Where There’s Smoke, It Might Just Be A Smoke Machine – Conclusion
By admin | September 2, 2010
Look Out! It’s a Smoke Machine!
There is an age old saying out there that I am sure you have heard somewhere along the line. It’s only five words long, (seven, if you expand the contractions), but it’s chock full of read-between-the-lines implications.
“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
Here’s the translation.
“You are presumed guilty until you prove your innocence. Even then, I probably won’t trust you. I just got a whiff of suspicious smoke coming from your direction and… well… you know what they say…”
Some people call the “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” approach to social interaction “healthy skepticism.”
I call it preemptive assignment of guilt.
Most of us would agree that there are some pretty bad folks in this world. It seems sensible on its face to do what we can to protect ourselves from nasty ne'er do wells. Carrying a skeptical sensibility into encounters with new people or unknown actors, therefore, seems on its face to be prudent if not downright desirable.
For some reason, though, I just can’t get my head around the notion that ascribing guilt before assuming innocence is any way to run a society, let alone do Christian fellowship.
“Just call me Thomas.”
A moment of skepticism can be a healthy thing. Walking down a dark alley toward a shadowy figure wearing a long trench coat… Well, that’s probably a good time for a moment of healthy skepticism.
A moment of skepticism can also be an unhealthy thing. If you’re talking to someone and that someone starts to plant seeds of dubious gossip about another person…
Let’s just say that’s not exactly the equivalent of walking down a dark alley toward a guy in a trench coat.
Where gossip is planted, unjust skepticism often grows. It grows deeper roots as unsubstantiated rumor and innuendo are then repeated without restraint. It takes on a life of its own, going far beyond the original seed of gossip, as a series of accusations that nobody can ever prove beyond a reasonable doubt yet which ultimately show up on someones well-read blog anyway.
This stuff spirals out of control quickly in today’s social media world, where the mere hint of a rumor instantly becomes deeply-embedded truth.
This is precisely what happened to Shirley Sherrod a few weeks ago. Activist and blogger Andrew Breitbart dropped a few select innuendo on his blog and substantiated his concerns with a carefully edited snippet of a much longer speech Sherrod had given to the NAACP.
Suddenly, Ms. Sherrod was damaged goods. She was quickly jettisoned from her job.
Breitbart knowingly edited out the parts of the richer truth that didn’t fit his agenda and plowed ahead anyway.
He used the power of carefully orchestrated “spin” to assassinate Shirley Sherrod’s character.
When the Spin Cycle Fans a Wildfire
Wildfires of myth and misinformation about otherwise decent people almost always start as “Spin.” They gather steam exponentially as the burgeoning web of the Internet links and connects the first piece of half-truth to a hundred thousand other sites, all of which desperately clamor for fresh, salacious “content.” It is, after all, lurid content that drives click-through revenue on their sites.
Before you know it, a genuinely innocent person finds themselves a tattered, mangled mess, popping out from the rear tires of the spin bus under which they were thrown.
This kind of malarkey hurts people, friends. This particular brand of preemptive, venomous “spin” is now routinely taken to sickening levels of artistry by people who claim the name of Christ. These spin-freaks repeat innocent written mistakes or organizational oversights as festering proof of deeper conspiracies, never coming right out and saying, “So-n-so did such-n-such.” They merely dangle the line, “You be the judge…” as the period at the end of a sick, unfounded allegation masquerading as a nugget of truth.
“You be the judge.”
As Anne Hathaway said in that epic flick, “The Princess Diaries…”
“SHUT UP!”
Once you have been the target of this kind of subtle character assassination, especially in Christian circles, you know just how hard it can be to recover your good name. In the secular world, people have short memories. In the Christian world, the taint of an unfounded allegation can linger for years, if not a lifetime.
“Sorry. I can’t associate with you.”
“Guilt by association,” another form of “you be the judge” spin, is the worst kind of spin. It increasingly frightens good people into steering clear of working for or being near anyone who has been smeared or attacked for fear that they, too, might walk away with the stench of implied guilt on their clothes.
This approach to attacking opponents using “spin” or unsubstantiated rumor is positively McCarthy-esque. Owing to a general dumbing down of society in recent years, the lessons of that pathetic time in American history are now lost on today’s Internet-fixated surfers.
You should remember the guy I’m talking about. You probably studied Joe McCarthy in high school. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin used the threat of congressional subpoena, supported by unfounded allegations based in “guilt by association,” to destroy dozens of lives during his Communist witch hunts of the ‘50s.
As a consequence then – as is the consequence today – good people abandoned and distanced themselves from those who were under attack. It didn’t matter whether that person was guilty or innocent. Folks just didn’t want to be seen as a collaborator with an alleged communist.
“Go Ahead. Kick Me!”
I don’t know too many people who get their kicks by being attacked, reviled, or hated. I know even fewer who like being attacked, reviled, or hated as a result of some spin-meister’s unfounded innuendo.
As a consequence of this kind of behavior, good people increasingly steer clear of good service. They subconsciously avoid God’s calling for their lives, never bringing their gifts or talents into an arena in which known slings and arrows await. They shy from putting themselves or their families consciously into harms way, into the maw of a conflict crying out for their unique, God-given mix of talents.
It is one thing to have a healthy skepticism from which a heart of perpetual curiosity springs. I am one who no longer believes everything I read on the web, so I dig for the deeper truth all by myself. I don’t let people push me into believing the negative about this person or that until I have experienced that negativity for myself. It might mean I get hurt in the process, but my conscience is clearer for pursuing a deeper level of personal commitment to truth.
And it’s a good thing, too. Today I had one of the most wonderful conversations of my short tenure with my new place of service. That conversation involved a person whom some folks consider “tainted.” Now I don’t know whether that person is “tainted,” “pure,” or just steeped in pain and frustration. What I do know is that the person I spoke with deserves a fresh start every day. They deserve an abundance of compassion and prayer that springs out of a heart transformed by the Christ of the cross.
And I’ll gladly give them that compassion even if it means taking a huge risk. Once upon a time someone took a risk on me. I figure it’s always a good time to pass that compassion forward.
At the end of the day, even if that person abuses my trust, I’ll probably go right on back to them and try again with that whole 70×7 attitude Jesus spoke about fresh on my mind and my lips.
So what’s the bottom line? Just because someone you like and respect says nasty things about someone else, that doesn’t automatically make the allegations true. It just means that the person you like and respect might have been duped by someone else.
Your obligation is to dig deeper…
To seek truth more deliberately…
and to let the Holy Spirit hone your ability to sniff out spin from fact.
So next time someone tells you, “You know what they say… Where there’s smoke, there’s fire”, you tell them, “Check behind the curtain. It might just be a smoke machine, my friend.”
Topics: Commentary, Leadership, Life | No Comments »
Side Trip: An Apology to “Pearl’s Paradise” Readers
By admin | July 31, 2010
I'll get back to my series, "Where There's Smoke, It Might Just be a Smoke Machine," in a day or two. For now, though, I need to offer my regular readers an apology.
Earlier this month I blogged about our my calling to the Red Lion Evangelical Free Church and Christian Academy. A few days after putting up my original post, I re-read what I had posted and decided that I just didn't like what I had written. In retrospect I felt that I had unfortunately placed too much emphasis on the "titles" behind the calling and not nearly enough emphasis on giving God the glory for affording me an opportunity to serve the Red Lion community in the first place.
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Topics: Faith, Leadership, Life, Opinion | No Comments »
Where There’s Smoke, It Might Just Be A Smoke Machine – Part II
By admin | July 29, 2010
(Editor's Note: This is Part II of a multi-part series offering a new take on the age old question, “Who do you trust?” When selfish motives often lurk in the shadows, how can you really know whether spoon-fed “truth” is really “the whole truth and nothing but the truth”?”)
Just the Spin-Free Facts, Ma'am.
Selective truth telling – “spin” – masquerades as trustworthy “fact” with alarming frequency these days. We see it in White House press briefings, from Republican and Democratic administrations alike. We see it in those BP oil spill briefings which virtually nobody takes seriously. We see it in Wall Street financial reports when a company highlights its up-tick in earnings while downplaying the fact that it just laid off 1000 workers to reduce expenses. We see it every day on C-Span as both sides of the political spectrum bash each other, pretending as if the very solvency of the Union is teetering on the brink of disaster if one ideological slant is not pursued to the exclusion of all others.
Carefully selected snippets of targeted facts and figures are used to bolster this position or that, making one person (or company, or special interest group) look really, really bad while another looks really, really good. What is thoroughly messed up about all this spin-mongering is that honest, hard-working reporters, pressed by rampant cost-cutting and a general lowering of editorial standards, regurgitate hand-picked “spin” as if it is hard-edged fact. This new editorial expedience means that people or organizations with narrowly-targeted agendas get away with monopolizing the thought cycle of the day, often to the detriment of exposing deeper, trickier truths that get swept under the rug.
So perhaps it’s the awareness that we increasingly tiptoe through a “spin-controlled” world that gives me a more jaded sensibility about what gets offered up as “truth” these days.
Click to continue reading “Where There’s Smoke, It Might Just Be A Smoke Machine – Part II”
Topics: Analysis, Commentary, Faith, Leadership | No Comments »
Where There’s Smoke… It Might Just Be A Smoke Machine – Part I
By admin | July 28, 2010
(Editor's Note: This is Part I of a multi-part series offering a new take on the age old question, “Who do you trust?” When selfish motives often lurk in the shadows, how can you really know whether spoon-fed “truth” is really “the whole truth and nothing but the truth”?”)
Help! I'm Stuck in the “Spin” Cycle!
When you spend the bulk of your adult life working in and around the advertising industry, you tend to absorb a thing or two about the art of “spin.” Call it effective product positioning, building a memorable brand identity, or whatever you wish. Understanding your target audience and knowing how to leverage just the right communication mix to reach and motivate that target audience plays an enormous role in bumping up sales, salvaging a damaged reputation, destroying a competitor, or convincing people that eventual rewards outweigh short-term costs.
Or, as the old song goes…
“You gotta ac-cen-tuate the positive… E-lim-inate the negative.”
Click to continue reading “Where There’s Smoke… It Might Just Be A Smoke Machine – Part I”
Topics: Analysis, Commentary, Marketing | No Comments »
Why Red Lion? Why Now?
By admin | July 23, 2010
Sometimes God taps you on the shoulder. Sometimes He nudges you with a gentle poke to the solar plexus. And every now and then He prods you with a very pronounced slap to the forehead.
This is one of those forehead-slapping times.
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Topics: Faith, Life | 1 Comment »
Two Little Words with the Power to Hurt or Heal
By admin | July 12, 2010
Matthew 18:21-22 (New International Version)
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" 22 Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Today we ponder the power of words.
No, I'm not talking about great works of literature. Even as we approach the 50th anniversary of the publication of Harper Lee's ground-breaking, "To Kill a Mockingbird," I thought it was time to get a little more elemental, to dig deeper into the underlying meaning and power of smaller, more discrete building blocks of language.
Today, we consider two, inconsequential, three-letter words and the ways in which their placement in a sentence can either destroy a shaky relationship or heal a longstanding rift.
Today, we consider the sublime importance of those tiny, building-block words "did" and "you."
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Topics: Faith, Leadership, Life | No Comments »
The 2010 Philly Livestrong Challenge Needs YOU!
By admin | July 11, 2010
(NOTE: The author is not an official representative of the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) or Montgomery County ARES/RACES (MCAR). The comments expressed herein are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official positions of either LAF or MCAR.)
"Mr. Livestrong" Puts Out the Challenge
Most of my close friends and family know me as "Mr. Livestrong." From the first time I volunteered to serve on the 2007 Philly Livestrong Challenge I have been hooked on this event. It is one of the most professionally run non-profit fundraising events around. My Toyota Prius still proudly sports the "official car" trunk decal that I surreptitiously spirited away from last year's Livestrong Challenge bike race.
My personal challenge to regular readers of "Pearl's Paradise" is that you, too, should adopt this worthy cause and get personally involved. If you are a ham radio operator you are desperately needed to help staff on-course communications for this mammoth event. If you are not a ham radio operator but just want to donate your time to this worthy cause, you are also needed.
(NOTE: Volunteer sign-up links can be found at the end of this posting. Please READ ON for more info.)
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Topics: Ham Radio, Leadership, Life | No Comments »
The Journey Begins… Red Lion, Here we Come!
By admin | July 1, 2010
The official announcement finally hit the airwaves today. I am finally free to speak openly about the amazing spiritual and professional journey of the past 9 months.
On August 1st the Pearl family will join the administrative team and community at the Red Lion Christian Academy. It has taken a while to get here and it has been a wild and wonderful trip! In the coming days I'll share more about how we got here, what we will be doing, and how God has graced our entire family with love and support along the way. I'll also share a little about why I am so passionate about what we are about to do together on that campus and beyond.
For now, though, I want to put something out there for the benefit of my current colleagues and friends whom I will probably see much less of after our move to Delaware.
Click to continue reading “The Journey Begins… Red Lion, Here we Come!”
Topics: Faith, Family, Leadership, Life | No Comments »
Ballmer the Emperor Has No Clothes… Or Clue
By admin | June 8, 2010
Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft and heir to the Bill Gates' Windows legacy, is a pretty wealthy guy. Ballmer's earnings could probably do a decent job of taking a chunk out of the national debt if he really wanted to.
So you would be forgiven for thinking that all his accumulated wealth meant that old Stevie Boy was a really, really smart guy. And he might in fact be a smart guy.
He just didn't sound very smart when he whined on petulantly last week about the irrelevance of the Apple iPad. As you'll see in a moment, Ballmer's characterization of the iPad pretty much screamed, "I'm the one wearing the clothes, I tell you!"
Perhaps you've heard about the iPad? It's that slick new piece of hardware that everyone wants and that places like Best Buy just can't keep in stock.
Oh yeah… I almost forgot.
Microsoft had nothing to do with the iPad's flaming success.
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Topics: Analysis, Commentary, Opinion, Technology | 2 Comments »
Before I Dumped facebook, I Paused…
By admin | June 7, 2010
As promised, I dumped facebook first thing Monday morning. Before I did, though, I paused. I went back and gave a long, hard look at the list of "friends" I had accumulated during my time on facebook. The sad truth is that with very, very few exceptions I will miss being a part of that rich social network.
But there are exceptions. No, I won't "out" people here, running around like some petulant child shouting, "You're not my friend!" I will, however, share a confession that might shock some of you. You might find yourself in the same boat and be as afraid to admit the truth as was I.
Merely being on facebook made me feel a degree of subtle peer pressure with that whole "friend" thing. I felt almost compelled to accept some folks as "friends" even though I really didn't know them well enough to call them "friends" in the classic sense. I mean… It's not like I ever chowed down over beef barbecue and corn on the cob with them, you know what I mean?
That's my problem with facebook.
Who is a "friend," really?
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Topics: Commentary, Faith, Life | No Comments »
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