April 18, 2006

A Quiz for Tuesday

I haven't done one of these in a LONG time, and probably wouldn't be doing this one had it not come from Dr. Michael Haykin. Which Scottish historian are you?

I am Thomas Boston, champion of evangelistic preaching and the Free Offer of the Gospel. Actually, I tied for first place:

Thomas Boston 95%

James Orr 95%

James Denney 75%

John Knox 65%

Thomas Chalmers 50%

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April 17, 2006

Southern Baptist Bloggers on Frappr

Bryan over at Spare Change has set up a SBC Bloggers Frappr map. If you are one, go there and identify yourself!!

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Carter's Law and Political Discussion

Joe Carter over at the Evangelical Outpost has formulated a law of arguement similar to Godwin's Law. Carter's Law of Political Rhetoric is:

As the number of religious conservatives expressing an opinion on a moral or political issue increases, the probability that someone on the political left will invoke the term “theocracy” approaches one.
Jow gives as examples Kevin Phillips' new book American Theocracy and Harper Magazine's piece on "The Christian Right's War on America".

I've noticed how many people have decided that President Bush's evangelical faith has ushered in a sort of theocracy in America. These are usually the same people who blissfully ignore Bill Clinton's and Jimmy Carter's evangelical faith -- evangelicalism is a pretty big tent, after all. What it comes down to, it seems, is that if you agree with someone's theology, it isn't a theocracy. When you disagree, it's a theocracy that threatens the very fabric of our Constitution.

The only Christians I know who are seeking a theocracy are the Christian Reconstructionists -- and they're a thankfully small group. I've mentioned them before. The rest of us know that only Christ can effect real, permanent change. While we will work for social change, we recognize that there's really only one way for that to happen.

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April 14, 2006

Book Review: How to Be Your Own Publicist by Jessica Hatchigan

How to Be Your Own Publicist is written by an award-winning writer and publicist. This made me a bit nervous right away; I was afraid that the book would either be overly technical and thus inaccessible, or extremely basic (I've had some experience with overly basic business books).

Thankfully, I found the book to be neither. How to Be Your Own Publicist finds a great middle-ground between people who just want to get attention for their cause/business/writing/blog and people who are getting ready to head up the PR department in their own small business. The book is easilly accessible for those with no marketing background, with plenty of meat for people with more experience.

The most valuable part of the book for me were the sections on creating press kits and writing press releases. I'm looking at moving my podcasting beyond just a hobby, and I learned a lot that I can use to promote both my podcasts and myself as a podcaster. I'll be making use of those ideas in the very near future. There are also valuable sections on getting yourself recognized as an "expert" in your field -- leading to radio and TV interviews where you can let people know about your product/service/company. Hatchigan also covers what not to do, including the infamous "soup to nuts" speeches where you overload your audience with too much information. She also cautions budding publicity hounds to use "publicity stunts" with great care -- don't let the stunt overshadow what you're trying to promote. This reminds me of commercials that I see all the time -- witty, memorable skits that leave you humming the tune but wondering what they were trying to sell.

Knowing how to attract attention to your business -- or your blog, or your podcast -- is important. Being able to create not only an impression, but also a memory -- and a good one -- is also important. How to Be Your Own Publicist shows you how to do both.

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"Christianity" in America

"Most Americans don't believe they will experience a resurrection of their bodies when they die, putting them at odds with a core teaching of Christianity."

Only 36 percent of the 1,007 adults interviewed a month ago by the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University said "yes" to the question: "Do you believe that, after you die, your physical body will be resurrected someday?" Fifty-four percent said they do not believe and 10 percent were undecided.

And yet over 60% of Americans claim to be Christians -- in fact, a Barna survey taken in 2002 puts the figure closer to 80%, with 68% describing themselves as "committed Christians." We claim to be Christians, but deny one of the basic beliefs of Christianity -- the eventual resurrection of all men.

We've removed belief from Christianity. We've made it so easy to call yourself a Christian that anyone can do it, regardless of what they believe. We need to start defining Christianity the way it is defined Biblically -- people who believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah, trust Him alone for their salvation, and believe (and live) according to His teachings. Anything else may be a really cool way to believe, but it isn't Christianity, and we need to stop fooling ourselves.

Christians are proud of the "fact" that our nation is 60%+ Christian -- I'd rather rejoice in the 20-30% who actually know what that means, and live it anyway.

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April 11, 2006

Useful Information

There will probably be alot of new messengers to the SBC Convention in Greensboro this year. A lot of first-timers who may be wondering what's going on.

There's a valuable resource over at 12 Witnesses (note to self -- get this one added to the aggregator). Just check out the side links (right sidebar) and look at the SBC Primer posts he's got listed.

These posts are also good primers for anyone who is interested or curious. The SBC is a huge "denomination," and it might be a good idea for people to know how things are (and aren't) done.

God willing, I'll be blogging the convention this year. It will be my second national convention (I was at the Atlanta convention in 1999, after being a Southern Baptist for only about a year).

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April 10, 2006

The Gospel of Judas

So I've spent all weekend away from my computer, taking a sort of blog vacation, and the whole Gospel of Judas thing has probably blown over by now. Or maybe not -- people seem particularly susceptible to "hidden Gospels" right now, and this newest one sure does promise a new look at Christianity.

more...

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April 06, 2006

Quick Note re: WWW

Some have noticed that I left Theater Hopper out of the last wrapup. I haven't stopped reading it, and I will include it in the future.

I'm also adding The Order of the Stick based on a LOT of things (it's funny, it's plot driven, it's funny), but mainly on the virtues of this strip (which has already been Websnarked).

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April 03, 2006

Weekly Webcomics Wrapup

Once again, it's time for the three-days-late Wrapup.

Questionable Content: We look at Marten and Dora together -- "the music dork version of sloppy makeouts." You get a music education in every episode of this comic!

Antihero For Hire: More exposition about The Froster. AND a "surprise attack." Not sure where this one is going yet -- it may not be 'going' anywhere, since this is an "Interlude phase."

User Friendly: Flavored coffee and Windows Vista are skewered this week. Oh, AND a cruel, cruel April Fool's joke.

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April 01, 2006

Gift-Giving Ideas

It's never too early to start holiday gift shopping, right? And if you act now, you can grab one of these products that I'm sure will be in VERY short supply by the November/December gift-buying window. more...

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March 31, 2006

A Blast From My Past

Deliverance. Ah, those were the good old days.

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March 29, 2006

What Does Public Criticism Mean, Anyway?

The new code of conduict for IMB trustees, according to trustee Mike Smith, is not intended to stifle honest differences between board members. At least, that's the story today from the SBTC Texan.

“We really got started on this two years ago, way before Wade Burleson or anything like that,” Smith told the Southern Baptist TEXAN in a phone interview March 23, referring to the Oklahoma trustee whose board status was in question until the board’s vote March 22 to rescind an earlier action requesting his removal. “We ourselves said we need something (drafted) in a concise way for being accountable when attending meetings and being faithful (as trustees).”
So this has been sitting for two years, and RIGHT NOW, just after the whole controversy, it's passed and implimented immediately -- even though many trustees expressed concern about voting for or against a document that they had only received the night before.

Why the rush? It's obvious to everyone watching what the rush was -- "we have a problem we need to take care of ASAP, before it gets out of hand."

Later in the article, Smith says that "we just do not want continuous open criticism." I think that a measure that effectively turns the trustee board into a group of yes men will certainly ensure that trustees don't criticise. It also means that nobody will pay any attention to what the trustees say publically about a decision ever again. It means that we're going to have to look at things for ourselves.

An new SBC, full of people who take an interest in what is going on at the national convention level? Who are involved and vocal? Who knows what we might be able to accomplish when we ALL are involved in the process. I'm starting to think that the IMB trustees have done us a favor.

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March 27, 2006

Book Review: The Witness by Dee Henderson

Amanda Griffin is a woman on the run. And trouble seems to keep following her, everywhere she goes. But now, the trouble has found her family, and she has to make some hard decisions regarding her own life: does she keep on running, as she has been for the past eight years, or does she come in out of the cold?

I've never read Dee Henderson before, though I know people who read her regularly. The Witness is a great mystery/thriller -- it's a page turner, with a lot more action that I expected. I never thought I'd get as caught up in the book as I did -- there were nights when I literally could not make myself put the book down. It was always "One more chapter. One more chapter."

The character relations are a bit too convenient, though. Police chief and two detectives fall for three sisters who are all involved in this mystery, one of whom is on the run from organized crime in New York. Some of the pieces seem to fit together a little too well, some of the situations a little too contrived. But the book flows very well, and is a really quick read -- fast paced, just like life on the run. This will be a great beach book this summer, and is a good front-porch-reading book (you mean you don't do that??) right now.

There's even a study guide in the back of the book for your Christian fiction readers club. But whatever you do -- don't read it until you finish the book. One plot twist is hinted at, and one fatality is totally mentioned. I made the mistake, and it ruined the shock for me.

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Weekly Webcomics Update

A few days late, but here it is!

I'm adding a new one this time: Antihero for Hire. Perfect time to start reading this one, as it's the very beginning of a new story arc, involving the King of the Ice, 'The Froster'. The comic is set in a future time where Canada has waged an "Unexpected War" against the United States:

See, what happened was that Canada, tired of the way the US was running their country, sent wave after wave of genetically modified dinosaurs trained to attack only military targets. Not one non-resistant was killed, and all of the states that bordered Canada became provinces. Word is people living there don't really mind, which is one of main reasons it was so successful. The other was, of course, that the US was so busy protecting themselves against Weapons of Mass Destruction that they never made anything to protect against dinosaur attacks.

Superheroes are paid by the job, and are as valid a career choice as any other. This is a great comic -- though the art is at times a bit rough, the stories are well-written. It's also not a very old comic (June 2003), so the archives won't take you a month to read.

Questionable Content: Faye heads home to Savannah for a couple of days. Favorite line this week: "Suave dudes alwys smell like aftershave and Old Spice. It's pretty gross." Today we get to meet Faye's Mom.

Theater Hopper: Guest comics with an unplanned theme -- minor characters with secret crushes on Tom! Tom joins the fun in today's strip.

User Friendly: A.J.'s quest for blog traffic.

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March 23, 2006

Crazy? Like a Fox!

Yesterday, I expressed my disappointment in the IMB trustees' decision to not allow public dissent by trustees. I am still disappointed, but I now have hope, and that hope has come from Wade Burleson.

His 'Ten Terrific Things'has encouraged me, especially this point:

(3). Bloggers other than trustees are now going to do all they can to be at the important meetings of the IMB.

(4). I met 20 young people for the first time who attended the IMB meeting simply to ATTEND. Not to be appointed, not to see family, but to simply ATTEND. When is the last time that many young adults attended the IMB meeting for no official reason but to participate in missions at the grass roots level.

(5). This participation of young adults in the Southern Baptist Convention is exciting. The SBC has long needed involvement from the generation of evanglical, missional minded young peole from our convention.


A message has been sent to the "power brokers" at the IMB: we're watching you. You cruised along below the radar for a long time, but that time is over. You've muzzled Wade Burleson with this new policy, but it doesn't matter. The things he would have talked about on his blog will be talked about anyway, by folks like Marty Duren and many others. The action by the board has sparked action by people who may otherwise have simply cruised along, paying no attention to the politics in the convention.

The light is on. We're watching.

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March 22, 2006

I Wish

I wish I had never heard about the new policies at the IMB, which effectively closed the door on many missionary candidates for non-essential differences.

I wish I had never heard about the IMB trustees' efforts to silence Wade Burleson, to the point of actually seeking his removal from the board of trustees.

I wish .... but I did hear. And what I found out today grieves me even more.

A proposed new conduct guide for IMB trustees. A proposed manual that would state " ... trustees are to speak in positive and supportive terms as they interpret and report on actions by the Board, regardless of whether they personally support the action."

In other words, the average Southern Baptist shouldn't know that there are people who disagree with "established policy." And the rest of the world shouldn't think that there are Southern Baptists who would actually disagree with said established policy.

Well, guess what? The rest of the world holds a pretty low opinion of Southern Baptists already -- something about us being a bunch of Jesus freaks or something. And the average Southern Baptist needs to know what is going on where their money is being spent. Without Bro. Burleson's dissent, nobody would have known what was going on -- maybe that's the intention. Keep the proles in the dark.

This is a gag order. It's no secret who this is designed to silence, and Wade Burleson is a man of enough integrity that he will abide by the board's decision, to the extent that he won't air his disagreements if the new manual is adopted.

I've seen groups run by 'yes men' before. Growing up in IFB land, I saw men of integrity, but I also saw men who were afraid to condemn the actions of certain "Men of God" when they were wrong. They didn't want to be kicked out of the camp -- one thing you'll find out quickly is that the I in IFB may stand for Independent, but it doesn't always mean independent. There are camps and cliques, and you don't want to be in the wrong one. So you put up a front, and deny that there are any problems -- at least in public.

We need principled dissent. Baptists have historically been the voices of principled dissent. And now we are going to lose that. We are going to stifle that voice so we can shore up a facade of unity that everybody knows isn't there to begin with.

Who are we trying to kid? We are not fooling anybody, not even ourselves. Vacating the Board of Trustees of the IMB now seems like a reasonable solution.

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March 17, 2006

A Wee Bit of Patrick

From "A Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus," translated by John Skinner, included in The Confession of Saint Patrick more...

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March 15, 2006

Podcast Subscriptions

Image Hosted by ImageShack.usOK, so I'm stealing this idea from Joe Kennedy. Won't be the first time, won't be the last time. And it's a good idea.

I am a big proponent of podcasts -- I'm even writing a book on it, and why churches should be doing it. So it stands to reason that I listen to a bunch of them. So here are some, but not all (I'm subscribed to 39, including both of my own). more...

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I Wish I'd Have Said This!

From the Centuri0n his own self:

I want to go on-record today to say that I don't want to merely be a "god blogger", or even a "God blogger".

I want to be a Christ blogger. Who's with me?


Amen.

{edit -- I can't BELIEVE I didn't link to him the first time. Color me embarrassed.}

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No More Chef!

So Isaac Hayes has quit South Park because (ready for this one?) the show is insensitive toward religion.

I agree with Daniel Pulliam over at GetReligion -- has he really only just now noticed this??

How about this episode? Or what about this one? I guess they played nicely with religion, huh? (H/T to Andrew Sullivan for those references, btw.)

Even the folks at South Park noted the hypocrisy:

“In ten years and over 150 episodes of ‘South Park,’ Isaac never had a problem with the show making fun of Christians, Muslim[s], Mormons or Jews,” Stone said in a statement issued by the Comedy Central network. “He got a sudden case of religious sensitivity when it was his religion featured on the show.”
(from the Reuters story)
I don't like it when faith is used for comedic value, no matter whose faith it is. Usually when that happens, the religion in question is completely misrepresented, and trying to set the record straight simply shows that you don't get humor at all. I actually had this happen on an email list I subscribe to -- someone told a Baptist joke that I found a bit offensive, and I pointed out the inaccuracies. I was told I didn't have a sense of humor. Anyone who knows me can tell you THAT is untrue -- I just hate to see peoples' faith misrepresented just for cheap laughs.

So I can understand why Hayes left South Park. I just wish he'd have been a bit more consistent with his stand on mocking religion, or at least said he was mad because it was his religion this time.

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