Christian Commerce, Strout Informa, Cosmic Wimpout
Happy Saint Patrick's Day. Are you feeling green today?Yesterday I spent part of the morning helping my folks put my grandmother's new "lift" chair in, and rearrange her living room. Then in the afternoon I visited Jason and Ita. Got to see the little guy again.
And, I finally got to use my Christmas present from Jonathan.Jason has been working on their website: Strout Informa. If you go there you can see pictures of Jonathan David. Jason had some questions about HTML and web design, so I tried to explain/show him some stuff. Turns out, that was a lot harder than I thought, as his version of Front Page is in Spanish. So I discovered just how little Spanish I really do know. Despite the fact that I took a little Spanish about 12 years ago, and spent a month in Argentina, that didn't prepare me to recognize computer jargon like edit, paste, font, style, table, etc. It was rather comical...I'd try to show him something, and then get completely lost in the software.
There's a "Christian" organization (and by "organization" I don't mean a non-profit, this is an LLC) that spams me on a pretty regular basis. Of course, you know me, and how much I detest spam anyway, but I thought I'd post a paragraph from the most recent spam here, and see if anyone wanted to comment on what they have to say.
The Bible teaches us that the first disciples Jesus recruited were business professionals. Jesus saw business professionals as a vital part of establishing His Kingdom throughout the earth. In Hebrews 13:8 the Bible declares that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If Jesus is the same today then what Jesus started over 2,000 years ago with a handful of business leaders is still a vital part of His eternal plan! When we choose to purchase from a believer in the marketplace they have more to give to their local church and their local church is able to reach further into their community with the Gospel. As a result, more people will enter into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We all have a part in advancing the Gospel through commerce. Get involved with [spammer's company] today!
Would anyone like to make any comments on that?
Posted On Mar 17, 2006 at 5:57 AM
On Mar 18, 2006 Mr. T wrote: "Business Professionals"??? Let's see - some fishermen, some zealots, and a tax collector working for the occupation government. Sounds more like blue collar workers and rabble rousers than professionals. . .
Of course, if I have the opportunity to purchase from Vendor A (a believer) or Vendor B (an unbeliever), and all other things are equal, then purchasing from Vendor A does have a certain amount of logic. But I question whether "all other things are equal" - what if Vendor B is significantly cheaper? Then the argument in your "spam" you received would suggest that I purchase from Vendor B so that I can have more money to give to the local church.
The most offensive thing I find in this e-mail (other than the fact that it is spam to begin with), is that they are using Christianity as a way to get business. To be honest, it smacks of greed and manipulation, neither which are qualities listed in the fruit of the spirit. . .
Doug Replied: yeah, when I read that first part, I couldn't help but thinking how the fishermen left their nets and the tax collector left his tax booth to follow Jesus.
Then I thought about all the places in the book of Acts when these same disciples used their business connections to "advance the gospel".
On Mar 18, 2006 Doug wrote: Another thing I find appalling about this site is, they have an html link to their site in the email, only the link they send you to is not the address that appears in the link text. (In essence, they are lying about the address they are sending you to) Instead of sending you to their site, they send you to a different domain, which is a "Click Through Tracking" site, which then sends you to their domain.
In other words, by clicking on their link, you are actually saying "Yes, you spammed a legitimate address, and I actually received your spam."
On Mar 18, 2006 Mr. Physics wrote: I have probably told you this story many times, but it is appropriate to this site. When I was a boy I used to be fascinated to listen to my father and one of his customers dicker over a proprosed trade. I well remember the time he was working on a deal with a local (Christian) farmer which involved a good sized tractor. The farmer was pitting one dealer against another and it finally came down to the other dealer was a couple hundred cheaper than my father was. He then said something like, "I would really rather do business with a Christian brother and assume you would also so why don't you reduce your price the last $200 so we can do business." My father could have responded (he didn't), "I would really rather do business with a Christian brother so why don't you give me the extra $200 so we can do business." I have often thought of this. So many people want to use their Christianity to get something for themselves, rather than following the example of Jesus and seeing how much of themselves they can give.
Doug Replied: That's a wonderful story!
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