Protestantism

» Brian Tubbs - Impact of Prayer

In response to More Important Issues posted by redback:

Prayer hasn't ended the tragedy of Iraq or Darfur, nor has it eradicated poverty or healed all the physically and mentally ill. You're right about that. But...

Speaking from a Christian perspective, the Bible does NOT promise that God will wipe away all tears and suffering in THIS life. There will be wars, famine, earthquakes, disease, tragedies, poverty, etc. in THIS life. These things will ALWAYS be a part of THIS life. The Bible makes that pretty clear.

» redback - Impact of Prayer

In response to Impact of Prayer posted by BrianTubbs:

I understood that point, Brian. By that I understand prayer can't prevent earthquakes etc, either. Nor will prayer get Britney to donate her wealth to those less fortunate?

I was actually going for a different point but prayer remains interesting:

"James 4:2,3 - Sometimes we do not receive because we do not ask. On the other hand, God will not answer selfish requests for things we do not need."

When we ponder what we 'need' vs what we 'want'...and "God's will be done" regardless of what we selfishly need or want or not ask for, it's not hard to place prayer in context.

But to me, the public persona of Britney is a manmade creation in the same world that brings us eg the Hillsong Church phenomenon of commercial music. As above, I agree with your primary point.

-- posted by redback

» EvilChihuahua - Pray for Britney Spears

In response to Pray for Britney Spears posted by Migisi:

Spears' egocentricity, lust for attention, and self-destructive bratty behavior gets more media coverage than 450,000 dead from violence and disease in Darfur (most were Christians, BTW), and over a million starving refugees. And more sound and video bytes than 38,000+ dead Iraqi civilians. Unlike Spears, they didn't cause their own misery. Sorry, but my prayers go for people who really need and ~deserve~ them

True, she is selfish, but what I was saying is in God's eyes she is no different than 450,000 in Darfur. We should pray for her, but we must not forget to pray for those who also need it, whether they are that 1 person in California, the 450,000 in Darfur or the 6 Billion + on Earth, in God's eyes they are equal. I don't like Ms. Spears. She can't sing, she isn't anywhere near as attractive as all those mens magazines make out, she has the IQ of a potato (and not the good kind either), she is a bad mother and she is freaking nuts! But God still loves and, although her suffering is nothing compared to that of hundreds of millions worldwide, she needs some prayer. We should give those like the poor folks in Darfur more attention, but we should still pray for someone like Ms. Spears at some point. I'd pray that she'd come to her senses and do something worthwhile with her life.

Well, you can pray for that, but don't hold your breath. Her millions will go to her defense attorneys.

Don't worry, stranger things have happened.:)

-- posted by EvilChihuahua

» pink101 - I'll Play Along

In response to More Important Issues posted by BrianTubbs:

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Brian writes, You're stretching to take this from society's fixation on Britney Spears to "we need to provide free higher education to all Americans." But, okay, I'll play along...
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I don't think I'm stretching anything at all. The idea that we are so concerned about some celebrity in Hollywood has a great deal to say about the level of education America's young people have attained.
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But, how to address such silliness in the media? We have Free Speech; so there will always be those people that let it all hang out, hence this present attention of adolescent idolization.
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It all says a great deal about our educational levels. As a society, we would do a great deal more for our youth if we were to provide them with open access to higher education with out marketing it to them on a fee basis. With the lack of universal higher education, we are not only creating an underclass; but, we are allowing it to be developed as a target market made available to predatory practices of unscrupulous marketeers.
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And, then, more than that. You are fingering a serious fault in our present society pointing out that "higher education is undergoing a MASSIVE restructuring". And, seeing that we DO live in a democracy, the education of the people gets to be the critical point where such decisions as higher education should be made. We The People require a transparent system so that we can recognize our part in the design and development of our own future. All this Hogwartish rigamarole about tax incentives, etc., is nothing more than capitalism's way of transferring funds from the government's resources to private industry.
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Like I said, you might call it socialism, I call it democracy.
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-- posted by pink101

» Migisi - More Important Issues

In response to More Important Issues posted by redback:

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I'm not sure praying has done much for the besieged peoples of Iraq nor the homeless mentally ill so why should Britney be singled out for special attention?
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My point exactly.

-- posted by Migisi

» Migisi - More Important Issues

In response to More Important Issues posted by BrianTubbs:

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While we're at it, we should pray that America stops listening to shock-jocks too.
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You can pray about it all you like. But money talks louder, Bri. Bottom line... flood the shock jock's sponsors with complaints. Without their financial support behind the radio or TV station, shock jocks couldn't exist.

-- posted by Migisi

» pink101 - Why Should They?

In response to More Important Issues posted by Migisi:
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That's like telling the American public to write letters to their congress people. It doesn't work.
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Marketeers that target dumbed down adolescent markets base their decisions to sponsor and advertise on results and nothing else--aka dollars in the cash register. They really don't give a hoot about letters from disgruntled fogies that don't spend their money on what is being sold anyway. Why should they? It's all about making a profit--right?
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-- posted by pink101

» Migisi - Why Should They?

In response to Why Should They? posted by pink101:
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They really don't give a hoot about letters from disgruntled fogies that don't spend their money on what is being sold anyway. Why should they? It's all about making a profit--right?
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I couldn't agree more. Absolutely, it's all about money. My point really is - prayers don't impact corporate profits or their decisions to place advertising. Complaints (customer dissatisfaction) and boycots do. The DJ's station (Channel 955) publically apologized and pulled the Brittany suicide contest web page. Why? Because so many people were offended and complained. Look what happened to Howard Stern (off free airwaves, now on satellite). The FCC fined Infinity Broadcasting $600,000 in 1992 after Stern talked about pleasuring himself to a picture of Aunt Jemima. That had to hurt Infinity's profits. And Don Imus? MSNBC and CBS cancelled "Imus in the Morning" -- because they were losing sponsor advertising dollars because of complaints to sponsors. It works.
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As to writing letters to my congress people, I'll continue. If only to express my views, whether it matters to them or not.

-- posted by Migisi

» Brian Tubbs - More Important Issues

In response to More Important Issues posted by Migisi:

Your suggested approach worked to get Imus off the air (at least for a while).

» redback - More Important Issues

In response to More Important Issues posted by Migisi:

Manufactured "musicians" like Britney walk in harms way, whether they have insight or not.

The old expression of 'chew 'em up, spit 'em out' will probably be her lot in the entertainment industry too. Of course, she has acquired the responsibility of being a role model without filling out the job application or reading its selection criteria.

I find it interesting that Britney and higher education are in the same discussion. Is she intended to example a bad role model here, too?

-- posted by redback