Web site of the month...
Oct '11
The Revealer (http://the revealer.org) is subtitled “A Daily Review of Religion & Media.” Its self-description says it best: “We’re not so much nonpartisan as polypartisan – interested in all sides, disdainful of dualistic arguments, and enamored of free speech as a first principle. We publish and link to work by people of all persuasions, religious, political, sexual and critical. … We begin with three basic premises: 1. Belief matters, whether or not you believe. Politics, pop culture, high art, NASCAR – everything in this world is infused with concerns about the next. As journalists, as scholars and as ordinary folks, we cannot afford to ignore the role of religious belief in shaping our lives. 2. The press all too frequently fails to acknowledge religion, categorizing it as either innocuous spirituality or dangerous fanaticism, when more often it’s both and in between and just plain other. 3. We deserve and need better coverage of religion: sharper thinking; deeper history; thicker description; basic theology; real storytelling.”
One of the founders is journalist Jeff Sharlet, one of the best writers going in the area of modern expressions of religious belief. The Revealer will engage your brain and your heart – check it out.
Talk about a win-win situation! At www.freerice.com you can play a vocabulary game – match the target word to its definition, and maybe warm up your brain for the day. You’ll get them all right – even kids can play – and you can play as long as you wish. For every correct answer, the site donates 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. The site also has links and information on efforts to ameliorate hunger worldwide. So far it has donated 88 billion grains of rice. If you bookmark the site on your work or home computer, and play every day, you could do a whole lot of good.
“I was engaged in battle of wits with an animal with a brain the size of my fist, and I was losing …”
“My name is O.T., and I’m a retired pickpocket …”
“She turns to me and lifts up her oxygen mask and says, ‘Do you love me enough to trade places?’”
Don’t those lines make you want to hear the rest of the stories? The Web site of The Moth – a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling – makes it possible. The Moth sponsors storytelling nights at which speakers tell true stories from their lives – often funny, often deeply poignant – without notes, just them, a microphone and a rapt audience.
You can hear these stories at www.themoth.org by listening online or by downloading a podcast.
If you’re on Facebook, you might consider friending the United Church of Christ’s “Get Ellen to Synod” link. Ellen is, of course, the lovable dancing fool herself, Ellen DeGeneres. Synod is the UCC’s General Synod, the church’s biennial national gathering, this year from July 1 to 5 in Tampa, Fla. The campaign seeks to get the talk show host to Tampa to speak and to experience the UCC as a different kind of church.
“We invited Ellen because she has great imagination, is engaging and has a broad appeal to many ages, including a generation that is too often overlooked in our churches. Ellen is a household name, and has a track record of responding to innovative campaigns like the one we have just launched,” said Associate General Minister Edith Guffey, who serves as administrator of General Synod.
The Web site ucc.org/
get-ellen-to-synod has the details of the lobbying campaign, which asks UCC members and churches to “unleash their inner Ellen” by creating funny, inviting photos and videos and submitting them for upload to YouTube and Vimeo.
“At a time when religion is often used to divide and exclude people, Ellen’s address before a major religious body could send a powerful message to the world, a message of hope, inclusivity and acceptance – and the need for more love and laughter,” the Web site says.
Who could argue with that?
Jan. '11
Small steps can take you to big changes.
That’s the premise behind “21 Ways,” a series of idea lists that “can enhance your everyday and make your life better.” Sections include “21 Ways to Be a Great Family,” “21 Ways to Make Meaningful Connections,” “21 Ways to Build a Love That Lasts” and “21 Ways to Live Your Dreams.”
It helps to be reminded once in a while that if you’re stuck, you don’t have to stay stuck, and if there are areas of your life with which you’re dissatisfied, it’s in your power to work on them. Find the “21 Ways” lists at www.beliefnet.com, under the “Inspiration” tab.