Religious topics

Facebook's pages & groups on religious
tolerance. Starting our own Facebook group

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Wandering around Facebook's fan pages:

During early 2010-APR, we searched for the term "religious tolerance" among fan pages on Facebook, and found the following:

Image	Name	Type	Fans	First wall posting	Postings in 2010 March
	Religious Tolerance	Non-profit	347	2009-DEC-01	0
	Religious Tolerance	Products	445	2008-NOV-18	0
	Religious Tolerance	Religious Organization	62	2010-FEB-07	0

None seem particularly active.

Wandering around Facebook's groups:

A search for "religious tolerance" among Facebook groups found 546 hits! Most of the groups are not directly related to this topic, or are only peripherally so.

The following list includes groups that deal directly with religious tolerance. Not included are:

• Groups with membership of fewer than 50,
• General religious discussion groups,
• Groups related to a single religion, and
• Groups whose main purpose is economic boycotting:

Image	Name	Type	Fans	Postings during 2010 March
	Promote Religious Tolerance	Beliefs & Causes	1,278	0
	Coalition to promote coexistence, religious tolerance and peace	Beliefs & Causes	1,414	4
	Religious Tolerance	Religion & spirituality	983	4
	Respect the religious beliefs of others	Religion & spirituality	1,318	6
	Respect all religions -- no fanaticism, no extremism, no terrorism	Beliefs & Causes	5,003	45
No image	Religious Tolerance	Political	113	0
	Religious Tolerance	Religion & spirituality	55	0
	Coexist~	Organizations - general	563	3
	The Boniuk Center for Religious Tolerance at Rice University	Organizations - non-profit	283	0
	Christians 4 Religious Tolerance	Religious organization	166	1
	Religious tolerance and interfaith initiatives	Religion & spirituality	119	0
	Why can't we all just get along? (religious tolerance and understanding)	Religion & spirituality	82	1
	Can't we all just get along? Say YES to Religious Tolerance NOW!	Beliefs & Causes	68	0
	I don't care what their religion is!	Religion & Spirituality	238	0
	S.T.A.R.T.: Supporters of Tolerance between Atheism, Religion and Theism	Beliefs and causes	95	0
	Bishop Lynch Tolerance Club	Clubs & Societies	58	0

Our facebook page:

We decided to start a Facebook group ourselves and to commit some effort to maintain it.

Actually, "join" may be a little misleading. It implies formal responsibilities of which there are minimal to none on Facebook. Joining a facebook group is like tuning to a specific TV channel or viewing a specific web site, except that you can make postings if you wish.

The facebook group is called "Religious Tolerance," as you might expect.

The term "religious tolerance" is ambiguous. To clarify matters, here is our definition:

"To extend religious freedom to people of all religious traditions, and none, even though you probably disagree with their beliefs and/or practices. Having tolerance towards another religion does not require you to endorse that faith group's beliefs; it simply indicates your respect for its right to exist and for its members be free from discrimination. More info.

We would initially like the group to:

• Concentrate on the North American religious scene, rather than attempt to cover the world.
  
  
• To have at least a few entries posted a week.
  
  
• To be "open" and welcome postings by anyone who wishes to say something.
  
  
• To cover the full range of religious tolerance. That is:
  
  
  • Intra-religious tolerance: tolerance among denominations or traditions within a single religion (e.g.evangelicals and Mormons).
    
    
  • Inter-religious tolerance: tolerance between and among religions (e.g. Christians and Muslims).
    
    
  • Religious - secular tolerance: Tolerance by believers towards Agnostics, Atheists, Freethinkers and other secularists and vice-versa.
    
    
  • Religiously motivated tolerance: Tolernace towards groups that are often discriminated against for religous reasons, like women, sexual minorities, racial minorities, etc.
    
    
• To cover political developments related to religious tolerance and ethics in such fields as same-sex marriage, abortion access, health care, equal rights for persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities, and any other "hot" topics that surface in the future.

However, there is no real way to steer a facebook group. People post whatever is on their mind. The nature of the group is really defined by its members. All the coordinator can do is to delete offensive postings -- which is an extremely rare event.

We started the group on 2010-APR-05 with a single member -- me. The next day, the group size had doubled! My daughter, Pamela, joined.

By 2010-APR-22, it had attracted 163 followers.

By 2010-DEC-08, 2,871 people had joined, and we were averaging more than 100 postings a month.

By 2013-SEP we had 7,481 members and an out-of-control waiting list.

Some websites, ebooks, and books related to Facebook:

• Facebook is located, as one might expect at http://www.facebook.com

• Chris Sonksen, "Connecting your church through social media, 2009-NOV-14, at: http://chrissonksen.wordpress.com/
  
  
• Chris Foirbes, "Facebook for Pastors," Ebook by Ministry Marketing Coach, at: http://ministrymarketingcoach.com This is a PDF file.
  
  
• Ann Smarty, "Facebook Group vs Facebook Fan Page: What's better?," Search Engine journal, at: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/
  
  
• Tiffany, "Which is Better: A Facebook Group or a Facebook Page?," The PR Post, 2008-APR-16, at: http://prpost.wordpress.com/
  
  
•  Leah Pearlman, "Facebook for Dummies," For Dummies, Published 2009-NOV-09. Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store Listed at $21.99; Amazon.com sells it for 14.95 plus shipping. Also available on Kindle
  
  
• E.A. Vander Veer, "Facebook: The missing manual," Pogue Press, Published 2010-APR-13. Read reviews or order this book

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Copyright © 2010 to 2013 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally posted: 2010-APR-04
Latest update: 2013-SEP-11
Author: B.A. Robinson

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