- Who in the world thought it'd be a good idea to privatize prisons, and put quotas on how "full" they should remain? Essentially what you have happening: if crime lowers, tax payers must spend more as quotas aren't met so you incentivize the state to keep crime rates inflated and prisons full.
- Giving money to child beggars is one of the worst things you could do when traveling through impoverished nations. Did you know, for example, in Brazil child beggars trade powdered milk for coke (as in cocaine, not cola)? Or in India that organized crime runs rings of trafficked child beggars to exploit tourists?
- Thrice has always been a favorite band of mine. They are on a bit of a hiatus but their frontman just released a worship album and it is amazing. That review is from a non-christian magazine, and they gave it 3.5 stars out of 5, which kind of surprised me.
- Worth linking to again, as it came up this week: The Missionary Code and how churches play into it. Dynamics that are important to process through.
- Great questions for the Bible part of a DBS. They'll help any study get deep into the text.
- Interested in the Lavabit story? Here are the details of what all transpired.
- Pat Robertson is always in the news and it never seems to be good. This is horrible actually. Raising tons of money for refugee work, and funneling it into a diamond mining venture? I hope this gets the attention that it deserves.
- Like webcomics? This one is pretty good, consistently. It's faith based, so keep that in mind. I particularly like the one linked (although its not "haha" funny).
- I've had my eyes on Kenya since deciding to move there. Accordingly, I found this short article to be interesting: Kenya is developing their own Goth subculture.
- iOS 7 is out! Check out this article For some of the finer details, tips & tricks.
- It's hard not to like the blog of Jaime (the very worst missionary). Here, she discusses openly and honestly a recent trip with WorldVision. It's a worthwhile read that looks at the good and the bad.
- Midlake is one of my favorites and they have new music coming out!
- I'm a bit impressed with this dialect survey. It pegged my dialect as most similar to Norman, OK (where I spent 10 formative years). And that's without telling "it" I'd ever been there, and that I currently live in South Africa.
- There was a study done that showed megachurches to be an 'intoxicating' experience. Don't go to the bar to get drunk; just go to your friendly neighborhood megachurch.
- It looks like we are heading to a leader's meeting in Taiwan later this year. I found this article on illegal architecture there fascinating.
- Christianity in the west can oftentimes be inseparably linked to our consumeristic tendencies. This is an article that examines some of that narrative. To quote the end:
We need thicker, richer stories that can sustain us. We need stories that focus not on our emotional status, but on Christ & his ongoing mission in this world that we find ourselves caught up in. We need Christians everywhere to repent of their consumerist faith designed to augment their life rather than remake it. Above all, we need Christ himself, and openness to the wild things he might do in and through us if we would just take our eyes off of ourselves for but a moment.
The following links are meant to stand with the previous bit I wrote. My opinion hasn’t really changed all that much: #Kony2012 is to be applauded if it succeeds and getting people deeper into the issues of the region. If it stands on it’s own though, without deeper engagement, I don’t think it rightfully can be applauded. My concern is that it stands more often than not on its own. These links will helpfully flesh out the issues and concerns and drive us into a deeper understanding of how we can rightly be involved.
We’ll start with this: Ben Keesey, one of IC’s founders responds via video to some of the criticism. Personally, I don’t think it responds to the right pieces of the criticism, but here it is for your perusal.
Slate wrote a good article on “Crowd-Sourced Intervention”. It’s good food for thought.
One item that I’ve seen come up several times is the lack of an LRA presence in northern Uganda BUT the presence of an odd disease (nodding disease) only affecting children. Many Ugandan voices in particular would like to see more awareness about this.
Rachel Held Evans wrote about the situation for Relevant Magazine. It’s worth a perusal at the very least.
This is a video from an Ugandan journalist. Her voice is worth hearing. She pointed as well towards this coverage by Al Jazeera detailing the reaction of several thousand Ugandans watching Kony2012 for the first time.
And finally, in a more amusing twist, apparently quite a few folks have been confusing Joseph Kony with Carl Weathers.
But the Campaign for Primary Accountability isn't your typical super-PAC, and its top donor, Houston construction magnate Leo Linbeck III, isn't your typical conservative sugar daddy. While groups like American Crossroads and Priorities USA have sprouted up in the last two years to boost specific values and candidates, the CFPA has a different goal entirely: electoral mayhem.
via motherjones.com
There is something both amusing and sad about this. The amusing part first: electoral mayhem. Intentionally seeking to mix things up by adding a little chaos to the mix. They research where there are incumbents that have made a career out of their position and have "lost touch with their constituency" and purposely overfund opponents in the primaries in order to oust them from office. Themselves (the super-PAC) are staunchly libertarian but support candidates on both sides, believing that areas should be represented by someone of the same political persuasion as the general area.
What's sad? It highlights the inefficiencies and failures of our political system: that we could have such a thing as career politicians out of touch with their constituency, that big money means big election, that tampering is easier than we probably want to believe.
A fun kickstarter. Ze Frank is wanting to bring back the show. Back when it was originally on, I found it quite amusing. It’s basically crowd-sourced show on news, etc.
It’s politics season again. Or getting there, at least. Remember don’t automatically believe anything you here a politician say. Take this example of Santorum on Higher Education. As the article says, he’s either outright lieing or incredibly misguided. I’ll let you pick which. Don’t assume any candidate on either side is more truthful though; take all that is said as a grain of salt - test it all.
Sufjan Stevens is teaming up with Son Lux and Serengeti. Even though I don’t know anything about Serengeti, this excites me.
Velveting: The art of stirfrying a moister meat. Worth a try sometime, I suppose?
I learn a lot from reading Vinoth Ramachandra. His blog is well worth the perusal. Here is his latest post.
Interested in creating a better internet experience, and don’t mind getting your hands “dirty” (coding!) then check out this hosts file that auto blocks tons of adware, spyware and otherwise malicious stuff.
Many years ago Calvin & Hobbes explained the Occupy Wall Street movement to us. Surprisingly prescient? Perhaps…
Speaking of OWS, Andrew Sullivan links to a talk on what inequality does to a society.
There are some odd tumblr’s out there, but few are as odd and funny, as this one: Teenage Mutant Ninja Noses.
J Lee Grady, an editor of Charisma Magazine writes on the importance of a charismatic reformation. This is an important read, and should be deeply considered. Highlights:
1. Let’s reform our theology. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He is God and He is holy. He is not an “it.” He is not a blob, a force, or an innate power. We must stop manipulating Him, commanding Him and throwing Him around.
2. Let’s return to the Bible. The Word of God is the foundation for the Christian experience. Any dramatic experience, no matter how spiritual it seems, must be tested by the Word and the Holy Spirit’s discernment.
7. No more Lone Rangers. Those who claim to be ministers of God—whether they are traveling evangelists, local pastors or heads of ministries—must be accountable to other leaders.
9. Stop faking the anointing. God is God, and He does not need our “help” to manifest Himself. That means we don’t sprinkle glitter on ourselves to suggest God’s glory is with us, hide fake jewels on the floor to prove we are anointed or pull chicken feathers out of our sleeves to pretend angels are in the room.
15. Let’s make the main thing the main thing. The purpose of the Holy Spirit’s anointing is to empower us to reach others. We are at a crossroads today: Either we continue off-course, entertained by our charismatic sideshows, or we throw ourselves into evangelism, church planting, missions, discipleship, and compassionate ministry that helps the poor and fights injustice. Churches that embrace this New Reformation will focus on God’s priorities.
The whole thing is worth a read, especially as its written by an insider. Many within protestant circles have been either (a) severely hurt by the things Grady speaks to or (b) severely disillusioned by the show; in these cases, rather than walking firmly in the power of God it’s something denied or rationalized away.
- Matt Wiebe on The God Shaped Hole and consumerist culture. Also worth some thought…
Found this to be a helpful post on eating well in the midst of poverty. There are simple things to do that go miles.
eBible.com is under new ownership, and launched a new version. It would seem they are looking to compete with YouVersion.
Neoliberal economic theory, and it’s grip on American Politics is something I’ve found disturbing over the past few years. This is a pretty good article on it (and some of the reasons why I’m not much of a fan).
In the web-startup-world, Lanbito appears to be an interesting competitor to Wufoo. Like the pricing, but don’t yet like the feature list. Add some things, and I’d consider migrating over.
If you are on facebook, then you’ve at least heard tell of a the forthcoming changes. Here’s a good round up of what to expect. It doesn’t appear that they are changing pages much yet, just profiles (this is important if you are managing several).
Well this seems like a good enough roundup for now. Hopefully you can find some good reading material there!
The 19th Annual Wheaton Theology Conference was entitled Jesus, Paul and the People of God: A Theological Dialogue with NT Wright and they just posted their audio. It looks like it’s worth checking out (it’ll probably take me at least a week to finish downloading though).
One of the organizations we’ve helped with briefly recently rescued 5 young women from trafficking. That’s something to be thankful for. And keep praying that the bonds of slavery would be broken.
This story is pretty crazy. It seems Dr. Ergun Caner has fabricated much of his life’s story for business reasons, presumably. He’s the president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. So far there hasn’t been much sign of repentance; hopefully it’s forthcoming. It’s Mike Warnke all over again.
And this is a thoughtful article on Muslim followers of Jesus that seeks to move beyond some of the rhetoric. This followup written by a Muslim follower of Jesus is a must read too.
In the sphere of “just plain weird and fascinating,” there is apparently an entire deserted underground city beneath Beijing.
In the political sphere of things, did you know that for each Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorist killed by US drones in Pakistan, 140 innocents are killed? I don’t see that as being a worthy cost on any level. Blame the anabaptist in me.
In other political news, there is much discussion around the interwebs about the newest Arizona law that attempts to curb the tide of illegal immigration. It seems though to be incredibly misguided and those opposing seem to think it’s only going to increase the tide of racial profiling. Turns out those folks where right. The profiling has begun. Hopefully they go back on this law and think of ways that aren’t going to border on obscene to curb illegal immigration…
And finally, Facebook is kind of becoming a scary beast…
Another side to the health care debate. One that probably should be obvious but for some reason isn’t.
Scot McKnight, in response to Glenn Beck & Jerry Falwell, JR..
A brilliant Sri Lankan pastor on responsibility.
A new free alternative to Basecamp opened yesterday: Freedcamp — Project Management made free and easy.
Back in politics, I found this report from the NY Times interesting: Basically, the tea party crowds are intentionally ignoring divisive social issues (think homosexuality/abortion/etc) in favor of collecting numbers.
And even more interesting, this note on banks and economics. Basically, a Citibank Investment Advisory Letter from ‘06 referred to our economy as a “plutonomy”. In it they detail that “the rich take an increasing share of income and wealth over the last 20 years, to the extent that the rich now dominate income, wealth, and spending in these countries.” “In total, the top 20% accounted for 68% of total income; the bottom 40%, for just 9%.” And even better:
The writers of this letter point out that in other places, such as Japan and much of Western Europe, the rich were confined to pretty much the much the same share they had in the 80’s, but in the plutonomies, such as the US, the “capitalists benefit disproportionately from globalization and the productivity boom, at the expense of labor.” In other words, the imbalance is not necessary, but a creation of particular forces within the plutonomies.
Switching gears again, here is a hope filled article about potential angelic visitors. This is far and away one of my favorite blogs written by someone I don’t know. Almost everything he writes is great (I’ve linked to quite a few of his posts).