Cell Phone Bits
Two cell phone related pieces went up on Open for Business this week that might prove interesting to asisaid readers. First, I posted my review of the Droid X. I spent about a month using the device and I have to say I was very impressed by it — much more so than I expected to be.
Also, my friend and fellow contributor Dennis Powell writes about his odyssey through prepaid cellular plans in the sort of entertaining way only he can do. It is a fun read and an enlightening one if you are looking to save money by going prepaid.
The Summer Sets, Semester Dawns
Well, tomorrow I begin the first day of my last semester at seminary. This feels somehow profound. I am not crazy about having a mid-afternoon class to start things off, but it should be a good one. I have been looking forward to having this professor, Dr. Phil Douglass, again since my first semester.
Rationalize
From “the Moscow Rules:”
There is no limit to a human being's ability to rationalize the truth.
True.
Google's Continued Fall from Grace
Neil McAllister writes on why Oracle is right to sue Google over its modified Java platform:
“Now if Microsoft wants to use Java, they will have to use the same Java everyone else does,” Sun vice president Rich Green said at the time. Should not Google be held to the same standard? Oracle thinks so, and like Sun of old, it has chosen a legal remedy.
If anyone is looking for proof coming from places other than Cupertino that Google is not viewed as a “don't be evil” company any longer, comparisons of its actions to some of Microsoft's antitrust debacles of the past ought to do the trick.
The question, though, remains: can anyone actually do what Google does better than Google?
Get Your Kicks
I've been out of town, if any faithful asisaid readers have been wondering what happened to me after several months of daily posting. The trip, which included some time on Route 66, inspired my latest column on Open for Business.
In Seminary?
From Logos Bible Software on their $1,000 seminary scholarship:
If you refer someone to our scholarship and they indicate that you referred them, and they win the scholarship, then we'll give you a scholarship too! You could both get a $1,000.00 tuition scholarship and a copy of the Logos Scholar's Library (www.logos.com/scholars).
Interested? You can apply here. If you apply, please consider mentioning that I “sent” you.
Scrapbook
My friend Caedmon and I have been reminiscing by discussing old entries from this blog and the ensuing conversations. The interesting thing about blogging over the long term is that a blog becomes a lot more than merely a collection of words I have issued forth to attract dust in the eternal bit bucket — they form links to conversations, friendships and life in general.
As I flipped through some of my old posts the last few days, I was reminded of fascinating conversations with my blogosphere friends that helped shape my thinking. I saw comments from old friends who quit blogging and have seemingly disappeared. Some of the posts were bittersweet to recall the circumstances behind their posting. Others were just simply fascinating. Still other posts are annoying for how wrongheaded they seem to me today.
In all, though, I think they show how blogging at least has the potential to paint a fascinating picture of one's life. Not because I have anything especially profound to say, but because blog posts generally are (and should be, I think) written in community, and thus they resemble a photo album or scrapbook.
Unfolding My Story: Real, Live Examples of What I've Been Saying
Simply put, neither my mother nor I had a good reason to make up the claims we have made, so they have resorted to personal attacks to distract from the wrongs being done. They are attacking her because while it is easy enough to try to discredit a young seminarian like myself with unfair stereotypes, it is much harder to explain away why a life long member as well liked, caring and gentle as my mother would assert the things she has over the past year.
If they fail to poison the well, people might actually openly read the evidence I offered that demonstrates the things I claimed. Because they know I have evidence of the great wrongs occurring at that church, they have done everything they can to discredit us — and continue to do so even a year later.
My reliable sources throughout the church continue to alert me to the pastor's ongoing campaign of slander against my mother and I can imagine someone heard one of his remarks and decided to set me straight by informing me of how I could become an authentic man by recovering from my alleged “overly bonded with mother wound.” Apparently, if one's mother defends her son when people are slanderously attacking him, that means she is overly bonded with her son.
Ironically, this person trying to show me how I am not manly enough was not manly enough to post with a name, while I have put my name on everything I have written. That was the problem all along: I was willing to put my name to my claims and the pastor and leadership were not willing to do the same without non-disclosure agreements.
So, why are they attacking now? I believe they have again ratcheted up their attacks in recent weeks — for example, talking about the “the Butlers” in the context of “Satan attacking the church” at an administrative meeting last Monday — in an attempt to distract from more ominous allegations coming forth towards the church.
They have to demonize us and then associate everyone who dares challenge the pastor with us or people might start to question the mounting evidence that something is terribly wrong. Not only have numerous long time members now left the church over the pastor's abusive actions to them, now a young woman has come forward publicly alleging that when she was sexually assaulted as a minor by another one of the youth at that church, the pastor covered it up and ignored state reporting laws requiring him to contact authorities in such a case.
Rather than investigate this serious allegation, numerous people in the church have worried about whether “the Butlers” put her up to writing that. We did not — we were not even aware of her plight before she posted the review on the church's Google Maps page — but, what if we had? Would her alleged experience be less troubling if someone else injured by the church had nudged her to speak out about it?
They need to focus on me and my family because that allegation is so thoroughly disturbing. So, they put out new slanders, try to blame my family for pretty much everything going wrong and post anonymous links to self-help styled booklets on how I should become a real man.
Would they be willing to write “their side” of the story publicly, signed with their names? I doubt it, because they know I have evidence backing my writing, even if I have withheld publishing it in an attempt to avoid publicly exposing the identities of those who attacked me. They know I even offered to submit to a polygraph test to authenticate my story. They know I continue to write and feel passionately about this because they know others are being hurt and that I have a burden to speak out for those being hurt.
No matter how much they may deny it, they know the truth. For the good of the Church, I pray it will burst forth before anyone else is harmed.
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