I posted to Brainstorms today (Howard Rheingold’s online community which is very “Well” like (as in “The Well”, from which Howard led many in his convictions about the emerging power of the Internet for creating new types of social and peronal ties (In his groundbreaking book, The Virtual Community in 1992, online here). I have included it here because it is fittingly “rant-like” as a weblog entry, but it echoes and summarizes many of the things I often say in numeous posts attempting to “cover the ground” I posted to a topic I started on Sept 18, 2001, called “Online Theological Community”.

Hi all.

I’ve been “dormant” for a while in terms of Brainsotorms, and I had redone my system, and so my Brainstorms password cookie was wiped out and I fgrgot what I used. Luckily, I try to stick with a particular pattern for all my logins, so I finally hit upon it after a few tries.

I’ve been working away at the Old Saint George web since last fall….and the work seems to depend on what elese is happening job-prospect-wise in my life, how much money there is at a particular time to pay me something, and various health anxieties (the latest was having a colonoscopy, but it was clear). So now I feel I have a new burst of energy and initiative to keep all my networking connections alive (here, Ecunet, my weblog – which is at http://theoblogical.org — I’ve moved to using Movable Type now, and also experimenting with dotText as another option — anxiously awaiting Movable Type Pro which has been promised since last summer)

Anyway, I have been hangin around here and providing periodic bursts of rants and energy around the topic of Online Theological Community and “Religious Online Communities”. I prefer “Theological Community” because my Christian theology is a deeply ecumenical one…..I feel it is appropriate and NECCESSARY to all kinds and flavors of religous tradition to seek the best that the web has to offer in terms of using its tools to enhance the mission of those communities, be they Christian (and all its flavors) , Jewish, Muslim, “secular humanist” (as their detractors refer to them)…..all of which have somewhat of an emphasis on the value of “Conversation” and providing more avenues in whih that conversation can begin, carry on, extend, enhance, or branch out further into their daily routines.

I belive that in most communities of this ilk, there are numerous participants who long for a more extensive dialogue, and find themselves hanging around seeking conversation or someone to listen to them and what they feel is important. Weblogs seem to be an avenue that several people have found helps them “outlet” this energy, and this longing. It is a gross oversight; a disgusting “Cluelessness” as Locke, Searls, Weinberger, and Levine would put it (in The Cluetrain Manifesto) that the Church and other organizations/communties of theological focus, have missed this, ignored this, and even “opposed this” on the claim that online communities detract from the “putting bodies in the pews” which seems to be the primary value of many of these institutions. I believe that the reverse would be true of a dedicated effort to “host” the kinds of conversations that people are longing to have. Even though many people who would participate in online dialogue would come to this from “outside the physical community”, they would likewise be attracted to the prospect of checking this community out in person if they had some clue that conversations were happening there that they care about. Many people (including myself) are so of tired of Church shopping that they have grown cynical (I’m not there yet, at least today). If I were to find a Church that talked a lot about the things I care about , or how they can be “Church” in a way that goes far beyond the “business as usual” (which usuallymeans being somewhat counter-cultural as well as extremely interested in the duality of the Inward-Outward Journey as a spiritual people (emphasizing both inward journey, which is shared with a group of people dedicated to being accountable to each other to keep each other “updated” on their spiritual journeys, and the Outward Journey: a mission that is shared by the same group; and is the reason for their being lumped together as a group of people on an Inward Journey. I have a section in my weblog dedicated to the Church from which this model has been embodied: The Church of the Saviour in Washington , DC.

In summary: yes, it is possible and ADVISABLE for Theologically centered groups to “join the conversation”, enable it, encourage it, and “let it be told” via these tools which have been provided for us.