DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Satanists Seize On Hobby Lobby To Test The Limit Of Religious Freedom

A question. It's been stated that God gives us free will to choose him, and he wants us to choose him. Yet it's been stated he knows all. Doesn't he then know who will choose him? Does he really want people to choose him when he basically creates each of us knowing who will die a believer and who won't? Why create non believers that he knows will never come to know him? Basically isn't he damning certain souls to hell?

Likewise! I know it can be frustrating to deal with me at times but I'm glad you and YTown and others have been so patient

Been a lot of doom and gloom on here lately, saw this today and thought I would post it. this guy gets it. He gets it in how to do business, he gets it in how to treat his employees, he gets it in how to give back to his community.... We need more people like this guy and we might just run out of negative stuff to talk about...


Casey Crawford wants to give it all away. He means it
May 1, 2015 by Adam O’Daniel, Charlotte Business Journal

Casey Crawford, a charisma-filled former football star, stands in a dilapidated brick building less than two miles from the stadium where he once played in front of thousands. Today, no one is watching or cheering. And he’s not smiling. The only sound is the echo of his black dress shoes tapping across the empty concrete floor of a cavernous room once used for hydraulic-equipment repairs. There’s a determined look on his face, a focused cadence to his words.

He’s in charge of a multibillion-dollar mortgage business, but today he talks about the homeless. He talks about kids who sleep in cars before going to nearby Ashley Park Elementary School. He talks about immigrants who arrive in Charlotte unable to land good-paying jobs and the generational curse of poverty in the west side.

“We’re sitting here in the shadow of Bank of America Stadium,” Crawford says as he stands at the edge of a loading dock at the back of the facility. “I want to see big corporations have their name on facilities that meet people’s needs, not just on places used for entertainment. It doesn’t have to be that way. I would love to restore people’s vision of what it means to be a good corporate citizen.”

This 40,000-square-foot brick warehouse in many ways will soon become the proving ground for that mission. It will define his company and surely be studied by others. Crawford’s Movement Mortgage, through its nonprofit The Movement Foundation, is pouring close to $3 million into this run-down building. The end goal: to open the Movement Center later this year as a bustling headquarters of charitable services along Freedom Drive on Charlotte’s west side.

Setting the foundation
But that is only the beginning of an even more audacious plan. Crawford, 37, is chief executive of the nation’s fastest-growing private mortgage bank. He’s on track to oversee $7 billion in new home loans this year. And over the next decade, he wants to give it away. All of it.

Crawford and 65-year-old co-founder Toby Harris, who is based in Virginia, plan to transfer 100% of Movement Mortgage’s shares to its nonprofit foundation over the next 10 years. After taking care of customers and employees, they intend for all dividends to be paid to The Movement Foundation, where it will be used to invest in community centers and charter schools.

“The vision is that everything beyond our capital requirements would be reinvested back into communities across the U.S.,” Crawford says in an interview. “People will come to us because we give them great service and great rates. But how cool would it be for people to know that because they patronize our organization they’re helping reinvest in the community, doing good and loving others. That’s the story I want to tell.”

Think about that for a moment. A rising star CEO, running an Inc. 500 success story, with no debt or outside equity, instead of plotting a big exit or an IPO while the market is hot, is preparing to gift his company to nonprofit work.

“I think we are cashing out — into other people’s lives,” Harris says. “If all you accomplish is making money, that’s a pretty empty life.”

Love thy neighbor
For Crawford, it’s a philosophy shaped by a deep personal faith, the example of a grandfather, a near-disaster after the NFL and a desire to apply a personal moral standard to his business.

“God called us to love our neighbors as ourselves,” he says. “We do it by taking care of customers. Putting them in mortgages they can afford, providing a pleasant experience, creating a company that actually cares about the other people on the team. And then pour out the rest into the communities we serve.”

Before Crawford became a college football star, an NFL tight end or a small-time real estate investor in Charlotte, he was just another middle-class kid helping out in his dad’s Washington, D.C., hardware store and following his grandfather around on weekends. His mother worked as an HR consultant for some of the D.C.-area’s largest corporations. They all regularly attended church.

Crawford credits time with his grandfather for establishing in him a concern for others at a young age. The two of them would salvage parts from junk cars, sell them to scrapyards and donate the money to churches or buy clothes for the needy. “When you’re 9 or 10 years old, you just assume everybody does that stuff,” he says. “My granddad wasn’t a wealthy guy, but it was instilled in me that we had a social responsibility.”

Crawford turned down the Atlanta Braves, who drafted him out of high school, to instead play football at the University of Virginia. He went on to receive all-conference honors and signed as a free agent with the Panthers in 2000. He broke his nose in the team’s first preseason game but insisted on playing through the injury to earn a roster spot.

After Carolina’s 15-loss season in 2001, Crawford was cut by new coach John Fox. He ended up in Tampa Bay, where he played in four games for the Super Bowl-winning Buccaneers. He gave his Super Bowl ring to his father. And the $50,000 Super Bowl bonus became a downpayment on a home in Charlotte. He walked away from football after that season to begin a real estate career.

“Getting fired made me feel like a huge failure, like I let my wife down and my family down,” he says of being cut by the Panthers. “It’s embarrassing. You’re ashamed. You’re mad. It’s part of the game. But I wasn’t a big star, and I didn’t want to go through that again. I just wanted to be more in control of my destiny.”

Bust to boom
As a player, Crawford had dabbled in house flipping after watching a Carleton Sheets infomercial on TV late at night. “You’ve got to remember the times — this was 2001. I was making more money in real estate than football.”

He branched into hard-money lending and development, eventually setting up a joint venture with Harris, a National City Mortgage Co. executive who would become his Movement Mortgage partner.
Soon, he took on bigger deals with more risk. And he ended up with a 200-acre site along Fishing Creek Lake in South Carolina. It was 2006. There was talk of a golf course development.

Then, Crawford says, providence took over, although he didn’t recognize it at the time. Another group of more sophisticated investors bought out his involvement, which he sold reluctantly. He thought he was out of a career. It was 2007, just before real estate development was about to collapse.

“Thankfully, by the grace of God, I had no real estate involvement left. So I was forced to focus on the mortgage side.”
To this day, those properties are not developed.

From there, Crawford watched the mortgage market crack and crumble. He saw public fury with Wall Street bankers boil over. All the while, Harris was in his ear to start a mortgage bank in Charlotte. They agreed on three things right away: Americans would keep buying homes. The U.S. government would continue to support the housing industry. And lenders were fleeing the business as they rotted from sour subprime loans.

Movement Mortgage was born. Originally called New American Mortgage, the company took a different tack than most others. It focused exclusively on serving real estate agents in need of reputable lenders for their buyers.

“That’s the magic formula. It is absolutely the best strategy,” mortgage industry consultant and recruiter Paul Hindman says. “Toby (Harris) had the contacts and processing background, and Casey has that relatable star quality. They’re a perfect complement.”

The results have been astonishing. Movement’s growth has garnered national accolades. Executives at mortgage giants such as Wells Fargo are knocking on the door for jobs. The lender is building a $22 million headquarters campus south of Ballantyne where it will create hundreds of jobs. “I don’t recruit away from Movement,” Hindman says. “That’s all you need to know.”

Harris says 70% of Movement’s loans are ready to close within seven days.

“It is a culture of game-on and getting better every day of the week,” Harris says. “It would be easier to do refis, but that’s not who we are.”

Facing mistrust
At 6-6, Crawford doesn’t fit well in most furniture — even his own office. He leans forward, knees apart, for another interview.

Behind him is a shelf of paraphernalia, family photos and a Bible. On the wall nearby is his Super Bowl jersey. He’s asked about the reputation of his industry. After all, everyone knows the mortgage business is cyclical, it has been dirty, and it is often about making big bucks while the getting is good and then getting out. Plus, organizations that wear faith publicly haven’t always been received well — look at Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby — and face even more scrutiny when they talk of doing good work.

“We are acutely aware that people are looking for ways that they’re being lied to or deceived,” he says. “We don’t even need to exist if there wasn’t that mistrust. The world doesn’t need just one more mortgage company. That mistrust is what fuels us.”

As for public perception and his personal faith, Crawford quotes the gospel of Matthew, where Jesus tells his followers to “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Crawford says his goal isn’t to wage culture wars. There’s no expectation for employees to profess a particular faith or religious values. Rather, he says the company’s mission is to spread love for others, both inside and outside the company.

One way that’s accomplished: The Movement Foundation has a Love Works program that gives financial aid to employees facing unexpected needs such as medical bills or crisis counseling. Employees can donate to the fund, and Movement matches every dollar.

“That’s what I encourage our employees to give to,” he says. “We just try to love and care for each other.”
Closer Look

The Casey Crawford File
Football player: Casey Crawford’s first career brought him to Charlotte as a professional football player. The University of Virginia star played two seasons at tight end for the Panthers and won a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2003.
Business career: Crawford flipped houses during and after his football days, sparking an interest in mortgage lending. He also invested in small-time residential development around Charlotte before launching Movement in 2008.

Family man: Crawford and his wife, Michelle, have two daughters. They live in Ballantyne.

A fantastic read DC!

Great story!

The lost are the cost to get those who are worthy.

A farmer plants 100,000 seeds. He knows half of them will fail but at least he will have 50,000 plants that bear fruit. Of that 50,000 perhaps 25,000 will survive mold, insect damage, and whatever else. Is it not worth the 25,000 food producing plants even if you must lose the other 75,000? It is if you want to eat =) The farmer is not cruel for planting the seeds even if he knows 3/4th of the plants won't survive to adults. He is just a farmer raising his crop.

Mankind is the crop God has planted. Most of them are not going to make it. Some will suffer terrible fate as they go through the weeding process of life. Each person will have their own challenge to face. The choices they make will determine their own outcome. Each person is responsible for his own choices and actions.

God is just the farmer who planted us and gave us a chance to grow. Like a farmer he will sometimes burn a field to stop a plague or prune a branch from a tree so that the tree will bear fruit even if the branch is lost. The seeds he plants are good seeds but many things can happen to spoil them and ruin the crop. Still he will keep planting because even if the yield is small the fruit is amazing worth the cost of raising.

There is no evil in God for planting his seed even though he knows many of them won't make it. He didn't invent sin either because sin is simply disobedience against God. He is also not some immutable rock because he can be moved to change his mind from time to time. I often think he allowed sin to exist as a fire for his forge in creating saints. After all a sword has no use until it's been forged in the fires. The questions are: Will your life bear fruit? Will you be a sword of God or just a broken lump of iron?

The choice and the responsibility of who and what you become is completely yours =)

Sounds nice when put that way. I'll take being pulled like a weed. But God doesn't just pull the weed and set it aside. God sends the weed to a pit of burning fire to be tortured for all eternity. Don't you think that's just a little sadistic and over the top?

Forget all that nonsense from dante's inferno. Those who don't accept Christ don't burn and become tortured for all eternity. They get thrown into the lake of fire where they will incinerated and cease to exist, the true death.

Matthew 10:28
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Revelation 20:14-15
Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Let us not also forget that most famous bible verse:

John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus saves our soul from perishing in the lake of fire. However its clear that those who don't accept Jesus will have their very souls destroyed and cease to exist.

Now, where Hell comes into place is when it's dealing with Satan and the fallen angels. They will be punished there. Their punishment is special because of all the suffering to others they have caused.

Revelation 20:10
And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

That is a little better than the burning for eternity bit. Every church I went to however, preached that non believers would burn in hell for eternity, for that was the only way justice was to be measured. If adolf hitler kills 6 million jews right before Jesus comes back a second time, and he's just snuffed out immediately, is that fair to those who have been in the pit of fire waiting for judgement?

Revelations 14 speaks pretty well of an eternity in hell:



I remember sermons from Fire and Brimstone preachers talking about how we'd be able to see those in hell from heaven, but unable to reach them. If they were snuffed out immediately this wouldn't be possible. I'm not saying your verses aren't wrong either, for the record. But it's confusing. The Bible isn't clear on the status of sinners' final resting place.

I didn't want to bring this up without sources, so here you go:

http://www.biblebaptistpublications.org/hell.html

I do believe that the guilty are punished for their sins, but like you, I do not believe that it is for all eternity.

Nonetheless, I would not want to be subject to the punishment of God. I have heard some opine that the punishment God inflicts on the guilty will be permanent and total separation from God, forever. Obviously, this would lead to death, as nothing can live in the absence of God. Such a person would be a ruined mind and a ruined soul in a ruined body, all alone, and would be completely alone for as long as it lasts. I happen to feel that this is what "hell" will be like as well ... utter ruin, for as long as it lasts, for the unrepentant sinner, and then the final death. (which is God's mercy for such a person)

That is what I believe, anyway.

sounds like a bunch of crap to me.