Archives For culture

There Is No Such Thing as a “Seeker”

June 11, 2012 — 44 Comments

What are so-called “seekers” actually seeking?

You know, those seekers that we talk about so much.  Whole churches can be seeker sensitive, or seeker driven, or seeker centered, depending on how aggressively they want to seek seekers.  That was a weird sentence.

When churches decide they want to appeal to seekers, it drives them to try all kinds of ploys and tricks to gain and keep their attention.  But does anyone ever ask what it is that seekers are actually seeking?

I haven’t heard one person ask that question.

And that very fact may mean that churches across the country are at best, wasting their time, or worse, trying to lure the wrong seekers.

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In culture, ministry, pastors
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Why Privacy is Overrated

June 6, 2012 — 27 Comments

Privacy is overrated.

Just a few moments ago, again, I saw a familiar update in my Facebook timeline.  In read:

“Facebook is now a publicly traded company!!!!  That means anyone on the internet can use any of your status updates or photos without your permission!!! Blargh!!!  You do not have my permission to invade my privacy, internet!!!!1″

Right.  Then I clicked “block user.”

This sort of thing pops up pretty frequently, every time people get a whiff of some change on Facebook, but now that Facebook is on the stock market, it adds a new, scary element to the whole crazy idea that someone’s going to steal your identity…via Facebook.

And since this is so inane that it just has to stop, I’m going to clear this up right now.

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In culture
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Everything Has Strings Attached

May 30, 2012 — 31 Comments

“You can’t tell me what to do.”

Thousands of teenagers all over the world are saying that phrase to their parents right now.

And it’s that phrase, or something like it that pretty much makes America what it is today.  Did you know Thomas Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence included this quotation:

“Yo, Brits.  This is America, and we do what we want.  So get off our jock.”

This original patriotic spirit of independence still runs thick through our plaque-encrusted veins, and you can usually count on someone exercising their first amendment right to gripe and moan whenever someone tells them what to do.

My friend, David, sent me this story, where dozens of employees at a Christian university resigned over a “lifestyle contract.”

So, are these brave men and women, sacrificing their own welfare to make a statement true patriots…or just complete idiots?

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In America, culture, work
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Let Me Insult You Before You Buy My Product

May 23, 2012 — 21 Comments

It’s a good thing I don’t watch a lot of television.

It’s not that I don’t like television.  It’s just a good thing I spend most of my TV time on Netflix streaming.

Because if there’s one thing that infuriates me, makes me want to hurl the remote at the screen, makes me lose faith in humanity, it’s the commercials.

I get it.  We need advertising.  But if I wanted you to give me money, would I do it by mocking, insulting, and threatening you?  No.  But advertisers do it every day.  Apparently, it works.

Here’s my top four ways advertisers insult all of us.  If you immunize yourself against these four, there won’t be too many ads left for you to pay attention to!

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In culture
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Are You Rich, White, Suburban Mom Enough?

May 18, 2012 — 36 Comments

Okay, chances are high that you’ve seen the magazine cover.  It doesn’t even need to be referenced.

First of all, if that kid is just under four, then it must prove that milk does a body good.  That kid looks ready to deploy to Afghanistan…or at least go to the fridge and pour his own dang glass of milk.

Second, the picture did exactly what the people behind it wanted.  It got people talking.

And third, most people picked up on how ludicrous it is to ask women everywhere if they are “mom enough” to do what this woman does.

But I think it goes deeper than that.  The cover is downright hateful to the hardest working moms out there, and ironically anti-feminist in the modern sense of the word.

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In culture, Parents
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Too Epic to Fail

May 16, 2012 — 16 Comments

Are you rooting for someone to fail?

Admit it, you are.

That’s not very nice of you.

But we all do it.  We like to think that we all like stories of success.  But just as often, we enjoy a good story of failure.  The internet thrives on fails.  And maybe other people epic fails of themselves makes us feel a bit better about ourselves.  We root for failure when we feel people deserve it.

And the bigger you get, the more fans and customers and money you have, the more people want to see you go down in flames.  Success becomes your own worst PR.

I’ve been watching Celebrity Apprentice the last couple of months, and if you’re anything like me, you finally got your wish last Sunday when the insufferably egotistical, former sorority queen, long-overdue-to-fail-because-she’s-so-untalented-she-had-to-pose-for-Playboy-to-launch-her-music-career Aubrey O’Day was fired.   Best episode ever.

Stick around and succeed long enough, and people will begin to hate you, no matter what.

So, here’s my list of the top epic failures that everyone is rooting for…if only their legions of fans would get out of the way.

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In culture
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