Forty Strangers in a Virtual Room talk about Religion

The following quote (which appears in a later section of the article after the excerpt below) really jumped out at me:

[blockquote]Americans rank with traditionalist countries around the world, places like Pakistan, in the strength of our religious values. But Americans also are almost off the chart in another powerful value — our desire for individual self-expression. (We rank with Scandinavia on that scale.) So, faith matters deeply to us — but the reality of open source religion is that we, as Americans, expect to be able to crack open the doors of religion and chart our own individual meaningful journeys through the resources and traditions we find there. [/blockquote]
That may say alot about some of what is behind the crisis in ECUSA.

From Wired Magazine:

An Adventure in Opening the Ultimate Source

Open. Source. Religion.

They’re timeless spiritual terms, but somehow, as a three-word phrase, it doesn’t trip off the tongue as easily as those prayers we’ve known since childhood.

But, for six weeks, 40 brave volunteers from across the U.S. met in a special online forum “Open Source Religion,” to talk about their deepest beliefs; along the way, their respectful curiosity wound up defying the old warning about never discussing religion with strangers. This was reported in three phases. For part one, two or three — go here and scroll down to the appropriate section.

What, exactly, is open source religion? It’s the cutting edge of individual spirituality that’s thriving outside the walls of organized religion. It’s a historic shift in power and authority from religious leadership to the consumer-oriented adherents of religious movements.

The volunteers ranged from atheists to evangelicals, Methodists to Muslims, young students to aging scholars. As their emails crisscrossed the continent, the forum members moved from exploring their own spiritual yearnings to talking honestly about their anxieties over religious conflict in the world.

“As the emails started coming from all these different participants, it was so exciting to see all the different viewpoints. I had never been involved in anything like this forum and I really appreciated it,” Gail Katz, a vice president of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Metropolitan Detroit, said as the online forum wrapped up.

Katz now is so convinced of the value of this kind of online discussion that she plans to extend a similar opportunity to women in Michigan. In July, Katz and a number of her Christian, Muslim and Jewish friends from across southeast Michigan are hosting a four-hour informational meeting for women who want to form international email networks of religious women promoting peace.

“My Jewish faith is very important to me, but what gives me the most spiritual energy these days is connecting people across religious and cultural boundaries,” Katz said.

The full article is here.