The license plate scanner: Trading freedom for security?
Police in Springdale, Ohio, have a new and amazing piece of technology - a license plate scanner which mounts to a patrol car and can read up to 900 plates an hour at highway speeds. Springdale police have read 86,000 plates since they began using the scanner in June. The primary use is to immediately identify stolen cars and also to locate people wanted on other charges. There’s a funny story here about two parolees in L. A. who were spotted by a scanner when they drove to an appointment with their parole officer in a stolen car.
As a non-car-thief, this technology sounds good to me, except for one thing: The data gathered by the scanner is kept indefinitely, perhaps forever. The reason is that, if I ever DO commit a crime and the police need to find me, they can pull up my license plate and find all the places where I was scanned and use it to deduce where I might be.
Now I’m not planning on becoming a criminal, but it creeps me out a bit to picture a scanner on every police car, and soon on every traffic light and lamp post tracking my every move for who-knows-what and who-knows-who. Check out the best sci-fi movie of the 2000s, Minority Report, to see this idea fleshed out beyond all sanity.
In the early 90s, I read an article by Charles Colson predicting that when fear strikes us, we’ll trade our freedom for security. We seem to do that a little bit more each year. This scanner seems like a step in that direction.
But in these early days of the technology, I hope they catch a lot of criminals!
(I first read about the scanner at Slashdot).
Sermon: Elements of success from Ezra
Strong and Courageous:
How to Live in the Promised Land
2. Elements of success from Ezra
7.29.7 Listen MP3 (right-click to save)
Sermon: Lessons from Joshua on surviving prosperity
Strong and Courageous:
How to Live in the Promised Land
1. Lessons from Joshua on surviving prosperity
7.22.7 Listen MP3 (right-click to save)
Sinéad O’Connor and grace
If you know anything at all about Sinéad O’Connor, you probably remember her ripping up a photo of the pope on Saturday Night Live 15 years ago. That’s pretty much all I knew about her.
So it surprised me to see Christianity Today do an interview and feature article on her. It surprised me more to read that O’Connor is releasing a CD called Theology, based on themes from the Old Testament, and that the CT articles are part of her publicity campaign. The biggest surprise, though, is how RIGHT she gets grace.
Sinéad O’Connor isn’t likely to win any Dove Awards with Theology. She’s still profane (I had to steer around an expletive in the quote below). But she shows real insight into grace, authenticity, repentance and the power of God when she speaks to CT about the Catholic church abuse scandals:
The reason they were afraid to fess up is because they knew their congregations would slaughter them, which means they haven’t taught forgiveness—they haven’t actually taught the Christian lessons to their own congregations. If they had taught forgiveness and understanding…people would have a lot more respect for them.
If they believed in God, they would’ve gone through this sexual abuse scandal a lot easier because they would’ve actually asked and employed God in order to sort things out. So they’re still swimming through it with no life support.
Sermon: Luxury, poverty and judgment in Revelation
Series: Luxury, Poverty and the Kingdom of God
Sermon 8 of 8 - 7.15.7: Luxury, poverty and judgment in Revelation
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Listen (stream) MP3 (right-click)
Sunday Seven - the declutter edition
We had a successful yard sale on Saturday. Not that we made a lot of money, but we sold some really bulky items that had made it impossible to use the garage. I’m currently at war with clutter, and I think it’s a spiritual issue…
- Merlin Mann at 43 folders has been on at war against clutter for a few weeks now. This link is to his most recent in a series of inspiring posts. Follow his links to find earlier posts. It’s worth it.
- Top ten ways to declutter your digital life. Computers get cluttered too, which keeps me from finding what I need. This Lifehacker post helps.
- My college friend Al Perry also spent time this week cleaning out the junk.
- Compulsive hoarding…what is it? The skinny from Oprah.com.
- Conquering clutter. A look at our love-hate relationship with clutter from AARPMagazine.org.
- Organize now. 10 clutter-busting don’ts from iVillage.
- “For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.” 1 Timothy 6:7-8, NIV
Sermon: Acts of mercy, letters of love
Series: Luxury, Poverty and the Kingdom of God
Sermon 7 of 8 - 7.8.7: Acts of mercy, letters of love. Poverty and justice in Acts and the Epistles. Listen (stream) MP3 (right-click)
American idolatry?
A local church flies the American flag on a pole outside their church, with the Christian flag underneath. This is undoubtedly good flag-flying etiquette, because the American flag is always to be displayed in the dominant position. But what does it say about our theology?
A variation of the practice (seen in the smaller photo) is to fly the American flag and Christian flag side-by-side…with the American flag slightly higher of course, and the Christian flag on the same level as the Tennessee flag. In our own sanctuary for the past two weeks the American flag and Christian flag have been displayed on our stage, with the American flag on the speaker’s right and the Christian flag on the left. Again, this is good flag etiquette because it puts the American flag in the dominant role. But what does it say about our theology? At least in our sanctuary, the cross is the highest symbol in the room and it’s always front-and center.
I’m patriotic and I love this country. But we need to be careful what we say with our patriotism and our symbols. Do we truly put country before God, as our flag displays seem to imply?
We must realize that the church is an international organization, offering welcome, healing, forgiveness and a place in God’s family regardless of where a person comes from or what political or social views they hold. And we need to do more than realize it. We need to put it into practice.
Sermon: Freedom
7.1.7
