Category: Uncategorized

Get your strange land fix at the library

Well, the Dallas Public Library that is.
According to dallasblog.com:

Wireless internet access has arrived at the Dallas Public Library. Laptop users can now connect for free to the Internet at the Central Library, 1515 Young St., and at any of the city’s 25 branch libraries, according to Director of Libraries Laurie Evans.
In addition to all the library locations, computer users can also connect to the internet via wireless transmitters located at these Dallas parks: Kidd Springs, 711 W. Canty; Exall, 1355 Adair Street; Tietze, 2700 Skillman Ave.; Ridgewood-Belcher, 6818 Fisher Road; Lake Highlands, 9940 White Rock Trail; Campbell-Green, 16600 Parkhill Drive; and Timberglen, 3810 Timberglen Road.

Sure hope the folks in Waxahachie are paying attention.

Driving your message

As I’m finishing up things at the office, I just finished typing this information on Wayne Hamilton, former Executive Director of the GOP party in Texas.
I think the message goes a long way towards ministry and driving/communicating your message our The Message – The Gospel.

“Driving the message is always important in politics,” Hamilton said. “The Democrats did a great job making Newt Gingrich look like an extremist. But the Democrats don’t follow their script very well lately. For that matter, the Republicans haven’t either. During the latest redistricting, the message was controlled from a Republican standpoint. Susan Weddington was responsible for the message and the state party was in a position to drive the message of ‘fair redistricting.’ They had credibility as the majority party and when the Democrats left the state the Republican party set out talking points. Ted Rueter and Robert Black helped implement the strategy then.”
Hamilton said that grassroots efforts played a major role in helping push the message and agenda.
“During redistricting people were updated and informed constantly,” Hamilton said. “When you can keep people updated and informed you don’t have to do much. The party did a phenomenal job in the media. The party also used paid media, which of course gets you earned media.”
But despite the continued use of mass media, Hamilton said the most effective way to drive a message is through personal interaction.
“Tom Craddic said it was the most effective grassroots driven message ever and it was a text book example on how to communicate a message,” Hamilton said. “We live in a very impersonable world where we work in one place and live in another. The personal touch of someone coming by and talking to you may be the only touch they have but it can make a world of difference. That can be seen especially in local raises like the city council or county commissioner elections which are sometimes decided by hundreds if not a dozen votes.”

I think that’s why churches and ministry need to continue to utilize technology like Flickr, MySpace, blogs and more to put a personal demension and touch on the ministry.
As ministries grow bigger and bigger and the outreach grows, you need to take advantage of every possible way to be personable and reaching out to your “clients.”

Re: Ethics question of the day

This was supposed to have posted yesterday, but apparently it did not…

Finally, someone has given me what I believe is a good argument against homosexuality, other than just quoting scripture. I hate when as Christians we only make arguments to non Christians as to what our Scripture says.

Many homosexuals argue that they have not chosen their condition, but that they were born that way, making homosexual behavior natural for them.
But because something was not chosen does not mean it was inborn. Some desires are acquired or strengthened by habituation and conditioning instead of by conscious choice. For example, no one chooses to be an alcoholic, but one can become habituated to alcohol. Just as one can acquire alcoholic desires (by repeatedly becoming intoxicated) without consciously choosing them, so one may acquire homosexual desires (by engaging in homosexual fantasies or behavior) without consciously choosing them.
Since sexual desire is subject to a high degree of cognitive conditioning in humans (there is no biological reason why we find certain scents, forms of dress sexually stimulating), it would be most unusual if homosexual desires were not subject to a similar degree of cognitive conditioning.
Even if there is a genetic predisposition toward homosexuality (and studies on this point are inconclusive), the behavior remains unnatural because homosexuality is still not part of the natural design of humanity. It does not make homosexual behavior acceptable; other behaviors are not rendered acceptable simply because there may be a genetic predisposition toward them.
For example, scientific studies suggest some people are born with a hereditary disposition to alcoholism, but no one would argue someone ought to fulfill these inborn urges by becoming an alcoholic. Alcoholism is not an acceptable “lifestyle” any more than homosexuality is.

Jerome Weeks accepts buyout

LAST WEEK, Jerome Weeks accepted a buyout offer from The Dallas Morning News beginning Sept 15, rather than work in a severely reduced arts section. Staff employees were told they could write a farewell column but it would have to be OK’d by management first. At any rate, Jerome’s farewell column was refused, and thus far no farewell column from any of the 111 people leaving the paper has appeared.
He wants to read for fun again and for pleasure. It’s a great column. Click to read what he wrote.