TO NOTICE AND AVOID
Conversational Cheap Shots!
Yikes! Here is an exposé of Conversational Cheating Tactics to notice and avoid. Read 'em and laugh--or weep if you must.
| Ad Hominem Variants | Attacking the person instead of the subject at hand | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleight of Mind Fallacies | Mental "magic" to cheat logic and fair dialog | ||
| Delay Tactics | When the brain freezes, the lips flap on... | ||
| Question as Opportunity | A favorite of politicians | ||
| General Irritants | Verbal grenades, irritants, and ploys |
BUSINESS ARTICLE
What's Wrong with Multi-Level Marketing?
After witnessing the mayhem of 'MLM Madness' for far too long--it has gone unchallenged--the following was written as a clarion call to sanity. It has also proved handy to give to over-zealous MLM proselytizers. Heh, heh. You can use it similarly, but NOT for profit use.
Brace yourself, MLMs are awful ugly when seen up-close and with a gimlet eye!
This is a business analysis and commentary of four major problem areas with Multi-Level Marketing, AKA Network Marketing.
| I) | Market Saturation | Just who is in charge of this here train? | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| II) | Pyramid Structure | Denial is more than just a river in Egypt... it seems | ||
| III) | Morality and Ethics | How low will people stoop when there is no one left to sell to? | ||
| IV) | Relationship Issues | Friends as "marks" and neighborhoods as markets |
POLITICAL ARTICLE
Christians and Conspiracy Theories
For anyone who has ever read Mein Kampf or is familiar with other pre-holocaust propaganda, these conspiracy theory ghost stories will sound eerily familiar. Only now, instead of "the Jews" in particular, we have a more nebulous "them" out there who are the "real enemy".
Conspiracy theory notions have so infiltrated modern prophetic teaching that it comes as a shock to many Christians to realize: 1) where they really came from, 2) that conspiracy theory is unbiblical in content, effect, and fruit, 3) why the Church has embraced these doctrines so quickly and without circumspection, and 4) the rather serious consequences of letting these spurious notions course through our heads and faith.
For Christians, this article is a "fruit inspection"--as our Lord commanded--and a call to repentance. It is time to take this idea captive, and make it obedient to Christ.
CHURCH HUMOR
Church Yellow Pages Ads We'd Like to See
The Church That Meets at Priscilla and Aquila's House Rom 16:3-5, 1Cor 16:19
Explaining the Way of God More Adequately (Acts 18:26)
Col 3:16 (NIV) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom...1Cor 14:26,31 (TEB) When you meet for worship, one has a hymn, another a teaching, another a revelation from God... All of you may speak God's message, one by one, so that all will learn and be encouraged.
2Cor 11:3 (NKJ) But I fear... your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Solomon's Porch Fellowship
Acts 5:12...Living in the fear of the Lord. (Acts 9:31)
Acts 2:42 (NIV) They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Acts 2:43 (KJV) And fear came upon every soul...
Acts 5:11 (NIV) Great fear seized the whole church...
Song of Solomon Illustrated Cartoon
How NOT to Pray
The Apostle Paul's Rejection Letter
FEATURE PARABLE
The Celestial Rail-road
The book Dining with the Devil, by Os Guinness, is a critique of the indiscriminate modernity and flippant strategies / tactics of the "Church Growth" movement. (The title is based on the adage: "He who sups with the devil had better have a long spoon!") The last chapter is a most excellent meditation on The Celestial Rail-road by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
If you have ever read John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, this extension of the parable into modern times will strike with a certain poignancy and scandal. If you are not familiar with Pilgrim's Progress, you might still get something out of it anyway, but the satire will not be as vivid as for those familiar with Bunyan's original.
A well-written lampoon of our modern excesses and Christ-eclipsing worldliness needs no further introduction or editorial, even if written 150 years ago.
We've come a long way, baby?
SHORT TAKES
Polite Code Phrases
From time to time we think we'll put together a travel website, but nothing ever comes of it. Here's a few bits that we've done so far.
The Tourist Zombie Syndrome
What does "Touristy" mean?
Nerd, Tourist, Loiterer... Spy
VIP treatment from the French?
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