Online Ordination

They say that nowadays, you can do anything online. Check the weather, pay your bills, even buy your groceries from the magic box that sits on your desk, on your lap, or even in your pocket. But can you really become ordained to be a practicing minister or reverend? Absolutely. I know, because I've done it.

And why not? The First Amendment to the Constitution protects every citizen's right to establish and practice his own religion without interference by the government. Granted, it's still pretty hard to be recognized as the sole practitioner of your own religion (and expect the same tax exemptions, anyway). But more than a few groups have gotten together and provide free, online ordination so that you, too, can be leader of your very own church (or representative of a very lax church, to be specific).

Myself, I'm ordained as a minister in the Universal Life Church, as well as a member of the clergy for the Church of Spiritual Humanism. They both applaud siezing your right to a community based on a church, even if that church's only real deities are mathematics or the laws of physics.

While ordination in the Churches and monasteries of Universal Life (there are a dozen different ones, at least) is the most popular, you can become a minster in a Christian mission or become a Dudeist reverend. There are rabbinical programs as well, but much rarer, given the nature of the modern rabbi in a Jewish religious community.

Why do people do it? Well, firstly and probably most likely, for fun. Secondly, it's a great opportunity for a person of any faith to be able to over see weddings or other ceremonies, which some states, like New York, require registration for. For many others, the call to faith, or to ministry of whatever they believe, happened well into their growth as people, maybe disenfranchised with modern religious establishment, and the search a more inclusive atmosphere.

I know what you're thinking. It's probably something like, "Well, I wouldn't trust a doctor who bought his M.D. from a catalogue, so why should I trust this guy, who just clicked "OK"?" Well, the short answer is, I think, you should trust him about as much as you would trust any stranger. But you should acknowledge that he has as much right to his beliefs as the Pastor from the church across town. It's hard to be a full-time clergy member. But, it's easy to work a 9-5 job, and then be able to pass on some wisdom in whatever way you think best on the weekends, and if you choose to become ordained as a symbol for your choice to do that, more power to you.

So go out, or stay in, you can become ordained in your own faith, or lackthereof, start a church, oversee a wedding, buy a collar, and begin to have a title to preach what you believe. I did.

Buddhism online

Greetings, faithful (get it?) readers. This week, I'm going to explore some online resources for one of my favorite religions, Buddhism. I was fortunate enough to see the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso speak at Rutgers University, and found it hard not to be awed in his presence. I find myself drawn to the teachings of the Buddha because so much of what it means to be a Buddhist includes non-violence, introspection, respect, and self-discipline. Now, you could make that argument for nearly every other religion I'll be discussing here, but we'll get into that a little bit later.



At BuddaNet, they've put together a fantastic site designed to create a virtual meeting-place and forum of discussion. Based in Australia, and founded in 1992, the site is non-sectarian, meaning they try to cater to Buddhists of all schools and all nationalities. This site is a great resource to anybody looking to learn more about Buddhism, from any level of education about the religion. Their completely free, online e-book library is fantastic. They host books about Buddhism, classical texts, even children's resources. (I think The-One-Who-Saw is my favorite.) Another great aspect of this website is the entire section dedicated to audio recordings. You can listen to Buddhist chanting, songs, or even get audio-guided meditation instructions.

A site I would not recommend would be Buddhist-artwork.com. A very well-put together site, to be sure, and worth examining for the beautiful pieces they show there, but ultimately, it's for a cost, and exchange of money, and that sort of defeats the whole purpose, doesn't it? To be fair, I suppose you can draw bridges between functional Buddhism and its relationship with the practices of Hinduism which have many de facto correlations, and the fact that most Buddhists sects draw a connection between art and enlightenment (and I agree).

For those of you who wish to learn more about Buddhism in general, and maybe gain an insight into some of the Buddha's teachings, check out Urban Dharma, a great site about Buddhism in America, with great down-to-earth essays and meditations on things very accesable to the modern American people. One of the best lessons I learned here is that the best way one can explore Dharma (generally "duty," but in Buddhism, the work of teachings of the Buddha) as an American is to make one's art through the form and language of one's own culture, as so well expressed in the folk music, demonstrated here in Music in the Dharma.

Along those lines, for those of you not as familiar with the basic principles of Buddhism, one of the key ideas is (like in Hinduism, it's cousin) that of karma. At it’s purest, Karma is (any) action, and the results of those actions creating an intangible which we all carry with us. And though there are more grey areas in the practice of Buddhism, and achievement of liberation from the cycle of reincarnation (Nirvana, in Buddhism), the creation and maintenance of a website would pretty much fall under that category. Sorry BuddaNet, looks like you’ll have to wait until the next time you’re reborn, maybe as a video game, to break from samsara.

For a great description of Nirvana in Buddhism, the ever-dependable folks at How Stuff Works put together this article. There's more great material for Hindu exploration, but I'll get into that in a later entry. Thanks for reading, and I'll be back next week.