What kind of online religion do you do?

25 thoughts on “What kind of online religion do you do?”

1. I’d consider myself an Internet Immigrant.

   I read several UU blogs through Google Reader. I’ve spent a fair amount at UUA.org especially using resources in the Leader’s Library. I’ve also accessed my district webpage. Several pages on Facebook. Our congregational website. I’ve looked up religious history (generally on wikipedia).

2. (A) Digital immigrant: I was still using a typewriter in 1992!

   (B) 1. Many — but it’s part of my job.
   2. I use research aids online for checking biblical passages (oremus.org), but prefer to read religious texts in print.
   3. Religion Dispatches; GetReligion; timesandseasons.net; Beauty Tips for Ministers; many others, including many UU blogs from UUpdates.net.
   4. No. Although Beliefnet once produced an outstanding Holy Week video that I watched several years in a row.
   5. No.
   6. Using Pandora, I listen to a lot of sacred music (Carson Cooman, Herbert Howells, Charles Villiers Stanford, Thomas Tallis, etc.). The church choir I sing in uses a lot of Creative Commons-licensed music, which I can see and hear online.
   7. No.
   8. My toddler loves the Church of the Larger Fellowship’s “light a chalice” feature.
   9. Research sites: Pew Forum on Religion and Society; Pluralism Project. Religious news: Religion News Service; Christian Century; Faith in Public Life; Real Clear Religion.

   (C) I’ve spent ten years thinking about online religious content, and am not sure how to offer you a general comment!

3. Question A – what about those of us who were on computers and were there at the founding of the internet (I’ve been programming since 1970) – the digital pioneers, not natives :-)?

   Question B:
   For biblical reference, I like
   http://www.biblegateway.com/ with its searching, multiple translations, and the parallel greek/Latin new testament at http://www.greeknewtestament.com/index.htm. For those who like the religion OF Jesus, not ABOUT Jesus, it’s sometimes important to dig into exactly what someone wrote down before the meanings drifted.

   Sometimes I listen to Krista Tippett podcasts.

4. A2- Digital Immigrant – I’ve been on since 1983

   B1 – UUCPA, MemChu, University Church of Palo Alto
   B2 – bookmarked Biblegate, scripturetext.com, http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/, have also looked at translations of the Quran
   B3 – Friendly Atheist, Blag Hag, Slacktivist, Wounded Bird, The Lead, Exploring our Matrix, Feminist Mormon Housewives, Religion Clause, Project: The King and I, nakedpastor …
   B4 – no
   B5 – no (well to be exact I have listened to Gene Robinson)
   B6 – no
   B7 – no
   B8 – not applicable

   Other:
   http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/ and
   Also http://www.ship-of-fools.com/ which is more of a bboard

   Bookmarked Reference sites, non-scripture:
   http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/
   Pacific Yearly Meeting and Britain Yearly Meeting Faith and Practices
   http://www.religioustolerance.org/

   C – Religion online is highly variable but it is interesting to mark out the ghettos and also some of the unusual connections (which Christian bloggers read kindly which atheist bloggers and vice versa). I note that the gay Christian students at Harding University chose 1 atheist non-Harding connected blogger to advertise their hurt at Harding University (administration and atmosphere) as well as blogs of liberal Harding graduates.

   BTW I believe Second Life has quite a few places of worship

5. I don’t have time to answer everything right now, but I’d like to suggest another option for (B) — being a member of an online congregation. As a member of the Church of the Younger Fellowship (a ministry of the CLF), my congregation meets on the Internet.

6. a) Digital Native (I got internet when I was 10.)

   b)
   1) My church website uuca.org for event info, sometimes uua.org when looking for something in particular
   2) I’ve gone looking for specific bible verses referenced in various arguments online before, but this is far from frequent.
   3) uupdates and click anything that looks interesting. Nothing really regular though.
   5) our church podcast (miss sermons due to youth group advising) – mostly Anthony David speaking. Also, the Oprah soul series.
   6) I’ve youtubed various hymns before, even gone on second life into the uu area to listen to the hymns they have there. Can’t say off hand which ones though.

   c) Don’t underestimate social media and religious content. A lot of the folks I follow on twitter are UUs posting what I would call spiritual content – I get more from it than any singular website.

   Hope it helps

7. A2, B1, B3. I subscribe to over 50 UU blogs.

8. (A) 1 – Digital Native.

   (B)

   1 – I enjoy learning a bit about congregations all over the place, so I check church websites a lot, mainly for that purpose. Especially when it comes to Unitarian religion, every congregation is unique and interesting.

   2 – I prefer to read sacred texts by means of a traditional book, but I do use the internet to reference specific parts of sacred texts more quickly. For the most part, this includes the Bible (there are many resources for this online) and occasionally the Qur’an, Bhagavad-Gita, and a number of apocryphal texts such as those of the Nag Hammadi library.

   3 – I use Discover UU to find UU blogs, so pretty much any blog on there, I read now and then.

   4 – I use UU Planet TV a lot, mainly to listen to sermons. The last sermon I watched online was by the Rev. Kate Braestrup, who was guest preaching at All Souls in Tulsa (the sermon was called “Hope Is A Thing With Fangs”, and it’s a powerful, emotional sermon that I would recommend anyone listen to.)

   5 – I mostly use UU TV for sermons, but when I do listen to sermon podcasts it’s usually by the Rev. Galen Guegenrich from All Souls in NYC.

   6 – I occasionally listen to UU hymns via YouTube and whatever sites I can find, and almost any and all music I listen to takes on religious meaning for me. The last distinctly religious piece I heard, and loved, was “Everything Is Holy Now” by Peter Mayer.

   7 – N/A

   8 – N/A

   9 – I participate in online discussion on Religious Forums, and blog to get my own thoughts and opinions written down, mostly about religion.

   (C) For me, the internet is a powerful tool that plays a role in enriching my spiritual life by giving me access to things I otherwise wouldn’t have access to.

9. I am at home on the internet. I read a lot of religiously themed blogs. I don’t listen to Christian music, but I listen to a lot of lectures like Hitchens, Rohr, Mclaren, Borg… could be podcasts or youtube videos.

10. Dear Dan,

    Longtime listener, first time caller — as they say on talk radio.

    In answer to your questions:
    A. I consider myself a Digital Immigrant. I’ve been exposed to computers in general since the 7th grade, back in 1969-1970. Not quite a native, but I’ve been working in remote computing environments since that early age. I worked online in the 1990s with everything from CompuServe to HandsNet in the years before the Internet and the Web.
    B.
    1. I look at my congregation’s website (firstparish.info of First Parish UU of Arlington, Mass.) and the websites of some churches I used to attend — thirdunitarianchurch.org of Third Unitarian Church of Chicago as well as allsoulsuuindy.org of All Souls Unitarian Church of Indianapolis. For my work, I often look at congregational websites of alumni/ae of Meadville Lombard Theological Schoool. I also frequently visit uua.org and uuworld.org.
    2. I don’t read sacred texts online. But I do read commentaries on sacred texts in two locations: Velveteen Rabbi (http://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/) and Grounded and Rooted in Love (http://kcchurch.typepad.com/blog/), the blog of Kittamaqundi Community Church in Columbia, Maryland, where my cousin’s spouse is the minister. The church’s blog is heavily focused to interpretation of the lectionary.
    3. I have a lot of UU blogs in my RSS news reader, especially blogs associated with Meadville Lombard alumni/ae. I read several religion news blogs, too.
    4. Video? Not so much, but more and more.
    5. I don’t tend to listen to sermon podcasts, except to catch up with services I missed in my home church.
    6. I’m a member of the choir. I occasionally will take a song, or composer, or performer, from our work and plug it into Pandora to listen during the week. It’s the nature of Pandora’s service to riff on the music I pick and generate similar musical selections.
    7. Have not done, personally. But my work supports Meadville Lombard, whose curriculum is increasingly geared to distance learning using, in part, the Internet.
    8. No.
    9. I write content for the development and alumni/ae blog at Meadville Lombard, called MLflash.org. I also tweet for ML at twitter.com/MLtheo (aka @MLtheo to the Twitterati) also prepare content for some electronic newsletter communications from Meadville Lombard.

    Hope this helps.

    Faithfully,
    Douglass Davidoff
    Arlington, Massachusetts

11. (A) Which of the following do you consider yourself:
    1.
    2. Digital Immigrant (you feel fully at home in the Internet)
    3.
    4.
    (B) Aside from reading this blog, which of the following ways do you access religious content online online? (I also ask for specific examples of each kind of content, but if you don’t have the time to get specific, I’d still love to know which types of content, if any, you access.)
    1. Looking at a congregation’s Web site, or a denomination’s Web site (please list one or more)– http://www.unitarianpetoskey.org/, when I lived in Spring Lake, MI http://www.c3exchange.org/ (though they’ve changed their name since I attended, so the web page has changed). What I want at a congregational site is location, service times, a bit about mission/congregational attitude (without relying on meaningless generalities), and maybe some recent sermons (to read, hear, or watch–despite my comments below). Also, I could like to see some online congregational members-only secret log-in stuff.
    2. Reading sacred texts (Bible, Qu’ran, etc.) online (please specify which ones)–I only do this on a need-to basis, “what’s that Bible verse mean” type of things
    3. Reading religious blogs online (please name some)—In addition to this blog, I have the yes church bookmarked, as well as the UU Salon, and Boston Unitarian, also Catholicism.about.com which I find to be a really good resource on Catholicism (I personally know the editor, but find his reliance on the Catechism a marker of his intellectually honesty)
    4. Watching videos with religious content online (please describe one you remember)—I don’t have a lot of patience for this kind of thing in general (videos online, I mean; anything longer than 1-2 minutes loses me)
    5. Listening to sermon podcasts online (please say who was preaching)—I don’t drive or exercise enough for podcasts to be a useful thing for me, about the only one I regularly listen to is Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell me while I do the dishes.
    6. Listening to religious music, broadly defined, online (please name some performers, composers, and/or songs/works)—I don’t do this
    7. Taking classes in religion or religious topics online (please describe one or more)—I can’t imagine this even being a good idea, well… OK, I can imagine it being an OK idea, but I’m pretty deeply skeptical of online education at all, and this from someone who finished his BA at Vermont College, a distance learning institution
    8. Looking at religious content online with your children (please specify)—my child is still pretty young for much online activity of any type
    9. Other (please specify)
    (C) Any general comments about online religious content?—One site I didn’t mention is the UUA’s site and family of sites. I’ll dip into it when I’m looking for something specific, but as a place to go and browse? It feels too busy, and I get overwhelmed, particularly (and particularly unfortunately) uuworld and discoveruu since these are the places the UUA should really be drawing and holding people’s attention. I’ve mentioned Catholicism.about.com, and I also spend a lot of time with the Daily Dish. I’m not sure if a UU blog could do what Scott Richert does at about.com, since much of what he does is to relate traditional Catholicism and Catechistic explanations. But he’s brief and clear about it, which I suspect UU blogs should do (you’re pretty good at that, Dan, which I why I check you blog at least daily). There’s a lot of stuff at the Daily Dish, and Sullivan puts up a lot of Catholic stuff, as well as linking to other intersections between religion and the public life (while not being a religious blog, to be sure). Similarly, attorney Scott Horton at Harpers.org offers a surprising amount of religious material—particularly in his Sunday poetry, music & art posts, but also pretty often there’s a religious (or at least moral) aspect to his Six Questions series, and there’s almost always a moral (or at least ethical) slant in his regular posts.

12. Thank you all for the responses (and sorry it took so long to get them moderated, I’m still settling in to my new blog installation).

    Too much great stuff here to respond to every comment, but I did want to apologize to Ellen Z. @ 5 for not listing online congregations under question B. I should know better, I served on the board of the Church of the Larger Fellowship more than a decade ago, when Art Ungar and I advocated strongly for more online content, and then I worked for CLF 2003-2004, the year when the number of members joining online suddenly shot up and exceeded the number of members joining through the postal service (and we had to scramble to meet the needs of all these new online members). I learned a heck of a lot serving at CLF, and much of what I do now is still driven by what I learned back then. Thanks for the reminder, Ellen.

13. (A) Digital Immigrant

    (B) Looking at a congregation’s Web site, or a denomination’s Web site (please list one or more)–I look at many congregational websites, both to learn more about UUism and to get ideas for our congregation’s website.

    Reading sacred texts (Bible, Qu’ran, etc.) online (please specify which ones)–Oremus first, Bible Gateway second

    Reading religious blogs online (please name some)–four folders in Google Reader: largest for UU blogs, a small one for the British Unitarians, a general religion folder, and a new one for Buddhist blogs.

    Watching videos with religious content online (please describe one you remember)–I try to watch videos on my iPod–much more portable.

    Listening to sermon podcasts online (please say who was preaching)–UU Cong Atlanta, UU ABQ, Unitarian Church of Summit, and a few others. I prefer the ones I can access easily through iTunes. Note that my home congregation is not one of them! Reminds me to talk to our web guy & podcaster.

    Listening to religious music, broadly defined, online (please name some performers, composers, and/or songs/works) — Not really, but that’s mostly because I’d rather listen to the spoken word. I have a hard time paying attention to music.

    Taking classes in religion or religious topics online (please describe one or more)–yup, just recently through Meadville-Lombard (UU History via Livetext)

    Looking at religious content online with your children (please specify)–no kids in this house

    Other (please specify)

    (C) Any general comments about online religious content? Podcasts & apps are something we should be paying attention to, as more & more of us carry our internet around with us on a tiny screen.

14. (A) Which of the following do you consider yourself:
    2. Digital Immigrant (you feel fully at home in the Internet)

    (B) Aside from reading this blog, which of the following ways do you access religious content online online? (I also ask for specific examples of each kind of content, but if you don’t have the time to get specific, I’d still love to know which types of content, if any, you access.)

    1. Looking at a congregation’s Web site, or a denomination’s Web site:
    UU: Beacon Press, CLF, UU Bloomington (when I lived there), UUSC, Unity Temple, First Unitarian Church of Baltimore, King’s Chapel Boston (the last three, to plan visits)
    Episcopal: Order of Julian, St. Gregory of Nyssa (San Francisco), Trinity Episcopal Church, Bloomington (when I lived there), Washington National Cathedral
    2. Reading sacred texts (Bible, Qu’ran, etc.) online:
    bible.oremus.org, Skeptic’s Annotated Bible
    3. Reading religious blogs online:
    BishopBlogging
    Episcopal Cafe
    Episcopal Church Foundation: Vital Practices
    haligweorc
    In a Godward Direction (Tobias Stanislas Haller)
    4. Watching videos with religious content online:
    Washington National Cathedral’s live feed; CLF
    5. Listening to sermon podcasts online:
    CLF’s podcasts (various speakers), Tobias Stanislas Haller, St. Gregory of Nyssa (San Francisco)’s podcast (various speakers)

    (C) Any general comments about online religious content?
    I consider myself both Episcopalian (with decidedly heterodox beliefs) and Unitarian, and find it quite ironic that, for two such liberal denominations, some Episcopalian churches and bodies tend to get the art of web presentation much better than the best Unitarian sites (with some exceptions, e.g. CLF and UUSC). Perhaps it’s just a matter of size and funding. Despite my impression that the average Unitarian (with the exception of the more traditional congregations such as King’s Chapel) is younger and tech-savvier than the average Episcopalian, and even Tim Berners-Lee being a UU.

15. 1. I consider myself something between a Digital Immigrant and Digital Native; I remember life before the internet, but have used it as a native since middle school. I use it for both personal and professional use on a daily basis.

    2. Religious Content on the Web:
    – Congregations & Denominations websites (UUA & local UU congregations I sometimes attend)

    – Referencing sacred texts (Bible), but not often; as I enter divinity school, I expect this will probably increase.

    – I read a few religious blogs (Boy in the Bands, PeaceBang, the Journey) but I’m still searching for more.

    – Sermon Podcasts from the First Parish in Concord, typically the Rev. Gary E. Smith preaching.

    – Religious music when shared by my former choir director

    3. I agree about online fellowships and the faith of the transient. As a young adult, my religious community is very fluid. I find it difficult to get to traditional Sunday services for a variety of reasons (home church is a little too far, local churches have times that don’t coincide well with bus schedules, etc), so my faith community is a mosaic from many different sources. Podcasts are wonderful (even if I can’t make it to FPC, I can listen to Gary preach), Twitter accounts, Blogs/Facebook Pages/etc are great ways to build community across demographics (location, age, race, etc). I agree that it is the next stage of community that religion needs to embrace. It has great potential for religious communities, if only utilized properly.

16. (A) Which of the following do you consider yourself:

    Digital Native/Immigrant (I do remember that when I was a little kid our Atari would not go online – we were doing telenet and bulletin board systems when I was a kid (born 1978). So I’m not a total native.

    (B) Aside from reading (this blog)(my Facebook feed), which of the following ways do you access religious content online online? (I also ask for specific examples of each kind of content, but if you don’t have the time to get specific, I’d still love to know which types of content, if any, you access.)

    1. Looking at a congregation’s Web site, or a denomination’s Web site (please list one or more)

    Yes, I look at my congregation’s website frequently, but then I work for my congregation and that’s my job. I’m also on the UUA and district websites a lot.

    Reading sacred texts (Bible, Qu’ran, etc.) online (please specify which ones)

    No – for sacred texts I still like the feel of paper in my hands. Although search features are nice when I really need to find a quote. And I have the Bible on my Kindle.

    Reading religious blogs online (please name some)

    I have several UU blogs in my Google Reader: Deep River, Yet Another Unitarian Universalist, Called, The Journey, Chalice Chick, Beauty Tips for Ministers. I also like Dirty Sexy Ministry, which is not UU.

    Watching videos with religious content online (please describe one you remember)
    I watch some of the videos the UUA and the district sends out.

    Listening to sermon podcasts online (please say who was preaching)

    Since I’m the DRE, I can’t listen to our sermons during the worship service, so I listen to them on our congregation’s website during the week. I also sometimes like to pick a random religious podcast and put it on my iPod to take to the gym or on a walk. I always pick a different one, but I’ve found I like the podcasts from Ireland (the accents, perhaps :) )

    Listening to religious music, broadly defined, online (please name some performers, composers, and/or songs/works)

    When I need to find a song or hymn, I look it up on YouTube or google it for a midi file. If there was a hymn or song in church that I’m still humming later on Sunday I like to look it up on YouTube and sometimes put a link to it on my facebook page or on my blog.

    Taking classes in religion or religious topics online (please describe one or more)

    I still haven’t done this, but at some point I’ll have to, I’m sure.

    Looking at religious content online with your children (please specify)

    Any question my kids ever have, they say “can we google it?”.

    Other (please specify)
    (C) Any general comments about online religious content?

17. A) Which of the following do you consider yourself:
    2. Digital Immigrant (you feel fully at home in the Internet)

    & I spend time welcoming others.

    (B) Aside from reading (this blog)(my Facebook feed), which of the following ways do you access religious content online online? (I also ask for specific examples of each kind of content, but if you don’t have the time to get specific, I’d still love to know which types of content, if any, you access.)

    1. Looking at a congregation’s Web site, or a denomination’s Web site (please list one or more)
    2. Reading sacred texts (Bible, Qu’ran, etc.) online (please specify which ones) (Parashah, Bible, Qu’ran, Collected Hinduism works, collected Buddhist works, Jain poetry)
    3. Reading religious blogs online (please name some) (Brian D. McLaren, Velveteen Rabbi, Beyond Religion, various from UU Aggregator but always UUPlanet, YetAnotherUUBlog, DeepRiverFaith, Sam Trumbore’s TimesUnion, Boy in the Bands, & Monkey Mind)
    4. Watching videos with religious content online (please describe one you remember) – Ron Sexsmith, God Loves Everyone; Rob Bell on Love Wins
    5. Listening to sermon podcasts online (please say who was preaching) Ick. Much prefer religious issues & congregational life podcasts, such as God Complex Radio, Interfaith Voices, & On Being. But I do listen to Nate Walker & Randy Becker preach by podcast sometimes.
    6. Listening to religious music, broadly defined, online (please name some performers, composers, and/or songs/works) Greg Greenway, Jim Scott, Mary Grigolia, Ron Sexsmith, Toby Mac, Kenny Ellis, Eshy, Emma’s Revolution, City of Blinding Lights, Sarah Dan Jones, Michael Franti, Jars of Clay, and many, many more.
    7. Taking classes in religion or religious topics online (please describe one or more) – Spirituality & Practice – Rumi; Alban Institute religious practices classes like w/ Carol Howard Merritt on reframing hope & tribal church. Slideshare programs on particular congregational issues or faith teachings – best one I’ve seen was via Muslim Matters on a particular surya recited every Friday. Global Deaf Muslim video teachings. UUA congregational programs via Personny. Generally, classes not as rigorous as I prefer.
    8. Looking at religious content online with your children (please specify) don’t have children, but regularly reading & referring, esp. religious/spiritual themes showing up in children’s lit bloggers, primarily driven by tweets about those posts
    9. Other (please specify)- wiki; Facebook; skyping w/consulting; various chat programs for referrals & minimal pastoral care; Flickr (photo sharing for multimedia); SlideShare; Oovoo for ministerial online group; Twitter for spirit, connection & dialogue

    (C) Any general comments about online religious content?
    There’s amazingly high quality material out there, but it takes sifting and sorting. I like to refer folks most to stories, songs, and positive teachings — so many of us need regular infusions of evidence for hope and encouragement through our day & seek that from our religious leaders online.

18. a) Consider myself an immigrant but the natives I live with would probably tell me I am an alien. :)

    b) 1. I am a DRE and I utilize all sorts of church, district, and denominational websites to do my job. I probably visit the Tapestry section of the UUA two or three times a week.

    2. Having been raised as a good atheist and not having any formal religious training, I find the internet a great resource. There is a lot of sacred text out there and a lot of different commentaries to go with it.

    3. I get the UU World Blog Round up and read many of those. NPR’s On Being and UU Growth is in my Facebook feed and I read a lot of the blogs posted by them.

    4. We use a lot of video in our RE classes. The kids seem to find them much more engaging that traditional stories. I have found great content for kids on youtube – Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, etc. I wish someone would develop some good quality UU ones. I occasionally listen to sermons, but I prefer to read them.

    5. Yes – in the course of my work – looking for ‘new’ engaging music for multi-gen worship.

    6. I have taken online webinars offered by my district.

    7. My 14 y.o. just became interested in Westboro Baptist Church thanks to a post in her FB newsfeed. She has been googling them and we have been having some interesting discussions about the 1st amendment lately.

19. A-3 – I’m a 68 y.o. Digital Alien – it’s a foreign language to me, but after almost 20 years I can follow directions and not embarass myself with every mouse-click.

    B-1 – I read/use UUA.org almost daily. Visit websites of my previous congregations/districts to see their news weekly.

    B-2 – Religious Texts – when I worked for the Methodist Church, visited the Bible on-line weekly

    B-3.Reading religious blogs online – Alban Roundtable, Sojourners, Peacebang, The Journey, East of Midnight, Ms. Kitty, Ironic Schmoozer, Boy in the Bands,
    Network of Spiritual Progressives

    4.Watching videos with religious content online – I watch the ones that are posted on FB by my FB friends

    5.Listening to sermon podcasts online – yes, often. The Revs. Victoria Weinstein, Victoria Safford, Barbara and Bill Hamilton-Holway

    6.Listening to religious music, broadly defined, online – Suze Werner, Peter Mayer, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and seasonally, to anyone/any group performing excellent sacred Christian music.

    7.Taking classes in religion or religious topics online – not yet

    8.Looking at religious content online with your children N/A

    (C) Any general comments about online religious content?

    I am pretty much satisfied with what I know how to do, and I have the great blessing of living next door to two granddaughters who help me a lot with Facebook and other matters related to using the www. Have recently taught myself how to take pictures and send them various places with my phone – what an amazing thing to be able to do. That having been said, I will always be “an alien with a greencard”, and that is OK with me! Most of the time I feel very welcomed and accepted in this new country.

20. (A) Digital Immigrant (I don’t think there are natives my age. Pioneers, yes… but I’m not quite in that category)

    (B) 1. I look at more than one congregation’s Web site (my internship site, home congregation’s site, the UUA Worship Web (and UUA.org), and occasionally at other congregations and (more rarely) other denominational sites.
    2. I rarely go reading scriptures online–although I do use online search to find passages that I remember but can’t cite exactly…
    3. Religious blogs: various UU blogs (less currently than before, just for lack of time right now — internship and MFC prep…), such as Monkey Mind and The Journey (among others), and the interfaith, collective effort, StreetProphets.com
    4. Videos–rarely. Mostly when I get a pointer to one that’s exceptional (say, through Facebook)
    5. Listening to sermon podcasts online, intermittently–I’ve listened to Rob Hardies, Mark Morrison-Reed, Victoria Weinstein, Arvid Straube, and Beth Johnson (that come to mind). And to myself–not for religious content, but it makes a heck of a convenient way to be able to listen to one’s own performance and critique it…
    6. Various–here, mostly when my far more musically driven beloved points me to something. And to Peter Mayer.
    7. I’ve taken online classes through Meadville Lombard (Reading Early Christian Literature) and partially online classes there as well. And online classes through Starr King (Children’s Literature as Religious Education, World Religions, and Contemporary Hinduism).
    8. Not that comes to mind
    9. Not that comes to mind

    (C) Any general comments about online religious content?

21. (A) Digital Native

    (B) Aside from reading (this blog)(my Facebook feed), which of the following ways do you access religious content online online? (I also ask for specific examples of each kind of content, but if you don’t have the time to get specific, I’d still love to know which types of content, if any, you access.)

    1. The UUA, Unity Church of Christianity, United Church of Religious Science, Religious Science International, First Unitarian Church of Dallas, Dallas Center for Spiritual Living, Church of the Larger Fellowship/Younger Fellowship
    2. Bible (biblegateway)
    3. The blogs featured on the weekly UUWorld emails
    4. You’re a Uni-what? The sermons from First U Church Dallas and Dallas CSL
    5. Unity Church of Hawaii, All Souls NY, Be Spiritual, Dallas CSL
    6. Meditation music on youtube
    7. Unity’s intro to Unity online course, CLF online RE classes
    8. N/A
    9. Other: Online readings–UU World, UUA Monday Meditations, Unity articles, Unity prayer publications, Unity & Religious Science daily word emails. Online communities–CLF discussion group email lists
    (C) Any general comments about online religious content? I love it :) I’m in college, and seeing as I don’t have a car, this is how I “go to church.” I access some sort of content every day. Usually many different kinds.

22. (A) Digital Immigrant: It’s not possible for someone my age to be a native, in either the popular sense or the technical sense (even if you count ARPANET!)

    (B)
    Looking at a congregation’s Web site, or a denomination’s Web site: I look at congregational websites frequently in the course of work, as well as uua.org; personally, I look at fgcquaker.org from time to time.

    Reading sacred texts (Bible, Qu’ran, etc.) online: I use online reference materials, but don’t “read” online.

    Reading religious blogs online: Velveteen Rabbi; A Silly Poor Gospel; Noli Irritare Leones; Growing Together in Rwanda; QuakerQuaker.org; Utne Spirituality

    Watching videos with religious content online: no

    Listening to sermon podcasts online: no

    Listening to religious music, broadly defined, online: no, but I am a broadcaster of Sacred Harp and traditional American hymns from time to time

    Taking classes in religion or religious topics online: I made one attempt at a moodle course and lost interest; I taught a course on Quakerism in Second Life

    Looking at religious content online with your children: na

    Other: Used to attend UU services and occasionally attend Quaker meeting in Second Life; subscribe to email newsletter from Quakerbooks of FGC;

    (C) Any general comments about online religious content?

23. Sandy @ 21: You write: “I love it. I’m in college, and seeing as I don’t have a car, this is how I “go to church.””

    Thanks for this observation. This alone makes me want to produce more online religious content.

    Kenneth @ 22 — You write: “I am a broadcaster of Sacred Harp and traditional American hymns from time to time”

    No kidding! You and I have to talk about Sacred Harp singing sometime.

24. (A) 2. Digital Immigrant – I’ve been online since ~1994, creating listservs soon afterward & started web site development for my church in 1996

    (B) 1. Looking at a congregation’s Web site, or a denomination’s Web site (dmuuc.org, baltwashuus.org, jpduua.org, uua.org, uuworld.org, etc.)
    3. Reading religious blogs online (uugrowth.com, uupdates.net, blogs.uuworld.org, community.livejournal.com/chalice_circle/)
    4. Watching videos with religious content online (Standing on the Side of Love has many terrific ones & I have a UU music playlist on YouTube at the dmuuc channel)
    5. Listening to sermon podcasts online (Only my own church’s at dmuuc.libsyn.com)
    6. Listening to religious music, broadly defined, online (on YouTube as mentioned in #4 & I own a lot of Holly Near, Fred Small, not to mention some blues & soul from Odetta which is not defined as “religious” but definitely moves me, plus much more – I sang & signed “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence last year at our Easter service)
    7. Taking classes in religion or religious topics online (does the UU Growth Lab on Facebook count? That’s more like an ongoing “workshop”)
    8. Looking at religious content online with your children (I sang Fred Small’s song to my granddaughter which is online [with his permission] here: http://www.youtube.com/jdadvisor#p/u/0/3vNWTxX6zmw )
    9. Other (blogging & tweeting as UUMom & for my church & much more)

    (C) Any general comments about online religious content? There are also many great interfaith forums that have live events, but do a lot of communicating online, such as Interfaith Alliance http://www.facebook.com/interfaithalliance , Greater Washington Interfaith Power & Light http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=129394449319 and InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=56111859304

25. Pingback: Why we need bridges | nagoonberry