“Fake it til you make it” was one of the many mantras of personal development and motivation in the 1980s. It was probably one of the most enduring pieces of poor life advice. “Nosedive,” an episode from the surrealist Netflix series Black Mirror, pushes “faking it” to the limit. Whereas in our reality, economic credit […]
The truth is enough.
Matthew 5:33-37, part of the gospels’ summary of Jesus’s teachings, challenges the way we handle the truth. And it’s a necessary challenge. Truth, embellishments, hedges, and avoidances all make business and interpersonal relationships that much more complicated. We’ve learned to distrust marketers and their advertising claims, and “Just give it to me straight” is a […]
Filling In the Gaps: Sexuality and the Seventh-day Adventist Church III
In Part 1 of this series, I reflected on the Seventh-day Adventist denomination’s influence on the sexual orientation change effort (SOCE) movement since the 1970s and its lobbying against civil initiatives for LGBT people to the present day. Then, in Part 2, I suggested that the limits of our church “mother” can inspire us to grow, that this growth is part […]
On Branding
This morning I came across a few links on the U.S. Republican Party’s post-election re-branding conversation.* This conversation has been going on for the last three months, and while a new “Growth and Opportunity Committee” has formed to move it forward, the recurring themes are still the same: “The conservative message sells,” said Saul Anuzis, […]