Category: misc

Texas town where Spanish is official

CNN has a story on El Cenizo, Texas, a border town of 6,500 where Spanish is the official language of the city and city employees are prohibited from turning in illegal immigrants.

Watch the story

Texas Monthly had an interesting story on the 24-year-old mayor sometime last year as well. He’s pretty radical in his thinking but a lot of it makes sense.

County taxes

Now here’s some interesting news from the Texas Comptroller.
The latest numbers I have is for 2005 and I’m not sure if that means 2004-2005 or FY2005 or 2005-2006… but here’s some data on Texas Total County Property Tax Rates:

The Average Tax Rate in 2005 was: 0.531450673
Ellis County Tax Rate was: 0.3499
There were 28 counties with a tax rate below .3499
And 225 counties with a tax rate above .3499
Of those 225, 202 of them were above .4

If I’m not mistaken, our current tax rate is .3495. With the recent bond election, the tax rate is expected to increase between 3 and 4.5 cents or to .3795 or .3945. Even if somehow the bond had been expected to increase the tax rate by 5 cents, the county tax rate would be .3999, or below 4 cents per $100 of property valuation. So while many counties may very well have lowered their tax rate since 2005, if they remained at the same rate or higher, Ellis County will still have a tax rate lower than 202 of the 254 counties in Texas.

WWE shocked at latest developments in Benoit tragedy

The WWE has released a press release regarding the Chris Benoit double-murder-suicide over the weekend.
The company said they are “concerned with the sensationalistic reporting and speculation being undertaken by some members of the media.”
According to the press release, the murder of both Benoit’s wife and son was likely deliberated and not in an act of rage.
The press release also says there was no evidence of illegal drugs in Benoit’s house and he tested clean for steroids in mid-April.
Read the full press release and a timeline of events.
After the facts surrounding the case were made known, WWE removed “all tributes to Chris Benoit” both on-air and on the web.
Vince McMahon also made a brief introduction before the WWE ECW show last night, dedicating the show to everyone affected by the tragedy and saying there would be no further mention of Benoit after his statement.
It appears that other than the above links, there are no other pages for Chris Benoit anywhere on the WWE website. A search of his name brings up a number of pages but none of the links are valid anymore.

Encouraging creative thought in the church

SBC blogger (that’s Southern Baptist not Southwestern Bell) Wade Burleson suggests there may be a connection between mathematics and the Gospel.

It is interesting to note that in both the study of mathematics and gospel doctrine one learns precise systems of thought with established, constant truths that never change (at least from my conservative theological viewpoint).

Burleson takes a look at the academic life of Albert Einstein and how he flourished when he was encouraged to think creatively.

‘What kind of environment is needed for great thinkers and theologians to arise out of the Southern Baptist Convention who possess the creative genius to lead us into new and even more effective methodologies of gospel ministry?’

From Einstein’s life Burleson offers five pointers:

  1. Young evangelical pastors and leaders need an atmosphere where they are free to think and flourish in each his own, individual, and creative way as God has gifted him.
  2. Demands to submit to authoritarian control through mental assent to force-fed facts or truths, and demands for blind allegience to established systems of denominational structure will thwart any sense of creativity and possibly restrict new and more effective means for accomplishing even greater Christian ministry.
  3. The discovery and advancement of more effective methodologies in missions ministry comes from hands on experience of Southern Baptists who are actually doing missions rather than Southern Baptists who are hearing about missions.
  4. If young evangelical pastors and leaders ever get a taste of the freedom to do ministry as they visualize it needs to be done, but feel attacked or threatened by older mentors, they will eventually renounce their allegiance for, and membership in, the Southern Baptist Convention.
  5. The threat to the Southern Baptist Convention does not come from more freedom given to her members, but rather, the tightening of parameters and the authoritarian control that stifles creativity in missions and ministry.

I think God is a very creative God and encourages us to be creative as well. When people are restricted and not allowed to be creativity you lose passion and joy. But when people can be creative with their work, their ministry, their outreach and are given a chance to think outside the box, it’s amazing to watch them flourish.
I’m thankful myself that I have a place where I can be creative. I have a place where I’m allowed to stretch myself and be all that I can be and not tied down to tradition or “this is how we’ve always done it.”
And I love watching other people find their place as well.

The Sermon on the Mount

According to John Dear, a Jesuit priest and peace activist, Mahatma Gandhi read from the Sermon on the Mount twice a day for the last 40 years of his life.
“He considered these texts the greatest writings on nonviolence in the history of the world. Since he wanted to become a person of nonviolence, he treated these teachings as a basic primer, as the catechism of nonviolence.”
I wonder how many times most Christians have read Matthew 5-7.
Hat tip to DMN for the info