Welcome to Eric Folkerth's blog!

Nothing But Nets...on Colbert, and in honor of Russ

Many of you know that I've become a huge fan of "Nothing But Nets" the past few years. The other night, there was a great confluence of this favorite charity of mine and the Colbert Report.

Below is Rick Riley's appearance with Stephen Colbert, as they talk about the project, and even do a demonstration. I hope you'll watch not only because it's a great charity, but because you'll help me honor my friend, Russ Noland.
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A Photo History of Community Organizers

Wow. The repost of my little blog, expanding on Jim Wallis' original ideas, has been burning up the wires over at DailyKos this afternoon. It spent a better part of the afternoon as the top "recommended" journal, and is on the way to having 400 comments.

Wow. This issue clearly touches a button. I certainly do not agree with every comment, and find some of them offensive in language and tone. But it's interesting to see the passion there. Take a
look.

I think this "dissing" of Community Organizers and their "responsibilities" is going to backfire...but that's my hunch.

In the midst of the many comments was one from Beverly, about her own diary, entitled "
A Photo History of Community Organizers."

It's worth a quick read. Or, enjoy the video version beyond the jump, which has the benefit of a sweet U2 soundtrack:
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Sarah Palin Owes Some Good People an Apology

I've been bothered by a snippy comment from Sarah Palin's speech the other night, and have wanted to write about it. But Jim Wallis beat me to it. So, this morning, I will simply cite a few of the highlights of his fine blog --whose title I have borrowed as the title of this one-- and direct you to it, in the hopes you'll read it too.

More than anything else, Palin's comments have opened up an opportunity to remind the nation of just how important "Community Organizers" have become, just how connected they are to faith communities, and just how much "responsibility" they really do shoulder for the rest of our society.

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Would it be Wrong to Pray for Rain?

I posted the video that inspired this question to my Facebook page, and it got a couple of nice comments. So I thought I'd expand my thinking on it into a blog entry.

The question for this blog is:
Would it be wrong to pray for rain?

The answer is: it depends, I suppose.

If you're a West Texas rancher, and you're in the middle of a long drought, then it's probably an understandable petition to God.

If you're allegedly a Christian minister, and you're clearly wishing for God to, ahem, rain down judgement on your adversaries, then the answer is:

"Yes....it's wrong to pray for rain."

And I know that second example
sounds crazy. But it happened just a few weeks back, when a member of "Focus on the Family" actually encouraged people to pray for rain on the night of Obama's acceptance speech.

Like I said, I had heard about this in conversation. But to see the video? It's amazing. And deserves further unpacking.
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