Jon Kennedy, Nanty Glo Home Page webmaster and owner, is a former teen and campus minister. He began his journalism career as teen columnist for the Nanty Glo Journal and its sister weekly newspapers from 1957 to '62 and became the Journal's third editor in 1962 at age 20. He has edited other newspapers and magazines, and more recently, webzines, ever since. His articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Detroit Free Press, Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Christianity Today, and many other publications. His Jonals appear here on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Complete index of Jon Kennedy's Jonal articles

Jon Kennedy's latest book is The Everything Guide to C.S. Lewis and Narnia, now in stores, from Adams Media, F&W Publications. From May 9, 2007 through July 2, 2008 his blog entries or "Jonals" were articles inspired by readings in Lewis's work that didn't fit into the book. Click here for a list of all articles in the C.S. Lewis Overflow series. The book is available for purchase in support of the Liberty Museum in Nanty Glo and is also available on Amazon.

Jon Kennedy

Jon Kennedy's 'Postcards from
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Religion in Blacklick Valley

Jonal entry 1102 | June 12 2009

Though the Nanty Glo Home Page has been a source of much gratitude and satisfaction in my life (at times perhaps even rising to the level of "joy"), there have also been disappointments. My biggest disappointment has been the infrequency of good-quality discourse or discussion of things that matter in our lives. The Nanty Glo List that I launched in 2001 worked for a while but eventually disintegrated to little more than carping at each other and personal remonstrance and, when my appeals for a more cordial level of discourse failed, I felt compelled to quit it, a most regrettable disappointment and failure.

Whether the "things that matter in our lives" are personal like family or quality of life issues or spiritual quest and the development of new insights on life's purpose and goals, there has been from the beginning an unlimited amount of space here to air and, if anyone cares to join, to discuss those things here. But few have taken up on the offer of free cyberspace. As I've said here more than once, the things that matter to me are what people usually categorize as "religious concerns." Or to put it in my own words, the things that matter (regardless of whether it's winning in bingo, electing your favorite candidate or passing a proposition on the ballot, or knowing and pleasing your Creator) are your religion, and ergo the things you'd most like to discuss and reflect on.

So on that note, a corollary disappointment to me has been discovering the superficiality of organized religion in Blacklick Valley (although organized "education" has hardly done better). Most of the churches in Blacklick Valley profess to be evangelical which, by definition means "good news sharing" (Baptist, Grace Brethren, Nazarene, Alliance, Church of God), yet not one evangelical pastor and only one lay person as far as I can recall has taken advantage of the Home Page offer of free space for churches and any messages they may want to share to the public. Presumably all members of the clergy are highly literate people, so sending an email offering thoughts that can be turned into blogs or discussion starters here should be a piece of cake (and of course my offer of free editing and formatting always applies—I consider it a duty and obligation to make anyone who comes to the Home Pages look good). But not one congregation leader has done so.

This is true also of the more "mainline" churches of the valley, the Methodist, Catholic, Lutheran, Church of the Brethren, and Orthodox leaders and lay members. I've put a picture of each church I know of existing in the Valley on the church pages (and for Jackson Township, Judy Rose got the pictures) along with information I found about their schedule of services and contact information and have offered to expand that to anything from a stand-alone church page to a church forum, but no one has expressed the least interest in following up. So one has to wonder, where is the commitment? Doesn't a commitment to ministry entail something about using every means possible to reach out and touch the public? Ironically, the best discussion I can recall that has occurred here was occasioned by questions about Christmas raised one December by a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses. That's ironic because most Christians in the traditional communions and denominations usually roll their eyes and cluck their tongues over the persistence of Witnesses' door-to-door outreach. But where's the beef...where are their alternatives?

I've learned to not expect much when I try to start discussion, but I surely hope some will take up this challenge. Write me off the record first if you like to get assurances that your boundaries will be respected. If there are reasons for not participating, let me know them, as I have no clue. Please, if you're a lay member of a Valley church, pass this on to your clergy members and if you feel like responding yourself, do so. But please, write me: jrk@nantyglo.com.

(For the record, the Nanty Glo, Blacklick Township, Vintondale, and Jackson Township Home Pages are a not-for-profit public service open to all with ties to the area, which are maintained primarily to serve and publicize the Liberty Museum, which has been designated in trust as their eventual owner.)

—Webmaster Jon Kennedy

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