Text Messaging: My arch-nemisis!

I hate text messaging, and may even go so far as to say it is the bane of my existence. Sure it has it's purposes and if you looked at my cell phone bills (or rather my parent's bills because ashamedly I was still on their plan in seminary) you would see a moderate usage of text messages.

But now I am thrust into the world of youth ministry and for my middle to upper-middle class kids text messaging is the chief means of communication. Apparently e-mail is too cumbersome and to my surprise Facebook and Myspace are even out for most of them. They text like there is no tomorrow and will often have full conversations via text messaging (one of my biggest pet peeves).

So in an effort to actually be able to encourage and communicate with my kids I've decided that I need to descend into the fiery pits of text messaging. As I contemplate this task I feel like the main character from Dante's Inferno, who, as he approaches the entrance into Hell, sees a sign that reads "Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here." I am that dreadful soul descending into the darkest abyss where I am forced to submit to my arch enemy the text message. Lucky for me my new work phone number is an unlimited text plan.

Really the scenario isn't as bad as it sounds since I've found some solutions to my texting incompetence. One solution I found was on the "Simply Youth Ministry" website (here). Here they offer what is brilliantly called "Simply TXT" (you can watch the video here). This neat little subscription program is really the impetus for the post, but I thought I would provide some interesting (and true) back story instead of just calling the post "Simply TXT: Ripping of Youth Ministers One Text at a Time." Though that may be a catchy title.

You see, while I'm not a technical savant like some of my friends, I am educated enough in the ways of technology to know that you can send text messages from an email account for free. I also realized that if I could figure out the same information that this program asks for (number and carrier) then I could create my own groups and send unlimited messages without paying the 10,20,30, or 40 dollars each month. Especially when my budget is already small.

So good job Doug Fields and Simply Youth Ministry, you have created a nice interface so that you can charge youth ministers and churches money so that they can open up another way of communicating to their parishioners. I understand that your websites subtitle is: "simplifying ministry...saving you time" but I doubt your program will save much time in the long run.

I understand that you don't charge much, but your program doesn't do much either and it seems to me that it would have been more beneficial for you to just offer a link to a website like "makeuseof.com" (here) and then told your readers to make a contact list of the various numbers in either outlook, mail, or some other client. Sure you wouldn't be able to fleece youth ministers and churches, and you wouldn't be able to make a quick buck in rough times. But your ministry helps are gobbled up by so many people that it baffles me why you wouldn't point them to a way to achieve the same goal while not costing their ministry a cent. (Ok, It really doesn't baffle me it just makes me sad and a little perturbed).

So Doug Fields and Simply Youth Ministry, I salute you for ripping off the masses of youth leaders who are using your product. Way to be capitalists first and Christians second.

It happened again...

The first time it happened I thought about posting, but by the time I got back to my apartment I decided that it wasn't significant enough to post about. Well, it happened again and so I've decided to post about it.

So what exactly is it? It... is this:

I went to the grocery store to buy some groceries and was filled with an overwhelming sense of disgust and betrayal. Not at people or the store, but at myself.

Like I said, this isn't the first time it has happened, and so I can't merely shrug it off as good old fashioned liberal guilt. I have to think about it, I have to deal with it, but how? Everyone has to buy groceries don't they?

The question is how do we buy groceries without participating in the sinful cycle that we call capitalism? How do we purchase milk without supporting the system that screws poor dairy farmers while huge coorporations get richer? How do I buy apples without supporting apple farmers who pay migrant farm workers wages that aren't enough to feed a dog on?

Yes, there are a few options like free-trade coffee (but I don't drink coffee), but not enough and these options are usually expensive. So how do I do these things while one a very limited grad school student budget?

And why do i feel this guilt when I buy groceries and not when I buy books or pay for my cell phone? I know these aren't exactly the same but they're close enough.

How do I stop supporting big business that does nothing but give poor people the shaft. And yet, if big business were to be completely eliminated then millions of people would be out of jobs and there would be even more people in poverty.

Is socialism the answer? How about communism? A drastic overhaul of capitalsim? Should I treat this like the "meat sacrificed to idols" in scripture? Should I stop asking questions and delight in ignorance? I'm not sure. I'm not educated economically or politically enough to give an intelligent answer or even know the full extent of the problem.

All I know is when I go to the grocery store I get disgusted and feel like I am betraying all of my convictions just by buying milk and vegtables.

I don't have an answer, nor do I have a soap-box to stand on, all I know is it's something I think about a lot and so I put it out there for you all to think about with me.

Shalom