#9- Arts & Faith
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Since I started bopping around on the Internet in the mid-'90s, I always gravitated toward message boards, also known as Internet forums. Wikipedia describes an Internet forum as "...a facility on the World Wide Web for holding discussions." Just in case you weren't sure what I was typing about.
After lounging around many forums over the past decade (including RPG.net, one of the top 100 forums on the 'net...I amassed close to 8000 posts in three years), I found one that I can really dig. It's the Arts & Faith message board. The tagline is "the best place on the Web for discussion of the Christian faith and arts."
They aren't kidding. It's not a heavily populated forum, which may be a good thing. The lounge-like atmosphere is really one of the appealing factors. But the main one is that the people that post there are Christians that really, really care about Art, and really see God's providence over every aspect of life.
The biggest draw is the Film subforum; the A&F crew annually publish their "Top 100 Spiritually Significant Films" (based on votes). There are also a number of indie filmmakers that discuss, and several frequent posters that are also well-regarded critics (Books & Culture and Christianity Today film critic Peter Chattaway and all-around film junkie Jeff Overstreet, to name two of many). There are also separate forums for Music, Lit/Writing, Theatre, Visual Art/Architecture/Design, TV, the arts in general, and about 15 other subforums (on everything from Food to Politics and so on). My buddy (and Paste/All Music Guide journalist) Andy Whitman posts a lot too, and he's is always a joy to read.
It's draws an impressive crowd: Christians from various theological perspectives, political orientation, country, gender, and so on. There are some non-Christians too that chime in from time to time; the discussion is usually quite good, level-headed, and focused on some great topics.
So, if it sounds like something you'd be interested in even remotely, check it out. It's a great place to discover new things and re-evaluate old ones.
--Also, check out Keith's 'blog. He is also doing the year-o-blog, and inspired me to do it too.
posted, with grace and poise, by Jason @ 9/14/2006 11:16:00 PM,
