AUGUST
18, 2003
CULTURE
Screeds and creeds: blogging on faith
 Want
to hear talk of God, faith and institutional religion? Log on and start reading
blogs. Short for weblogs, these observation-filled journals are increasingly
taking on religion and culture as they become a force in opinion-making. Rooted
in conservative and libertarian frustration with mainstream media, their populist
challenge to institutions includes those related to religion. Catholic blogging
grew last year as laity reacted to scandals in the church. Now believers of
all kinds are using blogs to build virtual communities.
Questions for
reporters
• Can you find blog readers and writers in your town or elsewhere? Who
are they, and why do they write or read blogs? What do they say can be done
on the Internet that they wish could be done inside the walls of houses of worship?
• Is
there a difference between what clergy say about blogs and what readers and
writers in congregational rank-and-file say about them?
• Religious leaders encourage people to talk about faith. But blogs often
contain strongly worded commentary that may or may not be fact-based, and they
challenge authority. Do religious leaders have concerns about that?
• Can you find instances of community impact that stem from blog-based
talk?
Why it Matters
Blogs are multiplying at a time when surveys show that frustration with institutional
religion - its authority, its relevance, its trustworthiness - is growing. Are
blogs one more sign that people are unwilling to hear what comes from pulpits
and participate in faith communities, struggles and all? Or do they represent
the beginnings of more democratic, less hierarchical faith groups?
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National sources
• Rebecca
Blood of San Francisco has maintained her blog, Rebecca's
Pocket, since 1999. She is the author of The
Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog
(Perseus, 2002). Contact press@rebeccablood.net.
• Brenda Brasher, a sociologist of religion at the University of Aberdeen,
Scotland, wrote Give Me That Online Religion (Jossey-Bass, 2001), a new
edition of which is due out next year. Blogging is especially hot with young
people, she says. Contact b.brasher@abdn.ac.uk.
ROMAN
CATHOLIC
• Kathy Shaidle
is the author of God Rides a Yamaha: Musings on Pain, Poetry and Pop Culture
(Northstone, 1998). She has kept Relapsed
Catholic, a blog about religion and culture, since 2000. Contact 416-929-6372,
kshaidle@rogers.com.
• St.
Blog's Parish is a Catholic weblog ring with 166 members. It is maintained
by Virginia Beach, Va., mystery writer Kathryn Lively, who also has a blog.
Contact 757-306-2332, livelywriter@yahoo.com.
OTHER
CHRISTIAN
• Mary Hess is a professor at Luther
Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., who directed a study of religious education
and media culture. She keeps a blog.
Contact 651-641-3232, mhess@luthersem.edu.
• The Rev. A.K.M. Adam is an associate professor of New Testament at Seabury-Western
Seminary in Evanston, Ill., and editor of Postmodern Interpretations
of the Bible: A Reader (Chalice Press, 2001). He blogs AKMA's Random
Thoughts. He and colleague Trevor Bechtel are developing The
Disseminary, an alternative model for seminary education. Contact 847-733-8586.
akm-adam@seabury.edu or akma@disseminary.org.
• Blogs4god
lists 802 Christian blogs from around the world. Contact Dean Peters, webservant@blogs4god.com.
MUSLIM
• Think Halal
is a Muslim weblog
ring with 179 sites that was begun by 23-year-old Adnan Arif. Contact azzi2k1@yahoo.com.
JEWISH
• Jewish World
Review columnist Eve Tushnet, based in Washington, D.C., wrote a July 23,
2003, article
about Iraqi blogger Salam
Pax. Tushnet also maintains a blog.
Contact 202-841-9964, eve_tushnet@yahoo.com.
• The Jewish bloggers weblog
ring contains 110 sites. Contact John Newmark, jcnewmark@gavroche.org.
BUDDHIST
• Buddhablogs weblog
ring was started in June and so far has one member.
PAGAN
/ WICCAN
• Many
Wiccans and Pagans maintain active blogs. Check out The
Broom Closet, Pixie
With a Crash Helmet, the Pagan
Blog Project and About.com's Pagan/Wiccan
blog site.
HINDU
• Read
a March 31, 2003, article
about Hindu blogging from The Hindu Newspaper in India.
• Read blogs at two Hindu web sites, at Brahmam.com
and CyberBrahma.com.
OTHER
LISTINGS OF RELIGION/SPIRITUALITY BLOGS
• Religion
and spirituality
blogs at Eatonweb
portal.
• Spiritual
blogs at Blog
Universe.
• Philosophy
and religion blogs at Globe
of Blogs.
• Live Journal
sorts and counts blogs by interest,
including God
and religion,
and by state.
Background
• Writer,
pioneering blogger and Catholic Andrew Sullivan wrote "A
Blogger Manifesto" in the Sunday Times of London on Feb. 24,
2002. See a collection.
(Sullivan is on blog
hiatus in August.) Contact andrew@andrewsullivan.com.
• A March 10, 2003, CNN.com article
on the popularity of blogging includes an interactive poll on how many people
blog.
• An ongoing discussion
maintained by Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate student researcher
Cameron Marlow
about how many blogs there are argues with the commonly cited estimate of 500,000.
Marlow is researching the dynamics of idea diffusion via blogs. Contact 617-253-5127,
cameron@media.mit.edu.
• Read a collection of articles
from Australian writer and blogger Martin
Roth about the growth of evangelical Christian blogging. Contact Roth, martin@martinrothonline.com.
• Here are some blog trackers that count links, indicating top-read sites:
• Purchased
by Web search engine firm Google
in February, Blogger
is a leading provider of free blogging software. Google public relations contact
is Nathan Tyler, 650-623-4311.
• Other blogging software includes Movable
Type and Blogroots.
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