Font Rants on Many Subjects

More on LinkedIn and MySpace

I've heard a couple of rumblings about my post regarding MySpace Evangalism. Let me try to address them.

Some folks felt I should warn about the dangers of MySpace before just telling folks to get up there. This is an excellent point. If you are under 18 you should have your parents review your page before you post anything there. I say this as a parent and knowning that the Internet has a number of very bad people who want to harm children. For everyone who is over 18, I highly recommend you are cautious in how much personal information you share. Once you put something on the Internet it is there forever and you don't know who will read it. Sharing too many personal details can lead to identity theft; or worse. So consider yourself warned. Like all tools MySpace can be used for good purposes, or evil.

Other folks did not quite understand my note about LinkedIn and MySpace. Simply put LinkedIn markets itself as a place to connect business colleagues together, while MySpace is designed to link you with your friends; and discover new freinds through shared interests.

Now back to using MySpace as an evangelical tool. You've read all these warnings or seen on the 10 o'clock news stories about the dangers of MySpace because it seems like every 14-27 year old is on the thing. We all know when you put a bunch of young adults, esp teenagers in an unsupervised setting; they get out of control and do stupid things the regret later in life. Of course if you are trying to minister to young adults, its a good idea to find out where they hang and provide some way they can connect to you.

Finally I've done a bit of research because I wanted to see what Preists and church leaders were doing on my space and provide some real world examples. Here are some pages I found with a few minutes of searching.

• Tri-Saint Youth -- An Episcopal youth Group
  
• Episcopalians Group Wow MySpace has a group of episcopalians.
  
• Rev. Br. Dale's page
  
• Padre Bob's page
  

A Response to Archibishop of Canterbery.

Bishop Williams you said, It is not yet clear how far the resolutions passed this week and today represent the adoption by the Episcopal Church of all the proposals set out in the Windsor Report.

Archibishop, I recall your countrymen kicked us out of the church after July 4, 1776 too; due to a dispute involving the divine right of kings. We were on the right side then, we're on the right side now.

On 9/11 and after Akinola was bashing gays, and shoving women in to burkas. So Rowan choose your allies carefully. Some choice quotes:

"If the Anglican Communion accepted gay bishops or approved gay unions, Muslims would gain an enormous propaganga victory in Nigeria"

"In a society where many women are finding it difficult to have husbands of their own due to depletion of men by many factors, homosexuality will exacerbate the disequilibrium, leading to much social unrest."

More at wikiquote:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_Akinola

I disagree with Akinola the way to confront the terrorists isn't to copy their theology of hate and fear. We got rid of polygamy, slavery, and other parts of the bible that conflicted with how Christ had shaped our hearts during our journeys as Christian peoples. In a world of game theory, string theory, and E=MC2; we find that the words between Genisus and Revelation are are a smaller and smaller part of our understanding of cosmology, biology and history. We are no longer children, and will not live as children anymore. Our journey from Levitical law to Christian love didn't end on 33AD, it didn't end with Paul, or Augustine, or Aquinus, or Henry VIII. It is just starting, and only the master knows when it will end. Our battle isn't against the transient enemies of today. It is the eternal battle for the soul. Will your soul turn to love and hope that is signified by Christ; or will your soul turn to hate and fear.

In any case we will go on. We would rather go on with the COE, and in communion with all the churches of the Anglican communion; but we will go on to love and hope regardless. We choose this because we are a people of faith. We are christians, and we will go to the lions for our faith. We will no go quietly though, and you will have to throw us there.

Evangelism through My Space.

Note to all Reverends and church leaders, get a My Space page; or if you feel its too unprofessional try LinkedIn. Encourage your fellow church members to get up there as well and link in their freinds and associates. Within a few days you'll be able to browse through not just the congregation, but all their freinds who may not be attending church. Not only that but you'll have information about their interests, and who the best person is to contact all these people who are one degree of seperation away from joining the flock. If it works for rock bands, why arn't you letting it work for Jesus.

The new PB
I just heard about the election of Katherin Jefferts Schori to be the next PB. As Chair of the Anglican Cetacean Consumption Network (ACCN) I'm sure you are all looking for my reaction. I fully expect calls from the press at any moment. How are we do deal with this obvious election of a Marine Biologist who opposes whaling? I know this will come as a suprise to you but, I'm not threatening to leave the church. The ACCN isn't talking to reporters let them know howe offended the important Japanese, Norweigen and Icelandic missionary dioceses by electing a pro-whale candidate. The ACCN realises that as Episcopalians we have a lot of common ground. There are so many things like education, and our ministries upon which we fundementally agree. That we are willing to work with the new PB and jointly expand those ministries. In closing the ACCN would welcome any chance for church dialogue to talk about the polarising culteral issues of whaling. Perhaps through reasoned discussion we can work something out.