{"id":2292,"date":"2008-02-13T10:34:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-13T10:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/02\/the-rockin-nun-of-myspace.html"},"modified":"2008-02-13T10:34:00","modified_gmt":"2008-02-13T10:34:00","slug":"the-rockin-nun-of-myspace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/02\/the-rockin-nun-of-myspace.html","title":{"rendered":"The rockin’ nun of MySpace"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later: a singing nun has become a sensation<\/a> on MySpace: <\/p>\n

<\/a> She jams on an electric guitar and introduces herself on her hot-pink MySpace page as a straight, single Libra who loves to watch “Fiddler on the Roof.” All in a nun’s habit.<\/p>\n

Meet Sister Rebecca Shinas, a 56-year-old member of the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose. But if you’re a 20-something Catholic searching for spirituality in Silicon Valley, you might know her as “Sista B” or the “MySpace Nun.”<\/p>\n

“The Dominican tradition invites us to read the signs of the times,” Sister Rebecca said recently in her brightly lit office at St. Simon Church in Los Altos. “And the signs are now online. MySpace is where this generation lives.”<\/p>\n

She’s got 86 “friends” linked to her MySpace page, from as far away as Zimbabwe. She meets some through Catholic connections. But she once swapped urls with another young woman – a self-described Satan worshipper – at the mall.<\/p>\n

She insists she’s not trying to save anyone, or even bring them to church.<\/p>\n

“Oh God, no,” she said. “I love them as people. I have a lot to learn from them. This generation is great at reality checks. My goal is love. And church is much bigger than any four walls.”<\/p>\n

Sister Rebecca isn’t the first religious figure to strum hip tunes or go high-tech. But what’s surprising is that MySpace and music are linking people of all stripes with a woman who shatters stereotypes and talks of loving human beings for who they are.<\/p>\n

“Most nuns are really mean,” said Mark Graham, 48, a Cisco software engineer who plays guitar with Sister Rebecca and posts her concerts on YouTube. “She’s the exact opposite of that. How many times have you seen a nun play electric guitar?”<\/p>\n

Not one to judge people, Sister Rebecca believes that the world is not divided by good and evil people, just those who are “ripe and unripe,” taking a line from Jesus’ Aramaic teachings. <\/p>\n

“I want to be love, peace, joy and creative energy in the world,” she said, “and invite others to see others that they are the same. We are all one. I want to dispel the illusion that we are separate.”<\/p>\n

That may sound like warm-and-fuzzy hippie-speak. But Sister Rebecca is also pretty good at homing in on raw human emotion. And doling out down-to-earth advice, too.<\/p>\n

When she noticed Graham writing painful lyrics about a woman, she asked, “Have you forgiven her?” Graham realized that he hadn’t. The next day he e-mailed the nun: “I finally let go, thanks for getting me there.”<\/p>\n

On any given day, the middle child of six raised in a progressive Catholic family will be leading a spiritual talk on sexuality in Mountain View or forgiveness in Palo Alto. Or, she’s blogging to kids about God. In the evenings, she might lead a rock ‘n roll Mass.<\/p>\n

Wherever she is, she’s typically the crowd favorite – her acoustic C-35 Martin (gifted to her by parishioners) slung over her shoulder with a lightning bolt guitar-strap. While the audience claps along to her original folk-rock tunes, Sister Rebecca closes her eyes and hops to the beat in her knee-length white habit and Teva sandals.<\/p>\n

“She’s pretty hokey,” said Darlene Tenes, who organizes young adult pub nights for the Diocese of San Jose where Shinas is a regular spiritual leader. “But she’s energetic and upbeat. You expect nuns, from the movies, to be peaceful all the time, and bowing their heads and praying. She’s none of that.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Check the link for more. And visit her MySpace page right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later: a singing nun has become a sensation on MySpace: She jams on an electric guitar and introduces herself on her hot-pink MySpace page as a straight, single Libra who loves to watch “Fiddler on the Roof.” All in a nun’s habit. 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