Saturday, June 20, 2009
Religious groups embracing the Web
Click the button above to see all of our community coverage, or go straight to your community's homepage with the menu below.
More religion stories
- Enon Baptist Church has ties to Hollins
- Religion calendar
- 'Stop Hunger Now' gains momentum
- Religion calendar
- Teacher dispenses little lessons through song
Archive
Since writing a story last month about faith groups expanding their ministries through Facebook and other online forums, I've been constantly amazed by the depth and breadth of religious expression now on the Web.
Some of these expressions, such as the Vatican channel on YouTube, can be described as sacred.
There both the faithful and the simply curious may watch video messages from the pope and other Catholic leaders and see video news coverage of events and issues important to Catholicism.
Other sites, such as the edgy news and commentary blog ReligionDispatches.org -- its motto is "exhilarating the breakfast table since 2008" -- might be thought of as sometimes profane.
But no matter the message, there's no doubt technology is spurring religious expression and evangelism.
Locally, renewanation.org, based in Roanoke, has expanded its Web site and blog to include an online newsletter. The site is dedicated to the creation of a Christian school network in the Roanoke Valley and beyond.
Headquartered at the Parkway House of Prayer in Northeast Roanoke, Renewanation organizers seek to raise funds and awareness to build a network of affordable Christian schools that espouse what members call the "Christian worldview."
That worldview, according to the group's Web site, is "formed by the authority of the Bible and the person of Jesus Christ."
Renewanation President Melvin Adams has said such a network would provide Christian parents and children an alternative to the secular worldview taught in most public schools.
n n n
The Charlottesville-based Rutherford Institute has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case of Nevada high school student Brittany McComb, whose 2006 valedictory address about how God's love filled the gaps in her life was cut short by school officials.
Midway through her speech, the microphone into which McComb was speaking was shut off. While McComb was allowed to finish, her words were inaudible to the assembly.
The crowd cheered McComb and booed an official who tried to restore order and continue the ceremony.
The institute, a conservative Christian advocacy group, alleges in court filings that in cutting off McComb's address, the school violated her constitutional right to free speech.
The incident garnered coverage on Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes" show.
Read the legal filings and watch a video of McComb's speech at rutherford.org.
