Your point is?

On Facebook, I posted a link to "Take Action: Tell Glenn Beck: I'm a Social Justice Christian" on the Sojourner's website. I introduced the link with these words, "Instead of being LDS, sometimes I think Glenn Beck is on LSD."

I was surprised to find a response from a college friend. If I remember correctly, it was the first time he responded to something on my Facebook wall.

Bob, social justice is codeword for destruction of liberty--using the coercive power of government to loot some for the benefit of others. If you rob Peter to pay Paul, you can expect Paul's full support--paraphrasing George Bernard Shaw.

Honestly, my first thought after thinking "he posted something" was simple.

Your point is?

I admit his comment is provoking. There is a chance he posted these words simply to see how I would respond. He could have hoped that my underlying nature from my reddish hair would provide some entertainment.

Being older, I may not provide the same level of entertainment anymore. I have also come to recognize that no one who quotes Shaw or uses a dash correctly—twice—according to the Chicago Manual of Style is a ranting lunatic.

(Maybe I should reconsider the correct usage point. Dr. Bledsoe taught both of us well in our historiography class. Kate Turabian forever.)

Even so, let me give a more extensive answer than what Facebook allows.

It is true that promoting social justice destroys liberty.

When Moses responded to God's call from the flaming bush to lead the people of Israel to freedom, ultimately this destroyed the freedom of their Egyptian overlords to enslave them. "Then the Lord said, 'I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians....'"

It is unfair to tell an agribusiness owner to give away product. "When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God."

No one likes getting passive-aggressive pressure to do something. "If he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand: I will repay it. I say nothing about your owing me even your own self."

This destruction of liberty is not limited to examples in the Bible. Encouraged by examples from the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, English Evangelicals like William Wilberforce worked for the elimination of the trade of a legal product. Americans Evangelicals like Elijah Parish Lovejoy worked to make ownership of this product illegal. In the 1960s, Jonathan Daniels died when trying to benefit to a portion of the population. It is very clear that Wilberforce, Lovejoy, and Daniels wanted to use the coercive power of government to loot some for the benefit of others.

Here is my confession. My example of life comes nowhere close to the example of Wilberforce, Lovejoy, and Daniels. Still, I hope I have done something in my life to show how they have inspired me.

Where have all the writers gone, long time passing?

For those of us of a certain age, we remember the Kingston Trio singing this song:

Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Girls have picked them every one.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Today I am not concerned with disappearing flowers. For that matter, the disappearing boys lost in war, which was the original subject of the song.

Let me clarify, please. I really am concerned about war, but something has been catching my attention lately: where have all the technical writers gone?

"Technical writing is the art, craft, practice, or problem of translating that which is logical into that which is grammatical" ("Technical Writing," H2G2 on the BBC website, retrieved 4 March 2010). What happens when you skip hiring the writers to do what they have traditionally done?

In some cases, things crash.

NASA had been on a "Faster, Better, Cheaper" drive when the Mars Climate Orbiter crashed. The direct reason for the crash was the spacecraft coming in at the wrong altitude and speed because of a confusing metric and English units when doing the engineering. One of the contributing causes was as "Inadequate operations Navigation Team staffing." ("Part IV: Mars Climate Orbiter Mishap Investigation," Lost in Space: A Case Study in Engineering Problem-Solving, retrieved 4 March 2010.)

There were many articles at the time saying one of the professions not hired for the project were technical communicators. They were not present to catch errors when documenting the details of the flight.

Engineers are smart enough to know the difference between a foot and a meter. Still, engineers are still human. That act of translation by writers to a document, followed by a release approval process, caught confused units. Many times an alert writer asks an engineer about discrepancies before a document even went into its release process.

I know there have been many times when preparing instillation documentation that I asked the right question to save a problem later on.

While there are still writing jobs out there today, they are getting fewer and fewer. Instead, the subject matter experts get the task of preparing the documentation. Some experts are good writers. Yet, even the good ones do not do that translation skill constantly.

When you need heart surgery, would you choose the freshest cardiac surgeon on staff in order to get the most recent training? In most cases, most of us would want to find a surgeon that has the balance between keeping current while being able to mine experience in heart surgery.

Technical communications is not heart surgery. However, who wrote the manuals for the equipment being used during heart surgery? For that matter, who wrote the specifications for the airplanes you are flying? Who documented the code your bank uses in its computers? Who communicated the formulas used to operate hardware on a space flight?

I must not be the only person asking that question.

It seems to me—without benefit of well-crafted polling—that there is many more editor positions open today. Are these editors supposed to make up for the lack of writers? Do project planners think that an editor will finish a document prepared by a non-writer in the same time as one prepared by a writer?

Good editing is not simply about finding misspelled words and misplaced commas. There are many legal considerations—trademarks, fact checking, product claims—that need handling. Is there too much or too little in the documentation? Are all the necessary subjects covered? Is each subject in the document in the most effective order? This should all take place long before you check for spelling and punctuation.

In many cases, there is some overlap between the editors and writers—even though both look those overlapping issues from a different angle. What is being lost when you drop the writer?

You lose the translator of the logical into the grammatical.

Subject matter experts do not need translators. Editors do not translate, as they get translated material. In theory, the technical writers translate.

On a recent gig when I was editing material supplied by a subject matter experts. When I finished editing, the sentences all made sense. In addition, the sentences were all wrong.

Fortunately, a developer caught the problem before publication. That developer was very kind about it, saying normally there would have been a writer in the process to write the words for editing. He knew I did not have the advantage of interviewing the subject matter experts before working on it.

That developer and a subject matter took what I had edited as a starting point for a quick rewrite. This time there was no problem.

So, where have all the writers gone?

Let your technology shine forth to all people

It isn't too often I get to comment on the latest, cool technology and life in the church.

The person in the picture on the right is a real person. That is, he was present in flesh and blood when the picture was taken.

The person on the left was not physically there when the picture was taken. He is a holographic projection.

This picture comes from "Holographic Technology," a blog post by Tony Morgan. He makes this claim:

Pricing is coming down quickly to the point that I won’t be surprised if we see this technology implemented in churches within the next 12 months. Interestingly enough, this solution that Clark is offering is unique in that churches don’t have to use special cameras to capture the content and deliver the holographic images.

One person making a comment said, "This would be an awesome addition to our already amazing resources to reach people." Another person referred to someone said something more telling:

Dr. Leonard Sweet has been predicting for years that the future of ministry is holographic technology. He calls it “Avatar Evangelism”. Pretty interesting!

So, will we need 3-D glasses when we go to church? Or, will worship be like reserving the holodeck on the Enterprise? It makes you wonder how anyone could have grown in their faith before the computer age.

I do not doubt how this technology will be able to used in education. That can be in school, the workplace, or in church. It will make Donald in Mathmagic Land seem so quaint. (And I still haven't been able to memorize how to do the pool trick in this movie so I can show off with it.)

Somewhere I missed the part in the Bible where it said that we are to wow people with our technology to show them God. I did catch the part where it is our faith in action that shows them God.

I hope people really don't think that reducing evangelism to a night at the movies is going to bring the Peaceable Kingdom.

With angels and archangels and all the company of Heaven

David added two new assistant choir masters to the heavenly choirs on February 18, 2010.

Richard Hillert (born 14 March 23) was Distinguished Professor of Music Emeritus at Concordia University Chicago in River Forest, Illinois. I think it would be safe to say his most performed work is the setting for the canticle "Worthy is Christ" found in Setting 1 of the Lutheran Book of Worship.

Richard Proulx (born April 1937) was most recently directing music at Holy Name Cathedral (Roman Catholic) in Chicago. Of more general interest was the large quantity of service music, which is used in many denominations. Proulx's adaptation of Franz Schubert's Deutsche Messe to the English-language liturgical texts are in the Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church) and Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America).

With a past history of being a church organist in Episcopal churches and one Lutheran church, I am familiar with the works of both of these composers.

Fly your flag to show support for federal employees through February 25, 2010

Why should a person be subject to death simply because they work in a federal office building?

We need to show our support for all federal employees at this time. Some accuse them of being a serious problem. Of course, it isn't true. They are working according to the conditions and standards we set for them through law

I'm not saying they are perfect. They are human, subject to the same problems each of us face. Some federal employees do handle it better than others. Some need replacing. Most need our support and thanks.

It is time to stop demonizing humans just because they are federal employees.

No one should feel like they are subject to attack because they work for the federal government and work in a federal building.

Show your support for federal employees. Fly your flag through February 25, 2010. Tell everyone why you are doing it.

Don't let the Texas Tax Terrorist win.

Why should the devil have all the good music?

I was looking a a friend's post on Facebook about having ashes placed on your forehead on Ash Wednesday. While reading the discussion, Revelation 13.16-17 came to mind. "He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name" (NIV).

I'm not one to quote from the Revelation of John all that often. This book is a hard one to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest. So much of it is caught up in the history and politics of its day. Still, the idea of having the mark of the beast versus having the mark of Christ rattled around in my mind.

If truth be admitted, we have both marks on us during a human lives. We struggle. We make mistakes. We triumph. We serve.

But, we gotta serve somebody. May Lent surprise you with grace.

I'm Number 2!

After reading a tweet and reading the page to which it linked, I was reminded of a time when I was Number 2. And, how important it is to be Number 2.

To understand this post, you need to know that I cannot dance. Even though my sexual orientation is supposed to override my cultural background, it simply did not happen in this case. Maybe I'm the exception to prove the rule. Maybe having two feet that are flatter than most basketball courts trumps even sexual orientation. No matter what, I cannot dance.

Add to my lack of dancing abilities is that I no longer have a tendon down the lower left leg. Late onset radiation necrosis after radiation therapy is why I lost this tendon. I used a cane in public for a time because of this. It isn't that I cannot walk without a cane, but I can be tripped easily. I cannot raise my left toe when I walk. Or dance. The only reason I don't use my cane now is how much my shoulders hurt using it. (Yes, the cane is adjusted correctly.)

You should watch me exit an elevator when it doesn't line up perfectly at the floor and I'm distracted by something.

Not everyone has the same problems with dance that I do.

There is the Rt. Rev. Nedi Rivera. It is hard to find a time in public when she is not dancing. While I know Bishop Rivera experiences joy and sadness like the rest of us, watching how she enters fully into the dance of life is something that normally draws everyone who meets her into relationship with her.

What happens on one of those rare occasions when no one responds to the call of the Dancing Bishop?

This happened at the diocesan convention when Bishop Rivera was introduced to everyone after her election. At that point, she was not yet consecrated a bishop. She wasn't even working yet from Diocesan House in Seattle. We were still getting to know her.

The sequence at the convention Eucharist was the version of "Open your ears, oh faithful people" found in the Hymnal 1982. While we were singing it, Nedi Rivera comes down from the Liturgical East and starts dancing in front of me. To me it was obvious she wanted other radicals to join her.

Remember that I can't dance. I didn't go anywhere in public without my cane at that point. While the many electric cords and cables on the convention floor were appropriately taped down (video screens, speakers, microphones), each provided a bump for my left toe to catch.

No one was joining Nedi Rivera. The sequence continued.

Finally, I decided I had to be the change I wanted to see in the world. I walked out there to dance with Nedi Rivera. I was accepted as an equal in this effort, even though Nedi Rivera had to give me emergency lessons in Jewish dance.

By walking out there to be Number 2, others decided they could join the dance. In fact, we danced around the outside edge of the whole convention.

I won't say that I've never been more scared in my whole life doing this. It isn't even close. I ride a motorcycle in rush hour traffic.

Fortunately no bump in the floor ruined the whole thing. From this, though, I learned the importance of being Number 2.