2 most important links of the day

based on the recent conversations i’ve been having with people regarding what it is that a Christian life looks like, ideally more than absence of sin, these are the most important things you can click today.

Churchmarketingsucks brought this to our attention. as usual, the comments beg good questions.

Eugene Cho, whoever he is, almost but stops short of saying “Fuck human trafficking.” with all due respect, i said it. and here’s a “why” and a “what” that we can discuss soon, also.

Constantine

i have a tag cloud over on the side of the blog, and i generally have a group of very big tags used frequently. the others are quite small. score one for the environmental tag.

a good old friend of mine whom i have never met posted this. let me give you the 1 sentence version, as he aptly states, “we have become dependent on plastic more than religion.”

french connection United Kingdom Walmart.

Euckon the First

 

 

a couple of thoughts from the widely talked-about church identity melting night, Euckon (a …

-it was kind of weird to see people segregated. the Eikoners were mostly sitting on the right side, the Euc-ers on the left. this is normal–to sit with people you know when given the option. and it also has to do with the fact that we’ve been there before and that we like to be closer to the screen, which isn’t big enough for our purposes by a long shot (but does fine in the pinch that we’ll be camping in for a while). but i was a bit disappointed.

-i got a chance to meet 4-5 people i’d never spoken to before. Craig Clarke, who was the guest speaker’s husband, a fellow wearing a Moody basketball hoodie (do they even know how to play at Moody?), and then Felicia and Mike. Felicia had a unique smiley face shirt on. Mike looked a bit older and more hardened, complete with stubbly face and black leather motorcycle jacket. they have a cute 3 or 4 year old named Kaylee, i believe. Felicia is a Fort Worth city employee (i believe) who has started or will be involved with a task force on human trafficking. fascinating stuff! i had to poke around a bit to find out how she came to even find out that we were doing this, but finally the truth slipped out. Phil had contacted her, but they’d never even met before and she was going to go introduce herself as we ended our quick conversation. i was as warm and welcoming as i could be to everyone new i met. and it felt good to be an initiator for the first time in forever (when’s the last time new folks have been at our services?)

-everyone was segregated again at Central. but apparently, there was now a good reason. someone was being combative about the speaker.

-Noel Clarke was great, i thought. after the fact, it seemed that she wasn’t normally a public speaker. she got quite a bit of criticism from more than several people, which i didn’t think was deserved on her part. her vocabulary betrayed a bit of charismatic roots, which seemed to irk some people. she mentioned wanting to raise an army of prayer warriors, which is a great word picture, but again, the violence conveyed by that term is perhaps unneeded. the video that she showed was from a group called Exodus Cry, a clear reference to the then-enslaved nation of Israel. the spokesperson was very passionate and even started yelling (speaking loudly and strongly) a bit towards the end. i appreciated that sort of passion, but again, it’s always weird to be around someone who’s screaming. especially when the person isn’t actually there. and they’re not yelling at you. feeling defensive is a knee jerk reaction to a screaming person, but when a person is keenly aware of the fact that said screamer screameth not at you, feelings of awkward tension follow. and as you might guess, this impassioned “cry” irked some people.

-perhaps everyone else has moved on, but i feel the need to defend Noel and x-odus Cryer from the undue critiques… first off, if Noel isn’t a trained or paid public speaker, then it’s hardly fair to expect her to be impressive, organized, crystal clear, and eloquent. she is a caring, open lady who came to share her story. so if people resent Christianese or churchy language, if they’ve had bad experiences with Christians or church leaders or denominations in the past, that’s fine (it’s too bad, but it’s fine), but expecting her to instantaneously chameleon into her post modern, post Christian, post denom surroundings without even having really hung out with Eikon or the Euc before seems unrealistic. some people are great at blending in and dropping colloquialisms like hot irons. others…. not so much. so be graceful, and unless you voice specific expectations ahead of time, don’t expect them to be met. secondly, if you are looking at action oriented organizations to serve with and invest in, wouldn’t you want your leaders to be passionate? perhaps yelling at a video camera isn’t the best PR in the textbook, but how many people are going to forget that? it made an impression and clearly communicated his point, which, in my book, is essentially a home run. the video was well made and compelling. i can demand nothing more.

-Ryan’s music was truly Texas appropriate. and i couldn’t pull it off like he did if i tried. i think i’ll stick to rock and roll.

-as for the actual subject of the night, i’m glad to have been a part of something that hopefully opens people’s eyes. ignorance is bliss in this case, and we just rocked a lot of boats. the human trafficking industries are truly the dirty secret of globalization. and just like illegal drug trade, Americans out -scum the rest of the world by far. we are the root of this evil, demanding the drugs which led to 6,000 people being slaughtered last year alone in Mexico as drug lords struggle against a recently wakened government. and the 20,000 people a year that are stolen from humanity are far too many, and Americans are the chiefs of thiefs. i’m not proud to be an American, because i see how we directly cause people to no longer be free…

-finally, i have to echo what several folks are saying… that it’s super that 2 church communities, regardless of size, just did this. yes, we’re small and young, but it was so neat to not worry about any spirits of competitiveness (we could never hang) or ego-centrism or arrogance. it seemed pure (even though Phil said “shitty” during the middle of the service. out loud.)

i eagerly await the next Euckon event.

green team themed SLY… 353 days of thunder remain

today is “whateveriwantittobe” monday, and it’s an environmentally friendly monday, although it’s also a bit of a link-dump day, too. we get to go to california this week. i’ll get to see my LOLOLOL bff (wut) Rooms (markymark) and my funky bunch family for the first time in forever. we’ll make sure we see the blue Pacific and some mountains whilst we have the chance. and i’ll hug a redwood for anyone who wants. pictures will ensue, no doubt.

-for all of you texans who religulously follow the whatiseikon blog, i found something recently that may be a benefit of deregulation in the sneering faces of all of the bummers of deregulating the electric utility industry. it’s the site electricitytexas.com, which allows you to compare and purchase the service you want, looking at all publicly available plans. you can even sort and search through criteria like the amount of “green” energy you’d like to purchase, whether it’s wind, natural gas, etc., and even allows rich folks to purchase credits to offset the ungreenness of their own households or even the households of others. now, there is no excuse for any of you to allow coal ash to tarnish your carbon footprints without your expressed approval. yes, clean energy costs more. but isn’t it worth it?

-speaking of coal, i enjoyed the commercials during the election time that spoke glowingly of how technological advances are allowing coal to be burned cleanly these days and that we should all rush to invest in and purchase from these wonderful companies that truly have the world’s wellbeing at heart. also, i didn’t miss the disclaimer at the end of these commercials that it was paid for by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. it takes about a 2 second look over the members of this coalition to see that we might want to add a grain of salt or two hundred to these advertisements. here’s the education part: the industry is absolutely right in touting their improved filters that help keep pollutants like sulfur dioxide and mercury from exiting smokestacks into the air directly. this still begs the question, where do the mercury and sulfur dioxide go if they’re not going into the air? the answer: in detention ponds like these pictured on the Time magazine website. go ahead and read the whole article if you’d like. this isn’t the first time i’ve pointed this out. especially noteworthy is the fact that many of these ponds are notlined in any fashion, allowing water and toxins to eventually sink into the ground, which is where we get a lot of our food, and where our water flows before it’s pumped into our homes. hmmm. out of the kettle and into the frying pan, yes? as Bryan Walsh states so succinctly, “in reality, we can’t really talk about clean coal — it doesn’t exist.” a Sierra Club director later wonders aloud if the industry could have spent some of that advertising cash on improving the disposal of the carcinogenic waste-products that are silently killing our world.

-in a typical split personality manner that we’ve come to expect from the current president and his administration, he recently catered to diametrically opposed special interest groups simultaneously. Bush had announced about 2 years ago that 3 new marine preserveswould be set aside for national protection and enjoyment. and then the government spent the next 25 or so months arguing how much protection these preserves would actually receive, in case any higher bidders came along, right? now, the administration is pushing the limits of the Clean Water Act of 1972 to see if they can again bend over backwards for the man, whoever it may be. this time, it’s a gold mining company that wants to dump waste products in a lake in the mountains of Alaska. awesome.

-in what has apparently been an underwhelming auto show in Detroit, many fuel efficient vehicles are being debuted. one has to wonder, if only 1 car company had been bold enough to have these vehicles ready to go right this minute, or perhaps last summer as gas prices hovered at $4 a gallon, how filthy rich would they be right now? and how tired would they be from laughing at the bowing and begging and sniveling  of the other companies. but still, for some crazy reason, i can’t help but feel a bit of deja vu about these fuel efficient, zero emission, electric cars before. maybe in 1891?

-finally, a recent study from the University of Michigan shows a slightly surprising link between the modern city and mental health. in the Velvetine Rabbit, the little boy gets sick and travels to the sea to get better, right? perhaps it’s not just that being in a natural or rural environment is good for you, it’s also that being in a city might be bad for you. the link between behavior patterns for children who have been diagnosed with ADHD is starkly different for the two settings. 2 takes on the story–saucy and sarcastic or more contemplative.

-news flash: humans are not as smart as we think we are. we get our grubby little fingers in the cookie pot and ruin the whole lot. proof positive here.

green team! green team. shhhhh. greeeeeeeeeen teeeeeeeeeeam.

SLY… 360 days left this year

-i know i listen when an astrophysicist makes suggestions on how to improve anything about me. shouldn’t all the airlines? cause this one has come up with a method that might reduce boarding times by five-sixths.

-Michael Guerriero got fired and made the most of it. he hopped in his SUV and criss-crossed the country looking for the best parties. now he’s written a book about it. and for all of you out therrrre looking forrrr a rrrrrrowsing good rrruckus to be a parrrrt of, there’s even a festival in Florida where a ship full of ”pirates”sails into port, takes over everything, and even gets the keys to the city from the mayorrrrr. rrrable-rowsing ensues. good times.

-how cool is the title “Grand Warlock,” especially Mexico’s Grand Warlock? cause he’s got some inside info that says that the US pulls out of the Middle East and instead hungrily looks at our neighbors like Kobayashi looks at a pile of Hebrew Nationals. yep, he predicts a buildup of military strength along the border as we try to grab some additional territory. for what it’s worth, he predicted that 2008 would see the deaths of Britney (you know which one) and Fidel (you also know which one) and that oil prices would be stable.

-inspired by the example of famed Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, a few hundred good people hurled shoes at various political figures. well, at their pictures at least, which is far less illegal than tossing footwear at a dignitary. and God bless the news writers and reporters around the world who don’t have English as a first language, but the first sentence in this report alone is worth the look. what does a venting spleen truly entail?

-you’d think that maybe two or three investigations would be enough to detect fraud. maybe 5. but 8? averaging 1 every 2 years for 16 years? and they all failed?  i saw that the SEC must defend its existence, and i readily agreed, because we all know Les Miles is a douche, and that the Pac-10 is truly the conference of champions. then i realised we were talking securities and exchange, and i still readily agreed.

-i recently had a conversation with a few people i respect, asking the question of whether it’s better to be involved in multiple service initiatives or throwing one’s life into a single cause, at least one cause at a time. obviously, some things are temporary or even seasonal, hence the exception. i also was wondering aloud if there was a way to meet and help people who may be homeless or on the brink of homelessness, and that have no desire to stay that way. the single mom and kids who just couldn’t make ends meet but don’t desire to live on the street. the vet who’s checks only cover rent in a small apartment in a bad part of town, so he instead pays for food and lives at the night shelter. the 19 year old who fled an abusive home and wants to go back to school but has to work full time just to make it week to week. so, here’s a great story about a lady named Irish. she was a druggie. she was homeless. and apparently, she had gangly teeth. but through the Day Resource Center, and through programs in Fort Worth’s 10 year plan to end chronic homelessness (betcha didn’t know it existed),  she has signed the lease on an apartment last March. she works full time. she has new teeth thanks to the generosity of these programs. i consider that success. and i want in.

-4,042 homeless people were recorded in Fort Worth during the 2007 census.

-back to the 1 pursuit vs. many pursuits question. i just finished a book called “the Dip” by Seth Godin. in answer to my own question, i’ll use an analogy from his book. consider a woodpecker. he could stay busy all winter long, tapping 100 times on 2000 different trees. or he could tap 200,000 times on one tree… and get dinner. for what it’s worth, the book is truly short at Godin’s readers’ behest, and it’s sharply to the point. highly recommended.

-just to even things out, here’s a little infoon how absent the Kingdom of God is from the metroplex. and how generally stupid, hurtful, ignorant, and racist we are, also.

killing the world

a photojournalist traveled to Nigeria to give the world a glimpse into the lives of those who may not actually benefit from the planet’s delirious cutting and snorting of oil. this slideshow is the evidence. excerpts of the photographer’s interview are spliced in with the pictures. i suggest turning on the photo captions to get the full effect.

gospel truth

i stumbled across this today and knew that although it was talking about something a little more specific (churches and contractors paying their bills on time, written from someone who has both perspectives), it can easily be stretched farther to address more of our lives here on earth.

“God is not readying his bride on the backs of slaves.”

He isn’t clothing her, He isn’t feeding her, and she must not be a part of the system that oppresses and condones slavery. the Bride of Christ must be the one who parachutes down in the darkness to set the slaves free. more later…