Beliefnet Wins a National Magazine Award!

Beliefnet has won the prestigious General Excellence Online award from the American Society of Magazine Editors!

It's the top award of its kind, so we're delirious here at Beliefnet HQ. In presenting the award, Mark Whitaker, head of new ventures at Washingtonpost.Newsweek.Interactive, said: "Beliefnet.com is remarkable in both its focus on spirituality, inspiration and faith, and its ability to unite a diverse audience under one digital roof. Its strong content and web-friendly presentation feel rich and satisfying. Packed with provocative commentary, unique blogs, user-generated material, original videos and inspirational talks, the site soothes and amuses in features as far-ranging as Preachers & Teachers, coverage of the DaVinci Code, the Jovialities and The Virtual Talmud. The site is one of a kind."

Most Inspiring Person of the Year

Here we highlight our annual feature, Most Inspiring Person of the Year, awarded in 2006 to the Amish of Nickel Mines, Pa., for their forgiveness of the man who killed five Amish children. This feature was a unique collaboration between editors and readers, with an initial roster of 12 nominees drawn from your submissions and ours. Those nominees were winnowed by our readers, who voted to a final three, with the ultimate winner selected by Beliefnet editors. The feature included video about the winners, a slideshow of our 12 nominees, polls, a segment about the people who inspire us on a daily basis, and Belief on the Street video of people's responses to the question: Would you forgive?

The Da Vinci Code

This features shows our coverage of "The Da Vinci Code," a book and movie whose subject matter resonated strongly with our audience. We were committed to helping you understand the Da Vinci phenomenon--as a piece of entertainment and as a source of theological debate. Our most popular offering was a six-part video, "Demystifying Da Vinci," featuring Robin Griffith-Jones, master of the Temple Church in London. Beliefnet went on location to the Temple Church looking for answers to the spiritual questions raised in the story. Our Da Vinci coverage also includes an audio slideshow of art depicting Mary Magdalene, quizzes, and a text "smackdown" between scholars of religious history about the movie's claims.