More thoughts on Revenge

I drive into the city about once a week these days and I find it fascinating to see the billboards come and go over the course of the year. I often wonder how accurately they ride the trends and how much they steer trends.

Yesterday, I saw this sign:



Certainly other people have observed the over-litigious nature of our society before but I find it fascinating to see the convenience of the internet applied to feeding this trend.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for standards and regulations for manufacturers. Ethical manufacturing and marketing are a must.

But I'm not a fan of the get-rich-quick-in-a-spurious-lawsuit mentality which seems to blossom in our society.

I could be wrong, but I think websites like whocanisue.com feed personal irresponsibility and finger-pointing more than enable legitimate claims.

What do you think?

Further reading:

Time Article:
"As if there aren't enough lawyers out there inventing lawsuits, now we're going to invite the public to do so," scoffed prominent Miami trial attorney Richard Sharpstein, a partner at Jorden Burt. "I think this is nothing more than a referral service," he says of WhoCanISue.com. "It encourages, if not creates lawsuits. Our country's courts are clogged with unnecessary and frivolous lawsuits which delay, if not obstruct, the access to courts of people that really need to get there, that have serious legal grievances."

Does anyone else find it ironic that this link and the following image also show up on whocanisue.com?

"Revenge is a poison we take, hoping to kill someone else."

I heard this quote while listening to this episode of Speaking of Faith.

Fascinating.

What do you think?

My Cousin Andrew...

...twittered this link. Very creative and funny :)

A quick search isn't revealing any authorship to acknowledge - my apologies.

Activists Attempt to Break Israeli Blockade

I don't know everything these activists stand for but I'm glad outsiders are attempting to peacefully bring in aid.

Canadians Sued for Building Israeli Settlements in the West Bank

I support this non-violent means of dealing with the issues at hand.

The buildings are illegal according to international law and calling companies to account for their actions just makes sense!

Zondervan and Thomas Nelson sued over "homosexual" in the Bible

Today I ran across this article in USA Today (via).

This man is suing Zondervan and Thomas Nelson for damages regarding their translations' use of the word "homosexual" in the Bible.

I wonder how often these kinds of lawsuits will begin to crop up.

Will major publishers be forced to forgo freedom of speech in the future in order to comply?

I grow angry about the assumption that change and healing are not a possibility for people who wrestle with sexual brokenness and ssa. This event underscores the strength of the assumption where the authority of scripture, as a source for healing, is challenged.

The man's testimony breaks my heart:

Fowler, 39, alleges Zondervan's Bibles referring to homosexuality as a sin have made him an outcast from his family and contributed to physical discomfort and periods of 'demoralization, chaos and bewilderment.'

Without knowing his story in entirety it sounds like his family has failed to uphold the standard of grace in their interactions with him.

I wonder how this story could have turned out differently for this man...

I think the failure here is not in the translation of the word homosexual but rather in the emphasis on the condemnation of sin over the reception of grace for healing and freedom from sin.

Donald Knuth - Cool Name - Cool Dude

I don't know if it's just my middle-child personality or if there's something wrong with me.

I just dislike blindly participating in trends.

I know I do so all the time but as they come to my attention I make choices about trends.

When I ran across this page from Don Knuth (wikipedia entry) I smiled. Here's a guy who has evaluated a trend in light of his personal purpose and made a clear decision. He knows his identity and has removed email because it distracts him from his purpose.

In these days when parents reserve email addresses and domain names for their children even before they are born I find Don Knuth's example refreshing.

I admire Don Knuth.