Owner: Compassion in Politics URL:http://compassioninpolitics.wordpress.com/ Join Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2007 08:56:22 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Christianity, Culture, Media and the Journey of a Christian male trying to navigate it all. Site statistics:Click here
Detroit labeled most dangerous city by CQ Researcher 2007-11-19 05:07:48 According to Progressive News Daily:
The report looked at 378 cities with at least 75,000 people based on per-capita rates for homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft. Each crime category was considered separately and weighted based on its seriousness, CQ Press said.
The top ten list of most dangerous
cities in America included:
CITY, STATE & POPULATION
1 Detroit
, MI 884,462
2 St. Louis, MO 346,879
3 Flint, MI 118,256
4 Oakland, CA 398,834
5 Camden, NJ 80,071
6 Birmingham, AL 233,577
7 North Charleston, SC 87,655
8 Memphis, TN 680,828
9 Richmond, CA 103,106
10 Cleveland, OH 452,759
The top ten list of America’s least dangerous cities were as follows:
1. Brick, N.J.
2. Amherst, N.Y.
3. Mission Viejo, Calif.
4. Newton, Mass.
5. Troy, Mich.
6. Colonie, N.Y.
7. Irvine, Calif.
8. Cary, N.C.
9. Greece, N.Y.
10. Coral Springs, Fla.
Local cities on the least dangerous cities in America include:
166. Murfreesboro, Tenn.
184. Clarksville, Tenn.
297 Read more:Researcher
Washing Osama’s Feet 2007-11-16 14:19:45
Pastor and author says:
What does this say about how many American Christians envision Jesus? Obviously, the protesters believe that Jesus would not wash Osama
Bin Laden’s feet. But Jesus died “not only for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world” (I Jn 2:2) — and this obviously includes Osama. So if Jesus died for Osama, how are we to imagine him being unwilling to wash his feet?
What the protest reveals is that many Christians have tragically allowed their patriotism to co-opt their faith. They have allowed their American citizenship to take priority over their Kingdom citizenship despite the New Testament’s instruction for disciples to consider themselves “foreigners” and “exiles” wherever they happen to live (Heb. 11:13; I Pet 1:17, 2:11) and to consider their real citizenship “in heaven” (Phil 3:20).
Even if you don’t agree with the premises of his Biblical based rationale, it suggests a different way to lo
Church 2.0, Church Relevance, and Link love from Rob Singleton! 2007-11-16 03:38:12 I helped pastor Rob Singleton in an effort to increase his readership, and he showed me some link love. I though I should tell you, he’s also doing some innovative things with Utterz. The Utterz frenzy is really spreading like gangbusters, because a trucker who blogs that reads Rob’s blog also joined the Utterz community. In even bigger cultural issue, he’s taking up Church
Relevance and cultural engagement as well.
The tragedy of Ethiopia and Shaun Groves amazing video narrative that beautifully captures it 2007-11-16 01:47:48 This video
pierces through the core of my being…Shaun
does a great job of telling a narrative. Anne Jackson speaks with even more passion:
i am stopped dead in my tracks, my brain locks up, my heart crumples and i thank god for shaun and for reminders like these.
The folks that do that kind of work have compassion that I can only talk about. If you want to hear more of the story, check out his YouTube video channel here.
Wow! Thoughts? How does the video make you feel? Doesn’t he do a great job?
Read more:Ethiopia
6 Flaws in Evolution: The PBS Special on the Evolution Contraversy | A Metaphor for the Radical Misteps of Mass Media 2007-11-13 20:33:09
I’m glad that PBS took the time to address the ongoing political contraversy of evolution vs. intelligent design. Unfortunately, it took until minute 28 of a two hour special until I heard an intelligent argument either way (note: argument 2 is found at 42 minutes if one isolated set of fossils is an argument) As a show thats presented as somehow resolving or addressing the issue–this comes up remarkably short. While I the respect folks that produced the documentary and that uphold a robust (or even radical) version of evolution, I think its scientific case as a creation story is intellectually dishonest and dubious. But I hope a more informed national discussion about the issue will yield some helpful intellectual strides.
Intitially, they put gravity in the same category as evolution. (Are you kidding me?) The evidence for or falsifisability of evolution is hardly the level of what gravity is.
Second, they fail to get at the nuance–the third option. In one h Read more:Evolution
, Metaphor
, Radical
, Special
Walking in Wisdom… 2007-11-13 02:50:12 One of the lessons that stuck with me over the years is the call of wisdom. (thank you God and Andy Stanley) And over the last two or three days its been rattling around in my head. While certainly, I’ve at times fallen short of making wise decisions, (certainly more times than I would like to admit) wisdom serves as a lighthouse amongst the occasional craziness of life. And wisdom to me seems to be one of the key reasons the way of the cross makes so much more sense than the alternatives. That one simple word speaks volumes about how the getting caugh up in chasing worldliness or fleshly temptation is a dead end. In my personal experience, Godly wisdom again and again has proven to be the absolute best course of action.
Surprisingly enough, as I was coming home this evening, after watching a little blockbuster with my friend Lisa, I heard David Crowder on the radio quote from Ecclesiastes 2:13:
13 I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness.
In Read more:hellip
, Walking
, Wisdom
Blogging, online marketing, and social networking consulting for FREE. 2007-11-04 20:50:39
Got ideas? Or would you like to “drop some knowledge?”
I’m passionate about blogging, communication, and the democratization of media. In an effort to Pay it Forward, I’m offering my blog, social networking
, and social media consulting services free of charge for the week of November 4th through November 17th, 2007 on a first come first serve basis.
Would you like to know…
• why blogs are helpful in telling your story?
• how to set up a blog?
• how blogs can help you connect with your audience?
• the advantages and disadvantages of blogging?
• which blogging platform is best for you?
• what rss is?
• how to maximize your blogs chances in search engines?
• how to take advantage of blogs or social networking?
• how to use the web to express yourself or your skills to the world?
While this is primarily aimed at small businesses, non-profit organizations, and artists, opening it up to anyone and everyone. So if you sell social justice or sell re Read more:Blogging
, online
Love is cooking breakfast… 2007-11-03 17:04:54
This is the tail end(s) of a breakfast my grandmother cooked me. Yum! The peace preserves from the Loveless Cafe were an extra-bonus. But the love that made it, was the extra proverbial icing. Its a small demonstration of how simple giving and showing love is. And small acts forward can make each consequent ones easier and more of a seemless pattern of life.
In other news, I’m going to try to start posting more personal pictures. I’m going to shoot for one a day which has some message or meaning–which I’m jazzed about. I hope that will help show a little bit more of who I am and what I’m about.
Thanks Grandma,
Love Nathan.
For more information about how you can do your part and help others you can go to Acts of Kindness or Help Others. In fact, help others has a group of volunteers that will help you think of an idea about how to help. Of course the folks at Cool People Care are very helpful too. Do you know of others?
Read more:cooking
, hellip
Happy Thanksgiving!!! 2007-11-22 10:28:58
Have a happy thanksgiving. Hope you have amazing weather like we’re being treated with in Nashville. This passage from Psalms seems to capture some of the essense of gratitude and thanksgiving:
Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad;
let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof.
Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein:
then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice
— Psalms 96.11-12
thanks to Gifted Gourmet for flickr photo.
Read more:Happy
, Thanksgiving
Poetry 2007-11-21 10:07:29
Thoughts? (h/t to Daley Hake blogger and photographer)
PS. His performance builds in intensity, so you have to watch it all the way through to feel the full punch of the poem.
Read more:Poetry
Fast Company on creativity 2007-11-29 11:49:12
Be a cross-polinator (mix with people in other industries and with other passion) and disturb your boundaries. Interesting insight on creativity:
“For the last 20 years,” Allison Hope Weiner wrote in the Times, “Mr. Grazer has met each week with a person who is an expert in science, medicine, politics, fashion, religion - anything other than entertainment.” A get-together with trial lawyers inspired Liar, Liar, a comedy about a lawyer afflicted with truth-telling. An encounter with a former F.B.I. agent led to the new Fox series The F.B.I.
“I want to do things that have a better chance of being thought of as original,” Grazer said. “I do everything I can to disrupt my comfort zone.”
Also, check out Skellie’s Top 20 Ways to Come Up With Amazing Ideas.
(image credit: BoraBora)
Global/Local Cultures and Communities | The rise of the local and hyperlocal communities online 2007-11-29 09:40:48 (image credit: Yelp)
Cultural Shift:
Beyond the amazing ingenuity of Meetup and Craiglist lies a growing cornucopia of robust online
communities that tap into and cultivate local and hyperlocal issues (I worry that the definition only includes media as opposed to everything hyperlocal. Although thats not surpising given that Jeff Jarvis is who the story goes coined the term hyperlocal). This cultural change is described by Alexander Schellong on the Complexity and Social Networks blog at Harvard:
The internet made us more powerful as well as making us more transparent. We have access to information anytime, anyplace. We can find, motivate or join like minded people to create something or influence a third party. We also leave our trails on blogs, social networking platforms, newsgroups or buying online. Governments and citizens alike can benefit from this trend.
Five Helpful Social Media Platforms for Connecting to Local and Hyperlocal Communities: My fav Read more:Global
My experience live blogging the CNN/YouTube Debates 2007-11-28 22:46:04
Blogging about Liveblogging…
I initially started the evening liveblogging on Twitter, but after hearing Baratunde suggest a move to Tech President, I thought I would check it out. You can find my take on the CNN
/YouTube
debates here.
Wow! Coverit Live was very cool. It was the real deal Holyfield. I think around 57 people in the chat room at a time with a total of around 120 over the evening. Techpresident with the help of Meebo/Coverit Live hosted a great chat (with about 5-15 second delay to ensure a PG-13 experience
. I actually have no idea what the criteria was used and no censored comments.) All seemed generally pleased with the experience. It was not unlike my experience with Campfire. I will say I liked the campfire experience better, because it was more real time. However, given that Tech President had some small monicrum of party diversity–that added significantly to the exchange. The Tech President Meebo/CoveritLive setup didn’t even require a l
And the winners of the Republican CNN/YouTube Debates were?…Survey Says…. 2007-11-28 21:56:53 Winners v. Losers
Winners-Huckabee was en fuego. McCain performed almost as well. Universally 99.9% of the commentary supported Huckabee as the leader.
The Murky and Muddy Middle-Thompson’s last ditch effort was lack luster and according to a CNN
commentator “lost without his cue cards.” His commercial didn’t stand on his principles and policy choices, and instead looked like a rabid attack dog (playing bad soundbite games) next to more presidential candidates.
Losers-Rudy v. Romney seemed a bit like a cat fight as the shots were fired back and fourth. Ron Paul was lackluster and didn’t get enough coverage. Tancredo wasn’t exactly spectacular either.
Key National Issues Left Off the Debate Agenda:
From The Tech President chat:
Micah also sez: and i’m surprised that CNN didn’t include any questions on health care, jobs, the environment, the falling dollar, outsourcing, trade, or anywhere but Iraq.
Did the CNN Debates Honor the You Read more:hellip
, Republican
, Survey Says
, YouTube
I plan on live twittering/live micro-blogging the debate this evening… 2007-11-28 16:51:37 Feel free to check it my micro
-blogging of the YouTube Republican debates on Twitter. Feel free to stop by, check it out, follow me, or add into the flow of political conversation on Twitter.
UPDATE: I’ve moved to the live discussion on Tech President.
Read more:evening
, hellip
Revolution Now: Social media meets nonprofits 2007-11-28 15:54:19
According to a recent study on new media
from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 75% of non-profits are using some form of social media (blogging, social networking, etc):
Nora Barnes and Eric Mattson at U Mass Dartmouth surveyed the 200 largest nonprofits
and found that they are adopting social media at a much faster pace than the business world, with 75 percent using some form of social media like blogs, social networking sites, podcasts, wikis or other formats. Makes a lot of sense, given that these tools are mostly free or low-cost, and yet so effective.
Alternatively, organizations that are staying away or silent are having a conversation something like this one way dinner conversation:
It seems to me that churches, particularly with active youth groups and/or members in the 20-40 age range are moving in this direction too. Churches like Lifechurch.TV and Granger Community Church are certainly at the leading edge of alot of this change although others are experimen Read more:Social
Rob Bell “Love Wins” 2007-12-06 16:31:38 I read this passage scribed by Rob Bell in &ldquo
;Velvet Elvis&rdquo
; last night before class at church:
Could there be a more basic verse? Love your neighbor as yourself.
Who could possibly have any sort of problem with this verse?
And how could someone mess this up?
Would could be complicated about loving your neighbor?
Even people who don’t believe in God and don’t read the Bible would say that loving your neighbor is a good thing to do.
A couple of questions this verse raises: How do we live this verse out? What does it mean to love? What isn’t love? Who decides what is love and what isn’t love?
And what about your neighbor? Who is your neighbor? Is your neighbor only the person next door, or is it anyone you have contact with? Or is it every single human being on the face of the planet?
And what happens if one person’s definition of love and another person’s definition differ? Who is right? Who is wrong? Who decides who is right
Becky Garrison pointed out something rather interesting about Dawkins and Lee Strobel 2007-12-06 15:46:43 Prolific author BeckyGarrison
pointed this out in the comments of my post which criticized PBS documentary on the evolution and intelligent design debate:
When I penned “The New Atheist Crusaders and Their Unholy Grail,” I freely confessed I was a satirist not a scientist. Lee Strobel may be a best selling author but he is not a scientist and has a penchant for quoting from some very unreliable creationist journals.
In my research, I came across books penned by these scientists that I would recommend:
“Finding Darwin’s God” by Keith Miller
“The Language of God” by Francis S. Collins
“The Dawkins
Delusion?” by Alister McGrath
“Evolution and Christian Faith” by Joan Roughgarden
For more information about the Creation v. Evolution debate you can go here.
Any particular argument for intelligent design or evolution make the most sense?
Read more:interesting
, something
What can Christians do about those that radically besmerch our passions, lives, and commitments? 2007-12-06 14:18:00 This showed up in the comments of McLaren’s post and was re-posted by Zach Exley at Revolution in Jesusland:
Catholic priests have been outed by name, rightfully so. You should take a page from Bob Somerby’s book and use names….names of the Evangelicals who back unjust wars; John Hagee, the late Jerry Falwell, etc. ? Prosperity Preachers like Benny Hinn, Randy and Paula White, Creflo Dollar, etc.? If the cretins who worked themselves into high profile positions in the Evangelical community and who use their influence to support issues harmful to their flock aren’t outed for what they are, they will continue being cretins.”
Thoughts? What can be done to say “this isn’t Christianity” or at a minimum “this isn’t my brand of Christianity?” (A real fervor of that cries our “not in my name and not with my blood” or something more subtle?)
Read more:Christians
Brian McLarens message to Atheists and Dawkins followers 2007-12-06 14:06:00 McLaren suggests at TPM Cafe:
On the one hand, our religions can fan the flames of holy-war narratives –whether expressed in terms of terrorism or counter-terrorism, jihad or crusade. On the other, our religions can inspire us with framing stories of reconciliation and peace. On the one hand, our religions can foment stories of scapegoating and vilification, but on the other, they can inspire us toward compassion and understanding through stories of reconciliation and grace.
Instead of baptizing greed and self-interest, our faith communities can teach us stories which promote the common good, inspiring us to creatively pursue sustainability both environmentally and socially. Instead of sanctifying the consumerism that reduces everything to a financial “resource,” our faith communities can teach us stories that inspire true reverence for the planet and all it contains – opening our eyes to the signature of God in the hawk soaring among the mountains, the school of minnows flashi Read more:Atheists
, Brian
, Dawkins
Steven Colbert on “Speaking Truth to Power” 2007-12-06 13:03:25
I also found this intriguing…..
StumbleUpon did a recent update and I ran across these fun designs while doing a flickr stumble with Firefox. I’m now a much bigger fan of using StumbleUpon to navigate the web. (image credit: stricklin family and counterclockwise)
Read more:Colbert
, ldquo
, rdquo
, Speaking
, Steven
, Truth
Funny video from YouTube: We didn’t start the bubble 2007-12-05 16:04:42 Mirroring some of the line of thought in my earlier post today, this video
pokes some fun at the hype some of Web 2.0 startups:
(h/t to Chris Abraham at Marketing Conversation)
Thoughts?
Read more:Funny
, YouTube
Top level SEO and Google Payperclick tip for nonprofits for Free 2007-12-05 13:03:26 One very cool SEO
and Payperclick tip for non-profits:
Paid listings are also available for free. Similar to Public Service Announcements provided by television, radio, and print media, the Google
Grants program provides free Adwords advertising to qualified 501C3 nonprofits
(see http://www.google.com/grants/.) Yahoo has a similar program for Site Match.
Want to SEO Your Website So People Can Find You Amongst Millions of Websites? SEO Book has this great diagram of SEO made easy so that organizations can maximize their own SEO. Or do you want to know who to pay attention to? The Top SEO blogs are listed from the most respected and most read at the top to the bottom.
Read more:level
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