FEATURE HUMOR
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.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW
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
CULTURAL PARODY
Postcard Madness!
It is an odd custom. Rather than simply enjoy our vacations, we feel compelled to shop for post cards, write stilted prose, buy stamps, seek out a mail box... all for the sake of essentially bragging that we are in some exotic spot and the recipient is not.
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.
The 'Net is virtually flooded with self-serving MLM propaganda. As a rejoinder and a modest attempt to balance this, we humbly submit the following article in the dim hope that a few might be able to "snap out of it" before too much more damage is done.
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
Conspiracy theory is a world view that asserts, in essence, that a handful of superclever and ultrapowerful families are running the world. This "Illuminati" create nearly every crisis, control every government and major corporation, and are responsible for the sorry state of things all over... in general.
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.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ARTICLE
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?
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE PARABLE
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