Here is an annotated repository of links to spirituality resources on the internet that I've put together. I initially got interested in the issue when I was trying to understand why I had become "sick and stupid", something akin to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but without the nice diagnosis. Then when I got interested in the Open and Affirming process in our church, I continued gathering other resources. There are many better such resources on the internet, but I like being able to organize my own findings, meagre though they may be.
As with everything I do, I things appear in their own good time. Sometimes that takes a while. Eventually, I'll organize the links according to category, and will include more of my own personal musings of a spiritual nature (such as the Stewardship sermon I gave in March, 2003).
- I suppose in a way, the place to start would be my church's web site. Actually, I have some problems with this site because it is so high bandwidth. On the other hand, it is well done (except for the annoying music they foist on you -- you're in luck, I edited that part out of the link). If you poke around you'll even find a picture or two of me.
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- My favorite internet preacher is a guy named Ken Collins. He is a pastor in a Disciples of Christ Church down in Virginia. His site is fabulous because it tells you almost everything you'd ever want to know, about Christianity. For example, he explains such as the meaning of the different liturgical colors, why churches are laid out as they are, a calendar of holy days, and so forth. Ken also has lots of articles about various issues of faith, such as whether or not liberals, feminists and gay people will go to heaven. I think the thing I like best about him is his quote, "Do not allow my persuasive writing style to overcome your skepticism: weigh my words, check my facts, and accept only what passes muster. Don't agree with me without first putting me to the test, which is your duty according to 1 John 4:1-3. " Interestingly, I didn't find a clear explication of the sacraments on his site.
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- My other favorite internet preacher is a guy name Phil St.Romain. He is a Roman Catholic who workes at a place called the Heartland Center for Spirituality out in Great Bend, Kansas. He maintains a web site for the center which has quite a few articles on Christian spirituality, things such as Basics of Spirituality, Prayer in the Christian Tradition and Proverbs and Maxims for Spiritual Living. I figure we all came from the same spiritual roots in the beginning, so I'm interested to see how others interpret things. The fact that Phil is Roman Catholic doesn't bother me in the least. I just keep Ken Collins statement in my mind, "Don't agree...without first putting [my words] to the test...." Phil also sends out a daily spirituality e-mail newsletter, Daily Spiritual Seed, which is a nice daily reminder that there is more to existence than our personal vanities. I think it's worth signing up for the newsletter. Unlike some e-mail newsletters, this one won't get you on a bunch of spam lists. Interestingly, I found about all this from reading USA Today while on vacation a few years ago.
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- It is also nice to have on-line access to the daily lectionary. Although I have found lists of lectionary readings on various sites, the only site I've found which displays the daily readings is run by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Roman Catholic lectionary is a bit different from ours, but in the end, it's the same Bible and regular reading is a good idea. I much prefer the Catholic version to the King James rendition that is in the Bible I have at work.
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- If you want to know about other religions, or about contentious religious issues in general, but with a balanced point of view, a good place to start is ReligiousTolerance.org. This site is run by the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. They seem to think that if the members of the different religions were more interested in discussing their points of view and tolerating the concept that honorable people can have different opinions and beliefs, then perhaps we'd be spending less time trying to kill each other and more time trying to help each other out. I happen to agree with them.
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- BibleGateway.com allows one to look up specific words or passages in over a dozen different translations of the Bible. It's great if you want to check out how differently certain phrases have been translated at various times. I'm sure there are many other serchable versions of the Bible on line. If I just want to check out a passage or two, I generally just click on the version put up by the Catholic Bishops, aluded to above. It lacks the frills of a lot of other sites, so loads pretty fast.
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- Resource Pages for Biblical Studies has lots of links to articles about the Bible as well as about life and times in the Mediterranean region during Biblical times. I find this site hard to read and to follow, but with diligence useful things can be found.
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- I haven't checked this one out too much, but it appears that New Testament Gateway offers a pretty good foundation for beginning New Testament Studies. You'll find links to articles about the New Testament translations, articles about books that didn't get included in the New Testament, such as the famous Gospel of Thomas, and general discussions of things scholarly.
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