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Jody HarringtoSummertime reading is traditionally lighter and more entertaining than what we read the rest of the year. In that spirit let’s take a look at three faith-based blogs that express their viewpoints with humor.
Beauty Tips for Ministers, by Victoria Weinstein, a Unitarian Universalist minister in Boston, is one of my favorites. Following her motto, “Because you’re in the public eye and God knows you need to look good,” PeaceBang (her nom de blog) cheerfully dispenses advice for seminarians seeking first calls and pastors interviewing with new churches or wondering what to wear for session meetings, weddings or funerals.
Both male and female pastors seek her advice, and she has documented a couple of “make-overs.” Written in a lively and entertaining style reminiscent of some fashion magazines or the cable TV show “What Not to Wear,” PeaceBang encourages pastors of every denomination to project a polished, professional look that is approachable and confident.
Ship of Fools is a British Web site chock full of good-natured religious satire and comedy. St. Simeon the Holy Fool, the site’s patron saint, is “a secret saint” whose “story was a holy farce and his life shows how God chooses ‘the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.’”
Ship of Fools includes departments such as “John Calvin’s News Round,” a discussion board that recently featured topics such as “What Do the Non-denoms Have That the Mainliners Don’t?”, favorite Easter hymns and church equipment phobias.
A favorite feature on Ship of Fools is Mystery Worshipper. Readers visit churches, many in the United States, and submit reports of what they find. The reports follow a prescribed format that notes attendance, whether the visitor was greeted personally, the pre-service atmosphere, exact opening words of the service, musical instruments included, any distractions, and whether the worship was “stiff-upper-lip, happy clappy or what.”
Reports also include sermon length, a rating of the preacher, what part of the service was like being in heaven and what like “being in the other place,” whether the service made the reporter glad to be a Christian and would they attend the church on a regular basis.
Check out some of the Mystery Worshipper reports and ask yourself how your church would fare if it were included!
Bringing you “theological news, fairly unbalanced” is the goal of Tom in the Box, a satirical online blog by Tom Slawson, V. Carlos Slawson Jr., Eric Carpenter and Bill Harris. The authors say their purpose is to “make a point through satire. Soli Deo Gloria!” A couple of examples of recent posts were “First ‘We’re Not a Church’ of Baton Rouge,” and “Professor Finally Disproves the Resurrection.”
—Jody Harrington is an elder at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston,Texas, and past moderator of New Covenant Presbytery. She writes the blog Quotidian Grace
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