Proper posting or a 'Pinterest Pastor'?

So I stumbled across this article today about ‘Pinterest Pastors’ and had to read it.  Now upfront, I’ll say that I do not have a pinterest account and my familiarity with it comes entirely from my mother in law, who has an undying love for it and routinely shares recipes or other ideas with my wife and I.  My wife uses it to collect ideas like a virtual mood board when she’s designing shows, but that’s about it. 

That said, I think that the concerns that are raised about how pinterest can inspire both boasting and feelings of jealousy are well taken and I think that they apply to social media in general.  Depending on how we use social media, we can feel guilty and get depressed because our friends are all off at the beach or traveling the European countryside while we’re back home in the office for just another day. 

Or, we are always posting super trips we’re going on, talking about ourselves, and some more about ourselves, and then even more about ourselves before we wrap up the day with a post about ourselves. 

And really, nobody likes either person.  Both are so curved in on themselves (thanks, St Augustine!) that they can’t really participate in the outside world in a meaningful way. 

But, and here is the key thing, their biggest mistake is that they are not listening to others.  Their social media connections become a megaphone instead of a walkie-talkie.  They are lacking in balance.  While we don’t want to be a lurker, we don’t want to be the 500 foot billboard that blots out the sky.

So instead we need to listen, to hear what our friends are saying, be supportive of them, share our own stories, but not in a boastful way, and then listen some more. 

My wife says that when she is teaching theatrical design she will ask the students what the first three steps of the design process are.  She receives a variety of suggestions, but correct answer is to ‘read the script.  2. Read the script. And 3. Read the script.’  In social media the three primary rules are: Listen; listen; and listen. 

Then you can speak.

Are you a pinterest pastor?  (or a pinterest lay person?)

Racism, Paula Deen, and the Supreme Court

Professor Hess talks about the need to be actively anti-racist in her book and this is a sentiment that resonates with me.  And I was thinking about that this past week with the whole Paula Deen ‘scandal’ and the decisions by the Supreme Court that gutted affirmative action and the Voting Rights Act.  I haven’t seen a lot of people tie the two together, but think about it, the Supreme Court is effectively saying that, ‘no, race isn’t a problem in the country anymore.  We don’t need this crazy old provision to ensure access to silly things like job, education or the ability to participate in democracy.  We’re a post-racial society now!’  And then the next story says something to the effect of ‘Paula Deen was fired from the Food Network because of admitted use of the ‘N-word’.’ 

But remember kids, we don’t think racially anymore.  Really? 

Now, I’ll not try an pretend that I know if Paula Deen is a racist or not, but I do know that in the south, that term is still used and even if it was 20 years ago, she should have known then that it was wrong.  Though if she didn’t use the word, there has been recent footage of her suggesting that a black employee was as dark as the black backdrop he was standing against, and needed to move so that the people could see the assistant, and that suggests some kind of ingrained lack o awareness and insensitivity that is almost as bad as saying the n-word.  She may not be a racist, but damn, some of the stuff she has done (on film!) has been quite racially insensitive.

And so where are we today?  Well, we have people who grew up hearing the word and have realized, ‘wow, that’s hateful and wrong’ and are teaching their kids differently.  Unfortunately, we also people who don’t understand why it’s so offensive to refer to any group of people by a racial slur, or worse, actively wonder why ‘they can say it, so why can’t we?’ 

Why do you want to say it?  Also, have you ever heard of the concept of empowerment/disempowerment?  If they take ownership of a term, it might be less hurtful when an idiot like you says it. 

I have only ever known one person who I feel used the word without understanding it was mean, and that was my grandmother, who immediately after starting a story with, ‘you know, we had a ‘n-word’ family that lived down the street from us.’ And then followed it up with, ‘I just don’t know why people were so mean to them.  They were just like us.  We are were just poor and trying to get along.  It just wasn’t right.’  I’ll also mention that she was in her mid 80’s and in the early stages of alzheimers, but I actually believe that at that point in her life she didn’t understand it was not a good term because of the alzheimers.  I don’t condone it, but a story like that is probably that one case I can think of.

But in spite of these attitudes, and in spite of the persistence of stereotypes in society, we’re told that the protections of the law are no longer needed, that we all truly have equal opportunity now, cause it’s a post racial society!

It bothers me.  It bothers me to watch people try and defend this racism and prejudice.  We have to stand up to this kind of quiet hate. 

But then sometimes I get discouraged and I think that perhaps Avenue Q had it right.. 

Oh, I will give the Supreme Court their due for doing the right thing regarding DOMA.

Is this the future of churches and technology?

So I came across this article about Joel Olsteen's use of social media in his evangelism and I'm curious to hear what others think about it.

Click 'Pray' to Pray: How Evangelical Megapastor Joel Olsteen is Saving Souls With Facebook

It's simple, just don't be a jerk

I generally am not a fan of ‘how to’ guides as they relate to technology.  Generally speaking, they are valid for about 10 minutes and then you find them in the clearance bin at the bookstore.  You know you’ve seen them, ‘How to win friends and influence people through Facebook’, ‘Tweet Your Way Thin’, and it’s sequel, ‘Tweet Your Way Rich’, and of course the ever popular religious version, ‘The Gospel According to YouTube.’  So it was with some skepticism that I approach ‘Net Smart’ by Howard Rheingold. 

However, I was very excited to see that he primarily viewed online interactions from a more systems level perspective and looked at how relationships in a virtual world develop, are nurtured and how those relationships can be leveraged to allow for greater learning by all in this world.  Rheingold looks at the growth of the online environment and discusses how a person can viably exist and participate in the digital world.