Antiquitopia

The NYTimes is running a short article on religion and technology: how Jewish, Christian, and Muslim groups have embraced facebook, twitter, etc., but with some tensions. It is fairly well-known that evangelical Christian groups are more technologically savvy with other religious groups lagging behind. Rick Warren and Joel Olsteen were some of the first (well-known) religious figures to be found on these social networking sites. Last year, the Pope started a facebook page. I liked how the article opened on a passion play: Things went smoothly for the first hour of the Twitter experiment at Trinity Church in Manhattan on Good Friday in April. While hundreds of worshipers watched the traditional dramatization of the Crucifixion from pews in the church, one of New York’s oldest, thousands more around the world followed along on smartphones and computers as a staff member tweeted short bursts of dialogue and setting (“Darkness and earthquake,” “Crucify him!”). The trouble began in the...

You really don't hear about Samaritans in the News these days, probably because there are so few of them remaining, but Reuters has an article discussing how they are currently surviving: By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor KIRYAT LUZA, West Bank (Reuters) - Guardians of an ancient faith with a cameo role in the Bible, the 750 surviving followers of the Samaritan religion are using surprisingly modern methods to keep their tiny community alive. Internet acquaintances, mail-order brides and pre-nuptial genetic tests have all become familiar to Samaritans trying to plan future generations despite a shortage of young women within their own tight-knit community. Such openness to the outside world seems baffling in a group that considers itself the original Israelites and upholds rigid traditions about diet, sex and the Sabbath. Half of the community lives in the tidy modern village of Kiryat Luza on Mount Gerizim, the faith's holy mountain in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and the ot...