The Star Tribune had a very positive article in the paper:
“More than 3,000 trained prisoners are earning $1 an hour, and time shaved off their sentences, for helping fight California’s wildfires.”
The article was extremely positive, interviewing an inmate and how he’s benefited from the experience, as well as well as the department of corrections who point out that it’s “saving state taxpayers an estimated $80 million per year.”
What’s not discussed or addressed, is whether or not the very act of prison labor is ethical. I don’t know if I’ve written …

I came across a very interesting video on a new friend’s blog the other day, and I wanted to post it for YouTubesday. However, It didn’t really relate to anything I’ve been talking about and I don’t have other videos to go along with it. So, in an effort to be completely un-unified and chaotic, here is a short collection of five videos, with no relation to each other or this post necessarily.

I don’t have anything profound to say today (like most days I guess). I did want to mention a few things I’ve been reading lately. But, first if you weren’t aware of my ‘Required Readings‘ page, you should check that out. It’s not complete, but basically I’m trying to construct a list of books, movies and sermons that would be part of my required reading list for Trying To Follow 101. The goal is for the list not to be overwhelming long, so it’s a work in progress. Anything you …

I wanted to lend a little more context to this passage that I have seen as we read through the sermon on the mount. The passage I’m talking about is:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. -Matthew 6:18-21

First of all you …

I figured rather then write, I wanted to ask some questions. I’ve had a discussion recently concerning short term missions and I wanted to hear some of my readers opinions. I’m curious what everyones take is on the issue of short term missions, global missions, western missionaries, etc. So, here are my questions:1. What do you think about short term missions? Do they do more harm then good, or vice versa?
2. Have you heard of indigenous missionaries? If so, what do you think of them?
3. On a Biblical level, what …

Most of my what if? questions are concerning imagining the world differently, but not really thing we can take practical action on. There are already some organizations out there doing similar work, IJM, Not For Sale, and Perverted-Justice (from To Catch a Predator).
I was reading the book Freakonomics and it talks a lot about how the right incentives can help guide peoples actions. Shame is a powerful (negative) incentive, and I think can and should be used to help deter heinous crimes, like pedophilia. Ever since I first heard about …

First of all, where’s all my commenter’s at? I’ve noticed a steep decline in commenting since returning to blogging, and I’m hoping that just means your not commenting, but still reading. (FREE iTunes downloads for you if you comment on this post!*) This post only gets coole…

If you own a house, especially with a sub-prime mortgage, you’ve probably heard the recent news that Countrywide is going to refinance up to $16 billion of loans to help people avoid foreclosure. This is great news amidst the recent housing crisis because it means people will be able to stay in their homes and avoid foreclosure. Those who were taken advantage of by predatory lending, and those who simply made unwise decisions, during the housing boom will have a chance to fix things up and avoid possible horrible outcomes …