Transfigurations

Katharine Jefferts Schori's Abandonment of Traditional Sexual Morality

2012-02-11T11:51:00.000-05:00

By Sarah Frances Ives
Special to Virtueonline
February 10, 2012

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori seeks to change the Episcopal Church into multi-faith centers practicing blended spiritualities.

To accomplish this, in her book The Heartbeat of God (Skylight Paths Publishing, 2011), she espouses new interpretations of the Bible, dismisses traditional law on sexual practices, and advocates the end of what she calls the "veneer of righteousness." (pp198). She offers the lofty claim that we will be at "home" if we do this.

Of course if we take away our witness of the Jewish law as well as Christian testimony, we will be in human chaos and nothingness. Let us carefully re-trace her thinking in a context of scholarly research.

Jefferts Schori's Claims
Jefferts Schori does not want a mature, interior righteousness that Jesus fulfills in human hearts but instead a new world where traditional Christian understandings are abandoned. In this book with its many stereotypes and half-truths, one stands out in particular: she misrepresents the role of women in Jewish society. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori writes, "In Jesus' day, there were no jobs or economic possibilities for poor women without male relatives-except, of course, for 'the oldest profession.'"(pp32) She concludes that the Jewish society was one in which the "widow was kept poor by a religious and political system of exploitation." (pp33) Jefferts Schori presents a skewed perspective on women as forced to sell themselves in prostitution.

What is particularly startling about this pronouncement is that she offers no academic support for her idea. Indeed, I can find no scholar who supports this vision of a society forcing all poor women without male relatives into prostitution. the rest

Sacramento-area churches participate in Evolution Weekend

2012-02-11T11:43:00.000-05:00

By Jennifer Garza
Saturday, February 11, 2012

As pastor of All Saints Episcopal Church, the Rev. Betsey Monnot believes in both the word of God and the work of Darwin. This Sunday, her congregation will hear a message about both.

"Belief in one enhances the other," Monnot said.

The pastor studied physics in college and does not believe the theory of evolution contradicts the teachings of her faith. She said the Bible was not intended as a science book but rather is essential for telling "stories that help us understand who we are."

Darwinism – the theory that all life descended from a common ancestor – is a controversial issue in some faith groups, and many religious leaders reject Monnot's views.

This weekend, Monnot's congregation will join hundreds of other churches across the country – including about half a dozen in the Sacramento area – with sermons about the compatibility of science and faith. It's all part of the seventh annual Evolution Weekend, a program by the Clergy Letter Project that promotes science and religion. the rest image

Episcopal Church service to feature Beatles music
...“The Episcopal Church is a welcoming committee for God, not a selection committee,” said Wayne Thomas, a vestry member involved in parish-life activities. “Acceptance, peace and love” are themes in the church and mirrored in Beatles’ songs, he said.

Father Baker said the service “has taken on a life of its own.” He chalked it up “to how the Holy Spirit works.”

The priest added that since so much of The Beatles’ music revolves around love and peace, it’s in harmony with a religious service. “It’s about love and God’s love for us. The church is a physical outpouring of that love,” he said.

Reaching out is what churches are supposed to do, he added. The service, he hopes, will be a “Ticket To Ride” by appealing to a broad range of people. The service might help people realize that God is “Here, There And Everywhere” and a way to “Help!” yourself to an uplifting time...

Health insurers question Obama birth control plan

2012-02-11T11:12:00.000-05:00

Fri Feb 10, 2012
By Lewis Krauskopf

(Reuters) - U.S. health insurers said on Friday they feared President Barack Obama had set a new precedent by making them responsible for providing free birth control to employees of religious groups as he sought to defuse an election-year landmine.

Obama on Friday announced the policy shift in an effort to accommodate religious organizations, such as Catholic hospitals and universities, whose leaders are outraged by a new rule that would have required them to offer free contraceptive coverage to employees.

Instead, the Obama administration ordered insurers to provide workers at religious-affiliated institutions with free family planning if they request it, without involving their employer at all. Insurance industry officials said the abrupt shift raised questions over how that requirement would be implemented.

"We are concerned about the precedent this proposed rule would set," said Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry's trade group. "As we learn more about how this rule would be operationalized, we will provide comments through the regulatory process." the rest

Immaculate Contraception
An 'accommodation' that makes the birth-control mandate worse.

Obama Contraceptives Mandate Losing Senate Democrats?

Obama Caved to Pressure on Contraception

State AGs threaten to sue over birth-control mandate

2012-02-11T10:53:00.002-05:00

By Sam Baker
02/09/12

Three state attorneys general say they’ll sue the Obama administration over its controversial birth-control mandate unless the White House backs down on its own.

“Not only is the proposed contraceptive coverage mandate for religious employers bad policy, it is unconstitutional,” the attorneys general said in a letter to top administration officials Thursday. “It conflicts with the most basic elements of the freedoms of religion, speech and association, as provided under the First Amendment.”

The state officials said that if the White House finalizes the contraception policy, they’re “prepared to vigorously oppose it in court.” The threat came from the attorneys general of Nebraska, Texas and South Carolina. the rest

Alexandria: forced eviction of 62 Coptic families by the Salafis

2012-02-11T10:53:00.000-05:00

Muslims in the area of el-Amerya, with the complicity of police and state authorities, set fire to Christian homes and shops, and forced several families to leave the country, under the threat of further violence.
02/09/2012
EGYPT

Cairo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The radical Muslims are trying to empty a village near Alexandria of its Coptic population - 62 families, on the basis of unfounded allegations against a Copt. The Copts of Kobry-el-Sharbat (el-Amerya) were attacked on Jan. 27 by a crowd of some three thousand Muslims led by Salafi leaders who set fire to the Copts houses and shops. The violence were sparked by the allegations of a barber Muslim Toemah, who claimed that a Coptic tailor of 34, Samy Mourad Guirgis, had "illegal" photos of a Muslim woman on his cell phone. Mourad has denied the charges, and turned himself in to police in fear of his life. The Muslims set fire to his house and his shop, and his whole family was forced to leave the village. Mourad is still under police custody.

Since then there have been three "reconciliation meetings" in the police headquarters in el-Amerya, attended by representatives of the Coptic Church, the Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood. According to police, the woman concerned has denied the whole story, and no compromising photos of any kind were found Mourad’s cell phone. But radical Muslims argue that "Muslim honor has been damaged," and at the first meeting, they refused any type of compensation for the Copts who were innocent victims of their violence. the rest

Christian guesthouse owners lose appeal over ban on gay guests

2012-02-10T20:40:00.000-05:00

Two Christian guesthouse owners, Peter and Hazelmary Bull, who were ordered to pay damages after refusing to allow a gay couple to stay in a double room lost their appeal today.
10 Feb 2012

The challenge by the Bulls, who run Chymorvah House in Marazion, Cornwall, was rejected by three judges in the Court of Appeal in London.

They had appealed against a conclusion by a judge at Bristol County Court that they acted unlawfully when they turned away Martyn Hall and his civil partner Steven Preddy in September 2008.

Judge Andrew Rutherford ruled in January last year that the Bulls had breached equality legislation and ordered them to pay the couple a total of £3,600 damages.

The appeal judges heard that the Bulls thought any sex outside marriage was a ''sin'', but denied they had discriminated against Mr Hall and Mr Preddy, from Bristol. the rest

UK: Councils 'should have right to say prayers', says Eric Pickles

2012-02-10T20:38:00.001-05:00

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has criticised a ruling at the High Court today that having prayers on council meeting agendas is unlawful, saying that the right to worship is a "fundamental and hard-fought British liberty".
10 Feb 2012

A test case bid to outlaw prayers before local council meetings was won by the National Secular Society and an atheist councillor, Clive Bone.

They challenged the practice of Bideford town council, Devon, of having religious prayers on meeting agendas.

Today Mr Justice Ouseley, sitting in London, ruled: ''The saying of prayers as part of the formal meeting of a council is not lawful under section 111 of the Local Government Act 1972, and there is no statutory power permitting the practice to continue.''

Mr Bone later left the council because of its "refusal to adjust" its prayer policy. the rest

Let people wear cross with pride, urge bishops

The New Kosovo?

2012-02-10T20:33:00.000-05:00

By Srdja Trifkovic
Tuesday, 7 Feb 2012

An Orthodox church was set ablaze in the southwestern part of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) on January 30. The incident reflects raising tensions between local Christian Slavs and Albanians, more than a decade after an Albanian rebellion brought FYROM to the verge of an ethnic war. It also evokes memories of the early stages of the conflict in Kosovo, in the late 1980s.

The church of St. Nicholas, in the majority Albanian-Muslim village of Labuniste, was two centuries old and housed valuable icons. The arson at Labuniste followed the burning of a Macedonian flag and the raising of Albanian and Islamic banners in the neighboring town of Struga, allegedly in reaction to an incident of “mocking Islam” at a local carnival last month. The town, on the shores of Lake Ohrid, lies at the southern edge of the line of ethnic separation between the two communities. The exact figures are disputed, but Macedonian Slavs account for about two-thirds (1.3 million) and Albanians for 30 percent (600,000) of the republic’s two million people. The latter, 98 percent Muslim, have had a remarkable rate of growth since 1961, when they accounted for only 13 percent of the total. Albanian birthrate has been more than twice that of Slavs for decades.

Following the signing of the NATO-brokered Ohrid Agreement that ended the 2001 Albanian rebellion by the “NLA” (a KLA subsidiary), FYROM has become bi-national and bilingual and the Albanians its second constituent nation. They are guaranteed proportional share of government power and an ethnically-based police force. This has turned FYROM into the weakest state in the Balkans and its de facto ethnic partition has become formalized and internationally guaranteed.

Having secured their dominance along the borders of Albania and Kosovo, the current main thrust of the Albanian ethno-religious encroachment has the country’s capital city as its primary objective. It is a little-known fact that today’s Skopje is effectively as divided as Nicosia or Jerusalem. Once a city quarter becomes majority-Albanian, it is quickly emptied of its Slavic, non-Muslim population. The time-tested technique is to construct a mosque in a mixed area, to broadcast prayer calls at full blast five times a day, and to create the visible and audible impression of dominance that intimidates non-Muslims (the locals call it “sonic cleansing”). the rest

Albert Mohler: What Compromise? This Policy Leaves Religious Liberty in Peril and Planned Parenthood Smiling

2012-02-10T20:23:00.000-05:00

Friday, February 10, 2012

President Obama walked into the White House Press Room today and attempted to pull a political rabbit out of a hat. Faced with an avalanche of mounting opposition to his administration’s mandate that religious employers provide birth control to all employees, the President announced what his staff characterized as a “compromise.” Was it?

After his opening comments, the President stated his new policy:

Today, we’ve reached a decision on how to move forward. Under the rule, women will still have access to free preventive care that includes contraceptive services -– no matter where they work. So that core principle remains. But if a woman’s employer is a charity or a hospital that has a religious objection to providing contraceptive services as part of their health plan, the insurance company -– not the hospital, not the charity -– will be required to reach out and offer the woman contraceptive care free of charge, without co-pays and without hassles.

The result will be that religious organizations won’t have to pay for these services, and no religious institution will have to provide these services directly. Let me repeat: These employers will not have to pay for, or provide, contraceptive services. But women who work at these institutions will have access to free contraceptive services, just like other women, and they’ll no longer have to pay hundreds of dollars a year that could go towards paying the rent or buying groceries. the rest

So preventing the birth of a child is classified with the polio vaccine. As Cecile Richards declared, the Obama Administration’s policy “does just that.”

The Church is to develop a Christian counter-culture....

2012-02-08T22:05:00.005-05:00

Instead of always being one of the chief bastions of the social status quo, the Church is to develop a Christian counter-culture with its own distinctive goals, values, standards, and lifestyle, a realistic alternative to the contemporary technocracy which is marked by bondage, materialism, self-centredness, and greed. Christ’s call to obedience is a call to be different, not conformist.

Such a Church—joyful, obedient, loving, and free—will do more than please God: it will attract the world. It is when the Church evidently is the Church, and is living a supernatural life of love by the power of the Holy Spirit, that the world will believe. ...John R. W. Stott image by Steve Coutts

Church of England reaches compromise on women bishops

2012-02-08T21:37:00.000-05:00

General Synod puts off split over ordination of female prelates by delaying legislation for fine tuning until final approval in July
Riazat Butt
Wednesday 8 February 2012

The archbishops of Canterbury and York has avoided humiliation in the Church of England's law-making body, the General Synod, by putting off a split over the ordination of women bishops.

The synod voted against measures that would have given traditionalists the legal right to ignore the leadership of women bishops. The proposal by the Manchester diocesan synod would have accepted that parishes opposed to female diocesan bishops could be ministered by male bishops.

But the synod also rejected an attempt by the Southwark diocese in London to ensure bishops press on with legislation to introduce women bishops.

In spite of four days of tortuous debate, the synod agreed that its bishops could instead tinker with legislation that would allow the ordination of women as bishops, before returning it to the synod for final approval in July. If that legislation is passed, women bishops could be ordained in 2014. the rest

Drones over U.S. get OK by Congress

2012-02-08T21:16:00.001-05:00

By Shaun Waterman
Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s … a drone, and it’s watching you. That’s what privacy advocates fear from a bill Congress passed this week to make it easier for the government to fly unmanned spy planes in U.S. airspace.

The FAA Reauthorization Act, which President Obama is expected to sign, also orders the Federal Aviation Administration to develop regulations for the testing and licensing of commercial drones by 2015.

Privacy advocates say the measure will lead to widespread use of drones for electronic surveillance by police agencies across the country and eventually by private companies as well. the rest image

Winter Tightens Icy Grip Across Europe

2012-02-08T18:07:00.000-05:00

February 08, 2012

A brutal cold front blamed for hundreds of deaths across Europe is threatening to linger even longer.

High winds whipped across Russia's Krasnodar region Wednesday, churning water in the port city of Novorossiysk, tearing apart buildings and causing some roofs to collapse. Heavy snow also blanketed the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, freezing roads and lakes.

Officials say the death toll across Europe has now climbed to more than 400 people, with new fatalities being reported in central and Eastern Europe. The French news agency said Russian officials on Wednesday raised their death toll to more than 100, with 44 new deaths blamed on the cold since the start of the month.

As parts of Europe issue emergency declarations, forecasters warn it could be several weeks before the vicious cold snap departs. Omar Baddour with the World Meteorological Organization said he expects the sub-zero temperatures to start warming next week. Baddour added it could take until the end of the month for Europe to see a significant change. the rest image by Stefano Contantini

Vanderbilt University: Imposing a Policy to Which it Would Not Submit

2012-02-08T17:20:00.003-05:00

This piece was authored by Jeffrey Shafer of the Alliance Defense Fund
February 8, 2012

Excerpt:
Vanderbilt University had a mission that night: to set forth and defend its new institutional outlook and policy. How did the university carry out that objective? Did it leave the decision as to who would speak on its behalf to a referendum vote of its employees? Did it seek out those with strong leadership skills—regardless of their position on the policy in dispute? Did it embrace an “all-comers” policy and authorize anyone who wished to speak on its behalf? Of course not.

Vanderbilt discriminated in assigning those who would represent it at the meeting. The point of the gathering was for the university to persuasively make its case. Its discriminatory selection of speakers was essential to accomplishing that goal. When it comes to its own interests, Vanderbilt carefully adheres to a course that ensures that its mission and purposes are served rather than compromised. At the town hall meeting, its spokesmen carried out their duties in rare form, even offering autobiographical revelations to lend pathos to their assertions, as they demonstrated—often with emotion—their personal embrace of the university’s policy position.

But this is precisely what the university now forbids to religious groups. And this irony was evidently lost on the administration’s “true believers” tasked with defending the university’s creed at the town hall meeting. These officials kept straight faces while explaining to religious groups that they should be pleased to open their leadership to those who don’t believe the faith the groups were formed to propagate. the rest
image by Dave Connor

‘The single biggest mistake of my entire life’ -a letter from a post-abortive woman

2012-02-08T13:50:00.000-05:00

The following unsigned letter was received by a priest friend of mine following a pro-life homily. Her message is a powerful one that deserves to be heard by and shared with all young women and parents in a similar situation. I am happy to share her witness with you:
by Arland Nichols
Wed Feb 08, 2012

Excerpt:
The night before my appointment with the specialist, I vividly remember sitting on the floor of my bedroom crying until I had no tears to cry. I knew what I was about to do was wrong. My heart hurt so badly. I wanted to have the strength to say I would not have the abortion but I was desperate for my parents love and approval again. As I sat there curled up in a ball crying, I physically and very clearly heard a strong yet soft man’s voice in the darkness of my bedroom.

The only words spoken were, “Don’t do it.”

The day of my abortion, both of my parents took me. I was led to a very cold room and given an IV to put me to sleep. I don’t remember anything of the actual abortion itself.

When I woke up, I was told it was over and was given Oreo cookies and orange juice. Immediately I regretted what I had just done. I had 13 long weeks to make this decision and it was suddenly crystal clear that I made the wrong choice but I could no longer go back and undo it. To this day, the abortion is the single biggest mistake of my entire life. My dad carried me out of the building and the details afterwards are very foggy.

Seventeen years later, there has not been a single day go by that I haven’t wondered about the baby whose life was cut short because of a choice. I look at my children now with the knowledge of having robbed them the chance to have an older sibling that they have never even heard about. Knowing I took the only opportunity for the father of the baby to have a child of his own. Living with such mental and emotional distress that not only I, but my husband now has to deal with, and finally, wondering each day if I am truly forgiven and if I will be allowed into heaven after I die.

I can say with 100% conviction that absolutely nothing positive came from my abortion. the rest
(The comments are so very loving! -PD)

Dutch Mobile Euthanasia Clinics Ready to Roll

2012-02-08T10:21:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Wesley J. Smith

One of the supposed protections of euthanasia is the doctor saying no when, as one example, when killing isn’t warranted. (Doctors also say know if participating in killing of a patient is against conscience, of course). Ditto assisted suicide in Oregon and Washington.

But that has always been a false premise. If a patient’s own doctor says no, just go death doctor shopping. If you go to an assisted suicide/euthanasia advocacy group for a referral, chances are you will get your death wish granted.

And now, in the Netherlands, mobile euthanasia clinics! the rest

The Death (and Life) of Marriage in America

2012-02-08T10:19:00.000-05:00

The story we think we know is that the institution of marriage is crumbling and on the brink of oblivion. The real story is much more complicated.
Derek Thompson
Feb 7 2012

National Marriage Week USA kicks off today, and for many people, a national booster movement for marriage could not come any sooner. The recession did a number on American matrimony, as you've surely heard. The collapse in marriage rates is cited as one of the most important symptoms -- or is it a cause? -- of economic malaise for the middle class. But the statistics aren't always what they seem, and the reasons behind marriage's so-called decline aren't all negative.

At first blush, the institution of marriage is crumbling. In 1960, 72% of all adults over 18 were married. By 2010, the number fell to 51%. You can fault the increase in divorces that peaked in the 1970s. Or you could just blame the twentysomethings. The share of married adults 18-29 plunged from from 59% in 1960 to 20% in 2010. Twenty percent!

What on earth is going on with these kids? Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers tried to answer that question (among others) in their fantastic 2007 study "Marriage and Divorce: Changes and their Driving Forces."

The simplest summary of their findings is: It's really, really complicated. The full answer for the delay and decline of marriage would touch on birth control technology (which extends courtships by reducing the cost of waiting to get married), liberal divorce laws (which creates "churn" in the labor market by increasing divorces and new marriages), and even washing/drying machines (which both eliminate the need for men to marry lower-earning women to do housework and also free up women to work and study). the rest

Mandatory Abortion Coverage?

2012-02-08T10:14:00.000-05:00

Watching for the next step from the Obama administration.
By Richard Doerflinger
February 7, 2012

Advocates of religious freedom were outraged on January 20, when the Obama administration announced it would enforce its new mandate for contraception and sterilization coverage in private health-insurance plans without a meaningful conscience exemption. Even most religious organizations can’t qualify for the rule’s incredibly narrow “religious employer” exception, which will remain unchanged. NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood have said pro-life organizations are wrong to oppose such mandates: After all, they argue, increasing access to contraception (especially “emergency contraception” or “EC”) will reduce abortion, and don’t we all want that?

This argument conveniently ignores studies showing that such access simply doesn’t reduce abortion rates. For example, out of 23 studies on the effects of increased access to ECs, not one study could show a reduction in unintended pregnancies or abortions. It also ignores the fact that at least one EC drug covered by the mandate, “Ella,” is a close analogue to the abortion pill RU-486; both drugs can induce abortion weeks into pregnancy.

But the final proof that this mandate was sold using cynical falsehoods has just been unveiled. the rest

Round-up: aftershocks of the Komen shakedown

2012-02-08T10:05:00.000-05:00

by Kathleen Gilbert
Tue Feb 07, 2012

- Komen VP for public policy Karen Handel has resigned following the Planned Parenthood dust-up thanks to her having gone on the record as against the abortion organization while a political candidate.

- Twitter and Facebook emerged as the main tools used by Planned Parenthod and allies to drive their talking points to the top of the social media heap, facilitating the extreme pressure placed on Komen in a short time frame. Jill Stanek has a detailed breakdown of Planned Parenthood’s social media blitz.

- On the other hand, the debacle gave air time to the link between abortion and breast cancer, which presidential candidate Rick Santorum pointed out on FOX News on Sunday. (Hormonal birth control pills have also been categorized as a Group 1 “definite” carcinogen by the World Health Organization, alongside asbestos and plutonium, for its increased breast cancer risk.) the rest

Anglican leader Rowan Williams to visit Pope in Rome this March

2012-02-08T10:02:00.000-05:00

2012-02-07

General Synod discussing women bishops compromise bid

2012-02-08T09:59:00.000-05:00

8 February 2012

The Church of England's governing General Synod is being urged to accept a compromise over women bishops.

A compromise to try to meet objectors' concerns will be presented by the Manchester Diocesan Synod at a meeting of the Church's ruling council later.

It would give a greater measure of autonomy to male bishops appointed to oversee traditionalist parishes.

But many supporters of women bishops oppose the plans, saying they would make women second-class bishops. the rest

Archbishop warns of ‘disaster’ if assisted suicide is legalised

Parents furious as 13-year-old girls given contraceptive implants at school without their knowledge

2012-02-08T09:55:00.000-05:00

-Devices temporarily prevent pregnancy by releasing hormones into the blood
-In 2011, 1,700 girls aged 13/14 were fitted with implants
-Under 'patient confidentiality' rules, school staff are banned from seeking permission of parents beforehand
By Sophie Borland
8th February 2012

Girls as young as 13 are being given contraceptive implants at school without their parents’ knowledge.

Nurses insert devices into their arms which temporarily prevent pregnancy by releasing hormones into the blood.

Last year 1,700 girls aged 13 and 14 were fitted with implants, while 800 had injections which have the same effect.

The 2010/11 NHS figures also show that 3,200 15-year-old girls were fitted with implants, and 1,700 had injections. the rest

Rick Santorum raises abortion-breast cancer link

2012-02-07T22:57:00.001-05:00

by Ben Johnson
Mon Feb 06, 2012

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 6, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-life leaders say on Sunday, Rick Santorum may have become the first major presidential candidate in history to address the link between abortion and breast cancer.

Asked whether he believed the Susan G. Komen Foundation should fund Planned Parenthood, Santorum replied, “I don’t believe that breast cancer research is advanced by funding an organization where you’ve seen ties to cancer and abortion. So, I don’t think it’s a particularly healthy way of contributing money to further cause of breast cancer.” the rest

Dr. Joel Brind, professor of endocrinology at Baruch College, City University of New York and a director at the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, estimated last year that abortion had led to 300,000 deaths from breast cancer since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision – not counting deaths from abortions that delayed first full term pregnancies.

Breast cancer rates have increased 40 percent since 1973, according to Dr. Angela Lanfranchi, a clinical assistant professor of surgery at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey and co-founder of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute.

A.S. Haley: Ninth Circuit Rules Prop. 8 Unconstitutional

2012-02-07T22:46:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

The opinion of the Court may be downloaded here (it's 133 pages). Judge Reinhardt (one of the Ninth Circuit's most liberal judges) wrote the majority opinion that holds California's people could not constitutionally take away the designation of "marriage" for same-sex unions once the California Supreme Court had declared that the State could not constitutionally ban them. Judge N. R. Smith dissented from that holding (his opinion begins at page 90 of the download), but concurred with the majority in finding that the proponents of Prop. 8 had standing to appeal, and in holding that Chief District Judge Vaughan Walker did not have to withdraw from the case because he himself is in a same-sex relationship.

It is difficult to stay detached when reading Judge Reinhardt's opinion, because he constantly claims he is sticking to a very narrow ground of decision, while he goes out of his way to make sweeping pronouncements:

By emphasizing Proposition 8's limited effect, we do not mean to minimize the harm that this change in the law caused to same-sex couples and their families. To the contrary, we emphasize the extraordinary significance of the official designation of 'marriage.' That designation is important because 'marriage' is the name that society gives to the relationship that matters most between two adults. A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but to the couple desiring to enter into a committed lifelong relationship, a marriage by the name of 'registered domestic partnership' does not. . . .

There is nothing like assuming the very proposition that is to be decided, eh, Judge Reinhardt? ("'[M]arriage' is the name that society gives to the relationship that matters most between two adults -- sure.) Why not write: "'[M]arriage' is the name that society gives to the relationship that matters most between a man and a woman"? Is that because you could not then so easily jump to the conclusion which you assumed in your reasoning? the rest

More than any monarch, Queen Elizabeth II understands the spiritual element of her coronation oath

2012-02-07T22:36:00.000-05:00

Christianity is at the centre of her tireless dedication to public service
By Francis Phillips
Tuesday, 7 February 2012

Damian Thompson, editor of the Telegraph blogs, made this online comment yesterday, in tribute to the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne: “…I often think that the Queen is the most impressive religious leader in Britain. She says little in public about her Christianity, but what she does say – usually at the end of her Christmas Day broadcast –is powerful in its directness.”

I wholly endorse what he says. Her Majesty, intuitively and skilfully, manages to remain the still centre of the ever-turning Anglican world simply by affirming her faith in Jesus Christ. In her Christmas message last year, quoted by Damian in his post, she stated: “God sent into the world a unique person – neither a philosopher nor a general, important though they are, but a Saviour, with the power to forgive. Forgiveness lies at the heart of the Christian faith. It can heal broken families. It can restore friendships and it can reconcile divided communities. It is in forgiveness that we feel the power of God’s love.”

The Queen has met plenty of philosophers and even more generals in her time. With her unique place at the summit of the Establishment, she has had innumerable opportunities to encounter the masters of this world in every walk of life. She knows their place and she knows her own. More than other modern monarchs, I think, she understands the spiritual significance of her coronation oath: a lifelong dedication to her people and her public duties; something to be undertaken with utmost seriousness. the rest

The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World

2012-02-07T12:51:00.000-05:00

From one end of the muslim world to the other, Christians are being murdered for their faith.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Feb 6, 2012

We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring’s fight against tyranny. But, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is underway—an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm.

The portrayal of Muslims as victims or heroes is at best partially accurate. In recent years the violent oppression of Christian minorities has become the norm in Muslim-majority nations stretching from West Africa and the Middle East to South Asia and Oceania. In some countries it is governments and their agents that have burned churches and imprisoned parishioners. In others, rebel groups and vigilantes have taken matters into their own hands, murdering Christians and driving them from regions where their roots go back centuries. the rest

In the month of January 2012 alone, Boko Haram was responsible for 54 deaths. In 2011 its members killed at least 510 people and burned down or destroyed more than 350 churches in 10 northern states. They use guns, gasoline bombs, and even machetes, shouting “Allahu akbar” (“God is great”) while launching attacks on unsuspecting citizens.

No “Right” to Abortion or Birth Control

2012-02-07T08:45:00.000-05:00

Saturday, February 4, 2012
Wesley J. Smith

Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker writes about the intimidation tactics wielded by the Left against the Catholic Church with Obama’s Free Birth Control Rule and in the How Dare Komen defund the sacrosanct Planned Parenthood! brouhaha. She starts her column with an unintentionally false assertion. From “Komen, Catholics and the Cost of Conscience:”

Two of the top news stories this week have revolved around reproductive rights, though both raise far more troubling issues than a woman’s right to contraception or abortion.

Parker is writing loosely, but this is an important liberty point: Women don’t have the “right to an abortion,” as in, the constitutional right to obtain it under force of law. Ditto contraception. That would be a positive right to receive the service or procedure. There is, as yet, no such positive right to either Indeed, that is what the fight over medical conscience is all about.

Women do have the right to obtain it if they can find a willing provider–a negative right against state interference with that “choice.” Neither Griswald v. Connecticut, which prevented the state from restricting birth control to married couples (how quaint), nor Roe v. Wade, which prevented the states from criminally punishing abortion in most cases, created positive rights. They created negative rights. the rest

Planned Parenthood's Hostages

2012-02-07T08:37:00.001-05:00

The abortion provider uses a vast media and political network to maintain its subsidies from government and private charities.
By ROBERT P. GEORGE AND O. CARTER SNEAD
FEBRUARY 6, 2012

The Susan G. Komen Foundation, an organization dedicated since 1982 to fighting, and one day curing, breast cancer, decided to extricate itself from the culture wars by discontinuing grants to Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest provider of abortions. The grants Komen had been making amounted to $650,000 last year, funding some 19 local Planned Parenthood programs that offered manual breast exams but only referrals for mammograms performed elsewhere.

The reality is that Planned Parenthood—with annual revenues exceeding $1 billion—does little in the way of screening for breast cancer. But the organization is very much in the business of selling abortions—more than 300,000 in 2010, according to Planned Parenthood. At an average cost of $500, according to various sources including Planned Parenthood's website, that translates to about $164 million of revenue per year.

So how did Planned Parenthood and its loyal allies in politics and the media react to Komen's efforts to be neutral in the controversy over abortion?

Faced with even the tiniest depletion in the massive river of funds Planned Parenthood receives yearly, the behemoth mobilized its enormous cultural, media, financial and political apparatus to attack the Komen Foundation in the press, on TV and through social media.
the rest

Learn much of the Lord Jesus...

2012-02-06T22:53:00.000-05:00

Learn much of the Lord Jesus. For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. He is altogether lovely. Such infinite majesty, and yet such meekness and grace, and all for sinners, even the chief. Live much in the smiles of God. Bask in his beams. Feel his all-seeing eye settled on you in love, and repose in his almighty arms. Cry after divine knowledge, and lift up your voice for understanding. Seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasure. ...Robert Murray M’Cheyne image

Army Bans Catholic Chaplains from Reading Letter Critical of Obama Policy

2012-02-06T21:37:00.002-05:00

Sun Tzu
Feb. 5th 2012

The emerging conflict between the Catholic Church and the Obama administration may have a new front: in the U.S. military itself.

The Catholic Church is fighting mad about an HHS ruling that would have them buy insurance for things they consider sinful–contraception, sterilization and abortion.

All the bishops in the country sent out a letter to be read in their parishes promising that the Church “cannot-and will not-comply with this unjust law.”

Even Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who is in charge of Catholic military chaplains sent out the same letter.

But after he did, the Army’s Office of the Chief of Chaplains sent out another communication forbidding Catholic priests to read the letter, in part because it seemed to encourage civil disobedience, and could be read as seditious against the Commander-in-Chief. the rest

Archbishop to U.S. Troops: Obamacare Reg ‘Is a Blow to a Freedom

The Fallout from Christian Legal Society

2012-02-06T21:30:00.000-05:00

Vanderbilt launches an offensive against religious freedom.
By Robert Shibley
February 6, 2012

Since the Supreme Court’s sharply divided and startlingly wrongheaded decision two years ago in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, those concerned about religious liberty on campus have known that the fallout was on its way. At Vanderbilt University, it has arrived — and it’s as bad as anticipated.

In Martinez, the Court determined that public institutions like the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law could require all student groups — even those based on shared belief, such as religious and political organizations — to admit members and even leaders without regard to their beliefs. Groups like the Christian Legal Society (CLS), whose constitution required students to have traditional Christian beliefs (such as in Christ’s bodily resurrection) and morals (no sexual activity outside heterosexual marriage), could be required to remove those provisions from their constitutions and admit “all comers,” or else face “derecognition” and the corresponding loss of access to meeting space and other benefits that all other groups enjoyed. To lack recognition is basically not to exist at all on today’s college campus. the rest

Yes, you just heard the vice chancellor of Vanderbilt University tell students that they shouldn’t let their religious views intrude on their decisionmaking. That their religious beliefs should not guide their day-to-day actions. That people who reject faith in Jesus Christ should be given a chance as leaders of a Christian group (he later adds that Muslim groups must retain leaders who have lost faith in Allah). And to top it off, he uses the fact that as a Catholic, he has no problem with the abortions performed in Vanderbilt’s hospital as an example of what is expected.

Anglican Unscripted Episode 27

2012-02-06T21:12:00.000-05:00

02/07/2012

Kevin and George reveal breaking news from the Diocese of Central Florida and Bishop-Elect Brewer. They also clarify an Anglican Ink report on AMiA's Winter Conferences Ordinations. AS Haley discusses the horrible witness TEC is showing the world through the US Legal system. And we discuss the violence in Nigeria and show comments from Archbishop Ben Kwashi from Mere Anglicanism 2012. And there may be some behind the scene footage after the credits again.

Snowboarder Saved By Float Avalanche Airbag

2012-02-06T12:27:00.000-05:00

posted Feb. 6, 2012

This footage was caught on January 25th, 2012 in the backcountry near Montezuma. It features Pro Snowboarder Meesh Hytner being caught in a sizeable (~class 3) avalanche and deploying her BCA Float 30 avalanche airbag before taking a long ride.

Anglicans to march in support of women bishops

2012-02-06T12:08:00.000-05:00

By Robert Pigott
5 February 2012

Anglican women clergy are to rally in Westminster later at a march supporting plans to introduce women bishops.

The Church of England's ruling body, the General Synod, is to discuss legislation on women bishops this week.

It will consider a proposal that women bishops should accept intervention in their dioceses by male alternatives if called in by traditionalist parishes.

Progressive Anglicans fiercely oppose the plans, claiming it would make women second-class bishops.

They say it would force women to accept measures not imposed on their male counterparts. the rest

It's takers versus makers and these days the takers are winning

2012-02-05T17:26:00.000-05:00

By Glenn Harlan Reynolds
02/04/12

Excerpt:
In today’s America, government benefits flow to large numbers of people who are encouraged to vote for politicians who’ll keep them coming. The benefits are paid for by other people who, being less numerous, can’t muster enough votes to put this to a stop.

Over time, this causes the economy to do worse, pushing more people into the moocher class and further strengthening the politicians whose position depends on robbing Peter to pay Paul. Because, as they say, if you rob Peter to pay Paul, you can be pretty sure of getting Paul’s vote.

But the damage goes deeper. Sykes writes, “In contemporary America, we now have two parallel cultures: An anachronistic culture of independence and responsibility, and the emerging moocher culture.

“We continually draw on the reserves of that older culture, with the unspoken assumption that it will always be there to mooch from and that responsibility and hard work are simply givens. But to sustain deadbeats, others have to pay their bills on time.”

And, after a while, people who pay their bills on time start to feel like suckers. I think we’ve reached that point now:

* People who pay their mortgages - often at considerable personal sacrifice - see others who didn’t bother get special assistance.

* People who took jobs they didn’t particularly want just to pay the bills see others who didn’t getting extended unemployment benefits.

* People who took risks to build their businesses and succeeded see others, who failed, getting bailouts. It rankles at all levels. the rest

Bp. Julian Dobbs speaks at Sacred Assembly in Raleigh

2012-02-04T14:32:00.000-05:00

posted Feb. 4, 2012

From the "Moving Forward Together" PEAR Meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina on January 16-18, 2012

Sacred Assembly Statement

Coronal aurora over Fairbanks, Alaska (January 22, 2012)

2012-02-03T20:05:00.001-05:00

Time-lapse movie of the coronal aurora appeared over Fairbanks, Alaska.

Lights Over Lapland photographer Chad Blakley captured this amazing view of the aurora borealis in Sweden on January 24th, 2012. The January 23rd solar flare and ensuing coronal mass ejection are the 'lighting engineers' of this incredible display.

List of charities and organizations that are linked to Planned Parenthood and/or the culture of death..

2012-02-03T19:17:00.000-05:00

This list was posted on June 30, 2011

Life Decisions Int’l, the same organization that compiles the Planned Parenthood Boycott List, compiled the following list of charities and organizations that are linked to Planned Parenthood and/or the culture of death. Now that you know, as Christians, let us stop funding any organization that collaborates with Planned Parenthood or backs Embryonic Stem Cell Research!...

List here

...It is truly sad that so many of these organizations continue to support Embryonic Stem Cell Research, when there has not been one cure reported from ESCR, yet over 71 diseases have been cured through Adult Stem Cells. Bottom line, any support of these organizations either puts money in the coffers of PP, the largest committer of abortions, or your generosity goes to destroy innocent human life through Embryonic Stem Cell Research. Either way, your generosity is supporting death! Keep the list handy through the year, and know before you give!

Technologies that we’ve lost – and the quest to find them again

2012-02-03T16:15:00.000-05:00

By Alasdair Wilkins
Feb 1, 2012

Greek fire. Damascus steel. These are two technological innovations whose secrets are said to be lost to time. Even the original schematics for the Apollo missions have disappeared into the mists of history, forever hidden inside hopelessly obsolete computers. How do we lose technologies that were once so important? Some say that they aren't really lost, and are working on rediscovering them.

Certainly, the specific techniques and materials required to construct some of the famed inventions of the ancient world (and the late 1960s) can be lost. And it's definitely true that people can forget how some ancient invention works for hundreds, even thousand of years. But the history of technology is very much the history of ideas, and as you'll see, ideas are pretty much indestructible - even in the face of truly terrible record keeping.

The Fiery Savior of the Byzantines

It's useful to think of the famous examples of lost technology in terms of a few distinct categories. First, let's consider the most famous lost technology of them all, the ancient Byzantine incendiary weapon Greek fire, a unique chemical formula that produced inexhaustible flames. This terrible weapon was a closely guarded military secret of the Eastern Roman Empire, and its fearsome effectiveness in battle arguably extended the life of the empire by over 500 years. the rest image

Albert Mohler: The President, the Pill, and Religious Liberty in Peril

2012-02-03T15:32:00.000-05:00

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Excerpt:
In actuality, the Obama Administration trampled religious liberty under the feet of the leviathan state, forcing religious employers to do what conscience will not allow. Religious organizations such as schools, colleges, and hospitals will be required to pay for services that they believe to be immoral and disobedient to God.

In a final insult, the administration allowed that religious employers could, if qualified, have an extra year to comply with the decision. As Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah made clear, this intentionally evades the point. “The problem is not that religious institutions do not have time enough to comply,” he said, “It’s that they are forced to comply at all.”

Roman Catholic authorities were among the first to respond with outrage. Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York City, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, who had personally made the case to President Obama for a broader exemption, said simply: “We are unable to live with this.”

This last Sunday, Catholics around the nation heard letters from their local bishops with the same message. The Bishop of Marquette, for example, put the matter with severe simplicity: “We cannot — we will not — comply with this unjust law.”

In other words, the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops have signaled their clear intention to defy the law rather than to violate their conscience. Will evangelical Christians demonstrate the same courage and conviction? the rest image

Most Amazing High Definition Image of Earth - Blue Marble 2012

2012-02-03T15:16:00.012-05:00

Updated February 2, 2012:

According to Flickr, "The western hemisphere Blue Marble 2012 image has rocketed up to over 3.1 milling views making it one of the all time most viewed images on the site after only one week."

A 'Blue Marble' image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA's most recently launched Earth-observing satellite - Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth's surface taken on January 4, 2012. The NPP satellite was renamed 'Suomi NPP' on January 24, 2012 to honor the late Verner E. Suomi of the University of Wisconsin.

Suomi NPP is NASA's next Earth-observing research satellite. It is the first of a new generation of satellites that will observe many facets of our changing Earth. the rest/image

Larger image
Visit mission Flickr gallery

Komen's decision to aid Planned Parenthood again sparks reactions

2012-02-03T14:40:00.005-05:00

By Jeannine Stein
Los Angeles Times
February 3, 2012

As soon as Susan G. Komen for the Cure issued an unexpected statement reversing its decision to cut funding for Planned Parenthood, statements praising and criticizing the move were released.

"We are enormously grateful that the Komen Foundation has clarified its grantmaking criteria, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Komen partners, leaders and volunteers," said the statement from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "What these past few days have demonstrated is the deep resolve all Americans share in the fight against cancer, and we honor those who are at the helm of this battle."

The organization saw a substantial spike in donations this week after Komen initially said it would end most grants to Planned Parenthood due to changes in its policy. One of those was to stop funding organizations currently under investigation by federal, state or local authorities. Planned Parenthood is under a congressional investigation begun by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), who is trying to determine if federal money is being used to fund abortions, forbidden by law.

Today's statement from Komen, a national breast cancer foundation, said, in part, "We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives. The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.

"Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair." the rest

Pyrrhic Victory for Planned Parenthood as Komen Kisses The Abortion Ring

Thugs and abortionists win!

Komen Caves to Feminazis

Komen Games

Komen reversing decision on funding

Military Wives Choir

2012-02-03T14:28:00.000-05:00

The Improbable Story Behind The U.K.'s Top-Selling Christmas Single

The happiest wives in America

2012-02-03T09:04:00.000-05:00

by Maggie Gallagher
02/02/2012

Let's take a break from politics to ask the burning question: How did Karen Santorum and Ann Romney get so lucky?

Just who are the happiest wives in America?

According to a new report by the University of Virginia's National Marriage Project, "When Baby Makes Three," the surprising answer is: women who attend church at least weekly with their husband and have four or more children.

Women like Mrs. Romney and Mrs. Santorum, in other words. This insight is embedded in a larger report whose overall purpose is to find out the factors that lead to happy and successful married families -- particularly using data from "next generation marriages," among those currently 18 to 46 years old.

Children are known to stress marital happiness, on average, but what helps some couples resist the stress and build enduring and happy married families? the rest image

But pro-child attitudes are also very important. Agreeing that raising children is "one of life's greatest joys" doubles the likelihood that these younger married women report being very happily married.

Karnataka Hindu extremists attack a Jesuit Catholic College. Students and teachers beaten

2012-02-02T16:40:00.000-05:00

The attack on the colleges of St. Joseph Anegal (40 km south of Bangalore) occurred on January 27. Reason for the assault, failure to display the Indian flag during celebrations for the national holiday. The extremists attack the university campus before the eyes of the police, who arrested without cause, the rector Fr. Melvin Medonca. The University is renowned for its commitment in the education of Dalits and tribals.
01/31/2012
by Nirmala Carvalho

Bangalore (AsiaNews) - The violence against Christians in the Karanataka continues. In recent days, a mob of radical Hindu extremists stormed St Joseph's College Anegal Pu, (40 km south of Bnagalore). The radicals beat up the students and asked for the arrest of the director of the school for not having hoisted the national flag during the celebration of the Indian Republic, last January 26. The assailants belong to the Hindu movement Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, Rashtra Sakthi Sese and Karnataka Raskshana Vedike, and even included members of Anekal City Council.

During the attack. Fr. Melvin Mendonca, director of the institute, and Fr. Anil D'Mello local superior of the Jesuits, tried to calm the crowd, which broke into the school, disrupting classes. The police were present but did nothing to stop the attackers. Students from the school had to form a shield to defend their rector, but were beaten by security agents before the extremists. To avoid accidents, the priest turned himself in to agents. Under pressure from the radicals, the police forced the priest to walk the distance to station on foot under a shower of verbal abuse, anti-Christian slogans and intimidation. Without any reason, the agents detained Fr. Melvin at the station only releasing him at 9 in the evening after nine hours of interrogation. The Director of the school is not allowed to make any statement on the aggression he suffered. the rest

Pelosi Vows to Stand With Obama Against Catholic Church

2012-02-02T16:29:00.001-05:00

By Thomas Cloud
February 2, 2012

(CNSNews.com) - House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) vowed today that she will join with the Obama administration in standing up against the Catholic Church in defending a new regulation that will require Catholic individuals to buy, and Catholic institutions to provide, health insurance plans that cover sterilizations and artificial contraceptives, including those that induce abortions.

The Catholic church teaches that sterilization, artificial contraception and abortion are morally wrong and the Catholic bishops of the United States have argued that forcing a Catholic individual to purchase a health insurance plan that covers these things--or forcing a Catholic institution to provide such a plan--forces Catholics to act against their consciences and is a violation of the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion. the rest

'Catholic' Pelosi Supports Obama Birth Control Mandate

Pelosi: Girl Scouts ties with Planned Parenthood, other organizations, ‘very valuable’

Catholic Backlash Against Obama Grows

Pro-aborts hack Komen website over cutting Planned Parenthood

2012-02-02T15:52:00.000-05:00

by Kathleen Gilbert
Thu Feb 02, 2012

February 2, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Internet hackers eager to take revenge against Susan G. Komen for the Cure for cutting its financial ties with Planned Parenthood have hacked the breast cancer foundation’s web address to ridicule the group.

Even as Komen founder and CEO Nancy Brinker told MSNBC Thursday the overall response to the groups’ decision this week was “favorable,” the opposing party made their ire known: Komen’s Internet visitors Wednesday night began noticing elements on the site mocking the group.

The graphic on the Komen page, which Mediaite reports is actually a fake site to which hackers re-directed visitors the Komen.org URL, had replaced its original text with “Help us run over poor women on our way to the bank.” the rest

Lift up your heads, O gates!

2012-02-02T10:19:00.000-05:00

Lift up your heads, O gates!

And be lifted up, O ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

Who is this King of glory?

The LORD, strong and mighty,

the LORD, mighty in battle!

Lift up your heads, O gates!

And lift them up, O ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

Who is this King of glory?

The LORD of hosts,

he is the King of glory!

Psalm 24:7-10 image

Muslims force general from West Point prayer breakfast

2012-02-02T09:56:00.000-05:00

CAIR leads campaign against Boykin for his 'Islamophobic' views
posted February 2, 2012
The controversial Council on American-Islamic Relations – an unindicted co-conspirator in a terror-funding scheme – is boasting of preventing an outspoken retired general from speaking at an upcoming prayer breakfast at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Retired Lt. Gen. William G. “Jerry” Boykin, a strong critic of CAIR, has recommended a WND Books bestseller, “Muslim Mafia, that exposes the group’s role as a front group in the U.S. for the Muslim Brotherhood, the originator of most of the world’s major Islamic terrorist groups, including al-Qaida and Hamas.

Fox News reported that while West Point defended its invitation to Boykin, the retired general voluntarily withdrew amid pressure from CAIR and VoteVets.org, who complained of his “Islamophobic” views.

CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement that his group welcomed the withdrawal and hoped that “the speaker who replaces him will offer cadets a spiritual message that promotes tolerance and mutual understanding.” the rest

After Komen, the Next Big Planned Parenthood Fight

2012-02-02T09:52:00.001-05:00

Pro-life groups target $487 million in taxpayer funding for the nation's largest abortion provider.
Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra
2/01/2012

Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Cecile Richards called 2011 "the most difficult year in our history." With yesterday's announcement that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation is ending its grants to the organization, 2012 isn't looking too good for the organization, either.

Komen had provided more than $600,000 to Planned Parenthood last year for breast exams and breast-cancer education. And while pro-life groups are cheering the move, they have their sights set on a much bigger target: the hundreds of millions of dollars Planned Parenthood receives in government funding. Building on successful defunding efforts in 2011, pro-life groups aim to keep more taxpayer dollars out of the hands of the nation's largest abortion provider.

The $1 billion-a-year organization said in its most recent annual report that it performed 329,445 abortions in 2010. $487 million, 46 percent of its revenue, came from government health service grants and reimbursements. The organization cannot legally use taxpayer dollars for an abortion. But, pro-life activists allege, the agency does not segregate funds as it should, effectively resulting in taxpayer support for abortion.

Employee scandals, government deficits, and budget-cutting lawmakers have provided a rare opportunity for pro-life groups to advocate for defunding Planned Parenthood. This year, pro-life leaders believe the House of Representatives will vote as it did last year to remove federal funding. (The measure failed in the Senate in 2011.) At the state level, Planned Parenthood has lost about $80 million in government funds in the past year, triggering budget cuts and clinic closures. the rest

Komen Also Stops Funding Embryonic Stem Cell Research Centers

Church of England clergy challenge civil partnership stance

2012-02-02T09:47:00.000-05:00

1 February 2012

A letter signed by 120 clergy is calling for the Church of England to reverse its ban on civil partnership ceremonies being held in churches.

The signatories, from the diocese of London, want discretion to uphold loving homosexual relationships.

It is the first sign of significant resistance within the Church to its refusal to permit civil partnership ceremonies in Anglican churches.

The law has allowed them in English and Welsh places of worship since December.

In their letter to the London diocese representatives on the General Synod, the signatories stopped short of calling for same-sex marriage.

However, they said they should be given the same discretion in deciding whether to hold civil partnerships in church as they currently have in deciding whether to remarry divorced people. the rest

Take no decision on ACNA, archbishops’ synod paper argues

2012-02-02T08:43:00.000-05:00

February 1, 2012
By George Conger

The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) has welcomed the release of a general synod paper under the signature of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York that addresses the province-in-formation’s relationship to the Church of England.

In a statement released on 21 January 2012, the primate of the ACNA, Archbishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh said the province-in-formation was “encouraged by the desire of the Church of England to continue to embrace the Anglican Church in North America and remain in solidarity with us as we proclaim the Gospel message and truth as revealed in Scripture in the way it has always been understood in Anglican formularies.”

The document released online on 20 January 2012 urges inaction upon the synod in defining its relationship to ACNA, but also serves as a backhanded recognition the new North American province is part of the Anglican world. the rest

Anglican Unscripted Episode 26: February 2, 2012

2012-02-02T08:20:00.000-05:00

Your intrepid hosts discuss the troubles with the Anglican Ordinariate of late. They also give some commentary on Bishop Lawrence's address on the Future of Anglicanism from the Mere Anglicanism Conference last week. Allan discusses the current budget struggle between Bishop Sauls, Dr. Jefferts-Schori and Bonnie Anderson. And Peter Ould ponders a Church/State split in England.

A.S. Haley: Diocese of Virginia is an Emperor without Clothes

2012-02-01T17:36:00.001-05:00

Thanks to BabyBlue, we learn that the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, barely a week after its Bishop held out the olive branch to the departed CANA parishes, used his other hand to hit them with a sucker punch: his attorneys have filed a motion with Judge Randy Bellows for an award of prejudgment interest. (You can read the text of the motion and supporting memorandum at the link to BabyBlue's post.)

"Prejudgment interest" means just what the name says -- it is interest on an amount made payable for a time period before any actual judgment is entered. (After a judgment is entered against a defendant for a sum of money, postjudgment interest begins to accrue on the amount of the judgment, and continues to accrue until the judgment is paid in full.)

How can interest accrue on an amount before it is awarded? Well, first of all, the amount has to be known and certain -- that is, the claim against the defendant has to be for a specific sum of money which is already known, or is readily ascertainable. For example, if I offer you $10,000 to paint my house, but then delay paying you after you have finished the job, so that you eventually are forced to sue and get a judgment against me for the $10,000, then you could ask the court to award (prejudgment) interest on the unpaid amount from the day you finished the job until the day the court entered judgment. (Once the judgment is entered, postjudgment interest takes over from there.)
the rest

Yes, Bishop Johnston, certainly you are following those "contingency plans"; certainly you are "prepared for any eventuality." You just need the prejudgment interest to bolster the amounts you will have available to keep up these properties until you can turn them into more cash to pay back the line of credit you took out to finance the lawsuits; we see that. That is why you now really want to stick it to your fellow Christians, and make them atone with every last drop of their blood for the offense they gave the Diocese by having the temerity to seek what they thought were their rights under Virginia law at the time.

My Smart Phone Made Me Stupid

2012-02-01T14:19:00.001-05:00

BlimeyCow YouTube channel

•Sexual promiscuity costing UK billions of pounds

2012-02-01T13:57:00.000-05:00

January 31st, 2012

A culture of sexual license and promiscuity in the UK is costing the taxpayer approximately £100 billion per year, according to findings by the Jubilee Centre.

In a paper entitled nbsp; “Free sex: Who pays? Moral hazard and sexual ethics”, it’s argued that sex is widely seen as an activity which only affects the couple involved.

However, the report found that sexual freedom has significant costs which are “imposed on society as a whole”, representing “a moral hazard which threatens both our economy and our society.”

The paper warns of a culture which “implicitly views sexual freedom as a greater good than stability of relationship”, causing rising trends in abortion, teenage pregnancies and STI rates, all of which cost the taxpayer large sums of money.

“Our culture’s sexual freedom comes with massive costs attached, accounting for a significant proportion of public spending”, the report claims.

“These costs are met by society collectively rather than by the individuals most directly involved in causing them.” the rest

Washington Post Ombudsman: Worst March for Life Coverage Ever

2012-02-01T13:02:00.000-05:00

by Tim Graham
1/31/12

In his Sunday column, Washington Post ombudsman Patrick Pexton agreed with readers who felt the Post “downsized” the massive “March for Life” by failing to show broad crowd shots. Pexton quoted AP that it’s “consistently one of the largest protests of the year in Washington” and “One observer e-mailed that he stood at the Supreme Court and it took marchers two hours to walk by. That’s a big crowd.”

Pexton failed to compare this massive crowd – and the Post’s failure to write more than one story (in Metro) on it – to the Post’s slobbering love affair with the Occupy DC protests that have spread far and wide across the liberal newspaper. Pexton found the Post photo editor sneering that pro-lifers can never be pleased:

But no one knows how big it was….Still, you can find images of the large crowd taken by amateurs on Flickr or Facebook, and I imagine the AP took some, too. Probably Post photographers did as well.

But these shots didn’t find their way into the main Web photo gallery on the march. And I think this is where The Post fell down in its coverage of the march this year. And that’s mostly what antiabortion readers wrote to me about. the rest

Best. 2012. March for Life. Video. Ever.

GetReligion: Missing March for Life photos discovered

Christ Church Episcopal seeks contempt against sister congregation

2012-02-01T12:31:00.000-05:00

February 1, 2012
By Jan Skutch

Christ Church Episcopal may be back home in its Johnson Square building, but squabbling over church property continues.

The Episcopal Diocese of Georgia and Christ Church Episcopal on Monday asked Chatham County Superior Court Chief Judge Michael Karpf to hold the Rev. Marcus Robertson and Christ Church Savannah in contempt of court.

They argue Robertson and Christ Church Savannah have failed to comply with a court order to return a $2 million endowment fund and other property after the two congregations agreed to the return of the historic Johnson Square property in December.

The civil action alleges Christ Church Savannah, the Anglican congregation, has refused to relinquish control of such items as the endowment fund held by the Savannah Bank, corporate, business and other records, the domain name and website www.christchurchsavannah.org.

It also argues the Anglican congregation has failed to relinquish the names “Christ Church Savannah” and “The Mother Church of Georgia” despite three court rulings against them. the rest

Mass Sterilization

2012-02-01T12:25:00.000-05:00

A Massachusetts judge revives a favorite old practice of the state's elites.
By Daniel J. Flynn
1.31.12

Can a judge, without even holding a hearing, order a woman sterilized in a state where compulsory sterilization has never been the law?

As North Carolina prepares to pay reparations to victims of its decades-long eugenics campaign, Massachusetts strangely enters a sterilization debate that most had thought long over. Norfolk County Probate and Family Court Judge Christina L. Harms earlier this month ordered that a bipolar and schizophrenic woman be "coaxed, bribed, or even enticed…by ruse" to abort her pregnancy and undergo sterilization. If the mentally ill woman were sane, the judge determined, she "would not choose to be delusional" and therefore, she would choose abortion.

Does "our bodies, our choice" still apply when we are not in our right minds?

The Michael Dukakis-appointed jurist abruptly retired following the controversial decision and a state appeals court overturned part of her ruling. "We reverse that portion of the order requiring sterilization," wrote Judge Andrew R. Grainger. "No party requested this measure, none of the attendant procedural requirements has been met, and the judge appears to have simply produced the requirement out of thin air." The reversal crucially noted, "In ordering sterilization sua sponte and without notice, the probate judge failed to provide the basic due process that is constitutionally required." The abortion order was also subsequently overturned by a separate court. the rest

Special Report: Mormonism besieged by the modern age

2012-02-01T12:22:00.000-05:00

By Peter Henderson and Kristina Cooke
Tue Jan 31, 2012

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - A religious studies class late last year at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, was unusual for two reasons. The small group of students, faculty and faithful there to hear Mormon Elder Marlin Jensen were openly troubled about the future of their church, asking hard questions. And Jensen was uncharacteristically frank in acknowledging their concerns.

Did the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints know that members are "leaving in droves?" a woman asked.

"We are aware," said Jensen, according to a tape recording of his unscripted remarks. "And I'm speaking of the 15 men that are above me in the hierarchy of the church. They really do know and they really care," he said.

"My own daughter," he then added, "has come to me and said, 'Dad, why didn't you ever tell me that Joseph Smith was a polygamist?'" For the younger generation, Jensen acknowledged, "Everything's out there for them to consume if they want to Google it." The manuals used to teach the young church doctrine, meanwhile, are "severely outdated."

These are tumultuous times for the faith founded by Joseph Smith in 1830, and the rumbling began even before church member Mitt Romney's presidential bid put the Latter-Day Saints in the spotlight. the rest

Walk then in the spirit...

2012-02-01T08:31:00.003-05:00

Walk then in the spirit, like Abraham, without knowing whither you go; be content with your daily bread, and remember that in the desert the manna of to-day could not be preserved until to-morrow without corrupting. The children of God must be shut up to the grace of the present moment, without desiring to foresee the designs of Providence concerning them.
...Francois Fenelon image by Mike McCune

Mainline Churches See Slowest Growth, Research Shows

2012-01-31T22:26:00.000-05:00

Tue, Jan. 31 2012
By Michael Gryboski

Compared to other religious groups in the U.S., mainline denominations had the slowest growth rate with only 19 percent of their congregations reporting growth between 2005 and 2010, according to a researcher from The Episcopal Church.

By contrast, conservative Protestant churches had the highest growth rate at 43 percent, followed by non-Christian congregations with 33 percent.

C. Kirk Hardaway, Congregational Research Officer for the Episcopal Church and chairman of the research task force for the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership, presented the findings on Tuesday.

The research findings were based on surveys conducted by around 11,000 American congregations representing various Christian and non-Christian congregations. The growth rate of said congregations was measured from 2005 until 2010. Those filling out the survey were the leaders of the congregations, including clergy and laymen.

Hardaway attributed the strong growth of conservative Protestant churches to them being largely concentrated in the South, as well as having other attributes found in stronger churches that were measured by the research. This included more innovative worship practices, having a clearer mission and purpose, and having more newer congregations. the rest

Anglican Ink: TEC in One Word: DOWN

A.S. Haley: Episcopal Church Faces Budget and Structural Changes

Greece decides to 'pay child molesters'

2012-01-31T21:58:00.000-05:00

Also included in the officially expanded list of "disabilities" are exhibitionists, kleptomaniacs, and pyromaniacs.
Charlie Butts
1/31/2012

Greece is now designating pedophilia as an infirmity, and one attorney deems it outrageous that such offenders will qualify for disability funds from the economically broken government.

According to Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel Action, it is an outrage that people will receive payments for their attraction to children. He says rewarding such an alleged "disability" is evidence that the "sexual anarchy movement" is running amok.

"This is the logical conclusion of what we can expect here in the United States with the sexual anarchy movement," he warns. "Part and parcel of that movement is the homosexual movement, the pedophile movement, the radical pro-abortion movement -- [and] those who push this idea of [values-neutral] comprehensive sex education ...." the rest

ObamaCare and Religious Freedom

2012-01-31T21:46:00.008-05:00

How about some respect for Catholics and others who object to treating pregnancy as a disease?
By TIMOTHY M. DOLAN
JANUARY 25, 2012

Religious freedom is the lifeblood of the American people, the cornerstone of American government. When the Founding Fathers determined that the innate rights of men and women should be enshrined in our Constitution, they so esteemed religious liberty that they made it the first freedom in the Bill of Rights.

In particular, the Founding Fathers fiercely defended the right of conscience. George Washington himself declared: "The conscientious scruples of all men should be treated with great delicacy and tenderness; and it is my wish and desire, that the laws may always be extensively accommodated to them." James Madison, a key defender of religious freedom and author of the First Amendment, said: "Conscience is the most sacred of all property." the rest

Marco Rubio Introduces Bill to Reverse Contraception Mandate on Religious Employers

Religious Liberty and Civil Society

Obamacare’s Great Gift: Clarification
January 31, 2012
Elizabeth Scalia

...But HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and President Obama “botched” nothing. The decision put forth is a purposeful one, transparently provocative. If the administration had simply wanted to provide free contraception and sterilization to those who want it, they could have inserted that notion into any one of a number of spending or entitlement bills. Had they meant to demonstrate respect for conscience–and according to Archbishop Timothy Dolan the president said he “considered the protection of conscience sacred”–the administration could have taken the advice of others and looked closely at how Hawaii managed conscience exemptions under their law.

There are questions as to whether HHS has authority to issue exemptions to Obamacare, although quite a few have been issued for reasons other than conscience. There appear to be no questions in the president’s mind, or in Secretary Sebelius’, that they have the authority to intrude on freedom of religion. With this ruling they insist that church-affiliated institutions either act against their own belief or so narrow the scope of their community service as to be removed from the public square; either way, the government is deliberately affecting the free exercise of religion. Considering some Catholic schools, hospitals and charities were serving their communities before the secular governments even thought to follow suit, that is a damnable, and damning, legacy for a president who once taught constitutional law... Full essay

Mohler says insurance mandate not just 'Catholic' issue
By Bob Allen
Tuesday, January 31, 2012

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) – A Southern Baptist seminary president applauded Roman Catholic bishops for refusing to obey an insurance mandate forcing employers to offer coverage for contraceptives and sterilization, and predicted that evangelical leaders will soon face similar choices.

“Our religious liberty is being similarly subverted and attacked,” Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said of the Obama administration’s inclusion of pregnancy in “preventive services” that health insurers must provide.

In his daily podcast briefing Jan. 31, Mohler commented on a letter from bishops read in Catholic churches Jan. 27 stating in part, “We cannot -- we will not -- comply with this unjust law.” the rest

WH:‘No Constitutional Rights Issue’ in Forcing Catholics to Act Against Their Faith

Komen to Stop Grants to Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz

2012-01-31T21:07:00.002-05:00

by Steven Ertelt
1/31/12

After years of protests and criticism from pro-life advocates, the biggest breast cancer organization, Susan G. Komen for the Cure has announced it is halting further grants and donations to the Planned Parenthood.

Figures from August directly from the Komen for the Cure foundation show 18 affiliates of the breast cancer charity gave a total of more than $569,000 to the Planned Parenthood abortion business in 2010. That was down from the $731,303 Komen officials publicly confirmed in October 2010, when they acknowledged that 20 of the 122 Komen affiliates gave to Planned Parenthood during the 2009 fiscal year.

Now, Komen says it is halting all grants because of public pressure from pro-life groups and due to the impending investigation in Congress of the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

The policy makes it so no further Planned Parenthood grants will be given unless the investigation results in Planned Parenthood’s favor.
the rest

Susan G. Komen and Planned Parenthood
...Every time a woman has an abortion and part of the money to fund that center staying open came from Komen, they are putting women at a greater risk for breast cancer...

Yet Another Study Links Abortion and Breast Cancer Risk

Fifty-one of 68 epidemiological studies since 1957 report an abortion-breast cancer (ABC) link (not counting biological and experimental evidence). found here

Canada: Afghan Family Found Guilty in Honor Killings

2012-01-31T09:43:00.000-05:00

By AP
Monday, Jan. 30, 2012

(KINGSTON, Ontario) — A jury on Sunday found three members of an Afghan family guilty of killing three teenage sisters and another woman in what the judge described as "cold-blooded, shameful murders" resulting from a "twisted concept of honor," ending a case that shocked and riveted Canadians.

Prosecutors said the defendants allegedly killed the three teenage sisters because they dishonored the family by defying its disciplinarian rules on dress, dating, socializing and using the Internet.

The jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder. First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years. the rest

Ex-clinic manager becomes abortion protester

2012-01-31T08:23:00.000-05:00

TONY LEYS
Jan. 28, 2012

Iowa abortion opponents have picked up a startling ally.

A longtime Storm Lake clinic manager for Planned Parenthood has switched sides, and she is speaking out against her former employer’s use of an electronic system to dispense abortion pills throughout the state.

“You couldn’t really write a story that’s as odd as all that’s happened,” Sue Thayer told about 150 activists Saturday at an Iowa Right to Life meeting in Des Moines.

Thayer, 52, said she ran Planned Parenthood’s Storm Lake clinic for more than 17 years before being fired in 2008. She believes she was dismissed because she’d raised questions about the agency’s remote-control system for providing abortion pills at small-town clinics. the rest

'Father' and 'Son' Ousted from the Trinity in New Bible Translations

2012-01-30T16:54:00.000-05:00

By Hussein Hajji Wario
Fri, Jan 27, 2012

A controversy is brewing over three reputable Christian organizations, which are based in North America, whose efforts have ousted the words "Father" and "Son" from new Bibles. Wycliffe Bible Translators, Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) and Frontiers are under fire for "producing Bibles that remove "Father," "Son" and "Son of God" because these terms are offensive to Muslims."

Concerned Christian missionaries, Bible translators, pastors, and national church leaders have come together with a public petition to stop these organizations. They claim a public petition is their last recourse because meetings with these organizations' leaders, staff resignations over this issue and criticism and appeals from native national Christians concerned about the translations "have failed to persuade these agencies to retain "Father" and "Son" in the text of all their translations."

Biblical Missiology, a ministry of Boulder, Colorado-based Horizon International, is sponsoring the petition. the rest

Colson: Obama Admin. Restricting Religious Freedom

2012-01-30T12:13:00.000-05:00

Fri, Jan. 27 2012
By Chuck Colson

I warned you that the Supreme Court's decision to grant religious groups a "ministerial exception" in hiring, while important, does nothing to halt the Obama Administration's relentless crusade to restrict religious freedom.

Just Friday, the Administration announced it would not expand exemptions for religiously affiliated organizations when it comes to insurance. So, a Catholic hospital, for instance, will be forced to purchase insurance for its employees that would provide free contraception and sterilization services.

Now, in case you didn't know, the Catholic Church teaches that using artificial contraception or undergoing sterilization are grave sins. The government now said, "Tough."

Even the liberal Washington Post sees this for what it is: a restriction of religious freedom. Its lead editorial called the Administration's decision, "wrong." the rest

UK: Girls as young as nine forced into Muslim marriages

2012-01-30T12:10:00.000-05:00

January 27, 2012
by PAVAN AMARA

Excerpt:
IKWRO, which made headlines last month when they revealed there had been almost 3,000 “honour-based” violence cases in 2010, has shown the Tribune records which revealed at least three 11-year-old girls and two nine-year-olds had been forced into marriage with older men within Islington. The oldest girls involved were 16.

They have warned that hundreds of Islington girls could be suffering sexual, emotional and physical scars as a result of the child marriages every year and are calling for teachers, social workers and police to be better trained to spot and manage the abuse.

Information from the Ministry of Justice, following a Freedom of Information request, revealed that 32 Forced Marriage Protection Order applications were made for children under 16 in Britain last year.

Six of these were made for under-16s within Islington at the Royal Courts of Justice, although these were not necessarily made for Islington residents.

At the Islington court, “five or fewer” orders were made to protect children between the ages of 9-11.

The orders are a form of injunction that threaten legal punishment if marriage takes place due to emotional or physical force. the rest

Anglican congregations moving forward after losing church buildings

2012-01-28T15:22:00.000-05:00

By Colette M. Jenkins
January 28, 2012

Excerpt:
The Holy Spirit congregation is among five Northeast Ohio parishes that were displaced after a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas judge ruled that the church properties they occupied belonged to the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio.

The five congregations — Holy Spirit; St. Luke’s, Fairlawn; St. Barnabas, Bay Village; St. Anne in the Fields, Madison; and Church of the Transfiguration, Cleveland — left the Episcopal Church in 2003 and realigned with the Anglican Communion.

The split grew from disagreements over biblical teaching on salvation and other issues, including homosexuality. After the Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, in 2003, some of the more theologically conservative parishes, including the five in Northeast Ohio, disaffiliated from the Episcopal Church and realigned themselves with Anglican organizations that share their views on issues like homosexuality.

In March 2008, the diocese sued, asking the county court to declare that the property associated with the five parishes belongs to the diocese and the Episcopal Church. Last April, the court ruled in favor of the Episcopal Church and the diocese. Several months later, the Anglican congregations began vacating the buildings.

All five congregations have been taken in by other churches — Church of the Transfiguration worships at a former Methodist building on Martin Luther King Drive in Cleveland; St. Anne’s worships in the youth center at Cornerstone Friends Church in Madison and St. Barnabas, now Christ Church Westshore, has weekday services at Bay Presbyterian Church Westshore and a 10 a.m. Sunday service at Bay High School in Bay Village. the rest

Court: 'Tolerance is a two-way street'

2012-01-27T15:27:00.000-05:00

Jody Brown, Charlie Butts, and Bob Kellogg
1/27/2012

The Sixth Circuit has ruled in favor of Christian graduate student Julea Ward, who almost three years ago was expelled from a university counseling program for her religious beliefs.

In a strongly worded opinion earlier today, the Sixth U.S. Circuit of Appeals reversed a district court decision in favor of Eastern Michigan University, sending it back for trial along with this message: "A reasonable jury could conclude that Ward's professors ejected her from the counseling program because of hostility toward her speech and faith ...."

As part of her counseling practicum course in early 2009, Ward had been assigned a potential client who was homosexual and was seeking affirmation of that sexual orientation. Because she was unwilling to violate her own religious beliefs in the context of the counseling relationship, Ward was permitted to refer the client to another counselor -- but was told to remain in the counseling program she would have to undergo a "remediation" program that would help her "see the error of her ways."

When Ward refused, a faculty committee dismissed her from the program. In her subsequent lawsuit, a district federal court ruled in favor of EMU -- a ruling that has now been reversed. the rest

"A university cannot compel a student to alter or violate her belief systems based on a phantom policy as the price for obtaining a degree ...," wrote the Sixth Circuit. "Why treat Ward differently? That her conflict arose from religious convictions is not a good answer; that her conflict arose from religious convictions for which the department at times showed little tolerance is a worse answer."

Rescued Hostage Buchanan Sold Her Belongings to Become Missionary

2012-01-27T13:51:00.000-05:00

By ALYSSA NEWCOMB and DANA HUGHES
Jan. 25, 2012

Jessica Buchanan, the woman rescued from Somalia bandits by U.S. special forces, is so dedicated to helping others that she sold all of her belongings to become a missionary in Somalia.

Buchanan, 32, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. She graduated from Valley Forge University, a Christian college in Phoenixville, Pa., in 2007. She was a student teacher in Africa before graduating and her romance with the continent began.

"She fell in love with Africa," Rev. Don Meyer, dean of Valley Forge University told the Associated Press. "She could hardly talk about Africa without tears in her eyes." the rest

Survey: Record number of Israeli Jews believe in God

2012-01-27T13:41:00.000-05:00

First comprehensive study in a decade also shows that 70 percent of Israelis believe the Jews are the 'Chosen People.'
By Nir Hasson
27.01.12

Fully 80 percent of Israeli Jews believe that God exists - the highest figure found by the Guttman-Avi Chai survey since this review of Israeli-Jewish beliefs began two decades ago.

The latest survey of the "Beliefs, Observance and Values among Israeli Jews" was conducted in 2009 but the results were released only on Thursday, after a detailed analysis had been completed. The two previous surveys were in 1999 and 1991.

The study also found that 70 percent of respondents believe the Jews are the "Chosen People," 65 percent believe the Torah and mitzvot (religious commandments ) are God-given, and 56 percent believe in life after death. the rest

Clergyman jailed for sham marriage scam

2012-01-27T13:38:00.000-05:00

An Anglican clergyman who advised the Church of England on how to handle sham marriages has been jailed for two and a half years for conducting dozens of the illegal ceremonies himself.
By John Bingham
26 Jan 2012

The Revd Canon Dr John Magumba married a stream of Nigerian men to EU citizens giving them a “golden ticket” to stay in Britain, a court heard.

At one point he was conducting so many weddings involving foreigners that he was put him in charge of a committee of diocesan working party on how to handle the issue – including how to spot sham relationships, Bolton Crown Court heard.

He "asked no questions" despite a dramatic surge in African men choosing his churches in Greater Manchester to marry Polish, Slovak or Czech women. the rest

Woman set to marry building undeterred by demolition work

2012-01-27T12:10:00.000-05:00

Jan 26, 2012

SEATTLE -- Bruised or not, she says she'll marry her beloved building as planned come Sunday.

Babylonia Aivaz's bride-to-be is a 107-year-old warehouse that sits at 10th and Union in the Capitol Hill neighborwood. She has been planning to enter into what she described as "a gay marriage" with the building.

"If corporations can have the rights as people, so can buildings," said Aivaz, referencing a Supreme Court decision on political advertising. "I'm doing this to show the building how much I love it, how much I love community space and how much I love this neighborhood. And I want to stop it from gentrification.” the rest

"Yes, I'm in love with a 107 year old building! Yes, ITS A GAY MARRIAGE! How is that possible? Well there must obviously be a deeper story," she wrote.

Church of the Holy Trinity (Anglican) Syracuse, NY

2012-01-26T10:45:00.000-05:00

I am posting this info until we get the new website for Church of the Holy Trinity up and running! -PD

Bp. Julian Dobbs and Fr. Chris Moellering, Vicar

Church of the Holy Trinity

2002 Teall Ave.

Syracuse, NY 13208 Map

315 422-4503

Holy Eucharist: Sundays at 10:00 AM
Adult Sunday School at 9:00 AM

Please join us!

Church of the Holy Trinity is an Anglican Church and a member of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) and the Anglican Church in North America.

Biblical + Liturgical + Spirit-filled

Watch for a new Website soon!

Fr. Jeffrey Altman, Bp. Dobbs, Fr. Chris Moellering

Sunday service at 10:00 AM

Look for this sign!

Map

A hidden cause of Baltimore's population loss: abortion

2012-01-25T22:43:00.000-05:00

City's rate of terminated pregnancies is indicative of a wayward society
January 23, 2012
By Diana Schaub

Excerpt:
The decline of marriage, particularly among African-Americans, is all too familiar. Not as well-known is that Maryland has a very high abortion rate (third highest among the states in 2005, the year that the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene stopped collecting abortion statistics). The breakdown by jurisdiction reveals that Baltimore City is driving those deadly numbers, and also that the abortion rate among African-American women is at least triple the white rate.

Even for those in favor of legal abortion, the situation should be dismaying. And it certainly represents what Montesquieu termed "a change of customs." For comparison: In 1970, Baltimore City abortion rates for single white and black women stood at 7.43 and 10 respectively (the abortion rate is the number of abortions per 1,000 women ages 15-44), with the married women's rates half that. By 2005, the Baltimore rate was 86.2. The National Abortion Rights Action League, which cites that figure, did not provide the African-American rate, but it would be substantially higher.

Lest one think that poverty accounts for this shift, the poverty rate in Baltimore has remained relatively fixed at around 20 percent for decades. The marriage dearth and the abortion deluge among all races are not attributable to material causes as much as moral causes: young women's loss of respect for themselves as the bearers of new life and their resulting willingness to treat abortion as a method of contraception. the rest

Vatican official warns pope of corruption

2012-01-25T22:38:00.002-05:00

January 25, 2012

VATICAN CITY — An Italian news program has obtained letters from a top Vatican official to the pope in which he begs not to be transferred after exposing corruption in the awarding of Vatican contracts that cost the Holy See millions of euros (dollars).

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano was removed in October as the No. 2 administrator of the Vatican city-state and was named the pope's ambassador to Washington. While the job is highly prestigious, the posting took Vigano far from headquarters and out of the running for the Vatican's top administrative job, which carries with it the rank of cardinal.

The investigative news program "The Untouchables" on the private La7 network broadcast a series of letters Vigano sent Pope Benedict XVI and the secretary of state last year in which he claimed to have exposed corruption and abuse of office in the running of the Vatican's administration. the rest

Steven Spielberg Near Commitment To Direct Moses Epic For Warner Bros

2012-01-25T22:36:00.000-05:00

By NIKKI FINKE AND MIKE FLEMING
Wednesday January 25, 2012

Steven Spielberg is near to etching in stone with Warner Bros on that biopic portraying the Jewish leader as the warrior to beat all warriors. With a working title of Gods And Kings, what’s envisioned is “a movie like a Braveheart-ish version of the Moses story,” an insider tells me. “Him coming down the river, being adopted, leaving his home, forming an army, and getting the Ten Commandments.” And despite the awesome screen possibilities of the parting of the Red Sea, the movie isn’t being contemplated in 3D. Back in 1956, Paramount release The Ten Commandments in VistaVision to give moviegoers a more spectacular experience of scenes like that. But this film is as far from a remake of the Cecile B. DeMille-directed epic as you can get even though they cover similar ground. Instead Warner Bros wants Speilberg to direct it with the gritty reality of Saving Private Ryan, which is considered a masterpiece redefining battle movies. ”There have been glossy versions of the Moses story but this would be a real warrior story,” an insider tells me.

The studio has wanted Spielberg on the project since last September when he first read the script. (See previous, Warner Bros Goes To The Mountaintop For Moses Epic.) Getting Spielberg seemed a long shot because his deals are always complex and his dance card is always full. Talks intensified, and now insiders tell me the dialogue should consummate by the end of the month. Warner Bros wants to start production sometime in March or April of 2013. the rest

Anglican Unscripted Episode 25

2012-01-25T22:24:00.007-05:00

Jan 25, 2012

Yosemite timelapse HD

2012-01-25T14:41:00.001-05:00

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

Project Yosemite

US Supreme Court backs religious independence in surprise decision

2012-01-25T12:21:00.000-05:00

The unanimous decision is a major setback for the Obama Administration.
James S. Cole
Monday, 23 January 2012

Earlier this month, the US Supreme Court decided a case filed by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a teacher against a church-operated grade school in Michigan. Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, No. 10-553 (January 11, 2012). (The Slip Opinion, the official pre-publication version of the Court’s decision, is available on-line here.) The Supreme Court's 9-0 decision in favor of the First Amendment is a noteworthy setback to the anti-religious campaign waged by the Obama Administration in the law.

Hosanna-Tabor is a congregation of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod that "called" Ms Perich to teach in its school. To be “called,” a teacher had to complete eight college-level courses in aspects of Lutheran theology and obtain the approval of the local District of the LCMS. After that training and approval, once a congregation “called” the teacher, the teacher was employed indefinitely and was commissioned as a minister in the church. Duties as a teacher included teaching religion, leading a prayer service in class, and occasionally organizing larger religious services for the entire school. The school also employed “lay” teachers, who were not considered ministers and had year-to-year contracts. the rest

'Do not touch me': the wisdom of Anglican thresholds

2012-01-25T11:06:00.002-05:00

By Stephen Hough

January 25th, 2012

This past Sunday I went to Westminster Abbey to attend Evensong, their superb choir conducted by James O'Donnell and accompanied by Robert Quinney. Woven between Thomas Cranmer's matchless words was music of Herbert Howells, William Byrd and a sparkling anthem by Jonathan Dove. If you are visiting London and want a perfect slice of England there's no better place to go.

The Church of England's evening service, adapted after the Reformation from the monastic hour of Vespers, is a wondrous phenomenon. Even the word 'Evensong' is poetic, and it seems to chime in perfect harmony with England's seasons: Autumn's melancholy, early evening light; the merry crackle of Winter frost; Spring's awakening, or the lazy, protracted sun strained through the warmed windows of a Summer afternoon.

Evensong hangs on the wall of English life like a old, familiar cloak passed through the generations. Rich with prayer and Scripture, it is nevertheless totally nonthreatening. It is a service into which all can stumble without censure – a rambling old house where everyone can find some corner to sit and think, to listen with half-attention, trailing a few absentminded fingers of faith or doubt in its passing stream.
the rest image by Herry Lawford

Child sacrifice in 21st Century America

2012-01-25T09:12:00.002-05:00

Jan 25, 2012
George Weigel

The Hebrew Bible is not for the squeamish. And its harshest maledictions are called down upon those who practiced the abomination of child-sacrifice.

Thus the Psalmist:

“They sacrificed their sons and daughters to the demons/they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood./Thus they became unclean by their acts, and played the harlot in their doings./Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people, and he abhorred his heritage./… they were rebellious in their purposes, and were brought low because of their iniquity” (Psalm 106:38-40, 43).

And the prophet Ezekiel, delivering the word of the Lord:

“And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your harlotries so small a matter that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them?... Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you, and diminished your allotted portion, and delivered you to the greed of your enemies…” (Ezekiel 16:20-21, 27).

Thirty-nine years after Roe v. Wade created an unrestricted abortion license in the United States, and during the week when hundreds of thousands of Americans pray and march for life, all Americans ought to ponder these words—and the kind of country to which Roe v. Wade led. the rest

Detaching biology from marriage and parenthood

2012-01-25T09:06:00.000-05:00

Washington State House Judiciary Testimony
January 23, 2012

Church of England attendance decreasing, continuing downward trend

2012-01-25T09:00:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, 25 January 2012

The latest statistics from the Church of England show a two per cent drop in attendance between 2009 and 2010.

Average Sunday attendance fell from 944,400 in 2009 to 923,700 the following year, continuing the long-term downward trend.

The number of children and young people at weekly services also dropped by two per cent, from 223,000 in 2009 to 218,600 in 2010.

Marriages rose in the Church of England by four per cent, from 52,730 in 2009 to 54,700 in 2010.

It is the biggest increase in marriages in any one year in the last decade and follows the launch of a range of initiatives designed to make marrying in the Church of England easier. the rest

More weddings, but fewer worshippers on average

Massive Solar Storm Causes Planes To Be Rerouted

2012-01-24T18:22:00.002-05:00

January 24, 2012

Radiation from an immense solar blast hit the Earth Tuesday -- forcing Delta Air Lines to redirect at least half a dozen airplanes that had been routed over the North Pole.

NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center -- the nation’s official source of warnings about space weather and its impact on Earth -- issued a geomagnetic storm warning Monday after a satellite witnessed an ultraviolet flash from the massive solar eruption.

There is no risk to people on Earth, Doug Biesecker of the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center told FoxNews.com.

But as a rare precaution, some polar flights were re-routed to avoid communication lapses and exposing pilots and passengers to excessive radiation. the rest/image

Solar storm expected to fire up northern lights

House bills promote religion at war memorials

2012-01-24T17:45:00.000-05:00

Jan 24, 2012
By JIM ABRAMS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House on Tuesday passed two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials. One writes into law the propriety of displaying religious markers at war memorials while the other orders that the Interior Department add to the World War II Memorial in Washington a plaque with Franklin Roosevelt's prayer to the nation on D-Day.

The first bill would codify the existing practice of allowing religious symbols at military monuments established or acquired by the federal government. It was introduced by San Diego Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter in response to a 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling a year ago that a cross placed on Mount Soledad in nearby La Jolla, Calif., in 1913 was unconstitutional. the rest

Mere Anglicanism 2012: The Rt. Rev'd Mark J. Lawrence

2012-01-24T14:55:00.000-05:00

posted January 24, 2012

Eternal Father Source of all life and light...

2012-01-23T22:58:00.000-05:00

Eternal Father

Source of all life and light

Whose love extends to all people,

All creatures, all things:

Grant us that reverence for life

Which becomes those who believe in you;

Lest we despise it, degrade it

Or come callously to destroy it.

Rather let us save it

secure it, and sanctify it,

After the example of your Son,

Jesus Christ our Lord.

...by Robert Runcie image

Human life is a manifestation of God and His glory...

2012-01-23T22:39:00.001-05:00

“God’s love does not distinguish between the infant in the mother’s womb or the child or the youth or the adult or the older person. In each one God sees His image and likeness. Human life is a manifestation of God and His glory.” ...Pope Benedict XVI

"Nothing we do to defend the human person, no matter how small, is ever unfruitful or forgotten. Our actions touch other lives and move other hearts in ways we can never fully understand in this world. Don’t ever underestimate the beauty and power of the witness you give in your pro-life work." ...Archbishop Charles Chaput image by Richard Topalovich

The greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion...

2012-01-23T22:28:00.000-05:00

"But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child - a direct killing of the innocent child - murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love, and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even his life to love us. So the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love - that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts. By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion. " ...Mother Teresa image

India: Sharia Court convicts Anglican priest of blasphemy for baptizing Muslims

2012-01-23T10:25:00.001-05:00

January 21, 2012
by George Conger

The All India Christian Council has condemned an indictment issued by a Sharia law court in Kashmir that charges two priests with blasphemy by enticing Muslims to convert to Christianity.

On 11 January 2012 Muslim leaders in the Northern Indian state issued a statement saying that “it was proved beyond doubt that the accused” the vicar of All Saints Church in Srinigar, the Rev Chander Mani Khanna of the Church of North India, “along with other accomplices was luring Muslim people to change their religion.”

A second priest, Fr. Jim Borst, a Roman Catholic missionary who has worked in Kashmir for 46 years, was also charged with converting Muslims to Christianity. the rest

Obama praises ‘fundamental constitutional right’ to abortion

2012-01-23T10:21:00.000-05:00

by Patrick B. Craine
Mon Jan 23, 2012

(LifeSiteNews.com) - Marking the 39th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, President Barack Obama reaffirmed his commitment to the “fundamental constitutional right” to abortion.

“I remain committed to protecting a woman’s right to choose and this fundamental constitutional right,” the president said in a brief statement on Jan. 22nd.

“As we mark the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we must remember that this Supreme Court decision not only protects a woman’s health and reproductive freedom, but also affirms a broader principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters,” he continued. the rest

Obama: Abortion Enables 'Our Daughters' To 'Fulfill Their Dreams'

How to react to a phone going off during your solo

2012-01-23T09:48:00.002-05:00

TODAY! Watch ProLifeCon

2012-01-23T09:22:00.004-05:00

January 23, 2012

This morning Family Research Council will host its annual event geared for online pro-life activists: ProLifeCon.

ProLifeCon is always a fascinating, fast-paced three hours, packed with great speakers and information specifically for those of us with a passion to spread the message of the sanctity of life through blogging and social media. the rest

Watch here

The Unbearable Wrongness of Roe

2012-01-23T09:20:00.000-05:00

by Michael Stokes Paulsen
January 23, 2012

39 years ago, the Supreme Court delivered a radical, legally untenable, immoral decision. It has forfeited its entitlement to have its decisions respected, and followed, by the other branches of government, by the states, and by the people.

Today, thousands of people at the March for Life in Washington, D.C., are commemorating the thirty-ninth anniversary of a legal and moral monstrosity, Roe v. Wade, and its companion case, Doe v. Bolton. The two cases, in combination, created an essentially unqualified constitutional right of pregnant women to abortion—the right to kill their children, gestating in their wombs, up to the point of birth. After nearly four decades, Roe’s human death toll stands at nearly sixty million human lives, a total exceeding the Nazi Holocaust, Stalin’s purges, Pol Pot’s killing fields, and the Rwandan genocide combined. Over the past forty years, one-sixth of the American population has been killed by abortion. One in four African-Americans is killed before birth. Abortion is the leading cause of (unnatural) death in America.

It is almost too much to contemplate: the prospect that we are living in the midst of, and accepting (to various degrees) one of the greatest human holocausts in history. And so we don’t contemplate it. Instead, we look for ways to deny this grim reality, minimize it, or explain away our complacency—or complicity. the rest

The right created by the Supreme Court in Roe is a constitutional right of some human beings to kill other human beings. I do not mean for my description to be provocative, but simply direct—blunt about facts. One need not presume that the human fetus has a right not to be killed in order to recognize that, as a descriptive matter, Roe creates a right for one class of human beings to kill other human beings.

Tens of Thousands Join West Coast Pro-Life March in San Francisco

2012-01-23T09:14:00.000-05:00

Sun, Jan. 22 2012
By Anugrah Kumar

More than 40,000 pro-life activists and supporters participated in the eighth annual Walk for Life West Coast event in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday to celebrate life and proclaim, "Women deserve better than abortion!"

The crowd gathered at Civic Center Plaza in front of the San Francisco City Hall on Saturday morning for an "Info Fair," which featured music, speakers and activities for kids. The march began in the afternoon. The activists walked down Market Street to Justin Herman Plaza at the Embarcadero, filling the length and breadth of the street. the rest

AAC response to Archbishops' report on ACNA

2012-01-23T09:01:00.000-05:00

By The Rev. Canon Phil Ashey
Chief Operating and Development Officer, American Anglican Council
posted January 23, 2012

Dear Friends in Christ,

I wish to make a view brief observations about the Report of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to the Church of England General Synod which was released today and which we have published in this Update. As you will recall, this Report was requested by the CofE General Synod's response to a Private Member's Motion seeking recognition of the ACNA. The American Anglican Council was there at the Synod on behalf of the ACNA, both before and during the debate, to counter misinformation by TEC about the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), and to provide updates on litigation, canonical abuses and the realignment of Anglicanism in North America. Our brief, "TEC: Unjust Episcopal Acts," clearly helped shape the debate.

The Report of the Archbishops is short, and with less clarity than you or I might have desired. But it reflects a particular culture that abhors a "winner-takes-all" outcome, having fought civil and religious wars where such an outcome was only narrowly averted, and with much bloodshed. In that light, here are some important observations about the Archbishops' report that are, on balance, positive for ACNA:

1. The ACNA as an institution was not rejected, as TEC and its proxies no doubt desired. Our Anglican "bona fides" will be subject to review and discussion while the wounds remain fresh from the realignment here in North America. The Archbishops state that the concept of membership in the Anglican Communion is not straightforward (Paragraph 8). Within that declaration, they discuss the role of both the ACC and the assent of 2/3 of the Primates of the Churches already listed in the current schedule of membership as providing a basis for membership. But in contrast to previous statements by ++Canterbury and the Secretary of the Anglican Communion, there is no insistence here upon the ACNA submitting an application to the ACC or following its "schedule" as necessary steps for recognition. I believe this is a significant concession between the lines to those who have challenged the purported authority of the ACC to make such decisions, especially in light of actual precedent where it was recognition by the Primates that gave membership within the Communion.

2. Given the likely wish of TEC to have the ACNA rejected, I believe it is a back-handed compliment to the development of the ACNA as an Anglican Church within the Communion that the Archbishops found it necessary to allay TEC and The Anglican Church of Canada's fears by reaffirming their communion with TEC and ACoC.

3. With respect to the question about the interchangeability of Holy Orders between ACNA and the Church of England, Paragraphs 11 and 21 make clear that the ministers of ACNA stand in exactly the same place in relation to the CofE as other clergy in the Communion.

Of course, this leaves many questions unanswered. If ACNA clergy seek to be licensed in the Church of England under the Overseas and Other Clergy (Ministry and Ordination) Measure of 1967, how will their applications be received? Will they be received and recognized? Or will they be delayed and put off like the clergy validly ordained in the Anglican Church of Kenya for the Anglican Mission in England, who are still waiting? We will be watching carefully to see how evenhandedly the Archbishops proceed, in keeping with the report.

Where then do we go from here? On mission, of course - to present Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit so that people everywhere (and particularly here in North America) will come to know Christ as Lord and to put their trust in Him as Savior, in the fellowship of the church! the rest