Blog post 3/30/2012

I would like to once again reference the Puja in this post. The authority I will look at is the role of the ceremony. The Puja is someone's individual act of repsect and worship to the deity. Cheong says that online/real religious authorities have been described as having a relationship that is "primarily characterized as one of dislocation or coexistence" (Cheong, 5). The Puja has many steps that can be done virtually but are of course meant to be undertaken in a tangible way. The challenge to the Puja that online mediation poses is that of the second assumption, that the offline religious authority is be being sustained and reframed by online practice. The Puja is meant to be something physical, with sensory messages filling the body as well; but is being reshaped by the simple point and click method that the new online Puja are offering as an option. It almost seems to be undermining the true value of the ceremony; changing the physical aspect could in essence change the way that a participant feels both during and after the completion of the Puja.




Source: Cheong Reading

Blog Post 3/23/12

- Does digital media strengthen or weaken individual's ability to construct or perform their religious identity?
For this question I would like to reference the example of the online Puja that we noted in class. We discussed the possible pros and cons of practicing such a tradition from an online perspective. The possible advantages it would have for some of those who are physically or otherwise unable to attend, and the disadvantages of not having things like the tactile stimulus. I believe that digital media can strengthen someone's ability to construct a religious identity because they have the freedom to choose their own scope of learning. This could be bad for an individual who learns that something their ritual leader or place has taught them could be controversial or strange, but the point remains that it is still strengthening the individual's ability to construct their own identity. Kerstin Radde-Antweiler supports this when she states that in most online religions, "...believers can seek the guidance of a leading clergyman of their choice while various books and online resources provide further advice." How this relates to the Puja is that when someone abroad pays to have it done, there is always room to find the service somewhere else if one does not like the service they receive the first time around.


The site I found was an article:
http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/volltexte/2006/6953/pdf/online_journal_Introduction.pdf

Blog post 3/9 - online religious communities.

www.saddlechurch.com - online Christian Community


- How does this group define itself as a community?
     This group defines itself as a community by it's belief of "living on purpose" everyone in the church can live separately but as long as they believe that they were created by God and live in his mission, they are bound by a shared faith.


- How do they structure or live out their form of online community?
     Saddleback church strongly recommends small group life and thought sharing. These can be in a workplace, home, and especially online. They have online church "campuses" which can be accessed by anyone. The services online are live sermons performed at specific times, also they recommend a new book to read every week.

- What might be the offline impact of this online community on their particular religious tradition?
     I don't think Saddleback church would realistically change any aspect of normal churchgoers, similar to what we have talked about in class, people still have the option and probably will continue to attend regular other religious events outside the parameters of the online community; there are several physical locations and people are encouraged to attend these as well.

First Blog post

I found an article about mega-churches that are now using new and emergent technologies to reach out to their attendees and tell them about coming events and messages. the reverend of this church in Billings, Montana uses Facebook group pages to keep people updated and also uses Twitter and Facebook feeds to give "teasers" about his upcoming sermons. The belief of the church is that churches are about connections, whether from person to person, or from a person to a deity; this belief system let's the church feel good about using this new social media to fill people in. According to the article, over 47 percent of large churches use Facebook as a means of connecting and communicating with their members. Although the churches are beginning to use more social media, the reverends and pastors still firmly believe that no matter what is posted on Facebook or Twitter, the shared information can never take the place of face-to-face contact. Facebook pages such as the "like" fan pages and the group pages can connect people not only to those other churchgoers who are on Facebook, but can also link people to church websites where people can find history and more information if they so choose. I think this article proves that people of all spectrums of the cultured world that we live in are starting to use social media to communicate.

Article:
http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/article_6dbd69ab-8c36-5974-9c7b-084516006290.html

Christian Media

I plan to do my blog on how Christians, particularly the less fundamentalist. I will look at how churches are growing from small things centered around a Sunday in a quite town to mega-churches that use projectors, Facebook, and Twitter to give their attendees maximum "advantage" of going to that church.

First

First post on this blog. Making sure it works.