mbjones

• Interested in creating a better internet experience, and don’t mind getting your hands “dirty” (coding!) then check out this hosts file that auto blocks tons of adware, spyware and otherwise malicious stuff.

• Many years ago Calvin & Hobbes explained the Occupy Wall Street movement to us. Surprisingly prescient? Perhaps…

• Speaking of OWS, Andrew Sullivan links to a talk on what inequality does to a society.

• There are some odd tumblr’s out there, but few are as odd and funny, as this one: Teenage Mutant Ninja Noses.

• J Lee Grady, an editor of Charisma Magazine writes on the importance of a charismatic reformation. This is an important read, and should be deeply considered. Highlights:

1. Let’s reform our theology. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He is God and He is holy. He is not an “it.” He is not a blob, a force, or an innate power. We must stop manipulating Him, commanding Him and throwing Him around.

2. Let’s return to the Bible. The Word of God is the foundation for the Christian experience. Any dramatic experience, no matter how spiritual it seems, must be tested by the Word and the Holy Spirit’s discernment.

7. No more Lone Rangers. Those who claim to be ministers of God—whether they are traveling evangelists, local pastors or heads of ministries—must be accountable to other leaders.

9. Stop faking the anointing. God is God, and He does not need our “help” to manifest Himself. That means we don’t sprinkle glitter on ourselves to suggest God’s glory is with us, hide fake jewels on the floor to prove we are anointed or pull chicken feathers out of our sleeves to pretend angels are in the room.

15. Let’s make the main thing the main thing. The purpose of the Holy Spirit’s anointing is to empower us to reach others. We are at a crossroads today: Either we continue off-course, entertained by our charismatic sideshows, or we throw ourselves into evangelism, church planting, missions, discipleship, and compassionate ministry that helps the poor and fights injustice. Churches that embrace this New Reformation will focus on God’s priorities.

The whole thing is worth a read, especially as its written by an insider. Many within protestant circles have been either (a) severely hurt by the things Grady speaks to or (b) severely disillusioned by the show; in these cases, rather than walking firmly in the power of God it’s something denied or rationalized away.

• Matt Wiebe on The God Shaped Hole and consumerist culture. Also worth some thought…

• Found this to be a helpful post on eating well in the midst of poverty. There are simple things to do that go miles.

• eBible.com is under new ownership, and launched a new version. It would seem they are looking to compete with YouVersion.

• Neoliberal economic theory, and it’s grip on American Politics is something I’ve found disturbing over the past few years. This is a pretty good article on it (and some of the reasons why I’m not much of a fan).

• In the web-startup-world, Lanbito appears to be an interesting competitor to Wufoo. Like the pricing, but don’t yet like the feature list. Add some things, and I’d consider migrating over.

• If you are on facebook, then you’ve at least heard tell of a the forthcoming changes. Here’s a good round up of what to expect. It doesn’t appear that they are changing pages much yet, just profiles (this is important if you are managing several).

Well this seems like a good enough roundup for now. Hopefully you can find some good reading material there!

• The 19th Annual Wheaton Theology Conference was entitled Jesus, Paul and the People of God: A Theological Dialogue with NT Wright and they just posted their audio. It looks like it’s worth checking out (it’ll probably take me at least a week to finish downloading though).

• One of the organizations we’ve helped with briefly recently rescued 5 young women from trafficking. That’s something to be thankful for. And keep praying that the bonds of slavery would be broken.

• This story is pretty crazy. It seems Dr. Ergun Caner has fabricated much of his life’s story for business reasons, presumably. He’s the president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. So far there hasn’t been much sign of repentance; hopefully it’s forthcoming. It’s Mike Warnke all over again.

• And this is a thoughtful article on Muslim followers of Jesus that seeks to move beyond some of the rhetoric. This followup written by a Muslim follower of Jesus is a must read too.

• In the sphere of “just plain weird and fascinating,” there is apparently an entire deserted underground city beneath Beijing.

• In the political sphere of things, did you know that for each Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorist killed by US drones in Pakistan, 140 innocents are killed? I don’t see that as being a worthy cost on any level. Blame the anabaptist in me.

• In other political news, there is much discussion around the interwebs about the newest Arizona law that attempts to curb the tide of illegal immigration. It seems though to be incredibly misguided and those opposing seem to think it’s only going to increase the tide of racial profiling. Turns out those folks where right. The profiling has begun. Hopefully they go back on this law and think of ways that aren’t going to border on obscene to curb illegal immigration…

• And finally, Facebook is kind of becoming a scary beast…

Another side to the health care debate. One that probably should be obvious but for some reason isn’t.

Scot McKnight, in response to Glenn Beck & Jerry Falwell, JR..

A brilliant Sri Lankan pastor on responsibility.

A new free alternative to Basecamp opened yesterday: Freedcamp — Project Management made free and easy.

Back in politics, I found this report from the NY Times interesting: Basically, the tea party crowds are intentionally ignoring divisive social issues (think homosexuality/abortion/etc) in favor of collecting numbers.

And even more interesting, this note on banks and economics. Basically, a Citibank Investment Advisory Letter from ‘06 referred to our economy as a “plutonomy”. In it they detail that “the rich take an increasing share of income and wealth over the last 20 years, to the extent that the rich now dominate income, wealth, and spending in these countries.” “In total, the top 20% accounted for 68% of total income; the bottom 40%, for just 9%.” And even better:

The writers of this letter point out that in other places, such as Japan and much of Western Europe, the rich were confined to pretty much the much the same share they had in the 80’s, but in the plutonomies, such as the US, the “capitalists benefit disproportionately from globalization and the productivity boom, at the expense of labor.” In other words, the imbalance is not necessary, but a creation of particular forces within the plutonomies.

Switching gears again, here is a hope filled article about potential angelic visitors. This is far and away one of my favorite blogs written by someone I don’t know. Almost everything he writes is great (I’ve linked to quite a few of his posts).

Links! At least a couple…

• This is an thought provoking article worth reading and digesting. Won’t be everyone’s cup of tea though. If time allows at some point I might interact with it more.

• In Zimbabwe, they found a lost tribe of Jewish people. The Lemba genetically are ancestors, and their priestly clan has the same genetic marker as the Jewish priestly clan. Crazy (and cool)!

• This is one to keep in mind — Are there more earthquakes than there used to be? The quick answer: No.

The frequency of major earthquakes has remained fairly constant throughout recorded history. Since 1900, there have been approximately 18 earthquakes of 7.0 or greater magnitude per year. (One usually crosses the 8.0 barrier.) There are no data suggesting an upward trend in that rate. Seismologists are detecting more and more smaller quakes, but that phenomenon can be attributed to the quality and quantity of detection devices: Since 1931, the number of seismological stations worldwide has increased from 350 to more than 8,000.

• Apparently lots of folks think internet access is a right we are all entitled to. How bout we get “food in the belly” taken care of first, and then maybe decent quality health care that perhaps keeps your baby from dying of things like malaria, and then perhaps after a few other things then maybe — MAYBE — we can move on to internet access.

• You may or may not have noticed that probably a majority of my “news” articles come from the BBC website. It’s because I don’t like the American news outlets. There is one in particular though that generally causes my blood pressure to rise (Fox) and it’s because of commentators like Glenn Beck who, within the past couple of weeks, told viewers to “look for the words ‘social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!” I’d probably say the opposite “look for the words ‘social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church web site. If you don’t find them, run as fast as you can because they obviously are ignoring a large part of scripture (the more than 2000 verses addressing it) and Jesus.” It’s why my wife and I are partnering with an organization that firmly believes that the Gospel is holistically transformative and why we are working with the world’s poor (they truly are special in God’s heart and eye) and why, for example, this week I’ll begin to teach people how they can budget and save and such even whilst living on very little and why we one day hope to offer job skill training as an integral part of our ministry. I’m ashamed that Christians let someone like Glenn Beck (who isn’t a Christian and doesn’t hold to the supremacy of the Bible in one’s life) speak for them in such a haphazard manner. Here’s to social and economic justice.

Links! It’s been awhile, but here are some for your enjoyment.

Bill Faris, director of a network of Vineyard house churches, writes about Charismatic boons and busts, here and here. Some choice examples:

Bust: …as a movement, money, wealth and “giving” have been treated in ways that range from somewhat unbalanced to the truly revolting.

Boon: Empowering Women in ministry.

Boon: A quantum leap in the theology of the Holy Spirit.

Bust: A quantum leap in bad theology of the Holy Spirit…that is not grounded solidly in Scripture…that flippantlay exploits the Spirit, His gifts and His power…that turns the Third Person of the Godhead into a Bartender.

Bust: Personality cults.

Bust: The Prophetic Movement…their endless emphasis on God’s “next big thing” is pretty much a distraction from our timeless call to simply and consistently follow Jesus as His disciples — proclaiming His word and doing His works until He returns.

Read the whole thing — he fleshes all of that out and its good stuff.

Here’s one to pay attention to and consider: Rolling Stone on how wall street is recreating the conditions that led to the first crash. I’m not a fan of the bailouts or the seemingly all powerful banking industry though.

The Tall Skinny Kiwi writes about a book I’m looking forward to reading: The Meeting of the Waters.

We pretend we are Christians.

And we’ll leave it at that for the time being. Hopefully you’ve found some interesting reading mixed in there. I’ll do more when I have another grouping of links to share. Until then…

• An interview with Bill Watterson. He created Calvin and Hobbes (my favorite comic strip — I’m trying to figure out how to take some of the books to Africa) and this is the first interview with him in 15 years.

• A good friend, whom I’ve gone to Africa with twice, writes about the Prodigal Son with a mind for spiritual justice, and not just worldly justice.

• A favorite band of mine, Midlake, has a new CD out today. Stream it for free here.

• Speaking of Midlake, here is a link to download their Denton Session. Need new music? Check it out. Free and legit.

• In more bizarro news, it seems that the Somali pirates fashion themselves as modern day Robin Hoods. For one — they funnel a lot of resources back into their incredibly poor communities and two — they are smuggling in aid to Haiti. I don’t recommend any one get into pirating though; I can’t condone armed robbery/hijacking/kidnapping as a modern valid job.

Another day, and some more links.

• To start off this one, here is an article dealing with aid in disaster situations and when it is appropriate for us to go. While there are certainly exceptions to every rule, it does offer some good food for thought (including the fact that local people are well equipped to do a lot of the legwork and that it often acts as a healing agent for them to be involved).

• Speaking of Haiti articles, here is a CRAZY one! You may or may not recall Chuck Baldwin as the Constitution Party candidate for president. I definitely wasn’t impressed then, and I’m even less impressed now. In the article, he questions the veracity of the quake (even if he fails to believe it, my brother felt it on the other side of the island). And why? Among other things:

I am personally convinced that certain members of the Bush and Clinton families have been involved in the international smuggling of illicit drugs for decades.

• I was glad to see that there were conservatives upset over the big supreme court ruling a week and a half ago.

With the Citizens United ruling, the court revealed the depth of its contempt for judicial restraint, original intent, and deference to the legislature. The ruling is nothing short of a coup, a fundamental change in the structure of the America polity. It will work not only to the defeat of democracy, but to the destruction of what’s left of the small businessman. From this day forward, no one will hold office who does not have the approval of the corporations, no small business will exist save by their sufferance.

• Speaking of big business and corporations, a documentary recommended to me by Sam D. called The Corporation is now on Hulu. I’ve watched the first 3rd and its good so far and I hope to finish it soon.

And now for some “revival warnings”; Todd Bentley is back in the game. If you don’t remember that name, he was the instigator of the Lakeland fiasco a year and a half ago. It crashed and burned when it came to light that he was having an affair with an intern. After the revival ended, he divorced his wife and married the mistress. Oh and no actual healings or other signs could be found true. World Magazine attempted to verify but everything came back as “not true/not really healed/currently dead.” There are some discerning people within the charismatic world and we’d do well to at least consider their words:

• Dan from Cerulean Sanctum shares a warning that details some occultic practices.

• Lee Grady responds to the aftermath of the Lakeland fiasco.

• Grady also laments the loss of annointing in the American Church; speaking as an insider, his words are especially meaningful (if you were unaware, he has for many years been an editor of Charisma Magazine).

• Switching gears yet again, a minister from The Journey, Adam Schuster, just started a new nonprofit called Share the Sound that seeks to provide new or as-good-as-new sound equipment to ministries and missions across the world that don’t have access to it.

• Neil Cole with a theology of SAFE vs a theology of DEATH. You can probably guess which one I’m for.

Self-preservation = our mission
Avoidance of the world and risk = wisdom
Financial security = responsible faith
Education = maturity

Die daily to who we are
Empowerment of others (not self) is our life
Acceptance of risk is normative
Theology is not just knowledge, but practice
Hold tight to Christ with an open hand for everything else.

I find I collect links fast now that I’m out of a day job. So — if you are bored and looking for some reading material — check some of these out!

• Here’s an article where Greg Boyd tells some Mennonites to “Go to hell!”:

I taught that, while Mennonites have traditionally tended to be preoccupied with keeping hell out of their communities and have thus tended to be a bit reclusive, Jesus is calling them (and all of us) to boldly take the Gospel into the world and aggressively storm the gates of hell (that is, areas that are under the dominion of Satan rather than God). And so, it just seemed appropriate to conclude this section of my talk by telling them to “Go to Hell!” It seemed they appreciate it!

I like Greg Boyd a lot. As I began discovering the anabaptist roots God planted within me, his work was able to help me navigate new territory. One particular tension I had was the anabaptist/mennonite tendency toward separation and seclusion; I didn’t see it at all as appropriate for a people on mission and Greg Boyd succinctly says why.

• David Fitch offers an interesting MLK Jr Day reflection.

And two close out another link post, two aged-yet-still-delightful Shane Claiborne posts:

• Shane writes in Esquire magazine:

I have a friend in the UK who talks about “dirty theology” — that we have a God who is always using dirt to bring life and healing and redemption, a God who shows up in the most unlikely and scandalous ways. After all, the whole story begins with God reaching down from heaven, picking up some dirt, and breathing life into it. At one point, Jesus takes some mud, spits in it, and wipes it on a blind man’s eyes to heal him. (The priests and producers of anointing oil were not happy that day.)

In fact, the entire story of Jesus is about a God who did not just want to stay “out there” but who moves into the neighborhood, a neighborhood where folks said, “Nothing good could come.” It is this Jesus who was accused of being a glutton and drunkard and rabble-rouser for hanging out with all of society’s rejects, and who died on the imperial cross of Rome reserved for bandits and failed messiahs. This is why the triumph over the cross was a triumph over everything ugly we do to ourselves and to others. It is the final promise that love wins.

It is this Jesus who was born in a stank manger in the middle of a genocide. That is the God that we are just as likely to find in the streets as in the sanctuary, who can redeem revolutionaries and tax collectors, the oppressed and the oppressors… a God who is saving some of us from the ghettos of poverty, and some of us from the ghettos of wealth.

• A fun one: Jubilee on Wall Street:

The streets turned silver. Our “pedestrians,” “tourists,” “homeless,” and “business people” began pouring out their change. We decorated the place with sidewalk chalk and filled the air with bubbles. Joy was contagious. Someone bought bagels and started giving them out. People started sharing their winter clothes. One of the street sweepers winked at us as he flashed a dustpan full of money. Another guy hugged someone and said, “Now I can get my prescription filled.”