Alligator Smashes Watermelon
Add comment June 23rd, 2009
Archive for June 23rd, 2009
Online Evangelists Tap Millions Looking for God
Like Shopping for Shoes, Many Religion Surfers Turn to the Internet to Find Their Faith
“The number is staggering,” said Mark Weimer, a self-described techie evangelist whose ministry has tapped the Internet to capture those looking for spiritual answers.
Weimer is CEO of Global Media Outreach, the technology arm of Campus Crusade for Christ International (CCCI), which hosts 91 Web sites in 11 languages to spread the “good news.”
Weimer, who previously ran his own Silicon Valley start-up, insists this is not virtual proselytizing.
“We are always up front about the fact that we are presenting the Christian message,” he told ABCNews.com. “We don’t want to deceive anyone. That would be offensive.”
Global Outreach estimates that 1 in 1,000 Internet searchers is looking for information about God. Just last year, their sites had 3 million visitors.
On an average day, sites like Jesus2020 get 150,000 visitors, and about 25,000 of them click a button to say they want to learn more. Of those about 5,000 a day fill in a form so an online missionary can contact them via e-mail.
Their questions are often surprising, according to Weimer: “Now that I have accepted Christ, what do I do next? Do I need to be perfect now? How do I pray?”
“One of the great things about being on the Internet is you feel comfortable sharing things you might not otherwise,” said Michelle Diedrich, communication director for Global Media. “It’s anonymous intimacy.”
According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project more “religious surfers” are turning to the Internet.
Add comment June 23rd, 2009
What does the Internet think?
www.whatdoestheinternetthink.net
For instance, Jerry Jones:
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Congressman proposes enclosing Capitol gallery in Plexiglas
A Republican Indiana congressman has a new plan to protect members of Congress from a terrorist attack: enclose the Capitol gallery with a Plexiglas shield.
In a little-noticed proposed amendment to a bill last week, Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) sought a study to examine the feasibility of enclosing the Capitol gallery chamber with a protective shield.
“What this bill does is it would authorize a study to look at enclosing the chamber, the gallery chamber, with Plexiglas so that somebody can’t throw a bomb down on the floor and kill a lot of us,” Burton told the Rules Committee Thursday.
To the shock of onlooking congressmembers, Burton described how a terrorist could kill the lot of them. Someone could kill “half the Members of Congress right now,” he said.
1 comment June 23rd, 2009
One Heck of a Basketball Shot
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
1 comment June 23rd, 2009
Bag of Randomness
- I received a little recognition and gift at work yesterday.
- Every Monday morning I always read Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterback. He brings a great insight to the game, lots of behind the scenes kind of stuff, and even veers off football to pop-culture a little bit. Well, he will be taking the next four weeks off, but he made mentioned there will be four surprise guest columnists . . . I’m very intrigued.
- Twitter sign of the times
- I found this very interesting regarding the Baylor and Texas Tech football game at the new Cowboys Stadium this November – alcohol will not be sold in the general concession areas like other college games per a provision Baylor included in the contract. Baylor tend to be the most liberal of Baptist colleges, but they are still Baptist, so that didn’t really surprise me. But I’m surprised that Tech would still play the game . . . that campus is known for drinking, and drinking heavily.
- As I stated before, every person I knew from my home town that went to Texas Tech did not go there for an education, they went to party. And everyone of them came home either as a drop out due to excess partying, or because of a surprise pregnancy.
- I remember how a lot of the Hardin-Simmons crowd use to get upset and make fun at how Baylor was losing all their morals. I was in student at HSU when Baylor allowed their first on-campus dance, and a lot of talk this was just the beginning of the end and how the lost Jesus.
- When I was a student at HSU, we were required to go to Chapel twice a week and earn so many Chapel credits per semester for four semesters, if you didn’t earn the credits, no diploma. One Chapel was usually all serious and more religious s based, and the other was more less so. During one end of semester Chapel in December a local elementary school performed. During the performance you heard the Macarena being played and of course all the kids started started with the hand motions and such of the dance, when another kid ran onto the stage and yelled, “Stop you guys! This isn’t Baylor!”
- I mentioned this before, but when I was a student at HSU we were tounge-in-cheek about not being able to hold dances on campus, so they were held off campus and advertised as “foot functions.”
- When I was there the trustees or board of regents or supreme overlords wouldn’t allow a folks dancing class (a PE credit) on campus. I hear that today they are on campus, but I don’t know about full fledge dancing.
- I’m still peeved that the first football game at the new stadium will be Oklahoma and BYU. Jerry has failed at the first non-sports, sports, and football events at the new place.
- For the first time in the history of ever I really not excited about the upcoming football season. Old age? Lack of playoffs from the Cowboys in over a decade? I dunno.
- Impressive Jell-O molds
- First zero-gravity wedding
- Something happened yesterday regarding the Voting Rights Act and the Supreme Court. I read an article about it, listened to a segment about it on NPR, and heard Charlie Gibson discuss it and I still don’t understand what happened.
- Last week I mentioned that Brian Williams has started to play some upbeat music during the news, I noticed that ABC has changed their intro-intro music as well.
- As you know, one thing that really bugs me is the amount of prescription drug commercials that air, and that I think a doctor should decide what’s best to prescribe a patient, not what a patient sees advertised on TV. Well, I was trying to think back and remember a time when there wasn’t prescription drug commercials, I couldn’t recall any watching the evening news with my father. But I was reading this article and found out it all started in 1997 when the FDA first allowed drug companies market pharmaceuticals to the masses, not just doctors. The result . . . more patients asking for drugs that they don’t need.
- I can only imagine the lobbying the drug companies did to get the FDA to allow that decision.
- Southwest Airlines CEO agrees to be interviewed by an 18-year-old blogger. Link
- I ate a snow cone yesterday, it was probably the first one I had in years.
- Snow cones made great dates in college. I call up a girl and tell them I was on my way to get a snow cone and they were invited to tag along. If they said no, no big deal, I was on my way anyways. But if they said yes, I could afford a snow cone. It was a great no pressure date that usually resulted in great conversation as the sun started to set.
- There was a local snow cone stand in my home town in which the lady that worked inside use to smoke, and you can smell and even taste the smoke that attached itself to the Styrofoam cups. Yuck.
- What the heck is up with the missing South Carolina governor? It sounds like he’s safe, just hiding out. Rick Perry, feel free to follow.
- Fathers that attended church in England got beer for Fathers’ Day. Link
- While returning a movie yesterday, I parked next to one of my dream cars, the Magnum P.I. Ferrari, but this one was white. I would seriously drive one of those, I like the dated look.
- And I would of course have to grow a mustache and wear a Detroit Tigers hat with a Hawaiian shirt.
- The PC (USA) seems to be having a tough time with membership and giving. Link
- Grace
8 comments June 23rd, 2009