Finally.
A new internet radio show that is collaborating with public radio, hosted by Christopher Lydon; debuted recently. The June 1st show featured two people whose blogs I know well, and an academic blogger who is a theologian/teacher.

It’s been hard to get into Open Source, it wouldn’t load, it’s been down, there isn’t enough bandwidth etc. Given the innovative approach, the technical start up difficulties are understandable.

Tonight (between thunderstorms) I turned on the computer and Open Source (program God 2.0) loaded right away. There is interesting discussion and content in this show, especially for bloggers. A couple of things hit me right away.
a) It would be a good listen for ministers, priests and church workers who are unfamilar with what is online.
b) I’m hearing the voices of people I know from their text voice online, and it’s a seamless experience.
c) The production is professional.

As a broadcaster, I know that a person’s voice or image may not match their off air self. We turn on’when the camera and mike is turned on and from my experience that is most true with politicans. Although many people don’t match their off air selves, many do. Having having read the text, comments and responses on The Revealer and Real Live Preacher it is interesting to see/hear that the tone of their thoughts and ideas matched the text of their blogs. There was rapport, warmth, and a genuine enthusiasm about the whole of the online faith experience.

Jeff Sharlet comes across very well in a radio format, and has an encyclopedic knowledge of religion in the US - online and off. Real Live Preacher sounded a bit tired or nervous in the first part of the show, and picked up energy as the conversation did. I thought he was an excellent counter-part to Sharlet. Sarah Dylan Breuer was brought in at the end to add the academic element.
There were two callers, who were stated RLP fans. That can be tough having a fan base, especially when one isn’t looking for one, but host Christopher Lydon kept things on track.
Comments from the Open Source blog were read a few times by a producer.
Each guest was a good listener and that skill made the content easy to think about.

It struck me that no women called in, or had comments read from the open source blog. Jeff Sharlet brought up a key point about the St. Blog’s community of top women writers such as Amy Welborn of Open Book and Kathy Shaidle of relapsed catholic.

Jeff:…there is this protestant sense of being online, because as your caller just said a moment ago, I never thought I could have this experience of communing with God sitting at my computer, and it’s almost I can have this unmediated experience. Course, it’s not unmediated, you’re sitting at your computer, so maybe microsoft is the new priest.

Christopher: Are there texts online, is there anything like orthodoxy, is there anything like authority much less a pope. Is there a tradition? (overtalk)

Jeff: I think there’s, there is a restructuring of authority and what’s really interesting about it is that people don’t know that they are doing it sometimes.
So, for instance, in conservative catholic blogs, many many many of them are run by women and a lot of the people that go to their blogs are fed up with their priests and so Amy Welborn’s Open Book or Kathy Shaidle’s relapsed catholic. or any number of these blogs…and they don’t realize they have an effect ordained women priests, they’ve given this status to women, and these women who might even oppose that theologically have adopted that status, so the authority is…not yet…I don’t think there is… that kind of authority…I don’t think there is this kind of authority and I hope that won’t happen. I guess in that sense I’m not Jewish, I’m enough of a Protestant that I hope we don’t ever really develop that authority online.

Gordon: Can I jump in real quick?

Christopher: Please Gordon.

Gordon: It is interesting you would say that Jeff, I read just recently on an web site called The Internet Monk, another pastor like myself who pastors a very small church…my church is not very influential, it doesn’t have a lot of power and our voice doesn’t really get heard very much, but then suddenly you go online quite innocently and the next thing you know here’s Real Live Preacher with a congregation of…well actually I really hate calling it that, I really do, but just to use the term we’ve already said, a group of people coming online that are much larger than any other, than I would ever have listening to me.

Christopher: You’ve become a mega-church.

Gordon: Yes, it has a…I think the internet has a way of turning authority structures upside down, which is very Christ-like, uh, as well, authority needs to be turned upside down. That’s killing the Buddha.

That’s a snippet and an interesting aside to the whole show. There were some good things to chew on, and I wish the project well. It was refreshing to listen to knowledgable people excited about the dynamics of blogging, faith and online community. This show does it’s bit to counteract the myths of religion in the US.
Your impression might be completely different, I recommend having a listen.