TruthBook Religious News Blog

First-of-its-kind site Patheos.com launches today to provide an open forum to explore, experience and engage in religious and spiritual beliefs and discussion

DENVER, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- A new Web site designed to meet the growing online demand for credible, engaging information on religion and spirituality will launch today. Patheos.com (www.Patheos.com) aims to be the premier online destination for engaging in the global dialogue about religion and spirituality, and to explore and experience the world's beliefs. According to the Pew Internet Project, nearly 82 million Americans use the Web for faith-related reasons, pointing to the need for a credible and comprehensive online religious and spiritual destination.

Husband-and-wife entrepreneurs, parents and 20-year Web technology veterans, Leo and Cathie Brunnick were inspired to develop Patheos in 2008 when they married and were unable to find a credible, comprehensive online resource to provide guidance when blending two families from different religious backgrounds.

"With the launch of Patheos, we hope to provide access to a resource unlike any other on the Web, dedicated to providing religious and spiritual information and most importantly, constructive and meaningful dialogue," said Leo Brunnick, Patheos co-founder and CEO. "We've seen too much disrespectful, unconstructive dialogue about a topic that's important to many Americans. It's time to change the way we talk about religion, and Patheos can be the catalyst to help create this positive change."

In addition to the Public Square, Patheos visitors will find a unique variety of resources and applications...

Patheos is open to all visitors and does not support, endorse or promote any one religion, but strives to engage those of all beliefs and elevate the level of dialogue in the U.S. around important spiritual and religious topics.

To find out much more about Patheos.com, its founders and its features, please click on "external source"

Labels: Patheos.com, religion, spirituality, websites

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

New Video Blog Gives Homelessness a Face and Voice

By clicking on "external source," you can access this most interesting website devoted to making the problem of homelessness more visible.

Contact: Mark Horvath, 323-871-1519, mark@invisiblepeople.tv

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 16 /Christian Newswire/ -- Mark Horvath is somewhat of an authority on America's homeless population. That's because he once was part of it.

Fourteen years ago, Horvath was homeless.

He lived on the streets of Hollywood, Calif.

Today, Horvath is giving back to that community by breaking the mold and doing what, quite frankly, makes sense. Through invisiblepeople.tv, a new and dynamic video blog (vlog), he captures the stories of the homeless – one at a time.

Simply put, Horvath is breaking stereotypes.

Through his web site, he shares the stories of homeless people he meets on the streets. The site's segments are told by real people, in their own very real words. The innovative pieces, which began airing last November, are raw, uncensored and unedited – just like life on the streets.

There is meaning to the site's name.

According to Horvath, some homeless are passed on the street as if they don't exist. Others are ignored the way one would disregard a piece of trash on the sidewalk.

Horvath's goal? To make homeless visible to everyone else.

Horvath doesn't ask for money. The purpose of his vlog is to make the invisible visible. He doesn't want the world to look through or beyond the homeless anymore, but to be aware of them and their circumstances, and to let them not be forgotten.

The people and stories at invisiblepeople.tv are gripping. Some segments are, well, unsettling. Horvath wouldn't have it any other way. He wants to inspire; and wants you to act.

In Horvath, the homeless now have a face and voice. Thanks largely to invisiblepeople.tv, they are invisible no more. He wants you to remember that the homeless people ignored today were much like the rest of us not very long ago.

Labels: homelessness, Mark Horvath, websites

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Keeping (Or Finding) The Faith

Keeping (Or Finding) The Faith
Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009

Not all that long ago, you'd have had a hard time finding a research institute, an academic department or even a decent conference exploring the link between spirituality and health. And with good reason. Health is science, spirituality is something else entirely, and people who say otherwise clearly need to sit down with a medical journal or two.

But that's all changing. Everyone's got a stake in getting human health right--whether families and individuals simply trying to stay well or governments trying to build a functioning health-care system that doesn't break the bank. With so much on the line, no one can afford to take options off the table.

For that reason, investigators around the world backed by both public and private money are studying the faith factor in all manner of diseases and conditions. They have examined the spiritual-care needs of children with terminal illnesses and looked at how religion and superstition affect schizophrenia in China and how spirituality influences the well-being of college students in Malta and nuns in India. They have probed the links between religion and psychological woes too: neuroticism in Dutch twins, obsessive-compulsive symptoms in Italians, death anxiety among Egyptian nursing students and substance abuse in adolescents in Jerusalem. They have tried to measure the benefits of Bible therapy for patients with Alzheimer's disease, as well as the impact of religious guilt and congregational criticism on doubting members of the flock. They've looked at the health effects of psychoactive sacramentals (think peyote) and the spiritual preferences of neo-pagans (think Wiccans and druids).

The fact that what began as a trickle of studies has become a torrent doesn't mean that everyone is happy, and many scientists will continue to have nothing to do with what they see as fluff. Still, the movable feast of institutes, academic treatises, self-help books, websites, healing centers and luxury spas with a spiritual bent grows steadily larger. Here is just a sampling of what's available.

Please click on "external link" for the list of spiritually focused healing sites.

Labels: faith, health, science, spirituality, websites