Category: Guest Column
Is that Something or Nothing?
David Letterman used to do a bit with Paul where they would raise the curtain on stage, see a thing, and then discuss if that is “something or nothing?” I also enjoyed the bit, “Will if Float?” Dave hasn’t done either of those bits in a long time. A tech friend of mine explained to me last year that Google has changed what people think is worth “paying for” and that their strategy of “some stuff for free and some you pay for,” even if it is “ad words,” has changed the behavior of what content or services that a person would pay for. When you think about it, Google just picked up the business model of Big Box Stores that sell a little of everything at such low prices that it has driven down the costs and the expectations of said product.
My companion and I create and self publish a little service called, Sacred Steps: Children’s Sermon Journal. It is a weekly document to assist those that are following the Lectionary readings each week in their worship experiences and are working to prepare a “children’s sermon” from one of those texts. We utilize another great site for study, Textweek.com, as a beginning place for some of our thinking and writing. My companion is a First Testament biblical scholar, so most of her words are her own about the First Testament texts. SSCSJ is unlike other options in this area, but it is something that few would “pay for.” We’ve tried subscriptions and will move to an ebook model when Advent begins this year. We have a few subscribers. No worries. It is not a primary income stream. I’m thinking about this today after reading an opinion piece from the New York Times this morning. I won’t completely rip off his words, but borrow a paragraphs for exposure and link to the article.
Slaves of the Internet, Unite!
by Tim Kreider | Opinion/The New York TimesPracticalities aside, money is also how our culture defines value, and being told that what you do is of no ($0.00) value to the society you live in is, frankly, demoralizing. Even sort of insulting. And of course when you live in a culture that treats your work as frivolous you can’t help but internalize some of that devaluation and think of yourself as something less than a bona fide grown-up.
Race and Politics in America
I’ve yet to ask it, but the next time I have an opportunity to talk with one of my Congressional Reps I want to ask, “Can you reflect on the changing color of leadership in America? ” I’m sure I will get a comfortable answer about the positive aspects of diversity. The follow up is, “Is diversity, gender, age, race, and orientation, important for the Federal and State legislatures; and if it is, then is it unconstitutional, or at least unfair, for one party to be able to redraw voting districts based on race and economics that ensures that diversity is limited?” Reading Rev. Jim Wallis’ latest on the Huffington Post, reminded me that there is little truth telling and lots of historical revisionism or at the very least a passive acceptance of “separate, but equal.” Here is are two paragraphs and a link.
The Most Controversial Sentence I Ever Wrote
Jim Wallis | The Blog (Huffington Post) | 10/24/13The most controversial sentence I ever wrote, considering the response to it, was not about abortion, marriage equality, the wars in Vietnam or Iraq, elections, or anything to do with national or church politics. It was a statement about the founding of the United States of America. Here’s the sentence.
“The United States of America was established as a white society, founded upon the near genocide of another race and then the enslavement of yet another.”
And it’s time to be honest about the deep-seated sense of race in the heart of our national politics. But when people of color speak the truth about the realities of race in our culture and politics, they are always accused of “playing the race card.” So let me, as a white man and an evangelical Christian, do some truth-telling about race in American politics right now.