Pledge Faith Action
Author: Robbie Hoque
What NEED does this meet?
Pledge Faith Action is PledgeBank for individuals from UK faith communities. It’s aimed at those who feel it’s not enough to have a faith, it’s what your faith motivates you to do that really counts. The site is for:
? Persons of faith who want to do something about a civic issue, but want to do it with others as a public expression of their faith, and not feel self-conscious about their motivation in a secular context.
? Persons of faith who are passionate about issues like global poverty, bio-tech, or climate change, but want to do more than just make occasional donations, or receive a newsletter from an Civil Society Organsiation (CSO).
? Persons of faith who feel limited by existing opportunities for civic action in their place of worship, who don’t see their cultural/religious identity as bound up with their local church, mosque, gurdwara, or synagogue, and who’d like to network with others outside of that context.
? Younger persons, alienated from traditional practices, looking for a alternative way to explore what their faith means to them.
What is the APPROACH?
Alongside the capability for site users to set up and sign up to propositions of civic action, the site’s format will aim to discourage exclusivity, facilitate inter-faith activity, and expand real-world local area networking with 3 features:
? A multi-faith user interface:
The site will be experienced as a web space shared by all faiths. The “All Pledges” page will host pledges from all faith groups. The opening page’s RSS feed will feature the latest from the “All Pledges” page. It is envisaged that the prospect of sharing a space with people from other faiths will encourage open-minded users to the site, and discourage individuals with prosthyelitising agendas and exclusive views.
? Site searches via faith group and area of interest:
Users will register their faith group when subscribing, so that site searches for pledges by one particular faith group can be made. This is in order to draw in subscriptions from persons who would normally feel uncomfortable interacting with members of other faith groups. Searches by subject area will then create possibilities for interfaith activity between users with a common interest in a particular issue. For example, a user searching for environmental pledges will bring up a page where she can sign a pledge created by a Muslim or Quaker.
? Local Alerts: Users can sign up to alerts of proposed activities in their postcode area to facilitate more local action.
What are the BENEFITS to people?
As with PledgeBank, the site offers users more opportunities to support, participate in, help realise, encourage, and organise collective civic actions. But whereas the PledgeBank model risks generating transitory networks around issues that come and go, Pledge Faith Action is aimed at social groups that already exist and have a strong cultural interest in sustaining themselves and the communities in which they are embedded. The site, therefore, has the potential to facilitate sustainable real-world networks in two ways:
? Broadening access:
Call to actions in faith communities are usually initiated or mediated by places of worship, religious institutions, and CSOs. The site will make it easier for individuals to initiate and support civic actions autonomously. For example, a churchgoer with a fundraising idea could make an appeal to all the churches within a postcode area rather than just her own, and in doing so develop new relationships with congregations across her locality.
? Exchanging ideas:
Innovations in one locality are potentially transferable to others, due to the geographic dispersal of faith communities with a common identity. The multi-faith format will facilitate the exchange of ideas between faiths. Faith-based CSOs will raise awareness of their campaigns. Younger people can enthuse older persons (and vice versa) as interaction between the generations in places of worship declines.
What is the COMPETITION?
While persons of faith can use PledgeBank or the BBC Action Network, Pledge Faith Action aims to intensify civic activity within and between coherent groups of people who would feel self-conscious about their spiritual motivation in a secular context.
The Year of Living Generously (www.generous.org.uk), established by the Christian music and arts festival Greenbelt, is a known example of a faith-based civic activism web service. However, unlike Pledge Faith Action, users can not author their own propositions, having to choose from a list of suggested activities, and the site does not facilitate networking between members. The PledgeBank model is likely to give Pledge Faith Action a broader and more sustainable appeal.
The web sites of faith-based CSOs can mobilise civic actions, but the particularity of their interests doesn’t serve those who are concerned or excited about a range of issues and activities. Pledge Faith Action will be the only faith-based activism web platform open to all CSO interests, facilitating the exchange of ideas and broadening access.
What BUDGETS & LOGISTICS are required?
Developing Pledge Faith Action will involve:
? Adapting PledgeBank’s source code: remove country registration and translation options; add faith group registration step; change site search criteria; change pledge subject area categories; change web page text.
? Cost of site hosting and maintainance similar to that of PledgeBank’s.
? Cost and logistics of market research and developing/implementing marketing plan. Targets would include religious institutions and representative bodies; faith-based CSOs; student faith groups and educational institutions; faith-based professional associations; places of worship and local faith groups; faith-based web forums and networks.
While I’m sure that you’re proposing this because you’d like MySociety to commit resources to making it happen, please note that PledgeBank and all MySociety projects are open source.
So if you have the skills (or can afford to persuade/hire someone that has), you can download the code from:
https://secure.mysociety.org/cvstrac/dir?d=mysociety
and make your own derivatives of your favourite MySociety projects.
I’d considered that. Setting aside adapting the source code and the cost of site hosting, given your experience on PledgeBank, what does it take to build up an adequate user base for the site, and then to administer it, in terms of manhours and cost?
I’ve got no idea, as I don’t work for MySociety. I’m just a passing web developer and dispenser of opinions.
Thanks for the comment Adrian. I don’t have the IT skills to do it myself. I can do the market research, sponsorship hunting, and marketing. If any of you developers like the idea, and want to adapt the code, get in touch.
No match for “BASHMEWITHYOURBIBLE.COM”.
Interesting comment. I’m not a person of faith myself, but I recognise the concern that faith communities have important global/local issues, I don’t think they have any less right to express themselves/engage in social action on important issues that concern everyone. If you read the proposal a little more carefully its a multi-faith web site, something that even a strong atheist might recognise is not all that bad an idea in today’s world.
In fact, if I may, Sam’s comment proves the need for the proposal, as an example of the type of reaction a person of faith might expect from a non-religionist.
a)You do not need to have faith (of the proposers kind ) to do do good work – just to do it.
b)You do need to have faith in Humanity. Surely the Pledge bank covers this.
c)The site would be for the doer not the receiver.
d) I thought you got your reward “up there somewhere”.
e)The churches are VERY rich.
f)Sam did not get it quite right. The churches are getting much cleverer than that.
g)They are very good at diverting money to the privileged e.g. government money for faith schools when EVERYONE needs that money.
h) Is this a better reply from a non religionist? ( a challenge to other non religionists)
i) Please do NOT count my reply as TANGIBLE. I cannot get the comment to submit – keep getting prompted to enter this word. What am I doing wrong? Have I bothered God?.I am not a machine,not a machine,not a mchine,nom a tange………..
David, as you’ve taken the time to reply, I’ll do you the same courtesy. As a fellow “non- religionist”, I must say you sound as if you feel like you’re persecuted minority. To my knowledge I believe there are only 5 million practising Christians (and falling), 1 million muslim, etc…I’m not gripped by a fear that relgionists will somehow sieze power over my life. I’m a cosmopolitan. Which is why I think the pledgebank model could generate multi-faith activity between and by faith groups in the way outlined in the proposal. I could be wrong in my hypothesis, but setting that aside, the question you need to ask yourself is, is that desirable outcome? Is it desirable to use the web to foster the same cosmopolitarianism that is a feature of secular societies within and between faith groups? You’re right, religionists can currently use Pledegbank, but the specific objective of the proposal is to generate multi-faith actions which, given the types of critique evidenced by both you and Sam, in my view can best be achieved in the mutually re-enforcing environment of faith-based site.
A couple of other points you made. Yes, the Christian Churches in this country are rich. That’s an opportunity, not a reason to prevent engagement. Individuals who have access to wealthy institutions can lobby for meaningful change. Yes Evangelicals and fundamentalists, whose motivations are self-interested and self-affirming, could want to hijack such a site, but I contend that the multi-faith user interface will put these guys off.
And I certainly don’t believe that you have to parctice a religion to do good works. As a “non-religionist” I feel it would be a “good” thing to set up this site. The way to think about it is this. What’s more important, to support persons of faith who want to engage in issues such as Trade Justice, Climate Change, and War, or not do so because of some outdated Enlightenment prejudice against the concept of God? I would say holding to the latter is a bit of luxury.
A few thoughts came to mind – one was you should invest time in learning how to use tools you believe are helpful to you achieving your goals.
The other thought was that it is good practice to look at what’s not being done, not imitate what is – the mantra of entrepreneurs who use ‘faster, better, superior’ tend to be experts in their fields and experienced at the goals they aim for.
If you’re not familiar with community portal design & development then it’s perhaps high-odds that you know whether or not this is in high demand, could make an impact or even succeed.
I do like what is going on at the grass roots level with faith-specific web sites focusing on local geographies and issues in their respective areas – and it would be good to see those liaise more but at a national and international level the conversations are already taking place betweeen faith-leaders albeit without transparency and inclusivity that they deserve, perhaps.
Certainly, where your goals are concerned bringing different faith groups together to pursue the practices those faiths share and encourage, quite often it is of benefit to include those without faith as well to help promote justice, respect, tolerance, a love and respect for the neighbour – human equality and compassion.
Thanks for the commments Ed. I agree, the idea is derivative, that’s why, despite my earlier replies, I’m neutral about the proposal, although not the objective. You’re right to suggest the need for research. I’m currently mapping/researching what’s happening in the social web/community portal area to develop two other ideas. As I’m not a programmer, if I were to set out to develop something new, I can only explore two related options: 1) to lay claim to a piece of of the contextual wilderness and apply existing tools within that domain; 2) to mark out new contexts behind the frontier line that compete with the offerings of existing settlers. (Yup, pretentious, obvious, vulgarly entrepreneurial). If you have any suggestions on how to keep up to date with all the latest on the web I’d be glad to hear about it.