“Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don’t. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever.”
- Philip Andrew Adams
(One of my all-time favorites.)
It’s a little fickle with Word Press (can’t figure out how to activate the main text field) and my fingers are proving a little untrained on the keypad, but other than that it is one of the sweetest little pieces of gadgetry I have ever owned.
I commented on how lame I thought this was in December, but with it appearing on the front page of the Albuquerque Journal this morning, I can’t help but touch on it again. Sooooo….
Question.
Am I the only one not drinking the kool-aid? Does anyone else (especially any fellow Christians) see anything wrong with this approach? It’s littered with deadly moralization, dozens of causal fallacies and reeks of shameless self promotion. (Wow, I think I just inadvertently summed up American Evangelicalism. Good job, Brandon. By the way, I do like referring to myself in the third person from time to time.)
Anyway, my favorite line from the newspaper article is “We don’t think the Internet was created for pornography. The pornographers have intruded and used it for evil. Skip wants to reclaim the Internet.” HAHAHAHAHAHA! Yeah, because your only two choices on the Internet are porn and this guy named Skip.
Unintentionally hilarious.
Oh, yeah, and because I forgot that external influences are what corrupt and defile me. Guess I had better stop writing and add a line to my “do’s and dont’s” list. Or…..
I could just read this.
(Hint, hint, maybe some of you “anti-secular,” “anti-culture” mega church pastors should read it too. Might help straighten your wacked theology out just a smidge. Actually, come to think of it, you shouldn’t “maybe” read it, you should most seriously and most definitely read it. It’s just a click away and it might help change your life.)
When will we realize as a church that this approach is so overly tired, so contrived and so just-plain-dumb? Please? Anyone?
It is times like this that I find all the more comfort in biblically accurate, God-centered, Christ-exalting theology from which words such as these are penned:
“Christ died and rose again to forgive the treason of our souls, which have turned from savoring God to savoring self. In the cross of Christ, God rescues us from the house of mirrors and leads us out to the mountains and canyons of his majesty. Nothing satisfies us – or magnifies him – more.”
Taken from here, although it was originally published in the Dallas Morning News.
Concept we put together for new web site pitch to the New Mexico Oil & Gas Association.
…a weaker dollar! Ben Bernake, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! To paraphrase a quote from Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman, “money is far too important of a matter to leave in the hands of Central Bankers.” Amen to that. Bernake, stop artificially propping the economy up by printing more money and let the market work itself out. Seriously, unbelievable.
Newsweek has an interesting mini-feature questioning the efficacy of shock ad tactics. AdRant founder Steve Hall told Newsweek these ads are “like a sledgehammer to the face.”
Thoughts?
Total waste of time, but kind of fun. The Be Kind Rewind movie web site is high on the unique scale and has some fun things to do. Check it out if you get a chance.
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you probably know that I’ve come to be a big Ron Paul fan. However, I must admit, from a branding perspective, I don’t remember a presidential candidate who has done a better job than Barack Obama. His purveyance of hope and change is not only compelling in speeches but it permeates all of his marketing materials, not least of which is his website. The “glowing mist” along with his portrait and strategic placement of key messages is very well done. The whole Obama experience conveys hope, which as an innate human desire, naturally attracts people to the feel good message.
The problem, of course, as I’ve heard opponents protest, is that although the message is clear, it is at the same time very vague and mysterious. I tend to agree with this assessment, but it is difficult to deny this campaigns branding prowess.
…move down under, I’m living here. At least I’d want to.