An Open Letter to NBC

[the following is from an email I sent NBC this morning]

I just wanted to let you know that I’m terribly disappointed in NBC’s decision to pull out of iTunes.  It is a choice that the company has to make as a business decision but it puts customers at a disadvantage and I wanted to make sure that you knew customers were watching.  I would also like for NBC to publicly announce what exact measures they expected Apple to take to prevent the ‘estimated’ illegal content from being distributed.

I don’t know what shows are on NBC that I will be watching this upcoming season, but I would have liked to have grabbed the missed episodes on iTunes for $1.99.  I know you wanted to double the price, but that’s rather ridiculous.  As it stands I will now have to just wait and watch them when I get home from trips on my DVR, which will record them, allow me to skip commercials, and watch them on my own schedule for the $5.00 a month Qwest/DirecTV charge me.  NBC will not get any of that money instead of making some money off of the iTunes download that I would have given them periodically.

Please re-consider your position with Apple because it would be more than fruitful for you to make things available to your customers in a convenient, legal manner, without being invasive to their normal patterns for content acquisition.  The assumption that was made in the Press Release assumes that the United State’s legal policy of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ is just not part of the way NBC thinks.  This makes me very concerned for the future of the network because it makes the consumer the bad guy immediately.  Customer centric companies that buy advertising will identify this and may remove or adjust advertising budgets over time to reduce NBC’s income from commercials.

Please don’t distance yourself from customers.  The networks operate and exist because of the customers who pay for content through watching advertisements, buying TV series in DVD box sets, and through word of mouth talking about content put out by the network, hopefully building up a fan base for the network’s shows.  NBC has indicated to the public that they are not valuable as people, but only as income sources.  I know you’re a business, but if you compare this to a restaurant experience this is the scenario that you would find:
The customer comes into a Denny’s every week on Tuesday and orders a grand slam breakfast [chosen as a low cost dining experience, we’re not talking about premium channel television like HBO].  The customer comes regularly and establishes an emotional connection with the routine, Denny’s wins, the customer feels they’re winning and the waitresses become friends.  One day the customer comes in only to discover that all of the waitresses were fired because their content delivery method was deemed too susceptible to the fact that people could also smuggle in food from home for their children.  The customer who was not smuggling in food for children is immediately shocked that there is a farmer standing outside saying, “We had the owner fire the waitresses because their content delivery mechanism was not bringing in enough for us.  Now instead of us getting money for our eggs, poultry, pigs and produce, we’ll get nothing and you’ll have to go other routes to get food!  We win!”

The customer loses, the waitresses lose (iTunes), the farmers lose (NBC) and yet the customer will go to another restaurant or a store and get their own food – maybe from other sources that will continue to cut out the very farmers that killed Denny’s supply chain due to the waitresses not being effective at stopping people from smuggling in food, a minority of customers.

I buy legal copies of everything I own.  I don’t steel music, I don’t steel movies, I don’t steel software and I’m offended that NBC would imply such a thing.  I am a software developer that has to make a living through people buying legal versions of the software I work on.

August Was a Bad Month for Garbage Cans in the Peterman Household

This last month our garbage cans were run over by friends and family.  Twice.  At the beginning of the month Jessica’s sister creamed them with her parents’ Buick (not pronounced like quick).  In the middle of the month my friend Tony nailed them as he was backing out of our driveway.

The good thing is that they’re rubbermades and they withstood the smashing.

Bustoast

This morning Grandma Forland asked Evie if she wanted an Egg.  To which Evie replied, “Egg, please.”

Then Abby yelled out, “Eggs and buttered toast! Eggs and buttered toast!”

Evie joined in, “Bustoast! Bustoast!”

Evie will probably kill me for sharing this with the interwebs when she gets older and someone says, “Bustoast,” to her.

Five

Abby is five today.  Five years ago we were in the hospital and Jessica was in intense labor (at the time of this writing, according to my computer she’ll be five in a few more hours).  I can’t believe how much has changed in our lives since Abby was born, but much of that change is in direct relation to our having had Abigail.  I remember doing a lot of crying when Abby was born.  They were tears of joy and I’m sure they mixed with snot as I whimpered, wept and rejoiced over the new life I was seeing in front of me instead of her wiggling in Jessica’s stomach.

Abby can walk, talk, chew gum, read, imagine and laugh.  My mother has often told me that my smile is something she remembers most about me growing up and I can certainly say that Abby’s smile is what lingers in my memories as well.   Abby’s laughter and calling me silly, or asking me to tickle her, is something that I will cherish and recall when I hand her off some day to a husband who will hopefully find her to be one tenth as beautiful as I think she is.

Abby is smarter than I think any other children her age are.  I’m probably rather biased.  I’m rather biased about my daughters and wife, but I think that’s acceptable. [editors note: I’m crying now so I’ll stop.  What a pansy guy I am ;)]

Happy Birthday, Abigail Ruth!  Your mother and I love you very, very much!  I hope five is more wonderful than four.

The CD is 25 Years Old

The audio CD is 25 years old.  I remember getting my first CD: Queen’s soundtrack to Highlander.  I believe my second CD was Diamond Rio (yes, I bought a country album).  After that I don’t remember.  I’m glad that I can buy all digital now 🙂

In Case Your V@9!n@ is a Roller Coaster

Why on Earth do advertisers demand that commercials have weird, weird, weird implications?  The latest maxi-pad (feminine napkin) commercial drives me bonkers!  Who decided that they should describe a woman’s body part as a roller coaster?  At what point in time does the average woman find herself in a situation where she thinks, “I have got to get a maxi-pad that can handle this Jennifer Garner/Alias type activity.  Periods & my daily commute simply don’t mix.”

This sort of thing scares me mostly because I know they’re working on a more extreme commercial with tree chippers and chinchillas.  I don’t know how they’ll fit, but its coming.

Things to Remember

This morning I asked Abby about a song that I had heard her singing along with on a kids CD. She began to sing it. I joined in at one point and then she stopped and told me that in the recording of the song at times only the kids sang because they knew, “… the anniversaries**.”

** that is verses in case you’re not quite sure what she was trying to say

A Free Upgrade Wouldn’t Be Worth It

When you read quotes like this:

I’ve been using Vista on my home laptop since it shipped, and can say with some conviction that nobody should be using it as their primary operating system — it simply has no redeeming merits to overcome the compatibility headaches it causes. Whenever anyone asks, my advice is to stay with Windows XP (and to purchase new systems with XP preinstalled). – Joel Spolsky

Its hard to want to upgrade.

AT&Ted Off

So, in the continuing saga or me against AT&T I went into their store recently (as in Friday evening) and I asked an employee, “I have a weak reception area that I live in, do you know which phone you carry has the best antenna for improved reception?”  The perfect answer was given to me, “Do you have friends that have AT&T service?  You could invite them over to your house and see who has the best reception.”  If I didn’t want one of those blasted iPhones so bad I’d totally jump ship.

Tithing – An Old, Temporary Law? You Betcha!

It is true that I think that 10% is an awfully small amount of money to do the Lord’s work. On the scale from 0% to 100% you’ll find me racing with a passion to the 100% side of the scale. You see I don’t think that ten percent is enough because of a desire to see people give more to God’s work, but instead I view that all of what the Lord has in your life is His. My friend and brother in Christ, Tony, once called me and told me that, “Someone ran into God’s car.” I chuckled because it was a great way for him to express his understanding that the car, which has monetary value, is God’s. The house that he and his bride are raising their three children in is God’s. Even the three children are God’s. There is no question on his mind that all things are God’s.

This brings us to the question of whether the tithe should be grasped as a New Testament concept. I’ll grant other Christians hold to a reformed view of theology which says that the church is the Old Testament’s Israel brought into a new covenant and therefore the things which aren’t done away with in the New Covenant are still valid for New Testament saints. I disagree with this view as a dispensationalist and I don’t want that to be confused so I’m going to just state it plainly: None of the Old Testament Law is for the New Testament believer. Lets take a look at why the tithe is also not acceptable in the eyes of the New Testament authors.

Pre-New Testament Passages and Thoughts to Consider

Adam never paid a tithe. Not one bit of what Adam had went to a tithe. Adam’s relationship with God was personal and there were no priests to go between he and the Lord. The sacrifices portrayed in the early chapters of Genesis show a relationship with God that clarify a respect for God’s ownership of all things that man worked for (as a result of the fall). By the time of the flood and God’s provision of Noah God still owned everything and even though it was Noah and the other seven on the boat as well as many, many animals they were all God’s. God had brought them all to the boat and when they got off of the boat it was at God’s direction. Noah sacrificed animals to God in recognition of God’s protection and provision for all that God owned. No tithe there. Surely Abraham must have tithed. Nope. There was no tithe in Abraham’s time, just sacrifices of praise and obedience. In fact Abraham had no written Law to observe, he merely had his conscience! There was no tenth offering, he knew God had provided all that he owned.

When the tithe was finally instituted it was for the nation of Israel it was given as a percentage to support the Levites and for the fatherless & the widow. Go ahead and read Deuteronomy 14:22-29. There you will see that the tithe was:

  1. Ten percent of their yearly gain
  2. For the nation of Israel (and not surrounding nations) which was initially a theocracy
  3. It was a gift of agricultural things and livestock. Other material possessions were not involved.
  4. It is not the same as first fruits (see: Exodus 23:19, Leviticus 19:23-25)
  5. The tithe was to be administered by the people and not the priests.

I think that its clear by now that the often cited tithe is not what we often call an offering or tithe by New Testament practices. With that in mind, lets look at what the New Testament shows us.

New Testament Giving Principles

The book of Acts starts out the church age with an amazing display of generosity between believers in acts 2:42-47 being the slightly greater context. Specifically verse 45 says that they began selling things to provide for one another’s needs. That’s not a ten percent offering. Its a whatever percent provision of grace. The recognition that all things were God’s things helped the believers get past any sense of possession that we often face as New Testament saints. From that point forward you’ll find other instances of giving as needed including Romans 12:13 further encouraging the believer to give as other saints have need and to be hospitable (hospitality will need to be a post of its own).

Philippians 4:18-19 covers the use of sacrifice in a New Testament metaphor, but it is merely a reference to the gifts of the New Testament saints being sent to the apostle Paul. It is not encouraging a literal sacrifice of animals or grains as previously used in Old Testament times. Instead verse 19 goes on to outline the fact that God has used the Philippian saints to provide for Paul’s needs. If we look for the application from this passage we see that

  1. God has given Paul a need
  2. God has the abundance and ability to fulfill that need
  3. God has blessed the Philippians with their resources
  4. God has given the Philippians a desire to give to Paul’s ministry
  5. God is glorified by the Philippians’ generocity
  6. God is glorified by Paul for His work through the Philippians

None of those things involves a set ten percent or a monetary percentage, but instead comes from the heart of an abiding believer. One who is resting in his or her relationship with Christ in the heavenlies (Col. 3:1-3). Because the saint is aware of the need the saint seeks out a way to fulfill it. This leads me to believe that the church is to focus more on getting to know one another than they are to focus on financial things!

One scenario that I read about just today discussed tithing in the context of debt. Since the debt is a prior obligation it should be noted that the believer should first pay the debt and with whatever is left over seek the Lord’s direction for the money to be given. Debt should be avoided in the life of the believer so that this problem goes away (while this is something I know I am currently attempting to get out of debt. I have walked in the flesh, too, and understand the need to abide in my stewardship of God’s money. Lesson learned). Giving during debt isn’t a required Law, but instead we should see that we have relationships within the body where we can see needs, both financial and physical, and give to those needs rather than believers being put into debt due to lack of resources. In this particular case I would recommend the believer give only what the Lord has provided in excess beyond the needs of paying creditors. Right now I am currently giving less than I would like, but instead of feeling guilt I rejoice that the Lord has given what He has and I look forward to the day when I can give even more to various needs in the body of Christ.
Conclusion

In conclusion the Tithe is an outdated Law that has been done away with and instead the New Testament saint is to focus on relationship and fellowship and looking for ways that the Lord may use them to provide for the needs of others. There is nothing in the New Testament that calls us to support a ten percent giving command, but likewise nothing says not to do it. Giving falls under Christian liberty (See Romans 14 and 15) where we are to give what our conscience feels is right. If that is fifteen, ten or one percent for you, then give what the Lord has put on your heart.

Whatever percentage you give, let it be with a heart of gratitude and thanks! May you give graciously because God graciously gave His mercy and love to you. Don’t tithe out of compliance with the Law, but instead walk in His grace and give as He provides.