Our multi-religion calendar script has achieved widgetude! You can now get it for your blog or website as a widget from WidgetBox.
It just doesn't get any easier than that.
We have also started a new blog, PostSermon, where we will pseudonymously post sermons that anyone submits. It's like PostSecret for those lay people, seminarians, and pastors who would like the venue to say what they really think. Within the wickets of the Revised Common Lectionary of course.
We hope to index the sermons by topic, Lectionary day, pseudonymn, title, and possibly other attributes. We hope for it to become a resource for many purposes, including for professional preachers to find out what people really want/need to hear.
Showing posts with label VCBC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label VCBC. Show all posts
17 December 2008
22 November 2008
16 November 2008
Imported Posts
It may be hard for you to remember what it was like before the world was changed, but back in 2001 there weren't nearly as many blogs as there are today. In particular, I didn't have one. I began journaling my reactions to what eventually grew into the so-called Global War on Terror (GWOT) and posting them as essays in VCBC's Scriptorium.
Since they have the character of blog entries, I have now imported them into this blog with their (approximately) correct dates.
My actual first blog post here is dated 3 March 2005 and entitled, "Does God Have a Religion?"
Since they have the character of blog entries, I have now imported them into this blog with their (approximately) correct dates.
My actual first blog post here is dated 3 March 2005 and entitled, "Does God Have a Religion?"
19 June 2008
Religious Calendar Script
If you would like to have a JavaScript application to show the current day, date, holiday, prayer times, and prayer orientation (e.g., direction and distance to Mecca or Jerusalem) for the Hebrew, Christian (Western, Eastern, or Coptic), Islamic, or Bahai faiths, you can save a copy of the one I wrote for dogchurch.org. Just click here, and use the "Save As" capability of your browser to save a copy to your local desktop. You can use and modify the file under the GNU Public License. If you use the script or a modified form of it, you must acknowledge The Virtual Church of the Blind Chihuahua or dogchurch.org.
No documentation is provided (other than the code itself - and you must know JavaScript to read it), and you use the file at your own risk. We do not assume any responsibility or liability for the correctness of the calculations. In fact, since the Hebrew and Islamic calendars are observational, not calculated, the above referenced script is only an approximation (but based on very good algorithms from Calendrical Calculations by Reingold and Dershowitz, as well as astronomical code from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Rather than ask the user for his or her location, the script uses GeoIP services from MaxMind.com to estimate the latitude and longitude of the user, based on the user's IP address.
At the end of the script are two functions Salutation and Liturgical Salutation that you can call from your HTML to display the calendar information on your page. Examples of the script in action are
VCBC's Former Home Page
VCBC - Christianity
VCBC - Baha'i
VCBC - Islam
VCBC - Judaism
Contact us with errata, suggestions, or questions.
No documentation is provided (other than the code itself - and you must know JavaScript to read it), and you use the file at your own risk. We do not assume any responsibility or liability for the correctness of the calculations. In fact, since the Hebrew and Islamic calendars are observational, not calculated, the above referenced script is only an approximation (but based on very good algorithms from Calendrical Calculations by Reingold and Dershowitz, as well as astronomical code from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Rather than ask the user for his or her location, the script uses GeoIP services from MaxMind.com to estimate the latitude and longitude of the user, based on the user's IP address.
At the end of the script are two functions Salutation and Liturgical Salutation that you can call from your HTML to display the calendar information on your page. Examples of the script in action are
VCBC's Former Home Page
VCBC - Christianity
VCBC - Baha'i
VCBC - Islam
VCBC - Judaism
Contact us with errata, suggestions, or questions.
04 March 2008
Sniffing the Competition
We are currently experimenting with hosting this blog at Wordpress and at Superb.net (our web host for our main site). We'll let you know if we decide to move.
23 December 2007
New Look
I have published the new design of the Virtual Church of the Blind Chihuahua. At some point, I hope to update this blog template to match. But for now, the holidays are upon us, and it's time to get together with friends and have a life.
Merry Christmas, hope you had a blessed Hajj and Eid, a good Hanukkah, and may you have a great Boxing Day, Kwanzaa and a Happy New Year!
At least, that's what I take "Happy Holidays" to mean.
Merry Christmas, hope you had a blessed Hajj and Eid, a good Hanukkah, and may you have a great Boxing Day, Kwanzaa and a Happy New Year!
At least, that's what I take "Happy Holidays" to mean.
07 October 2007
Processing....
I haven't posted for a while because I'm studying in the CSS Zen Garden while preparing to redo the design of the Virtual Church of the Blind Chihuahua. If you have some suggestions, or would like to contribute a design, let me know. I'm not bad at coding, but I'm really challenged by graphic design, page layout, color palettes, etc. That's all done one the side of the brain that I've been neglecting for most of the last few decades. Maybe I've been priveleged to think things and experience life in ways that are unavailable to those outside the physical sciences, but when I try to do art, I realize that in some ways, I've only barely scratched the surface of understanding what it means to be human.
Anyway, VCBC now serves about 50,000 page views per month. Not bad for an all volunteer effort, with so few volunteers. But I figured that it might do even better if it looked better. So, I'm giving it a try.
But a redesign also means a pruning of the inessential, and a refocusing to stay "on message." Ah, but which message? Which brings to mind Alasdair MacIntyre's questions, "Whose justice? Which rationality?" He posed these questions as part of a lifelong inquiry into how we fashion consistent narratives of our lives in the modern world. He seems to think that reason is necessary, but by itself, not enough. We need a community with its own narratives into which we can weave the narratives of our individual lives. But even that is not enough. We also need a goal, and end toward which our strivings are ultimately directed - we need faith. Finally, discovering the truth about ourselves, even in the light of revelation, is mostly a trial-and-error process. We must have the courage to make those trials, the honesty to discover our errors, and the humor to deal with them and move on.
Hmm. Now to compress all that into a catchy tag line.
Processing...
Anyway, VCBC now serves about 50,000 page views per month. Not bad for an all volunteer effort, with so few volunteers. But I figured that it might do even better if it looked better. So, I'm giving it a try.
But a redesign also means a pruning of the inessential, and a refocusing to stay "on message." Ah, but which message? Which brings to mind Alasdair MacIntyre's questions, "Whose justice? Which rationality?" He posed these questions as part of a lifelong inquiry into how we fashion consistent narratives of our lives in the modern world. He seems to think that reason is necessary, but by itself, not enough. We need a community with its own narratives into which we can weave the narratives of our individual lives. But even that is not enough. We also need a goal, and end toward which our strivings are ultimately directed - we need faith. Finally, discovering the truth about ourselves, even in the light of revelation, is mostly a trial-and-error process. We must have the courage to make those trials, the honesty to discover our errors, and the humor to deal with them and move on.
Hmm. Now to compress all that into a catchy tag line.
Processing...
05 May 2007
Forgiving Google
It's been more than a year since VCBC decided to boycott Google Ads for hypocritically stiffing the US Government hunting for internet child pornographers in order to give the false impression to Westerners that Google was a defender of human rights. At the same time, Google was knuckling under to the Chinese government by deleting all references that might help pro-democracy dissidents. Google could have done worse. Yahoo is being sued on behalf of Chinese citizens for providing information to the Chinese government that led to their illegal (under international law) imprisonment.
But you get the picture. Google's major competitors haven't distinguished themselves either. Instead of fulfilling Tom Friedman's prophecy that the internet would lead to greater freedom on earth, they are enabling it to be used as a tool of oppression as well.
So has our boycott been effective? Our search engine ratings, traffic, and revenues have declined. But the effect on Google has been absolutely nil. We made our point, and took our hit. Now we have decided to forgive Google, renew our advertising, and take our cut.
Our boycott was futile. On the other hand, the lawsuits over contributing to false imprisonment are probably not. They put the calculus of whether to cooperate with despots directly into the profit and loss columns. Web portals may still decide that it is more lucrative to cooperate with tyranny, but it will now cost them something to do it.
But you get the picture. Google's major competitors haven't distinguished themselves either. Instead of fulfilling Tom Friedman's prophecy that the internet would lead to greater freedom on earth, they are enabling it to be used as a tool of oppression as well.
So has our boycott been effective? Our search engine ratings, traffic, and revenues have declined. But the effect on Google has been absolutely nil. We made our point, and took our hit. Now we have decided to forgive Google, renew our advertising, and take our cut.
Our boycott was futile. On the other hand, the lawsuits over contributing to false imprisonment are probably not. They put the calculus of whether to cooperate with despots directly into the profit and loss columns. Web portals may still decide that it is more lucrative to cooperate with tyranny, but it will now cost them something to do it.
04 July 2006
Ten Years Online
On this day 230 years ago, the King of England's subjects in the American colonies declared themselves subjects no longer. Henceforth they would be free citizens of an independent nation that existed only in their imaginations. As yet it had no national laws, but it did have a collection of gentlemen's agreements passed by a Continental Congress, and it had something of an army, led by an inexperienced Virginia planter.
The dream for which the army and the Congress staked their lives - their little rebellion was considered Treason against the Crown and punishable by execution - was an amorphous collection of values from the European Enlightenment, condensed in a little pamphlet called, "Common Sense." From those values they distilled the following lines:
Democracy is spreading, and has been doing so ever since the first liberal democracy began this day in 1776. The number of liberal democracies on earth is at an all-time high, and almost all countries on earth claim to be democratic whether they are or not. That is to say, the European Enlightenment value that liberal democracy represents is paid almost universal homage, even by its enemies.
And so, we chose this day to launch The Virtual Church of the Blind Chihuahua 10 years ago to affirm liberal democratic values as the only way we know that can enable people of all faiths to share our planet in peace. And the only way we know to practice our own faith with authenticity and without hindrance. As the Bible says, "Let my people go, that they may serve Me," and as the Qur'an says, "Let there be no compulsion in Religion."
In ten years, we have not been entirely without impact. Some 20 people or so have written to us that they were considering leaving Christianity until they stumbled upon us, and realized (in so many words) that Christianity is not the sole intellectual property of the Fundamentalists. Some vigorous debates have taken place in our Forum concerning sexuality, and war. A woman "came out" to her family and community about her having been abused by a priest when she was a teenager. And numerous clergy and laypersons from around the world have written to say they enjoyed the site. Our essays on nuclear weapons, the Challenger explosion, and some others have been discussed in college courses, and our Abrahamic Prayer (combining Jewish, Christian, and Islamic elements) has been used in interfaith gatherings. All in all, not too bad.
What we would like to see in the next ten years (if we go that long) is more participation by Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists trying to work out a way of affirming their own and each other's faiths.
On a more personal note, I want to mention that my mother-in-law passed from this world yesterday. Let us all be mindful that we are only passing through this world, and that it is our mission to leave it better for our having done so, to the extent we can.
The dream for which the army and the Congress staked their lives - their little rebellion was considered Treason against the Crown and punishable by execution - was an amorphous collection of values from the European Enlightenment, condensed in a little pamphlet called, "Common Sense." From those values they distilled the following lines:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.These words provide a postscript to the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, which set up the modern system of nation-states. It is simply this: Sovereignty does not reside with governments, but with the people governed. And this: Human Rights are not created by governments -- rather, governments are instituted to protect the Human Rights that people are given originally by their Creator.
Democracy is spreading, and has been doing so ever since the first liberal democracy began this day in 1776. The number of liberal democracies on earth is at an all-time high, and almost all countries on earth claim to be democratic whether they are or not. That is to say, the European Enlightenment value that liberal democracy represents is paid almost universal homage, even by its enemies.
And so, we chose this day to launch The Virtual Church of the Blind Chihuahua 10 years ago to affirm liberal democratic values as the only way we know that can enable people of all faiths to share our planet in peace. And the only way we know to practice our own faith with authenticity and without hindrance. As the Bible says, "Let my people go, that they may serve Me," and as the Qur'an says, "Let there be no compulsion in Religion."
In ten years, we have not been entirely without impact. Some 20 people or so have written to us that they were considering leaving Christianity until they stumbled upon us, and realized (in so many words) that Christianity is not the sole intellectual property of the Fundamentalists. Some vigorous debates have taken place in our Forum concerning sexuality, and war. A woman "came out" to her family and community about her having been abused by a priest when she was a teenager. And numerous clergy and laypersons from around the world have written to say they enjoyed the site. Our essays on nuclear weapons, the Challenger explosion, and some others have been discussed in college courses, and our Abrahamic Prayer (combining Jewish, Christian, and Islamic elements) has been used in interfaith gatherings. All in all, not too bad.
What we would like to see in the next ten years (if we go that long) is more participation by Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists trying to work out a way of affirming their own and each other's faiths.
On a more personal note, I want to mention that my mother-in-law passed from this world yesterday. Let us all be mindful that we are only passing through this world, and that it is our mission to leave it better for our having done so, to the extent we can.
19 April 2006
Contra Google et alia
In recent months, Google has refused to cooperate with the US government in hunting internet child pornographers, while it has knuckled under to demands from the Chinese government to censor all political references to Tianmen Square from its servers in China. Google wasn't willing to pay the price of China cloning its software and setting up a search service of its own to shut Google out of so big a market. But it is willing to take a stand against the US Government where a centuries old tradition of civil liberties not only prevents it from having to suffer any consequences - it guarantees that Google will get the marketing benefit of "good press" for its courage. In other words, Google has acted like a cynical, hypocritical and avaricious coward. Ordinarily this would be no big deal.
But ours is a time in which we cannot afford to bow to terrorists or tyrants. The Virtual Church of the Blind Chihuahua has therefore eliminated its Google Adsense advertising. We could also eliminate our Google search box and our Blogger account, but where can we turn?
Yahoo has done even worse than Google by turning over to the Chinese government the identity of a dissident who was subsequently sentenced to 17 years in prison. Microsoft and Cisco have also cooperated with the Chinese government in censorship and law enforcement.
So, shame on you, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Cisco. We will continue to use you to increase our traffic and visibility to get our message out. But we won't take your thirty pieces of silver.
But ours is a time in which we cannot afford to bow to terrorists or tyrants. The Virtual Church of the Blind Chihuahua has therefore eliminated its Google Adsense advertising. We could also eliminate our Google search box and our Blogger account, but where can we turn?
Yahoo has done even worse than Google by turning over to the Chinese government the identity of a dissident who was subsequently sentenced to 17 years in prison. Microsoft and Cisco have also cooperated with the Chinese government in censorship and law enforcement.
So, shame on you, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Cisco. We will continue to use you to increase our traffic and visibility to get our message out. But we won't take your thirty pieces of silver.
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