jonathan stegall

Do you remember CDNow? They were an online music retailer that was purchased by Amazon in the late 1990s. In that time, when I was getting used to the web as well as getting to know Jesus, I used CDNow and RadRockers.com (which is still around). The reason all of this is relevant is that today was the first customer service-related encounter that I remember having with Amazon, or CDNow before it.

My wife, as you may know, is a graduate student at Candler School of Theology. She purchased her books for the semester on Amazon (and saved lots of money). One of the packages was supposed to have three books in it, but when it was delivered it only had one.

After a quick search of the website, she found the Contact Us link, and the system allows you to give them your phone number and tell them when you would like to be called. At that time, it calls you and connects you with a customer service rep. Of course, she was able to give information to document the issue, and it was quickly corrected and the missing books will be shipped.

Normally, customer service does not stick out to me for good or bad, but for some reason this strikes me as significant. I’ve never had a customer service experience that was so convenient and easy, presumably on both ends, as that one seemed to be.

For 48 hours starting today (Monday) at noon, there is a premiere of a new video from Nooma, called “She.” I would encourage you to give this a look. Be prepared to watch for around 10 minutes.

It is described like this:

We didn’t have anything to do with our birth. We are all here because some woman somewhere gave us life. Her pain, her effort, for our life. And when a mother gives like that to a child, she is showing us what God is like. But sometimes this part of God’s nature is overlooked. A lot of us are comfortable with male imagery for God. But what about female imagery for God? Is God limited to a gender? Or does God transcend and yet include what we know as male and female? Maybe if we were more aware of the feminine imagery for God we would have a better understanding of who God is and what God is like.

Depending on what circles your theology fits in, this statement could be either very tame or very radical. Either way, I think it is worth watching and thinking about.

There is great beauty and wisdom in some of the writings of the feminist theologians, and it is often a beauty and wisdom that has been forged in spite of deep oppression. However, there is also often great anger, and sometimes this anger leads these theologians to turn the oppressions on the heads of those who oppress them.

The same issue exists in liberation theology. In both cases, it is entirely justified. It is just for the oppressed and ignored to want retribution and to attempt to get it.

But in these issues, as well as issues of violence and war and annoying bosses, justification is not enough for something to line up with the heart of God. Certainly, it was just for Peter, seeing the arrest of Jesus, to cut off an ear or two. Countless other examples, before and after Jesus put the ear back, have occurred and in general we as humans have responded in ways that seek the kind of justice that Jesus didn’t allow.

In light of all this, if I could encourage feminist and liberation theologians, I would encourage them to draw closer to the heart of God as they cry out for the world to remember the things that truly are on his heart. But they must remember the masculine qualities of God as well as the neglected feminine attributes. They must remember the peaceful subversion that is the kingdom of God as well as magnify the neglected cries of the poor and oppressed. It is hard to live like this. But it is essential.

In light of all this, watch the new Nooma video.

I wanted to announce that my dad has started blogging. I’ve told him for some time that he should do so. Feel free to stop by and give him encouragement in his new adventure, as he learns WordPress and the various things one must know in order to blog with it (categories, tags, posts and pages, linking to external sites, and so on will be entirely new things to him, for a little while).

My dad is an interesting guy. He and I disagree on a myriad of issues and have for a long time, but we typically have healthy disagreement. I don’t have to be afraid to tell him what I think, and vice versa. We also agree on some very important things. In any case, I think he has things to say, and should say them. Plus, blogging is fun.

As an aside, recently my wife and I attempted to take him to his first Yankees game at Yankee Stadium, since this is the last season it will be open. Various issues occurred, and he only got to see the 9th inning, but he did at least make it into the original Yankee Stadium before it closed. We’ll go to the new one another time.

My dad and I have a great relationship, and have tried to do things like that for each other. In any case, here is my welcome to the world of blogging.

Recently, I’ve become acquainted with Josh Brown (and Anna). Kiera and I, I think, resonate strongly with them. I’d easily put them among the favorite people I’ve met since being in Atlanta. To follow his precedent, I raise a glass to them.

Anyway. Recently, Josh wrote about Revolution Money Exchange as part of the Indian Taxi Fund. At the moment, we are not able to offer a whole lot to this, but I want to encourage you to learn about it, and do what you can to get involved.

Moving to the place where design and business meet theology and ministry to help make the world a better place, as Josh is doing, represents the best of what I see happening in activism. And you could, of course, change design to some other discipline, or even change theology and ministry to something else. People who follow Jesus need not be afraid to join up with people who don’t, in attempting to change the world.

There is no limit to the possibilities that can come out of these kinds of combinations. Several years ago, I was driving from Tampa to Lakeland on I-4 when I heard an NPR story about Muhammad Yunus of the Grameen Foundation, when he was about to win the Nobel Peace Prize. I learned of his efforts to empower the disenfranchised through micro-lending, and set people free from poverty. Immediately I thought, “The heart of God is in that.”

This concept of micro-lending began with people like Muhammad Yunus. It is continuing and expanding with the concepts of people like Josh and the power of things like blogging.

If you are able to join with Josh at this time, please do. If you are not, consider creating an account through Revolution Money Exchange at the button below, or at the button Josh has on his own site. When you do so, you give me (or Josh) $10, and receive $25 for yourself. You could then, of course, get your own referrals. This alone could give you something to contribute, which is the purpose of a post like this.

For the next day or so (48 hours starting on Monday at noon), there is a premiere of a new video from Nooma about prayer. It’s brilliant. Watch it. Then buy it and watch it again.

In my life as of late, God will not shut up about prayer. He is drilling it into me. “Hey Jon, you don’t get it, and you’ve asked me for help. I want to tell you something! Shut up and listen to me!” Messages and thoughts about prayer show up everywhere lately. Church, my wife’s school, books I’m reading, random videos on Facebook, random blogs, and so on.

It’s a beautiful thing to hear the voice of God speaking in different areas of life. There is grace in that. Grace to say, “I know this is difficult for you. It’s ok. I’ll say it again.”

I have had an account with del.icio.us for a long time; a couple of years or so. Typically, I very rarely use it. I would import all of my Firefox bookmarks into it, and then forget about it for a while. I would come back a few months, or a year later, and realize that the entire thing was different than my bookmarks currently were.

Interestingly enough, del.icio.us does not give users the ability to delete all of the bookmarks at once. So, to avoid having to go through over 1,000 deletions manually, I would just delete the account and start it over again with the same username.

The other day, I decided to start over again. But this time, I intend to use it to store things that are of interest to me on a daily basis. For example, the presidential typography article. Good blog posts, inspirational designs, interesting news, and so on. You can see my del.icio.us bookmarks.

Each day, at least for now, I will have the links of the day posted automatically. If there is any interest in this, or if I find it enjoyable, I’ll keep doing it.

If you are a member of Facebook, or if you aren’t, please consider the following:

Not For Sale (NFS) is a campaign of individuals, musicians, artists, people of faith, businesses, schools and sports teams united to stop human trafficking and end modern day slavery in our lifetime.

On Facebook, there is currently an award of $50,000 US being offered to the organization (through Causes) that gets the most unique donors in seven days. The seven days ends at Noon PST (3pm EST) February 1st. The amount of the donation is not the issue; the number of donors is. Not For Sale is requesting $10 donations, as that is the minimum qualifying amount.

For more information, see the Not For Sale Giving Challenge 2008 cause on Facebook. This alone is worth giving in and getting a Facebook account, if you don’t have one already.

There are over 27 million people around the world who exist in slavery. Today. Not 1864. Today. It is more of an issue than it has ever been in recorded history. It’s wonderful to see action being taken, and ways in which we can be involved in that action.

Here is a nice article examining the typefaces used by the various presidential campaigns, and what those typefaces communicate. I love good typography. The web is plagued by abysmal typography, but there is a lot of evidence that many people, especially standards-aware designers, have really begun to care about this kind of thing.

Anyway. I think the article analyzes the various typefaces and what they represent very accurately. Worth a read.

A couple of days ago, the Charlotte Observer had this interview with Brian McLaren, in preparation for his visit to the city this weekend. It covers a variety of topics that he has discussed, or questioned, or looked at, in his various books.

I took note of the fact that many of the questions that were asked in the interview are questions for which many in the evangelical world have already decided what his answers are. If one reads his books, there is a constant willingness to question things, far more than there is a willingness to give answers. Typically, the evangelical world doesn’t like this.

When he talks about the idea that we should question our doctrines and our theology, he automatically wants to throw out everything that we consider to be non-negotiable. For example:

Q. You say that many Christians should start by replacing the idea of getting themselves and others “saved” so they can go to heaven — the evacuation plan, I think you call with — with this idea of getting out there, in the here and now, and healing the hurts of the world. So when Jesus said, “As the father sent me, so I sent you,” he was talking not really about conversions but about tackling the world’s crises — Is that right?

In this example, because he questions the idea that Christians need to be telling everyone that they’re going to hell and need to be saved so they can go to heaven (the classic, “If you died tonight, would you go to heaven?”), he apparently doesn’t want people to meet Jesus. His answer, though, is great:

Actually, I would put the two together. If we keep recruiting people to evacuate the earth, then every person who gets saved is, in some ways, taken out of the action. It’s like going to the bench of people who want to play in a football game and trying to recruit them to leave the (stadium) altogether.

A better image would be: What Jesus is asking us to do is go into the stands and recruit some people to come on the field and join us to play. The recruiting of new disciples is really connected to wanting to make a difference in the world.

And this is a perfect example of the misunderstanding that is often applied, not just to Brian McLaren, but to all things involving the emerging church. A similar thought is later in the article:

Q. What do you say, though, to conservative Christians who say, “What about the Great Commission? These (non-Christian) people are doomed and we need to save them through conversion.”

His answer:

First of all, I love to help every person I can to become a follower of Jesus Christ.

A lot of people don’t want to become followers of Jesus Christ. And when they don’t want to, they are not disqualified from being my neighbor. In fact, they still are my neighbor.

Because it looks for something different than what most of modern evangelicalism is looking for, it boils down to modern liberalism. Things like this show that the idea is really far more significant, and that it offers a challenge both to modern liberalism and modern evangelicalism.

The above examples are only a couple of the things in the article that, I feel, show more of a look into Brian McLaren’s own answers to his questions. He deals with issues of sin, basic doctrine, the prosperity gospel, and a number of other things. In various books and articles, he’s questioned many of these things in brilliant ways, and it’s nice to see a little bit of his own thinking about them.

Great little letter to Bill. Worth a read.