The Wall Street Journal reports (10-7-2006; pg. B3) that churches are venturing into ‘asset securitization,’ which is a fancy term for repackaging groups of church bonds. Strongtower Financial, of California, created various groups of bonds from 28 churches, and resold them to investors.
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal (10-9) has an interesting article about a group of executives using the Bible to manage their companies. Calling themselves the C12 Group, they count more than 500 members. [Link here; regi$tration required]
This is very good news, though the article points out a couple of dangers.
One is that religion becomes just another tool to get ahead. One of the members admits that his own transformation began after he went to a church with his wife, as his wife wanted a promotion, and her boss was a member of the church.
The other potential downside is religious discrimination, which is illegal in secular companies. The employees in the article say they recognize their bosses’ faith, without feeling pressured to give up their own faith to get ahead. Striking the wrong balance can be hurtful and expensive, so it’s good to hear that the members of C12 are doing it right.
Missourians Against Human Cloning has a short video on YouTube, explaining why Ballot Initiative 2 is misleading. Click here. HT: The Corner. Worth 2 minutes of your time to understand the issue; spread the word!
[10/16: Robert Novak writes on the video here. HT: the Corner]
Kudos to Campus Crusade, who is the first organization I’ve noticed using internet ads for evangelism. A link to www.godlovestheworld.com, an on-line 4 Spiritual Laws, was in the sidebar of a Washington Times story, which was at the top of the Drudge Report today. The coverage doesn’t get much bigger on the net.
I’ve often wondered why more ministries aren’t doing this, particularly since the Internet reaches into many countries and peoplegroups that otherwise have limited access to the gospel. Maybe now that Crusade is doing it, others will feel comfortable following suit.
A DelRay Beach, Florida priest told authorities that he had a good reason for embezzeling $400,000 in church donations: he was the underpaid CEO of a multi-million-dollar organization.  “[The Priest] gave his opinion that he was never properly paid by the diocese, he was running a big business and getting nothing for it,” the search warrant says. “He took what he had coming to him, as the diocese was cheap and never paid for his education.”
My post on savingbellevue.com obviously struck a nerve. This little blog is just my musings on life together in local churches, and, occasionally, the hair on Tom Cruise’s baby. I’m obviously not privy to ‘insider’ information at Bellevue. But I do think others can learn a lot by paying attention, and that’s what I tried to communicate in my post.