planning two centuries ago by its founders, who saw the world about to end. (The movie wisely doesn't say how. It's not the point anyway.)

Emberites live a meager life, carrying on amid food shortages and increasing terrifying blackouts. But the corrupt mayor (Bill Murray) does nothing about the crises, except fend for himself.

He also enforces a law against anyone trying to escape the city, warning of doom and darkness on the surface. But two teens, Doon (Harry Treadaway) and Lina (Saoirse Ronan), don't wait placidly for the end: They determine to fix the generator, or find a way out.

As luck or fate would have it, their answer comes with a click under Lina's bed. The metal box she inherited from an ancestor -- a former mayor -- has suddenly opened, to display a cryptic message. They eventually realize it's a set of instructions from the founders for leaving Ember.

The current mayor naturally tries to stop them from escaping, first with lies, then with force. The kids then strike out on their own and endure a harrowing voyage, not knowing what they'll find.

It's a remarkable set of elements for a children's movie. Self-determination. Staying true to oneself. Following ancient wisdom. And the kids' final ascent to the surface is about as spiritual as it gets: climbing a long flight of stairs, candle in hand, as reverently as any pilgrim approaching a holy site.

Doon and Lina are, in fact, walking well-traveled steps of several religions. Christianity, Judaism and Islam teach that God will step in one day and set everything right -- through the Messiah, or Mahdi, or the Hidden Imam. Buddhists and Hindus have their own versions, called Maitreya or Vishnu, although they must come repeatedly whenever things get too bad.

And the faiths have all left instructions in various records, often as overlooked in modern life as a box under a bed. Some Christians even like to say BIBLE stands for "Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth."

Have we outgrown such superstitions, as some might call them? Look at the peace and environmental and New Age movements. Read the warnings of food justice movements like Hazon, which runs the Jew & the Carrot blog. They all call for radical change in our lives, or else.

But can we save ourselves? Especially when we, or our ancestors, are the ones who got in peril? Maybe we need outside help. Maybe we need a vision of another world. This film may not provide answers, as scriptures can, but it could start the quest. Or light an Ember.

Howlelujah?

2009-02-12T22:27:00.000-08:00

Right from the homepage, the Virtual Church of the Blind Chihuahua is ambivalent toward religion.

On the one hand, it claims to be "dedicated to enlarging religion as a source of inspiration and diminishing religion as a source of conflict in the world." But the homepage also has the slogan: "More to religion than pleasing your imaginary friend."

The creator, a 53-year-old weapons scientist(!) self-named Scooper, says he's a Lutheran and former atheist. He says the site is merely trying to make us all admit that, as the Bible says, "now we see through a glass darkly" (1 Cor 13:12). Or, in his own style, we bark at everything like a little, sight-impaired dog.

So, what can we bark at? Well, the "church" lets people post essays. There's a story on a man who joined radical Islam in Britain, then left. There's an excruciating testimony from a woman who says she was seduced by a priest.

A gallery has some beautiful pictures of people, animals, flowers and scenery, many of them by Scooper himself. There's also a list of religious jokes, some genial, some lame, some snarky. Heavier theological stuff is available in the so-called Scriptorium section.

The site has discussions on several faiths, and those can be lucid and insightful. The one for Buddhism, for instance, says the faith's literature "is both immense and non-essential" -- non-essential, because the core of the faith is personal, unmediated enlightenment. Curiously, the article mentions Zen, but doesn't acknowledge that Zen is a blend of Buddhism and Taoism.

The facts on evolution

2009-02-10T20:13:00.000-08:00

Before you have one more quarrel with a creationist -- or an evolutionist, if you're on that side -- click The Debate Over Evolution. This extensive story gallery, by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, may not settle all arguments. But it will equip you for more intelligent ones.

The seven articles give an overview, then a rundown on social and legal dimensions of the debate. There's a piece on Charles Darwin and his theory. There's a timeline on developments and counter-developments -- such as the creation of the Institute for Creation Research in 1970, and the National Center for Science Education 11 years later.

A graph shows the percentage of people in 11 religious groups who believe evolution is the best explanation for the origins of life. Another article summarizes the religious standpoints -- and, in a true reader service, provides links to the denominational Web sites for you to see for yourself.

If you're in America, you can see how the controversy shakes out in your home state. Finally, you can read some fascinating findings and opinions on evolution and related topics. You'll find the famous (notorious?) cases like the Scopes Trial and the battle over Intelligent Design in Dover, Pa.

Also click the refreshing Q&A interview with Francis Collins, former head of the Human Genome Project. An evangelical Christian as well as a first-class scientist, Collins argues both for faith and evolution. His is a rare voice for theistic evolution, and for respectful discussion.

Book review: 'The Shack'

2009-02-07T21:41:00.000-08:00

What if God was one of us? Or, perhaps, three of us? And was/were available for questions?

What a list most of us would have -- from prejudice to disasters to cancer to paper cuts to brussels sprouts. But McKinley Philips has other questions. Like what happened to his young daughter after her kidnapping. And why he suffered as a boy under his brutal father's alcoholic rages.

He gets some answers -- but more often general reassurance of God's help and companionship -- in The Shack, a fanciful novel that has somehow caught so much reader attention, it's spent the better part of a year on the New York Times bestseller list.

The book has all the marks of a good novel: pacing, setting, atmosphere, natural-sounding dialogue. Well, most of the time on that last item. More on that later.

Mack's daughter Missy goes missing on a camping trip in the Oregon mountains, and no number of volunteers or state troopers can find her. Early suspicion falls on a known child killer, sending Mack into a chronic depression.

His grief is cut short by an unsigned note in his mailbox -- which he suspects is from the deity -- summoning him to the abandoned shack that held the last evidence of the girl. Surprise #2 -- and #3 and #4 -- waiting for him at the shack are God the Father as a large, motherly black woman and God the Holy Spirit as an Asian woman in a cloudlike robe. At least God the Son is a more traditional Middle Eastern man.

They take turns counseling Mack, alternately comforting him and confronting him with his attitudes and life decisions. How the sessions change Mack, and what they have to do with Missy, take up the rest of the 248-page book.

Much of it is standard conservative Christianity: God loves you and looks after you, even when you don't think he/she does. There's some gender bending, of course, but that kind of license should upset no one who has read C. S. Lewis' novels.

What hurts the book is the preaching, clumsily disguised as dialogue. It's a truism that the longest speeches in a book are the opinions of the author. And this book puts long speeches in the mouth of one or another of the Trinity.

Some of it is comforting, like how God brings good out of bad: "Mack, just because I work incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies doesn't mean I orchestrate the tragedies." Some of it, well, depends on your own outlook. Like when Jesus condemns organized religion -- along with politics and economics -- as part of "the man-made trinity of terrors that ravages the earth and deceives those I care about."

It goes on like this for nearly a hundred pages -- more absorbing than it may sound, but still a lot of indoctrination. For those who persevere, Young does paint a vivid picture of the spiritual world through God's eyes, as well as a vision of reconciliation and freedom from guilt.

Young says the book is actually an autobiography; the shack is an allegory for what went on in his own soul over a painful 11 years of prayer and introspection. And from the thousands of responses posted on his Web site, the book speaks to a lot of people.

So maybe he does have room to talk about spirit and emotion. Do you have to swallow it all? Of course not. But as Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Or if he has eyes to read ...

FILM REVIEW: Marley & Me

2008-12-28T20:55:00.001-08:00

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'

2008-12-20T22:37:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-12T21:14:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-08T21:53:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-12-06T19:14:00.000-08:00

"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

2008-12-04T19:58:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-01T19:28:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-29T16:57:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-28T14:31:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-25T21:42:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-22T21:07:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-21T20:01:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-15T12:40:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-14T22:04:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-12T21:07:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-10T20:09:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-08T11:47:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-05T21:34:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-04T21:50:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-02T20:02:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-10-31T20:31:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-30T18:48:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-28T20:16:00.001-07:00

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?

2008-10-27T18:17:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-26T20:50:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-22T20:52:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-21T20:31:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-20T20:29:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-17T21:09:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-16T05:47:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-10-11T20:29:00.000-07:00

"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

2008-10-06T20:55:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-04T16:57:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-02T21:09:00.001-07:00

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

2008-09-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-29T19:22:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-09-25T20:12:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-23T19:54:00.000-07:00

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.

Reel spirituality

2008-09-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

Yes, they can be embarrassingly sappy. Yes, the music can sound terribly trite.

But c'mon, admit it. Those many videos interviewing God or dreaming of footprints in sand -- now and then, one of them gets to you.

Good. You've faced up to it. Now you can freely sample InspiringThots.

Site creator Kwek Sing Cher of Singapore has compiled more than 200 of these Flash-powered movies -- complete with Hallmark-style verse, rambling music, acres of flowers and miles of mountains, waterfalls and sunsets.

Want to cheer a friend? Try Touch My Heart. Encouragement? There's I Prayed For You Today. Need to get your man to hear you? Please Listen may say what you want.

And yes, some jewels stand out. What a Pretty Planet has stunning photos of Earth from space, and a gentle appeal to protect it for our children. Kwek even contributes his own bits of wisdom, as in the Born Resilient movie.

There are some historical classics here, too. Advice like the Desiderata and Mother Teresa's The Final Analysis. Also the prayer of St. Francis, and Reinhold Niebuhr's Serenity Prayer.

Kwek helpfully sorts the movies by category as well as title, plus which are most popular or most recent. But the videos are grouped into only seven topics. We need more.

But feel free to wander through the piles of Love to Live and God's Fragrant Rose and It is True, I'm So Blessed. No worries. It's our little secret.

Gods and monsters

2008-09-18T21:44:00.001-07:00

Dragons, deities, fabled lands: Encyclopedia Mythica has 7,000 articles about 'em -- enough to hook you for hours.

And the pantheon goes far beyond the usual Jupiter and Odin. A little browsing will take you to Huwe of the African Bushmen, the Spider Woman of the Navaho, and the Chinese Yellow Emperor -- said to have formed spontaneously at the dawn of time.

Then there are the beasts: the giant, condor-like Roc from the Arab world, the chimeric Yali of India, Behemoth and Leviathan from the Bible, the Kraken from Norway, even Sasquatch from North America.

A long article on dragons duly notes differences between European and Asian breeds. Another points out that Indra, a Persian demon, is different from the Vedic god of the same name.

As in other encyclopedias, context can be spotty. The article on Excalibur cites five ponds as the possible resting place of Arthur's famed sword. But the piece about Atlantis gives only one of the 20 or so candidates for the legendary kingdom.

Also spotty are the 276 images in the picture gallery. Most are Greek or Roman. Hindus, Aztecs, Norse and Mayas each have less than a dozen. And most of the pictures are disappointingly small.

But the encyclopedia has handy tools. One lets you grow or shrink the text. And once you're deep in the site, a separate frame shows the subdirectory you came from. So you can do keyword searches, then return without hitting the back arrow a lot.

Rumor has it -- or doesn't

2008-09-16T20:37:00.001-07:00

What? They're trying to clone the DNA of Jesus? Billy Graham rode a scooter through New Orleans? Shakira publicly insulted Israel?

Hit the "Forward' button!

Or not. First, check out that e-mail on a couple of rumor control sites.

First, the granddaddy: Snopes, a brilliantly literate site by Barbara and David Mikkelson. For more than a decade, Snopes has exposed crap like the claim that 4,000 Jews didn't go to their jobs at the World Trade Center on 9-11.

The other outstanding rumor control site is Truth or Fiction. founded in 1998 by Christian reporter Rich Buhler. He writes that Truth or Fiction is for anyone "who wants to make sure that an email story contains information, not misinformation."

Snopes probably has more rumors probed, but Truth or Fiction may be more current on religious tales. Among the latest: John McCain was just baptized, Barack Obama made fun of the Bible, and the University of Kentucky has removed Holocaust studies.

Both sites help you get beyond the details. Buhler analyzes the "Anatomy of a Rumor," and how to tell if something is unkosher. Snopes gets more arcane, with terms like "glurge" and "slacktivism."

But bookmark both sites. They both probe not only religious topics but reams of others -- from celebrities to ghost stories to conspiracies to giant spiders. Even if the rumors never land in your inbox, they're still fun to read.

Free is good

2008-09-14T18:27:00.000-07:00

Is your church short on cash? (What church isn't?) Consider
Free Pews, an online clearinghouse for church furniture and other equipment.

Each month, churches in several states give away stuff to anyone who can cart it away. And not just pews: It may also be chairs, pulpits, altars, light fixtures, communion tables, even pianos.

The Virginia-based Gabriel Ministries and Church Services lets donors post free ads with contact information. Interested people then call or write the churches to arrange pickup.

Another valuable service: scam warnings, and suggestions on how to recognize a scam. There's also a tipsheet on how to verify that a church is legitimate.

If your church is a little better off, Gabriel runs another site called Used Church Furniture. The company provides the ad space, but you deal directly with the seller. It's another free service, although Gabriel does ask for a donation to cover its costs. The Web site also has ads.

Gabriel's apparent motive for all this, aside from altruism, is to present a good image. Smart move. After all, if you want to buy new, you may think of them first.

When time freezes for Jews

2008-09-09T19:53:00.002-07:00

Jews worldwide are entering a timeless zone, a freeze in the year's activities. On Sept. 29, they start the 10-day period between years, known as the High Holy Days.

Jews have lots of sites to explain these days, to themselves as well as outsiders. Best is Aish.com. This beautiful site has a wealth of articles, pictures, videos, even an mp3 of a shofar (ram's horn) -- plus a clear explanaton of its three distinct sounds.

The Rosh Hashana link has an astonishing 50+ list of articles, with titles like "The Womb for the Soul" and "The World Changed -- Did I?" You'll learn why bread is baked round for this day, and why apples and honey are a common treat.

Don't miss the six Flash-powered movies: musicals, animation, a Jewish rap delivered from the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Even a talking-head speech by Aish's Lori Palatnik, on facing God's judgment, is warm and exuberant.

Religion Facts has very basic explanations: four paragraphs and a single quote for the whole period. But it links to a longer item on Rosh Hashana. Included are some interesting facts on why fish and pomegranates are often served on this day.

Then again, much of Religion Facts' material comes from Judaism 101, which is angled toward Orthodox Jews but still understandable to others. Site creator Tracey R. Rich has been compiling it since the early 1990s.

In a classic use of html for effective education, Rich crosslinks her material and provides summaries before adding detail. She also digs up sidelights, like the ban on wearing leather shoes for Yom Kippur.

The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism has eight articles on the season. One little-known service is called Selichot, preparing people for Rosh Hashana. Another is the remarkable ritual known as Tashlikh, in which people toss bread crumbs into a body of water to symbolize casting away their sins.

Holidays.net has useful content on the holy days, if you can ignore all the ads across the top, down the right side, and sticking into the text -- even those annoying "ContentLink" pop-ups on certain keywords. But the site does have handy bulleted paragraphs, plus articles on occasions like the Yizkor memorial service on Yom Kippur.

Kolel.org tackles the days from a more liberal perspective. It notes that the Hebrew for repentance, teshuvah, actually means "turning" -- as in reviewing how we've lived and how to improve.

But just in case you want to Google the holy days, don't bother to click High Holy Days Lyrics. It'll bring up lyrics, sure, but they have little to do with the holy days. You'll also get hit with a pop-up ad every time you load the homepage.

Also skip High Holy Days. It's from Temple Emanu-El of San Francisco -- which is holding its services for members only.

Jesus' hometown: A new vision

2008-09-09T19:53:00.001-07:00

The storied hamlet of Jesus' youth comes alive at Nazareth Village, an archaeological reconstruction a mere 500 meters from the present-day city in northern Israel. Based on the research of more than a dozen scholars, the exhibit provides a setting for Jesus' life and teachings.

Four rooms take a visitor back in time, through the Ottoman period into the Roman epoch. That gives way to a "Parable Walk," with a small farm, a winepress, a loom, quarries and other first century trades.

The online photos are interesting, showing skills like weaving and olive harvesting. Also check out the construction shots -- with details like the channeling of rainwater from roofs into cisterns.

There's also a thought-provoking essay on the symbolism of bread in its 253 biblical references. Looks like it's from an abandoned e-zine, though; the article is from 2006.

The Web site server isn't very fast; if a page has a lot of pictures, you'll have to wait several seconds for it to load. More annoying: When you hit a back button, you don't return to the previous page -- you go back to the one before that.

Clear goal of the village is peace through understanding. It's a message embedded in the emblem: an oil lamp over "Nazareth Village" in English, Hebrew and Arabic.

Some Ramadan reading

2008-09-06T19:56:00.000-07:00

What do Muslims do on Ramadan? What are the Five Pillars? How is the Quran different from the Hadith?

Many Americans don't know even the basics of the world's second-largest faith. Ramadan, the month of prayer and fasting -- which, BTW, just ended -- is a good time to learn a bit about Islam.

And a good starting place is IslamiCity. If you can sort through all the in-house jargon, that is.

The site does try to introduce the faith to non-Muslims. It includes numerous FAQ files, a slideshow of photos from the Islamic world, and a searchable English translation of the Quran.

A 15-chapter history of Islam includes an account of Muhammad sending letters to surrounding kings "inviting them to submit to Islam." It also gives a frank account of the murders of early caliphs, including Uthman and Ali.

IslamiCity is media-rich, with radio and TV links. A music subsite has some fun stuff, like Muslim pop, hip-hop and children's music. Other frills include a downloadable Arabic font and a database of the Hadith (the sayings and stories about the prophet Muhammad).

But there are some holes in this otherwise fact-heavy site.

For one, it doesn't give the doctrinal position on terrorism -- even in a column called "Ask the Imam." Muslim leaders have, in fact, condemned terrorism often. But aside from discussion group threads and some reposted articles, the matter isn't addressed much here.

IslamiCity also suffers from the problem of many such sites: too ingrown. It's sprinkled with a lot of terms like Tajweed and Taraweeh.

The site does have a glossary, but it can be a problem to keep opening it while reading an article. Thank Allah for tabbed browsing.

Gimme that online religion

2008-09-04T20:00:00.001-07:00

No cobwebs, no hymnbooks, no leaky roof: That's the appeal held out by St. Pixels, one of the more colorful attempts at an online church.

Stated aim is to "create a welcoming and witnessing community on the Internet." That puts St. Pixels in the same class with sites like GodWeb and VirtualChurch. And it shares their strengths and weaknesses.

St. Pixels affects a playful look, with cartoonish characters guiding you around. A "Hello Thread" message board lets members greet one another. There's also a live chat, which you can use as a guest. Simply download a one-time Java application and click a small floor plan of a church. The chatters also hold regular worship services.

Some message boards look at books, movies, theology and current events. Heavier topics come under the "Reflections" area -- as small as the use of candles, or as controversial as manipulation in church. "Solidarity threads" deal with problems like grief, smoking, school exams and family situations.

And like other churches, St. Pixels asks for donations: The management says your fair share would be $20-$30 per month.

At bottom, though, this is mainly a religious version of social networking sites. It may be a valid alternative; one member told me she finds fewer perverts on St. Pixels. But does it add up to church?

Sure, you can read greetings, but will you feel a handshake? Will you taste the bread and wine of Communion? When a loved one dies, will someone throw an arm around your shoulder and pray? And will Java-powered chats convey the quiet awe of a sacred space?

St. Pixels and such other sites can provide valuable resources. But they are churches only if you give up some basics of human experience. That seems an awfully high price for freedom from cobwebs.

Magdalene: Holy whore?

2008-09-02T21:02:00.000-07:00

Priestess, demoniac, redhead harlot, secret wife of Jesus: Perhaps no one in the Bible has suffered as many image makeovers as Mary Magdalene. But how to make sense of the tons of ink, paint and celluloid about her?

A one-site answer: Magdalene.org. Created by Lesa Bellevie in July 1998, the site gives quick answers, detailed information and some fun facts.

A long FAQ file deals with the "gossip"-type questions. You know, like whether Magdalene was a prostitute, as movies and sermons have often branded her. Or whether she married Jesus and had a child, as The Da Vinci Code says. Or if she had long, red hair, as a lot of European paintings depict her.

Magdalene.org lays out the various arguments for Mary's identities: leading apostle, cult priestess, mother of European royalty, a healed demoniac who supported Jesus' ministry. But you don't have to take their word for it. In a true reader service, Bellevie adds the actual much-argued texts -- including the gospels of Philip and Mary. For biblical passages, she gives links to the Blue Letter Bible, a handy online edition of the King James Version.

But Bellevie's own articles aren't bulletproof. In one, she questions the authorship of the Gospel According to John, saying only that the early church father Irenaeus "believed he recalled hearing in his childhood that it had been written by the apostle John." She doesn't add that another church father, Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna, was a disciple of John -- and Polycarp said the gospel was written by that apostle.

There's a section on Mary in Renaissance-era paintings, but they're small and fuzzy. And some of the links are either broken or have never been filled.

Better is the pop culture stuff. Did you know she was once played in a movie by June Carter, the wife of Johnny Cash? Or that she's a lithe, scantily-clad superheroine in a comic series? Or that she's the subject of a song by Tori Amos -- who has long, red hair?

A crust of gods

2008-08-30T21:16:00.000-07:00

The temples of India stand as nexi among several crafts. As shelters, they house worshipers and their priests. As art, they are crusted with sculptures of gods, animals and humans. And as theology, they represent the cosmos, a mandala, even the deity itself.

TempleNet -- created, interestingly, by a musician -- comes close to a canonical list of these astonishing structures, along with stunning photos, although most are too small.

The site lists temples all around India, classifying them by region and their major deities, including Ganesha and Skanda. And it explains important architectural differences between north and south, as well as border states like Karnataka.

Along the way, we get some "hmmmm" details. One is that architectural styles were influenced more by different regions than religions, such as Jain or Hindu.

There's also a thought-provoking piece on the Indian sense of time -- from kaashta, or 18 eyeblinks, to the purported 309.6 trillion year life cycle of the creator Bhrahma.

Like other enormous sites, TempleNet has a few flaws. Some links are broken. The quality of information is uneven. And the articles often assume prior knowledge. The latter problem is partly fixed by a glossary, but not all the terms are defined.

One glaring problem: Finding an explanation of the overall concept of a temple. There is, in fact, an article about that, but it's buried in the archives. A search engine would help find it, but that's one of the broken links.

Don't leave TempleNet without clicking the "special music feature" link. It leads to a page of "Indo-Celtic" music, blending instruments from east and west. The idea sounds weird, but the nine samples are nice.

A library of sacred texts

2008-08-24T18:44:00.001-07:00

Wisdom from 268 holy books is at your fingertips in World Scripture. This monumental work has 4,000 scripture bits, compiled over five years by 40 scholars on several continents.

World Scripture gathers pronouncements on 164 moral, ethical and spiritual matters -- everything from Addiction to Hypocrisy to Repentance to War. The topics are available via pulldown menu; browsing them is even easier than leafing through a hardcover encyclopedia.

Beyond specific issues, the site tackles overarching matters such as the purpose of life, the spirit world, the search for knowledge, eschatology and ultimate reality. Well, maybe it doesn't tackle them. But it does give them a good chase.

Message of the site is "The Truth in Many Paths," as one section is titled. Comparing other beliefs and scriptures, the site says, will confirm the oneness of God and promote respect and tolerance.

One puzzling lack: the full texts of the scriptures. Surely the Bible, the Quran, the Vedas, etc., could have been added without much extra space. Especially with the low-graphics nature of this site.

For the more Web-challenged, a physical book is available for $40 hardcover, $22.95 softcover.

While on the site, hit the homepage button for the parent United Communities of Spirit, a 10,000-member world interfaith alliance. You'll be rewarded with some idealistic essays on world oneness, plus descriptions of 11 traditions -- not only the usual world religions, but also Wicca, Taoism, Sikhism, the Bahai Faith, native American spirituality, even the esoteric thought of Alice Bailey.

Geography of faith

2008-08-21T21:02:00.002-07:00

Florida: Land of oranges and Baptists. Right? Only partly. Coastal Florida is predominantly Catholic, although the interior and the extreme north are Baptist.

That's one of several surprising facts you can nail down with a massive study, done every decade by the Glenmary Research Center of Cincinnati. The full study for 2000 is $110, too pricey for most of us. But Glenmary's Web site offers some great freebies.

The most eye-catching are eight color-coded maps, posted from the 24 in the book. The Florida surprise is there. Another one: Minnesota is more religious, percentage-wise, than Ohio.

While you're on the site, poke around a little for other useful tools. One is the link to the Web site of the Church of the Nazarene, which lists the 15 largest religious groups in every metropolitan area -- from Abilene, Texas, to Yuma, Ariz.

The data have some limitations. Some church groups, like the Southern Baptists, seem overcounted; some, like Catholics, seem undercounted. But the lists can still help churches, schools, even businesses pitching to religious groups.

This site may not inspire you to buy Glenmary's full $110 package. But it might tempt you to start saving for the new edition, due out in less than two years.

Give without being taken

2008-08-19T23:02:00.003-07:00

Americans are famously generous, and famously gullible. Charity Navigator packs powerful tools to show you which groups are spending their benevolence dollars well.

The New Jersey-based organization uses a four-star rating system for more than 5,300 charities, grading for efficiency, donor privacy and other standards. The info takes the shape of easy-to-grasp numbers, pie charts, bar graphs and clearly written evaluations.

The site uses Flash for more than splash. Hover your mouse pointer over a pie chart or bar graph, and up pop the numbers. Flash also powers a world map: Click South America, then Peru, to find the 17 four-star charities working there.

One caveat: The data may lag a couple of years because of reporting lead times. Also, to get some facts, you have to register with Charity Navigator, but it's free.

Want a shortcut? Click the list of "Slam-Dunk Charities," each of them rating four stars. Or try "Charities Worth Watching" -- top-rated groups that run on less than $2 million a year.

The lists include not only good groups, but also "Inefficient Fundraisers" and "Charities Drowning in Administrative Costs." One surprise: The American Cancer Society -- a charity giant, spending more than $940 million a year -- gets a mere two stars.

Yet another resource: Several sets of valuable tips, like "Six questions to ask" and "What to do when a charity calls."

Vasiliyness

2008-08-16T20:59:00.002-07:00

For the last in our weeklong series on holy humor: Don’t get incensed, but we’re venturing under . . .

The Onion Dome

This is an Eastern Orthodox takeoff on The Onion, a secular fake online newspaper. That makes it a lampoon of a lampoon, which is kind of like making fun of the way someone makes fun of something else.

There’s alleged coverage of a beard-growing contest, a mild snicker on the Orthodox taste for facial hair. There’s a short story about one “Philothea” who is frustrated when people call her “Philthe.”

Another tells story of a new pet food that’s repellent to humans, to curb temptation during the faith’s four annual fasting periods. At an online store, you can buy a coffee mug with “Is Outrage!”, an epigram by the fictional mascot Father Vasiliy.

All this is probably funnier if you’re Orthodox, especially Russian. It’s gentle and mannerly, but do manners get laughs?

OK, that’s my list of religious humor sites. Do you have any favorites? Let me know.

I'd also like to know your views on religious humor itself. Some people think it's all a joke. Others think "religious humor" is an oxymoron -- that people hold their faith so closely, the risk of offending them is too high.

Your thoughts?

Kosher yocks

2008-08-15T19:58:00.004-07:00

Still looking at holy humor sites, let's raise a glass of Manischewitz for . . .

A Word in Your Eye

Such a Web site, this is! A Word in Your Eye, based on the 2007 book Oy! The Ultimate Book of Jewish Jokes by David Minkoff, comes close to a canonical list of the genre.

More than 2,000 jokes are posted here, on classic themes from bar mitzvah boys to doting Yiddishe mamas to retorts against anti-Semites. Not unusual for a Jewish humor site, but this one seems especially easy to get around.

A very basic chart, almost mid-'90s style, groups the jokes under more than 90 text-based links -- and growing; the last bunch was added just this year. Others, with sexual themes, are grouped under "Naughtier Jewish Jokes." And a few dozen are just for children. (Don't mix 'em up!)

Minkoff shows a helpful side with sample speeches for wedding toasts and 60th birthdays. Also helpful is a glossary of Yiddish terms. At last, you'll know when to kvell and when to kvetch.

Other sections are more serious. One offers some kosher-themed brain teasers. Another reports on the healing power of laughter. But you may wish to skip the boring, 1,870-word essay on Freud's psychoanalysis of humor.

Buddha belly laughs

2008-08-14T20:24:00.000-07:00

Continuing our weeklong trek through religious humor sites, we hoist a prayer flag for . . .

A Lighter Side of Buddhism

Who would laugh at Buddhism? Plenty of people, it seems. Enough to fill several Web pages.

Part of Writings on Buddhism -- at 13 years one of the oldest Buddhist Web sites -- A Lighter Side has jokes as cryptic as a koan, going far beyond the usual "What did the Buddhist say to the hot dog vendor?" (although that one is here, too).

Example: A young Buddhist wonders how to cross a river. He sees a sage on the opposite bank and calls: "Oh wise one, can you tell me how to get to the other side of this river"? The sage calls back: "My son, you are on the other side."

Many of the jokes are charmingly self-deprecating, as with the Theravada computer virus that can't infect "female" machines. Some are long stories -- one takes 24 paragraphs to set up the punchline. Who knew that Buddhist and Irish jokesters would have something in common?

And some items make you wonder if they're really joking. One recommends downloading a Tibetan mantra -- Om Mani Padme Hum, or "The Jewel in the Lotus of the Heart" -- in effect, turning your computer's spinning hard drive into a prayer wheel.

The most mind-bending joke may be this one-liner: "A Zen master once said to me, 'Do the opposite of whatever I tell you.' So I didn't."

Spoofing the self-righteous

2008-08-09T20:24:00.012-07:00

“A merry heart doeth good like a medicine,” as the Bible says. But in religion, the medicine doesn’t always go down easy.

On our second day for religious humor sites, we’ll get down to the fundamentals at . . .

Landover Baptist Church

The caustic boundary of religious satire is always pushed at the fictional Landover Baptist. Just about every racist, sexist, isolationist, homophobic, self-righteous blemish of fundamentalism comes under the gun here. FAIR WARNING: The site often gets crude, even R-rated: There's even a caution -- a well-earned one -- against letting anyone under 18 read the site.

Like many fundamentalists, the site obsesses over sexuality. It calls breastfeeding a "gateway sin'" and sees lisping as a sign of homosexuality. And it naturally picks out alleged sexual references in just about every feature film -- even Speed Racer and Chicken Little.

Creator Chris Harper posts frequent messages as Pastor Deacon Fred Smith, including a video of his famous fire-breathing sermon at a 2002 gathering of American Atheists. He also urges his flock to speed up global warming, so that Jesus will come back sooner.

Another regular feature is Betty Bowers, "American’s Best Christian [tm]," casting stones at us in an animated picture. Her ramblings are equal parts conceit over her looks and fashions, and condescension toward nonbelievers.

The “church” highly recommends controlling members’ lives. One article reports the expulsion of several members for texting gossip during worship services – an offense intercepted by network surveillance.

There's more -- Bible quizzes, a Junior Vacation Bible Gun Camp, a sound file saying merely, "Scientists is stupid" -- but here’s a quick test: Do you think a picture of Jesus on a thong -- offered as a sale item -- is clever or offensive? That will help you decide if Landover Baptist is for you.

Laughing at religion

2008-08-09T20:24:00.005-07:00

"It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it," the British writer G. K. Chesterton said. This week we'll see how good -- or bad -- the jokes are.

First we set sail on . . .

Ship of Fools

For a spot o' tea with your holy humor, try this breezy offering from across the pond. The England-based Ship of Fools, celebrating its 10th anniversary, twits with a broad array of tools:

Gadgets for God, including a chair shaped like a sitting Jesus and Jewish-style beer called He'Brew.

A monthly Caption Contest, posting a picture -- perhaps an old engraving or a photo of skateboarding vicars -- for readers to supply descriptions.

Volunteer scouts called "mystery worshipers," who write reviews of church services around the world -- from Liverpool to Sydney to Islamabad to Milford, Pa.

The Fruitcake Zone, surveying lunacies like The Bible Answer Machine and a group that says UFOs are piloted by fallen angels.

Signs and Blunders, with readers retelling gaffes from church signs and bulletins.

But this so-called Magazine of Christian Unrest doesn't merely smirk; it also carries searching, sometimes outraged essays.

A recent column by cofounder Iwan Russell Jones reflects on Martin Luther King's life. Religion reporter Mark Pinsky fumes at how much Paul Crouch of Trinity Broadcasting Network gets away with. And church historian Stephen Tompkins gives some backhanded praise -- after a slap in the face -- to atheist ideologue Richard Dawkins.

Snickering at saints

2008-08-09T20:24:00.004-07:00

Continuing our weeklong series on religious humor sites: Don’t come unhinged, but today we’re walking through the . . .

Wittenburg Door

A pioneer in Christian satire, starting in 1971, The Wittenburg Door has changed hands from a whimsical youth ministry in California to the edgy Dallas-based Trinity Foundation – whose chief, Ole Anthony, is best known for helping ABC News bring down Robert Tilton.

One result: Fewer laughs, more “important” stuff.

Oh, there’s still some arch wit, like a review of an fictional Amish speed metal band. And the 10 worst movies about Jesus, like the incredibly titled Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter. And a peek at Noah’s blog, revealing plans to make a recipe of dove and olives. And a gamer’s mom who says she sees the Virgin Mary on the cover of Grand Theft Auto IV.

But there’s a lot of dark matter, much it by Doorkeeper John Bloom. He catalogues Benny Hinn’s monetary and theological gaffes. He decries a church that’s raffling $10,000 worth of fertility treatments. He does a scalpel-like analysis of the push for school prayer, which has lasted five decades thus far.

Televangelists get some gleeful savaging, but it seems a bit trite and true. How hard can it be to mock The Golfer’s Bible, by Rod Parsley? Or to ridicule a couple like Creflo Dollar and his wife, Taffi?

Still, there are also less-militant, more-thoughtful items. The “Door Interview” series has dialogues with the likes of Anglican Bishop N. T. Wright, and religious journalist Phyllis Tickle (not a made-up name!).

Special mention goes to “Signs of the End Times,” apparently a non-fiction collection of astonishing stories. Examples: General Motors is now smaller than Bed Bath & Beyond; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined the KISS Fan Club; fighting spam costs $140 billion per year; it is now possible to sear artwork onto bologna slices; the U.S. national debt will hit $10 trillion this year. Not laugh-inducing, but it’ll likely make you go “What??”

Birds in dockers?

2008-08-09T20:24:00.002-07:00

Welcome back to our week-long look at the risky world of religious humor. Today we take wing with . . .

Lark News

Right from the trademark – a bird in belted Dockers slacks – Lark News shows a birds’-eye sharpness for faith-based foolishness. The Denver-based monthly uses satire in the best tradition: taking odd trends to ridiculous extremes.

This week’s lead spoof has congregants praising a pastor for having supernatural insights into their lives, when he's actually just reading their social networking sites. Another piece tells of a college group starting a ministry to men with ponytails, considering them an “unreached” group.

Check out the past stories, too. They include a man losing friends for constantly asking forgiveness. In another, a pastor turns his church into a coffee bar after finding the frappes got more raves than his sermons. Still another headline: “Small Group Members Decide to Stop Feigning Interest in Each Other.”

Lark News even makes fun of Internet conventions. A giant-print version serves the visually impaired; a computerized voice reads stories for the hearing impaired; and a high male voice recites for the benefit of eunuchs.

The free site gets money partly by selling cheeky T-shirts. They bear slogans like “I Love Cheeses,” or “I Worship Better than You Do,” or “Jesus Loves You! Then Again, He Loves Everybody.”

Obvious target audience for the column is the evangelical world, and much of the humor would be classified as gentle or “cute.” But for others who want to see evangelicals laugh at themselves – or who may want to load up on ammunition against them – it’s a worthwhile read as well.

Either way, take advantage of the pull-down menu at the upper right-hand corner. It’ll yield back issues of Lark News all the way back to January 2003.

Crystalline Jewish wisdom

2008-08-08T20:36:00.005-07:00

Kabbalistic knowledge -- or at least a tasty sample -- is offered on Bas Ayin, Hebrew for "the center of the eye." In this occasional online magazine, Israeli rabbi Eliezer Shore snips and pastes nuggets from "the great Masters of the Jewish tradition."

The simple, clean Web pages serve up well-focused insights on God -- or Hashem, "The Name" in Orthodox Judaism -- and the human response to the deity.

Some are expositions of scripture, as with Shore’s own essay "Call of the Heart."

Some are meditations on famous lives, such as the Baal HaTanya, founder of the Chabad Lubavitch movement of Hasidic Judaism.

Some are poems, including meditations on nature by Dovid Shulman. And some are parables; one speaks eloquently of the reward of serving God without expecting reward.

They all share the simple language and structure, yet the deep, crystalline insight that is typical of mystical Judaism. Here's a sample:

"According to the Kabbalah, the four colors of the eye -- white, red, blue (or brown), and black -- correspond to the four spiritual worlds. The pupil represents this world, for like the black of the eye, this world receives all of its light from beyond, from Above."

Shore also gives away free issues of the magazine; but in this day of instant communication, that may not be necessary. This Web site has archives from a half-dozen issues, each with a half-dozen articles.

Why I left the Church

2008-08-08T20:36:00.004-07:00

Sometimes it's a callous priest. Sometimes, it's church rules. Sometimes, just a misunderstanding.

Whatever reasons people give for dropping out of church life, Once Catholic (http://www.oncecatholic.org) is a safe place to talk it out. Created by the Franciscans, the homey-looking site is meant to say, "We understand."

The sample quotes do sound like they came from real people. Among them:

"After my marriage failed I felt unsupported in so many ways -- by my family, people at my parish, even some of my friends."

"I felt treated like I was part of an assembly-line religion, a 'fast-food' kind of faith."

"Why does the Church treat abortion differently than other sins?"

"Why is the Catholic Church so inflexible?"

The men in brown post some pre-packaged answers; there's also a so-called Living Room, a chain of discussion groups. The moderators -- Franciscan priests called "companions" -- wisely don't require real names or registration forms. As a result, users deal with real issues, like sex abuse.

Also helpful is a list of support groups and "welcome home programs," with references all over the country. A live moderated chat would have been a good flourish, though perhaps expensive for the Franciscans.

New Age smorgasbord

2008-08-08T20:36:00.001-07:00

So you thought the New Age was dead? Rajuna's Revenge will enlighten you. With a splash page resembling a black-light poster -- two fluorescent-colored goddesses holding up the site title -- you'll feel yourself in that familiar mind-body realm.

Runes, crystals, spirit guides, Tarot, past lives, trans-dimensional travel, Earth's energy vortexes: Rajuna lays out an incredible smorgasbord. The various articles -- wrapped in the same color-on-black design -- show typical New Age eclectic sourcing, from NASA to news magazines to modern mystics.

Rajuna, aka June Kaminski, has three sections on astrologies, but mostly on the Greek version. Asian and native American systems are scanned only briefly. The Asian section does have a lot on the current Year of the Rat, but the other 11 symbols aren't detailed.

Although the basic information is free, there's a sizable marketing section: Egyptian goddess notepads, Celtic maiden T-shirts, kits and courses for readings via dowsing, numerology and other methods. Kaminski even offers her own Web design services.

If all this appeals to you, try the links to her other sites: Reincarnation Central, Visions of Adonai, and the Tarot section of BellaOnline. Rajuna also writes a blog, though it isn't often updated.

Your pastor's cheat sheet?

2008-08-06T22:30:00.000-07:00

Plagiarism? Not exactly. Sermon Central does post a lot of messages free for the downloading. And some are written so well, it does make you wonder: Was the last great sermon you heard born in some other pulpit?

The site is billed as a resource for ministers, but it's also handy for laypeople to read as quick essays. And unlike a church, if you get bored, you can walk out without drawing attention!

But some of them really are interesting. More than 90 categories are covered -- including addiction, hardship, Narnia, marriage, dreams, racism, truth and worship -- easily searchable by several methods.

You can search by keyword, preset topic (movies, quotations, etc.) or Bible passage. You can search among the 32 denominations of the sermon contributors -- not just the usual Baptist or Methodist, but also Congregational, Disciples, Adventist, even Orthodox.

You can also sort by the contributing preachers, from a culturally diverse roster -- and see whose sermons are most viewed and highest rated by members of the site. Finally, you can find who is preaching what in your home state.

What's the catch? One is that you can access a lot of "premium" material, like church dramas, only with a paying account. Also for sale are PowerPoint templates -- crosses, candles, Communion chalices -- as backdrops for projected sermon outlines. You can also buy film loops or short videos with evocative devotional lessons. They cost up to $25.

For a stressed cleric caught short on a weekend, Sermon Central can be Saturday night salvation. But wouldn't it be fun for him to give a sermon you've read -- and see you lip-sync as he preaches!

Life amid death

2008-08-03T16:41:00.003-07:00

Sad and beautiful, The Christian Catacombs of Rome takes you deep into the tombs where early Christians interred their martyrs -- and later hid when they themselves were hunted.

This image-rich site centers on the catacombs of St. Callixtus, one of the six in Italy that are open to the public. It offers an indepth look at the four levels of graves up to 65 feet deep, covering 90 acres.

Like all good Web sites, The Christian Catacombs imparts understanding as well as information. It gives a history of the catacombs and the persecution by Rome -- even excerpting Christian letters from the second and third centuries. It also explains the various symbols on the walls, like the anchor, the dove and the Chi Rho monogram.

"In the catacombs everything speaks of life more than death," says one evocative paragraph. "Every gallery they pass through, every symbol or painting they see, every inscription they read, brings the past to life and gives a message of faith and of Christian testimony."

The site has tools for an actual, physical visit as well: ticket prices, hours, locator maps, even bus routes. The maps are just embedded in the text, though; they would have been better as printable .pdf files.

Divine appointments?

2008-08-03T16:41:00.002-07:00

Sure, you know the date for Christmas and maybe Hanukkah. How about Lag B'Omer or Bodhi Day? Or Holi or Ramadan?

You can track those and many more on the Interfaith Calendar, the generous work of a Methodist layman. The site not only shows holiday dates, but brief explanations of the parent religions.

You can find little-known holidays including St. Brighid of Kildare Day for Celtic Christians. You'll also learn that Diwali or Deepavali is observed by three religions: Hindu, Sikh and Jain. A sizable glossary defines each holiday and its importance.

One page groups the major holidays by religion, although this would have been more useful if each holiday were cross-linked to the glossary. Another page groups religions by types: one god, many gods, no god, or some mixture.

You can even find out about newer, more exotic religions -- like Cao Dai from Vietnam, the Middle Eastern Yezidis and Mandeans, even the alien-themed Raelian Church.

Another thoughtful touch: print-friendly versions of the list, usually keeping a month ahead.

Finally, there's a list of sites on religion and food -- not just practices like kosher, but even recipies. A tasty dessert for a nourishing site.

How women affect religion -- and vice versa

2008-08-03T16:41:00.001-07:00

Women in Judeo-Christian traditions are highlighted in Alabaster Jars, named for the biblical story about a female who anointed Jesus' feet with perfume. The real treasure, suggests creator Jackie Kestner, was the willingness to serve -- a gift that modern women still often struggle to give away.

Center stage is an alphabetical list of women in the Bible. Some of the more fun stories are about the femme fatale Delilah, and about Jael, who drove a tent stake through an enemy soldier's head. And there's a long, hard look at the horrendously violated concubine of the Levite in Judges.

Also honored are women who lived after Bible times. The fourth-century Macrina the Younger founded one of the first monastic communities. And the 16th-century Chiyome, a Japanese widow, trained street girls as ninjas.

But the site also has puzzling gaps. There's nothing on the biblical Ruth or Esther -- or on that modern saint, the late Mother Teresa.

In the Articles section, Kestner takes on arguments of people who would make women second-class church members. Her rebuttals are precise and spirited, but weighed down with church jargon. She needs to write for the 21st century, not the 19th.

Alabaster Jars does provide a genuine public service in a fact file on domestic violence against women. There's also a section on persecution of Christians -- pointing out that in many countries, women are made special targets.

Sorry about that

2008-08-03T16:41:00.000-07:00

"I'm sorry for all the times we've shoved God in your face."

"I'm sorry i overlooked you as a potential friend just because our beliefs were different."

"I have been critical and expected you to live according to my expectations. I am sorry."

Christians Confess rides one of the newest Web trends: confessional sites, letting people unburden themselves without shedding anonymity. With one difference: On this site, Christians apologize to the world for being, well, un-Christian.

At least one writer sees the paradox:

"I'm sorry you have to come to this site to find out how sorry we are, because we might feel too embarrassed or ashamed, or perhaps not willing enough to be weak, humble, and vulnerable to your face."

The Web site owner, Pastor John Smulo of a house church in Sacramento, admits he doesn't what else to do in order to make things right, and invites feedback from non-Christians. One response has a surprising counter-confession:

"I am sorry that I rolled my eyes when I saw the name of this site. I am sorry that I judged every Christian on the planet to be the same."