To me at least, pomposity seems off the mark for Christian leaders
I wonder -- do they make a diet pill designed to trim down "fatheads"? Oh, of course I know they don't. But the last post I made has me thinking about various pompous people I've had the misfortune of trying to deal with within an evangelical Christian setting over the years.
I grew up in a mainline Christian environment -- until I reached my teen years and got very caught up in the zeal of what might be called "fundamentalist" evangelical Christianity. Most of that won't matter to most of you reading this, but I'm sure some of you will understand.
At this point, I consider myself leaning much more toward my mainline roots. I spent almost 20 years as an ordained minister with a very large evangelical denomination. In 1994, feeling a need for a greater "connection" to the church universal/historic, I began looking around and ended up joining a different church. I was immediately asked to resign a position I held (mentioned in my last post) as news editor of their weekly denominational magazine. I intentionally resigned my ministerial credentials, not wanting to create any perceived conflict between my new church and anyone within the old one who might wonder why I had left.
I remained -- in fact, I REMAIN -- on good terms with the evangelical organization, though I'm still a member in a mainline church group. I've always felt the important thing about being a Christian wasn't the "label" or church name you wore, but your relationship with God in Christ.
Sorry. Not trying to preach at you, but I felt it important to clarify my ramblings somewhat: I acknowledge Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior in the personal, biblical sense same as my evangelical brothers and sisters. Indeed, one of the delightful things I discovered after returning to my "mainline roots" was that there really ARE good, legitimate Christians outside that narrow evangelical circle.
And one of the most distressing things I found, both in my more evangelical past and in my mainline present, is that Christian leaders are often guilty of the same failings as their "secular" or "non-Christian" counterparts -- they get too carried away with their own importance and become pompous. They even sometimes become downright hypocritical.
Yes, I know, that's a shock, isn't it?
I once did a short (5-10 minutes?) workplace devotional presentation titled, "If I Were God for a Day ..." I had fun with it. The gist of the speech was this: Even at my best, I cannot say I would make the right decisions about who to punish and who to reward -- so it's a really good thing I am NOT God, for a day, a minute, or even a fraction of a second.
Now if we can just remind Christian leaders at all levels of the truth of that ...
And that, good readers, will be my last "sermonizing" for the holiday season! (Maybe. Maybe not. Who can say?)
Evangelical acquaintance of mine loses job for leaning toward ‘liberal’
I just found out one of the finest Christians and all-around finest, nicest people I've had the privilege of meeting in my checkered past is out of a job for expressing somewhat "liberal" views regarding homosexuality and regarding his support for Barack Obama.
This good man's name is Richard Cizik, and resigned Thursday as VP for governmental affairs with an organization called the National Association of Evangelicals. The NAE, as I've always known it, represents more than 40,000 conservative/fundamentalist/evangelical churches throughout America. It was formed back in the 1940s as a reaction to the more liberal (or perhaps "mainline," depending on the religious circles you hang out in) National Council of Churches.
From what I've read, Rich had been with the NAE since 1980, and has served as their primary Washington lobbyist for evangelical religious concerns. He also worked as an editor of their various publications, I think.
He has been in and out of hot water with some of the more prominent NAE members and influential figures in recent years because he has publicly challenged individuals and member churches to more actively live out their role of stewardship in relation to the creation, among other things. That is, he has become somewhat active with environmental causes -- and more vocal than some leaders within the NAE wanted him to be. The final blow, however, was when Rich was being interviewed by NPR a few days ago and said this to a question regarding gay rights issues such as civil unions and gay marriage:
"I'm shifting, I have to admit. In other words, I would willingly say I believe in civil unions. I don't officially support redefining marriage from its traditional definition, I don't think."
Later, on the NAE website, the organization's president, Leith Anderson, said of Cizik, "Although he has subsequently expressed regret, apologized and affirmed our values there is a loss of trust in his credibility as a spokesperson among leaders and constituents." Anderson added in the website statement that he and Cizik had met following the NPR interview and the two had "mutually concluded that his resignation is a difficult but appropriate decision."
I had occasion to meet Rich and work with him on two or three occasions in my past life as a news editor for a major evangelical denomination's weekly magazine. The group sent me to three or four of NAE's annual conventions over a seven year period. Rich is a great guy, and a delight to know. I wish him well and my prayers are with him as he deals with this sudden "career change," caused by his honest answer to an honest question.
I won't get any further into the religion and "religious politics" involved in all this stuff. Been there. Done that.
Launching a business through Squidoo — wanna buy a lens?
I announced a couple of days ago on another of my blogs that I'm getting ready to launch a new business next week related to Squidoo -- I'm going to be building and selling lenses to those folks interested in getting a lens written by an experienced professional writer (that's ME!) instead of writing it themselves.
I'm going to have several lenses built to offer for sale, and I'll announce here next week where you can go to view them and to purchase them. My price will be $100 per lens. They'll be optimized for keywords related to topics people are searching for on the Internet. They will have "affiliate links" in them, i.e., ways the lens can earn commissions on a product or service in addition to the commission "split" Squidoo.com gives to lensmasters for their lenses.
If you use or visit Squidoo.com, you understand at least something about what I've said above. If not, you can go take a look around. I'll make the details clear when I launch next week.
Meanwhile -- feel free to visit my lensmaster page at Squidoo, find out a bit more about me, and view the five lenses I have already made.
(Oh, yeah -- the lens you'll see there titled "Give a green gift for the holidays" is one I finished yesterday. It's not one I've built for the "launch" -- but if you're interested in buying it, I'll sell it to you for $75, a pre-launch savings of $25. Just contact me through the contact page on this site if you wish to buy it and we'll work out the details.)
Biggest economic need in U.S. — replace panic with OPTIMISM
I've never been the sort of person who thought problems would just go away if I ignore them, but I'm starting to think a crucial ingredient that we MUST get a hold on to lick this current economic recession is plain old optimism. We need optimism in large doses to lift up consumer attitudes and financial attitudes and to get rid of all the panic!
What's the solution to that? Can we really make things better by simply chanting something like, "I think I can, I think I can ..." until that turns into "I know I can, I know I can ..."? Can we drive out the fears and uncertainties causing panic simply by handing out more promotional products to customers of our stores and banks?
Obviously, attitude alone or attitude combined with good PR, isn't going to do the trick. But it sure as heck could be part of the solution. Something around $1 Trillion so far in bailouts and investments by Uncle Sam haven't worked yet, have they??
I mentioned in a different blog that FDR was probably onto something important in his first inaugural address with that famous statement, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." My investor friends and investor family members all tell me the major problem with these insane swings in the stock market can be summed up in one word: "PANIC." So maybe we ought to be more optimistic and less fearful. Taking a couple of steps back and a "time out" from all the economic gloom and doom can't hurt, can it??
You read ‘the papers’ too? You can buy classic newspapers on eBay
I just discovered one of those great "webmaster tools" all bloggers or well, uh, webmasters, really need. If you look near the top of the right-hand column on the pages here at "Just a Guy Who Reads the Papers," you'll see that new tool in action.
Through the magic(?) of Internet technology, you'll notice several (probably 6) links to eBay auction items involving antique or vintage or classic newspapers. Those links will be updated as they expire. And, yes, if you click on one of those classic newspaper offers, you'll be taken directly to a LIVE real-time eBay auction on that item.
Pretty cool, huh? I think so. And I'm offering that feature to you at the regular subscription price to all who come here -- FREE. Yes, for absolutely FREE you will find those auction links here.
Of course, the auction items highlighted here are NOT FREE -- you have to go to eBay and bid on them. If you're not an "eBayer" on any regular basis, I've even provided a link you can click on just above the pages and posts on this site where you can click, go to eBay, and sign up as a buyer/seller there. It's free (as the link says) and if you've never given eBay a good look, I encourage you to do so. It's far and away the world's largest auction site and chances are good you can find ANYTHING that's legal/legitimate for sale on eBay.
Enjoy!
My best lame advice for investing in the stock market — or not
I'm not much of a financial guy. I HATED the mandatory "economics" class I was required to take those many years ago in high school. (Oddly, I loved history and almost completed a master's degree in history.) As an investor, I've only lost money, even before this horrendously bizarre stock market of the last few months.
So when I hear about anything financial, even something as simple as 0% balance transfers, I tend to go slack-jawed. Throw in even a little touch of such terminology as "futures options," and you've already lost me when it comes to pretty much any finances and investing. I've learned how to pay some of my bills online, as has my wife, and that's about all I do online financially.
But my son, happily, has become quite the investor. Unhappily, he's lost -- as have millions of Americans -- a lot of money in the recent stock market debacles. (See? I understand the world "debacle" but like millions of others, it's "stock market" I really don't get.)
One thing my son has explained to me regarding stocks and evaluating stocks is the concept of the "book value" of a company. That's pretty simple, really, if I got what he told me. It means this: If a company were to shut down today and sell off everything, pay all its debts, whatever is left over is the "book value" of the company which would be split up among the owners, in this case the stock holders. When a company has a "negative book value" that's very, very bad for investors. That means if it sold off completely, it would still owe money -- and stock holders would get NOTHING.
So my advice for you today, and it really isn't worth much but, what the heck -- stay away from buying stock in negative book value companies.
Now go out and do something with your day. Step away from the computer and LEAVE that stock alone for a few days, will ya?
Seems to me that Bush, Obama would both prefer moving now
I've forgotten now which public official -- maybe a Senator? Congressman? -- I saw in a news clip on CNN yesterday, but he was actually suggesting we might want to pass some sort of emergency measures, change the Constitution, whatever, to get President-elect Barack Obama into office as soon as possible instead of waiting for his January inauguration.
I don't think the guy was kidding.
And I also don't think either President George W. Bush or Obama would resist the idea.
I'm not suggesting Obama is overstepping his present role. I'm not suggesting Bush is shirking any of his present role. But whenever I've seen the two men on television, Bush always looks relieved that the end is almost here -- and Obama always looks eager to get started.
Given the incredible situations we face economically and politically right now, perhaps there ought to be some special emergency declarations that would accomplish the changeover as soon as possible -- say, maybe YESTERDAY?
Time for a memory upgrade? No, I don’t mean your computer
Ever have one of those days when you think you really need a memory upgrade -- I don't mean more RAM in your computer, necessarily, but a real-life "memory upgrade," is what I'm talking about.
Cheer up. Such situations happen even more as you get older. I was thinking about memory and how I may be losing mine after a conversation I had yesterday with my wife. It involved some freelance proofreading she's doing this week. I was sure this particular company paid her in the past at a rate that was $10 an hour more than what she's getting for this gig.
I mean, it was one of those details I was absolutely sure I was right about. She showed me where I absolutely was wrong. (She's much better at keeping detailed work logs than I. I call it obsessive.)
Each year I put on my Old Guy mind always makes me a bit more concerned when I mess up on such details. A buddy used to tell me I had a mind like a steel trap. Of course, he then followed his comment with "Full of rats." I've always known, of course, that he meant my Big Brain was skilled at grabbing details and never letting go of them.
Uh, well, maybe that ability to hold onto details really has turned into something closer to a rat trap. Excuse me for now. Gotta run ... it's just about time for my meds.
When does clothing stop being funny and become ‘disruptive’?
When do funny t shirts become "disruptive or inflammatory"?
The county I live in has decreed that people wearing "clothing, apparel, or other accessories containing distruptive or inflammatory language or content" will no longer be allowed to enter county buildings. I'm not sure about the entire ordinance, so I don't know what will happen if someone shows up for court wearing such apparel, or if they simply need to go to the county courthouse for a necessary permit, to pay taxes, look up property records, etc.
Let me say upfront that I rarely go out in public in just a T-shirt or so casual that any of my clothing or "accessories" would put me at risk to be hit by the new county law. But I think you're on a real "slippery slope" when you pass such laws. Indeed, I've seen people wearing very expensive clothing that I personally thought was at least tasteless and perhaps downright vulgar. But I've never really thought it was my business to be the Social Police and call them on the matter.
Sort of if you want to make a fool of yourself in public, I'll get over it, but will YOU?
I guess it rankles me a bit anytime the government decides to be Head Nanny. What do you think about the matter?
Holidays mean more travel — which may mean more luggage fees
Have you flown much lately? Are you planning any flights for Thanksgiving weekend travel, or perhaps a bit further ahead for Christmas and New Year's?
I haven't flow in awhile, but I would be very interested to know any recent experiences and your reaction to all the extra bucks most airlines are now charging for checking your luggage. When I first heard several months ago that most major airlines were charging $15, even $25 to check a second piece of luggage, I was appalled. Then when it reached the point that some were charging that much for ANY piece of checked luggage, I was stunned.
Why on earth don't they simply charge more upfront on the ticket pricing? Do they really think most people travel without checking ANY luggage and so would feel angry about over-all ticket price increases? I, personally, would feel less like I'd been somehow "scammed" if they simply charged me more for the ticket and allowed me to check two or even three pieces of luggage without extra fees.
How about any of you reading this who fly frequently? How has the extra costs of checking luggage affected you? Or has it? Leave a comment and sound off about it here!
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1688 NEWSPAPER ROYAL BIRTH PRINCE OF WALES
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Rare1898 Native American Indian newspaper SANTEE AGENCY
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MORRISTOWN NJ Revolutionary War 1780 Enemy Newspaper
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REVOLUTIONARY WAR ERA Original 1777 Enemy Newspaper SEE
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Newspaper 1816 Connecticut Journal New Haven as found
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