32 pounds of Youth Ministry Junk Mail
"This last month I saved up all the junk mail and ad mail I get at the church and weighed it. You probably won't believe me when I tell you that it all added up to about 32 pounds. 32 pounds of youth ministry related junk mail!
Amazing.
And then, it's also disturbing.
It's so disturbing because every single piece of mail in that 32 pound stack was selling their product with the claim that it could "fix" my ministry. Some claimed to "revolutionize" while others claimed their product was the one and only thing that could propel my ministry into the realm of uber success. Just imagine it...if I just bought this book, or if I just took my group to this camp, or if we just all wore these T-shirts, or if we just used this curriculum, then we'd skyrocket into a place where thousands of teenagers met Christ and completely and deeply devoted their lives to serving God, and they'd all become deeply committed followers of Jesus permanently! All because I bought their pile of hermetically sealed garbage!"
Dan's Blog
Amazing.
And then, it's also disturbing.
It's so disturbing because every single piece of mail in that 32 pound stack was selling their product with the claim that it could "fix" my ministry. Some claimed to "revolutionize" while others claimed their product was the one and only thing that could propel my ministry into the realm of uber success. Just imagine it...if I just bought this book, or if I just took my group to this camp, or if we just all wore these T-shirts, or if we just used this curriculum, then we'd skyrocket into a place where thousands of teenagers met Christ and completely and deeply devoted their lives to serving God, and they'd all become deeply committed followers of Jesus permanently! All because I bought their pile of hermetically sealed garbage!"
Dan's Blog
Labels: Family
posted by mark at
8:35 AM
2 Comments:
Do Not Mail Opt-Out Law would be fair to everyone.
The proposed recent "Do not mail" is an Opt-Out law. Only those not desiring advertising mail need opt-out. Anyone desiring advertising mail can do nothing - and continue to receive it. Why deny those wishing to avoid advertising mail the power to do so?
I do not consider handling unwanted advertising placed against my will on my personal property to be a civic obligation!
The US Supreme Court said in the Rowan case in 1970, ““In today's [1970] complex society we are inescapably captive audiences for many purposes, but a sufficient measure of individual autonomy must survive to permit every householder to exercise control over unwanted mail. To make the householder the exclusive and final judge of what will cross his threshold undoubtedly has the effect of impeding the flow of ideas, information, and arguments that, ideally, he should receive and consider. Today's merchandising methods, the plethora of mass mailings subsidized by low postal rates, and the growth of the sale of large mailing lists as an industry in itself have changed the mailman from a carrier of primarily private communications, as he was in a more leisurely day, and have made him an adjunct of the mass mailer who sends unsolicited and often unwanted mail into every home. It places no strain on the doctrine of judicial notice to observe that whether measured by pieces or pounds, Everyman's mail today is made up overwhelmingly of material he did not seek from persons he does not know. And all too often it is matter he finds offensive.”
Furthermore, the Supreme Court said, “the mailer's right to communicate is circumscribed only by an affirmative act of the addressee giving notice that he wishes no further mailings from that mailer.
To hold less would tend to license a form of trespass and would make hardly more sense than to say that a radio or television viewer may not twist the dial to cut off an offensive or boring communication and thus bar its entering his home. Nothing in the Constitution compels us to listen to or view any unwanted communication, whatever its merit; we see no basis for according the printed word or pictures a different or more preferred status because they are sent by mail.”
We need a nationwide “Do Not Mail” law to create a one-stop, convenient place for homeowners to give senders the aforementioned affirmative notice that we do not want certain kinds of mail sent to our homes.
http://www.newdream.org/emails/ta19.html
Signed,
Ramsey A Fahel
A great way to remove yourself from some junk mail lists is to look at the side of the mail with the return address & indicia -
Somehere there may be a line that reads "Return Service Requested" or something similar (the PO changes it from time to time).
Simply mark return to sender and the mail will be returned to the mailing house and the name will be removed from the list. The originator of the mail pays for this service to keep their mail list clean.
As a bonus, when a letter is sent back when a "Return Service Requested" line is present the originator gets to pay a fee!
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