Facebook Privacy

So the big news now is that putting things up on Facebook might not be the absolute best way to keep things private. Now I can understand that there are reasonable concerns about what information Facebook has the right to distribute to people like advertisers and whoever they feel like but there is something about this hysteria that seems ridiculous. This issue has received so much attention that members of congress are threatening the company and asking them to change there privacy policies to opt in as opposed to opt out. This would mean that anytime Mark Z. (Facebook founder) wants to add a new feature or connection to another website he would need to ask you. For example right now if I am logged into Facebook and happen to go to CNN.com there is a neat little box at the right side that shows me any cnn articles my Facebook friends have recommended and published to their wall. This happens because the privacy features are opt out, so if my friends did not want cnn and me to know what articles they published they would have to go into the privacy policies and simply check that they don't want that to happen.

That main reason people think opt out is bad is simple, most people are too stupid to take care of that. And they are right, the vast majority of Facebook users will never take the time to update their privacy settings to make sure there data is not getting out. This also works the opposite way, if the policies are set to "opt in" these features would be completely useless because no one would bother to turn them on.

This is what all of these senators and sensational journalists are forgetting. No one on Facebook cares about their privacy. If you asked them they would say that they do but their actions don't reflect that at all. My first example is Facebook apps and games. Almost every 3rd party Facebook app demands full access to your profile to use it. When you sign up for farmville, Mafia Fight IV, or whatever Facebook asks you if you want to give this application full access to your data or not. If you "opt out" you can't play your game. Because of these types of apps most Facebook users have already given all of their data out to sketchy 3rd party app developers. Now I realize there may be a few people out their who haven't added any apps (though my news feed would argue.) But here is the thing that really cracks me up, everyone on your friends list (unless you specifically change your privacy policies) has full access to any information you have on your profile. Now right not I could log into my facebook and copy and paste all the information on any of my friends profiles, (name, address, current status, likes, dislikes, phone number, and anything else they choose to post) I could take that data and give it to anyone I feel like. So you say that's ok, I trust all my friends. Sadly that dosen't matter because chances are at least one of your facebook friends is stupid enough to fall for one of the thousand facebook profile phshing schemes, lose their account access and hence give all of your info to whoever pays for it.

My point is this, whatever you put up on facebook is NOT private information any more. It is not the government's job or even Mark Zukkerburg's to make sure the information that you so wantonly post to the internet. If you don't want something to be public, keep it off facebook. It's that simple. Facebook is not trying to take away your privacy, you are freely and willingly begging them to take it.

-Todd

Lesson Learned

Ok so lesson learned. I am not ready to promise blog posts in a sequence because then it is just embarrassing when i lose the motivation to finish them. So from now on no promises.

-Todd

Jesus Christ; Stumbling Block or Cornerstone

As a part of my internship at Crossview Erin and I have to write cirriculum for the Jr and Sr high small groups to go through during this year. The next section we are in the process of writing is called "Foundations" we are following an overall construction theme called "Build It."

Chris, my boss, told us that the main question we need to be asking and addressing in this section is whether or not Jesus is a foundation or a stumbling block in our Christian lives. Do we find ourselves seeking to live as disciples and changing our lives as such or are we navigating our own way through life bumping into Jesus when he conflicts with our plans or views. Do we avoid sin and issues like that or do we seek to be transformed.

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about this topic is politics. When I was in highschool myself I, although I couldn't yet vote, was very politically interested. I lived my life firmly entrenched in the right wing politics and ideas I was surrounded by and was downright shocked when I met a politically liberal Christian. I honestly did not think it was possible at the time.

Our pastor here in Mankato has been in the midst of a sermon series called, "looking up when things are down" addressing the economic situation in the area. He has been preaching from 2 Corinthians and has been speaking about sharing resources and helping the needy, the verse he preaches from mentions that no one had a surplus and no one is in need. He has been receiving a few complaints from members of the congregation about sounding "socialist" and "liberal" because of these teachings.

These events coupled with my own history as a unwavering conservative right-wing evangelical Christan has got me wondering about where our loyalties lie. Do we seek first what the bible has to say and apply it to our lives and politcal views or do we look to find in the bible confirmation of our beliefs and throw out the parts that don't conform to our narrow political ideologies.

In the next few blog posts I plan to address this issue and the problem it creates.

-Todd

Why do we read the bible?

In one of my biblical studies classes this semester our professor asked the class a question regarding how we use the bible in our daily live and what is it's practical purpose in our lives.  One of my esteemed classmates responded that he is glad to know about the bible so that he can find the "true" meaning of passages and see how they line up with what he already thought.  

Now to be fair that wasn't exactly what he said and that may not have been what he really meant but it got me thinking about what the point of all this Biblical reading is.

In the course of my studies at North Park I have read pages and pages of commentaries, done word studies, Listened to hundreds of hours of lecture, and run my mouth dry discussing biblical themes and ideas with my friends and classmates.  I have been given many tools to use when coming at the bible.

But what is the purpose of these tools why do we come at the text do we come looking for validation or truth?  Many people read the Bible with what they see as a general understanding of what the bible means as a whole.

The Bible is about personal salvation and saving me from hell

The Bible is about having a loving relationship with an estranged God

The Bible is about helping the poor and caring for the downtrodden

The Bible is about social upheaval and revolution for the oppressed

The Bible is about preparing for the end of the world

The Bible is about telling us what we can and cant do

the list goes on...

These general understandings may fall into these categories and could be combination of all of them plus a few others but the point is when we read the text we already "know" what it is going to say.

We search for meaning that fits into our already neat categories of belief and anything that doesn't, we force into our already established belief or explain away.

This is done by everyone on all sides of biblical interpretation issues, Pro War Christians look to the Old Testament battles and seek to explain away the pacifism of Jesus while Anti War Christians  seek to do the reverse.  Anti Gay Christians look to Leviticus seeing homosexuality as an abomination but gloss over other Leviticus prohibitions and the call to love others while the other side is guilt of the same selective reading.

We all come to the Bible with our prejudices, politics, and backgrounds and it is important to acknowledge their existence but it scares me to hear someone openly admitting that they come to the text looking to justify convictions.

The purpose of the Bible is to shape in us as Christians how we see politics, ethics, family, friends, enemies, homosexuals (I heard somewhere that that's not politically correct anymore but i don't know what is so sorry), political correctness, minorities, poverty, sin, death, salvation, life, love, business, and every category that shapes you as a living believing and convictions having human being.

We should when reading the bible seek change and form our convictions in relation to the Word of God not cut up the bible and fit it into our pre-existing convictions!  We as Christians need to be people of the book, not people with a book to show why were right.

That is why we read the bible, and yes it is impossible to be completely unbiased but we need to do everything in our power to take the text at what it says without reading in what we think it should say.

...ok I'll shut up now.

-Todd

The Gospel of John

I am currently taking a class about the Gospel of John and it is absolutely fascinating.  There is so much I would like to say about because it is incredible but there is a lot so I wont.

One central theme to the gospel is the centrality of christian community when it comes to all aspects of the faith.  John tells us that the community of believers is the only way to practice any and all aspects of Christianity.  It is not a lone ranger faith it is a faith and a family and you cannot separate the two, i think that is a good message for may churches today that do have community but don't really focus on it.  From reading John you can see that the relationship between believers is absolutely central to faith in Jesus.  Love one another as I have loved you, radical and incredible and I hate the word radical (unless a ninja turtle says it.)

-Todd

Calbri

Calbri is a font that I have recently started to use and I love it as much as a man can love a font and still be accepted by the Church.  The letters are just so "friendly" but professional at the same time. It has a very sharp but unintimidating and unassuming character to it as a font. 

Calbri has none of the unfortunate jagged edges and superfluous curves that Times New Roman boasts with all of its glory as it looks down from its seat of DEFAULT on all Microsoft Office versions prior to 2007.  Calbri is nice and its fun to type in.  

Unfortunately Blogger doesn't have it so I am stuck but right now I am typing in Trebuchet which is similar, plus I like it because that is the name of Catapults in the ancient world and that is pretty cool