InSite: Places to Bookmark

Reachtruth.comThe Map, a new CD-ROM from Exodus International, hopes to help teens struggling with homosexuality traverse the perilous world of sexual identity. The Map combines personal stories, peer testimonies, Bible studies, and personal journals. The CD-ROM format offers an intensely personal way for teens to explore questions and feelings, while still affirming the Bible as the ultimate guide to understanding who God created each of us to be. “We know that this can help a lot of kids out there who are terrified and ashamed of their own feelings,” says Map creator Jason Thompson. “Not only do we want to help them journey to freedom, but we want to help them realize that they don’t have to walk that road alone.”

Previewport.com The only thing keeping PreviewPort.com from becoming the preeminent site for authors, publishers, and book-lovers is its extremely slow loading time. Founded by author Susan Bergman, one of Christianity Today‘s “up and comers” (CT, Nov. 11, 1996, p. 20), the site should appeal to bibliophiles with its helpful features like a floating “more info” tab that allows readers to follow up on myriad questions about their favorite books and authors. Besides showcasing writers and selling their work (Philip Yancey, Anne Lamott, Leonard Sweet, Steve Martin, and Scott Turow are among those who have signed on), PreviewPort.com is compiling a national literary calendar, selling e-books, and offering articles from literary magazines. With this level of information and expertise, Bergman and company are building a site the literary world cannot afford to ignore. But Amazon.com needn’t worry yet: readers could drive to a bookstore and back in the time it takes some pages to load.

www.gutenbergdigital.de/gudi/eframes The British Library has scanned two different versions of the Gutenberg Bible, page by page, onto its site (http://prodigi.bl.uk/gutenbg/default.asp), but the scanned copy at Gutenbergdigital.de offers more background reading and a slightly better navigation. The illuminated letters and marginal embellishments in the British Library copies are also lovely, and have been scanned at a higher resolution. But unless you know Latin, expect to look, not read. With all the talk about how the Internet is another printing revolution, it’s only appropriate that so many Gutenberg Bibles would make their way online.

www.Damaris.org Lots of people talk about keeping up with pop culture in order to better share the gospel with friends and family immersed in it. Damaris.org is for those who actually mean it. This U.K.-based site offers Bible study and discussion materials that take films like Blade Runner, or bands like Radiohead, and compare their message to Scripture. It also includes intelligent essays about everything from Eminem to the holistic dualism in popular TV shows. Most of the topics hit at current trends on both sides of the pond—pop seems to ignore national borders in much of the Western world.

Related Elsewhere

Other Christianity Today stories about the Web include:

Is God.com Dead? | Investors lost faith in iBelieve.com, Lightsource.com was extinguished, and Crosswalk is being run over. What happened to the for-profit Christian Web site boom? (Feb. 9, 2001)

And Now, a Web Site to Help You Reflect on Your Sins | UK Christian radio station’s ‘reflective’ site already a hit. (Feb. 2, 2000)

The Best Internet Sites of 1999 | ChristianityToday.com‘s Matt Donnelly and Christianity Today magazine’s Ted Olsen discuss their favorite URLs of the past year. (Jan 24, 2000)