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Monday, October 31, 2022
Sunday, October 30, 2022
Jesuit Priest Expelled from Cuba
October 27, 2022
Father David Pantaleon S. J. Photo: Jesuitas.lat.
We should attack injustice at the root, which lies in human hearts:
thus, we need to work on shifting mindsets and tendencies
that lead to injustice and sustain structures of oppression.
-XXXII General Congregation of the Society of Jesus
By Leonardo M. Fernandez OtaƱo (El Toque)
We should attack injustice at the root, which lies in human hearts:
thus, we need to work on shifting mindsets and tendencies
that lead to injustice and sustain structures of oppression.
-XXXII General Congregation of the Society of Jesus
By Leonardo M. Fernandez OtaƱo (El Toque)
HAVANA TIMES – The Society of Jesus (S.J.) has been one of the main religious orders in the Catholic Church’s history in Cuba. During the XVIII century, the order held influence with its teachings at the San Jose School in Havana during the process of developing Creole culture. In 1767, King Carlos III signed an order to expel every Jesuit from the island and his lands. But the religious followers returned to Cuban soil in 1853 and founded the Bethelehem School in Havana, the following year.
In 1961, when the revolutionary Government expropriated the Catholic schools, the Society of Jesus had already established a network of parish churches, chapels, schools, and other social projects that stretched across important urban centers such as Camaguey, Santiago de Cuba, Cienfuegos, and Havana.
A few months ago, the Cuban Communist Party’s Office of Religious Affairs, led by official Caridad del Rosario Diego Bello, publicly announced that they wouldn’t be renewing residency for regional Jesuit superior in Cuba, Father David Pantaleon Rosario. As a result, he’d have to leave the country and that’s exactly what he did.
This procedure is one of the underhanded ways the Cuban Government and State Security coerce the Catholic Church. Due to a shortage of native callings, the religious institution has found itself forced to request entry for foreign religious personnel more than once. As a result, pastoral workers find themselves conditioned by a residency permit that is granted by the Office of Religious Affairs, which needs to be renewed every year. It can be renewed every 24 months if the religious person “has good conduct”. During this period, the Communist Party observes priests’ and religious followers’ daily lives (preachments, catechesis, pastoral connections).
Father David Pantaleon S.J, was named Superior of the Jesuits in Cuba back in 2017 and his canonical term concludes in July 2023. Not having his residency permit renewed and being deported form the country isn’t an isolated event, but the result of a long process of government surveillance due to him accompanying civil society and Cuban citizens.
Why the Jesuit superior?
First of all, it needs to be pointed out that the Society of Jesus and the Company of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul are the orders that have the most religious leaders born in Cuba. Plus, the presence of the order in different points across the country (Havana, Cienfuegos, Camaguey and Santiago de Cuba) means that every message made by the Jesuits spreads to a significant number of parishioners.
The other fact is based on the strength and social influence of their network of Loyola Centers. This network of centers offers complementary education to children, young people, single mothers, and the elderly; and is also a space for organizing debates and workshops on business ventures, cultural problems and civic values. These centers have been a space for a wide range of opinions that have taken in important voices from the Cuba’s breakaway groups, as was the case with Anamelys Ramos Gonzalez, who coordinated the space for civic debates called Forum Loyola, for many years. They have also taken in other critical intellectuals more recently, such as economists Miguel Alejandro Hayes and Jorge Ignacio Guillen.
The Sunday supplement Vida Cristiana is the order’s main publication in Cuba. Articles about liturgical issues are shared on its pages, and devout communities are guided on the meaning of the Sacred Scripture. They also publish articles with a deep social focus, analyzing and complaining about the reality in Cuba. This editorial line was another factor that sparked unease at the Office of Religious Affairs. With a weekly run of 55,000 copies, this publication is one of the greatest distributed printed publications that doesn’t belong to the Communist Party.
One point that also caused unease at Caridad del Rosario Diego’s office were publications by Jesuit priests and many secular people linked to the order, in which they complained about the totalitarian government’s systematic violation of human rights. We just have to mention the appeal to military forces published in the lead-up to the proposed protest march on November 15, 2021. It was one of the most important statements made by the Church in Cuba’s recent history, asking the military not to be violent towards their fellow compatriots.
Monthly messages to the Society of Jesus and its collaborators on missions was another factor that sped up David Pantaleon S.J.’s deportation. In these articles, the religious man reflected on the situation in the country, he complained about the precarious living conditions for citizens and the lack of political will to improve the Cuban people’s living conditions. These messages were disseminated across the island and received a lot of independent media coverage, resonating with people both in and outside the Church. Unlike the timid documents and the silence of Cuban bishops.
However, it was undoubtedly the follow-up service of the Conference of Religious Men and Women in Cuba (CONCUR) that put the priest at the greatest odds with the totalitarian government. Father David Pantaleon S.J. was president of the church group, for the past two years. The service was questioned in various meetings with members of the Office of Religious Affairs.
With the personalized follow-up service for families of protestors and political prisoners during the social uprising on July 11, 2021, CONCUR not only did good on its mission to assist, but also complained in its messages about the violation of criminal law, summary hearings, sentences and making an example out of political prisoners. Likewise, the degrading treatment and criminal procedure of minors in Cuban prisons in response to their political dissidence.
Deporting Father David Pantaleon S.J., which reminds us of the old policy of deportations for church members at the beginning of the Revolution, is an act the Office of Religious Affairs has fully calculated. They are increasingly trying to silence critical voices within the Cuban Church, who are expressing their disagreement with the situation in Cuba.
Father David Pantaleon S.J. leaving the country just proves how afraid the Cuban Government is of any space that articulates and complains while accompanying citizens. Well, given the calculated and cautious words at the Episcopal Conference, the Society of Jesus and Conference of Religious Members in Cuba are the church sectors that civil society, parishioners and most citizens have felt the word of the Church’s solidarity.
In 1961, when the revolutionary Government expropriated the Catholic schools, the Society of Jesus had already established a network of parish churches, chapels, schools, and other social projects that stretched across important urban centers such as Camaguey, Santiago de Cuba, Cienfuegos, and Havana.
A few months ago, the Cuban Communist Party’s Office of Religious Affairs, led by official Caridad del Rosario Diego Bello, publicly announced that they wouldn’t be renewing residency for regional Jesuit superior in Cuba, Father David Pantaleon Rosario. As a result, he’d have to leave the country and that’s exactly what he did.
This procedure is one of the underhanded ways the Cuban Government and State Security coerce the Catholic Church. Due to a shortage of native callings, the religious institution has found itself forced to request entry for foreign religious personnel more than once. As a result, pastoral workers find themselves conditioned by a residency permit that is granted by the Office of Religious Affairs, which needs to be renewed every year. It can be renewed every 24 months if the religious person “has good conduct”. During this period, the Communist Party observes priests’ and religious followers’ daily lives (preachments, catechesis, pastoral connections).
Father David Pantaleon S.J, was named Superior of the Jesuits in Cuba back in 2017 and his canonical term concludes in July 2023. Not having his residency permit renewed and being deported form the country isn’t an isolated event, but the result of a long process of government surveillance due to him accompanying civil society and Cuban citizens.
Why the Jesuit superior?
First of all, it needs to be pointed out that the Society of Jesus and the Company of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul are the orders that have the most religious leaders born in Cuba. Plus, the presence of the order in different points across the country (Havana, Cienfuegos, Camaguey and Santiago de Cuba) means that every message made by the Jesuits spreads to a significant number of parishioners.
The other fact is based on the strength and social influence of their network of Loyola Centers. This network of centers offers complementary education to children, young people, single mothers, and the elderly; and is also a space for organizing debates and workshops on business ventures, cultural problems and civic values. These centers have been a space for a wide range of opinions that have taken in important voices from the Cuba’s breakaway groups, as was the case with Anamelys Ramos Gonzalez, who coordinated the space for civic debates called Forum Loyola, for many years. They have also taken in other critical intellectuals more recently, such as economists Miguel Alejandro Hayes and Jorge Ignacio Guillen.
The Sunday supplement Vida Cristiana is the order’s main publication in Cuba. Articles about liturgical issues are shared on its pages, and devout communities are guided on the meaning of the Sacred Scripture. They also publish articles with a deep social focus, analyzing and complaining about the reality in Cuba. This editorial line was another factor that sparked unease at the Office of Religious Affairs. With a weekly run of 55,000 copies, this publication is one of the greatest distributed printed publications that doesn’t belong to the Communist Party.
One point that also caused unease at Caridad del Rosario Diego’s office were publications by Jesuit priests and many secular people linked to the order, in which they complained about the totalitarian government’s systematic violation of human rights. We just have to mention the appeal to military forces published in the lead-up to the proposed protest march on November 15, 2021. It was one of the most important statements made by the Church in Cuba’s recent history, asking the military not to be violent towards their fellow compatriots.
Monthly messages to the Society of Jesus and its collaborators on missions was another factor that sped up David Pantaleon S.J.’s deportation. In these articles, the religious man reflected on the situation in the country, he complained about the precarious living conditions for citizens and the lack of political will to improve the Cuban people’s living conditions. These messages were disseminated across the island and received a lot of independent media coverage, resonating with people both in and outside the Church. Unlike the timid documents and the silence of Cuban bishops.
However, it was undoubtedly the follow-up service of the Conference of Religious Men and Women in Cuba (CONCUR) that put the priest at the greatest odds with the totalitarian government. Father David Pantaleon S.J. was president of the church group, for the past two years. The service was questioned in various meetings with members of the Office of Religious Affairs.
With the personalized follow-up service for families of protestors and political prisoners during the social uprising on July 11, 2021, CONCUR not only did good on its mission to assist, but also complained in its messages about the violation of criminal law, summary hearings, sentences and making an example out of political prisoners. Likewise, the degrading treatment and criminal procedure of minors in Cuban prisons in response to their political dissidence.
Deporting Father David Pantaleon S.J., which reminds us of the old policy of deportations for church members at the beginning of the Revolution, is an act the Office of Religious Affairs has fully calculated. They are increasingly trying to silence critical voices within the Cuban Church, who are expressing their disagreement with the situation in Cuba.
Father David Pantaleon S.J. leaving the country just proves how afraid the Cuban Government is of any space that articulates and complains while accompanying citizens. Well, given the calculated and cautious words at the Episcopal Conference, the Society of Jesus and Conference of Religious Members in Cuba are the church sectors that civil society, parishioners and most citizens have felt the word of the Church’s solidarity.
Saturday, October 29, 2022
Friday, October 28, 2022
Nancy Pelosi's husband 'violently assaulted' in San Francisco home invasion
by Ryan King, Breaking News Reporter
October 28, 2022 08:53 AM
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) husband was violently assaulted early Friday morning at his residency, according to the speaker's office.
A motivation for the attack is still under investigation, but her husband, Paul Pelosi, has been taken to a hospital for medical treatment. Nancy Pelosi was not near the residency at the time of the attack.
“Early this morning, an assailant broke into the Pelosi residence in San Francisco and violently assaulted Mr. Pelosi. The assailant is in custody and the motivation for the attack is under investigation," Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said in a statement.
"Mr. Pelosi was taken to the hospital, where he is receiving excellent medical care and is expected to make a full recovery. The Speaker was not in San Francisco at the time," he added. "The Speaker and her family are grateful to the first responders and medical professionals involved, and request privacy at this time.”
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
Thursday, October 27, 2022
Pope urges priests and nuns to delete porn from their phones
By Ellen Francis
October 27, 2022 at 7:25 a.m. EDT
Pope Francis warned priests and nuns against watching pornography online and urged them to delete it from their phones to avoid falling into temptation.
The 85-year-old pontiff told a Vatican session that porn on the internet was “a vice that so many people have … even priests and nuns,” in response to questions about using digital and social media responsibly.
“The devil enters from there. … It weakens the priestly heart,” he told seminarians and priests studying in Rome this week in remarks published by the Vatican on Wednesday.
“Dear brothers, pay attention to this,” he said. “And if you can delete this from your mobile phone, delete it, so you won’t have the temptation in hand.”
Pope jokes he is ‘still alive’ despite some bishops wishing him dead
The head of the Roman Catholic Church recounted that he had once received a mobile phone when he became a bishop, which he used to make a single call to his sister and immediately returned.
“It is not my world, but you must use it,” Francis said in comments about the benefits and risks of the internet. He asked his listeners to excuse him for mentioning porn but described it as “a reality.”
“I will not say raise your hand if you have had at least one experience of this,” he added, asking them to reflect on it personally.
During his pontificate, Francis’s more outspoken — and at times less conservative — overtones than his predecessors, including his invitation of LGBT advocates to the Vatican, have drawn global attention and pushback from within the church.
Is Pope Francis nearing the end of his pontificate?
In his nine-year tenure, he has issued apologies at several points, notably for sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Among them was a 2018 letter to Chilean bishops, in which he apologized for what he described as his own errors in handling a sex-abuse scandal. That year, the church was shaken by accusations that Francis knew and covered up the alleged sexual misconduct of an American cardinal, The Washington Post reported.
Catholic cardinal accused in lawsuit of sexual assault
In 2020, the Vatican said it would look into how the pope’s official Instagram account appeared to have liked a Brazilian model’s photo, in an incident that she quipped would help get her into heaven. The pope’s Instagram account, managed by a team under the username franciscus, has 8.9 million followers.
While he has been healthy during much of his papacy, recent medical issues have raised questions about whether Francis could retire, and he has acknowledged that he could have to slow down his globe-trotting pace. In December, he will become the oldest sitting pope since the 1800s.
Source
Wednesday, October 26, 2022
Monday, October 24, 2022
Founders Designed Establishment Clause to Protect Religion, McConnell Says
Founders Designed Establishment Clause to Protect Religion, McConnell Says
October 31, 2005
Judge Michael W. McConnell of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals gave the Meador Lecture on Law and Religion last week.
The nation's founders included the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to protect and promote the church's inculcation of public virtue, rather than to protect the federal government from the influence of religion, said Judge Michael W. McConnell at the Oct. 27 Meador Lecture on Law and Religion.
McConnell, who serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, delivered his speech to an overflowing audience in Caplin Pavilion.
He noted that the separation of church and state often has been a provocative issue in American history. "We seem to be at one of those times again in American public life when these questions of how to adjust the spheres are on many people's minds," he said.
McConnell challenged popular explanations of the separation of church and state.
"The conventional wisdom goes something like this: that the creation of a liberal democratic order requires or at least presupposes the secularization of the civic culture, and that this secularization is embodied in the establishment clause of the First Amendment, the separation of church, which protects the private practice of religion from government but also, it is said, protects government from the device of any irrational powers of religion," he said. "It's necessary according to this view to base public policy and public affairs on the neutral grounds of reason rather than the superstitious sway of priests and bishops or the fulmination of fundamentalists.
"To many religious intrusion into politics is an offense against their cherished ideal of a secular public sphere," McConnell said. "They speak darkly of betraying the principles of the founding and dismantling the wall of separation created by the founders."
Although McConnell said he believes the issue is overblown on both sides, he thought it was advantageous to rekindle interest in the role of religion in a democratic republic. "The founding was quite different and in many ways more interesting than this conventional wisdom."
Although the First Amendment prohibited the federal establishment of religion, he said, approximately half of the founding states had some form of religious establishment when the amendment was ratified and others were exploring the possibility.
"The 1780s were actually a time of renewed interest in and support for state religious establishments," McConnell said.
Founding fathers such as John Adams, George Washington, Patrick Henry, and John Marshall were among those who supported some kind of establishment of religion, according to McConnell.
Sunday, October 23, 2022
US military forces 'fully prepared' to cross into Ukraine
WAR IN UKRAINE
October 22, 2022 09:19 PM
U.S. military forces are "fully prepared" to cross into Ukraine at a moment's notice to fight a war against Russia.
The Army's 101st Airborne Division, which boasts the "Screaming Eagles" moniker, has been deployed to Europe for the first time since World War II, practicing with live tank and artillery rounds not far from the Black Sea, across which Russia has taken territory from Ukraine, including Crimea, at a forward operating site on NATO's eastern flank, according to CBS News.
Brig. Gen. John Lubas, the division's deputy commander, stressed this is "not a training deployment" but rather a "combat deployment" from which his forces "need to be ready to fight tonight, depending on how the situation escalates across the border."
Col. Edwin Matthaidess, commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, told the news outlet these troops are the closest U.S. unit to the fighting in Ukraine, still raging more than seven months into Russia's full-scale invasion began. "It keeps us on our toes," he said.
The roughly 4,700 soldiers from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, are about three miles away from Romania's border with Ukraine, conducting joint ground and air assault exercises with Romanian forces meant to simulate battles that Ukrainian forces are waging against Russian invaders.
"It's not just about defending NATO territory," Charlie D'Agata, senior foreign correspondent for CBS News, said in one report from an air base in Romania. "If the fight escalates, and NATO partners are under threat, they're fully prepared to cross over into Ukrainian territory if ordered to do so."
The Army's 101st Airborne Division, which boasts the "Screaming Eagles" moniker, has been deployed to Europe for the first time since World War II, practicing with live tank and artillery rounds not far from the Black Sea, across which Russia has taken territory from Ukraine, including Crimea, at a forward operating site on NATO's eastern flank, according to CBS News.
Brig. Gen. John Lubas, the division's deputy commander, stressed this is "not a training deployment" but rather a "combat deployment" from which his forces "need to be ready to fight tonight, depending on how the situation escalates across the border."
Col. Edwin Matthaidess, commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, told the news outlet these troops are the closest U.S. unit to the fighting in Ukraine, still raging more than seven months into Russia's full-scale invasion began. "It keeps us on our toes," he said.
The roughly 4,700 soldiers from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, are about three miles away from Romania's border with Ukraine, conducting joint ground and air assault exercises with Romanian forces meant to simulate battles that Ukrainian forces are waging against Russian invaders.
"It's not just about defending NATO territory," Charlie D'Agata, senior foreign correspondent for CBS News, said in one report from an air base in Romania. "If the fight escalates, and NATO partners are under threat, they're fully prepared to cross over into Ukrainian territory if ordered to do so."
Saturday, October 22, 2022
Worst Places to Survive a Nuclear War in the U.S
By MATTHEW IMPELLI
ON 10/21/22 AT 12:35 PM EDT
Amid heightened nuclear tensions as the Russia-Ukraine war continues to rage on, many have questioned the chances of a nuclear war and the best and worst places to be located if one were to break out.
U.S. President Joe Biden recently warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin "is not joking" when discussing the possible use of nuclear weapons. "I don't think there's any such thing as the ability to easily use tactical nuclear weapons and not end up with Armageddon," Biden said this month.
In September, Putin warned other nations that Russia will "use all defense methods at our disposal" if the country felt threatened, adding "this is not a bluff." One of Putin's allies, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, also recently suggested the use of a "low-yield nuclear weapon" in connection to the conflict in Ukraine.
According to data from the Federation of American Scientists, Russia currently owns the most nuclear warheads in the world, with 5,977, while the U.S. has 5,428. The Federation of American Scientists also said that "of the world's 12,700 nuclear warheads, more than 9,400 are in the military stockpiles for use by missiles, aircraft, ships and submarines."
Newsweek recently spoke with experts about some of the worst places to be located if a nuclear war were to break out in the U.S.
In this inset image, a nuclear test is pictured in 1957 next to a leftover fallout shelter sign, one of hundreds in New York, displayed on a building on August 11, 2017, in New York City. Surviving a nuclear attack depends on numerous factors, such as where you are located when a bomb is used, preparedness and surrounding geography.GALERIE BILDERWELT/GETTY; SPENCER PLATT/GETTY
Potential Targets
While speaking with Newsweek on Thursday, Dinshaw Mistry, a professor of international affairs and Asian studies at the University of Cincinnati, explained that the "worst place to be located is the place most likely for a nuclear strike."
"The worst place would essentially be strategic targets, such as military and missile bases...bases are basically in the proximity of populated centers, whether it's cities or towns," Mistry said. "The worst place is essentially population centers near naval facilities, military bases, strategic air command bases."
However, Mistry noted that a "major population center" in the U.S., such as New York City or California, "may actually not be the target of nuclear strike."
Kathryn A. Higley, an Oregon State University professor in the School of Nuclear Science, told Newsweek that some other potential targets could be infrastructure such as power plants or fuel storage centers.
Worst Places to Be
Mark R. StJ. Foreman, an associate professor at Chalmers University of Technology in Gƶteborg, Sweden, made similar comments while discussing some of the worst possible places to be located if a nuclear bomb was sent to the U.S.
"I would argue that the best place to be during a nuclear attack is in a place where you are not affected by direct effects such as heat and blast and you also have very little fallout radioactivity deposited on your land," Foreman told Newsweek. "If you were outside in an exposed place near a large nuclear detonation then it would be over in a few seconds—you would be likely to be heated by the infrared light from the bomb. This would cause serious burns, and within seconds you would be hit by the blast wave, which would be likely to kill you."
Higley also said that the worst place to be located would be "adjacent" to where the device detonates. According to Higley, if you are located at the spot targeted, you are likely dead very quickly and if you are nearby, you may suffer from thermal and radiation effects, prior to death.
Surviving in the Aftermath
Surviving a nuclear attack depends on numerous factors, such as where you are located when a bomb is used, preparedness and surrounding geography.
Foreman said that if you are inside a bunker when a nuclear bomb is used, you are likely to survive, but he noted that "there is the problem of what do you do when you come out from the bunker, there is a good chance that food production and transport will have stopped."
"You might also face a breakdown of law and order," Foreman said. "One bit of comfort is that many people overplay the problem of mutations in plants, animals and humans. It is unlikely that you will see gross changes in living things around you due to radiation."
According to Foreman, if you are located further out from the area where a bomb is detonated, you may not experience strong blast effects, but he noted that in that case, "you might suffer for longer."
"I think that if the bomb goes off close to you then there is nothing which you can do, there it is the problem of 'survival of the luckiest,' but if you are on the edge of the blast and heat zone then there are things which you can do to protect yourself," Foreman said.
ON 10/21/22 AT 12:35 PM EDT
Amid heightened nuclear tensions as the Russia-Ukraine war continues to rage on, many have questioned the chances of a nuclear war and the best and worst places to be located if one were to break out.
U.S. President Joe Biden recently warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin "is not joking" when discussing the possible use of nuclear weapons. "I don't think there's any such thing as the ability to easily use tactical nuclear weapons and not end up with Armageddon," Biden said this month.
In September, Putin warned other nations that Russia will "use all defense methods at our disposal" if the country felt threatened, adding "this is not a bluff." One of Putin's allies, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, also recently suggested the use of a "low-yield nuclear weapon" in connection to the conflict in Ukraine.
According to data from the Federation of American Scientists, Russia currently owns the most nuclear warheads in the world, with 5,977, while the U.S. has 5,428. The Federation of American Scientists also said that "of the world's 12,700 nuclear warheads, more than 9,400 are in the military stockpiles for use by missiles, aircraft, ships and submarines."
Newsweek recently spoke with experts about some of the worst places to be located if a nuclear war were to break out in the U.S.
In this inset image, a nuclear test is pictured in 1957 next to a leftover fallout shelter sign, one of hundreds in New York, displayed on a building on August 11, 2017, in New York City. Surviving a nuclear attack depends on numerous factors, such as where you are located when a bomb is used, preparedness and surrounding geography.GALERIE BILDERWELT/GETTY; SPENCER PLATT/GETTY
Potential Targets
While speaking with Newsweek on Thursday, Dinshaw Mistry, a professor of international affairs and Asian studies at the University of Cincinnati, explained that the "worst place to be located is the place most likely for a nuclear strike."
"The worst place would essentially be strategic targets, such as military and missile bases...bases are basically in the proximity of populated centers, whether it's cities or towns," Mistry said. "The worst place is essentially population centers near naval facilities, military bases, strategic air command bases."
However, Mistry noted that a "major population center" in the U.S., such as New York City or California, "may actually not be the target of nuclear strike."
Kathryn A. Higley, an Oregon State University professor in the School of Nuclear Science, told Newsweek that some other potential targets could be infrastructure such as power plants or fuel storage centers.
Worst Places to Be
Mark R. StJ. Foreman, an associate professor at Chalmers University of Technology in Gƶteborg, Sweden, made similar comments while discussing some of the worst possible places to be located if a nuclear bomb was sent to the U.S.
"I would argue that the best place to be during a nuclear attack is in a place where you are not affected by direct effects such as heat and blast and you also have very little fallout radioactivity deposited on your land," Foreman told Newsweek. "If you were outside in an exposed place near a large nuclear detonation then it would be over in a few seconds—you would be likely to be heated by the infrared light from the bomb. This would cause serious burns, and within seconds you would be hit by the blast wave, which would be likely to kill you."
Higley also said that the worst place to be located would be "adjacent" to where the device detonates. According to Higley, if you are located at the spot targeted, you are likely dead very quickly and if you are nearby, you may suffer from thermal and radiation effects, prior to death.
Surviving in the Aftermath
Surviving a nuclear attack depends on numerous factors, such as where you are located when a bomb is used, preparedness and surrounding geography.
Foreman said that if you are inside a bunker when a nuclear bomb is used, you are likely to survive, but he noted that "there is the problem of what do you do when you come out from the bunker, there is a good chance that food production and transport will have stopped."
"You might also face a breakdown of law and order," Foreman said. "One bit of comfort is that many people overplay the problem of mutations in plants, animals and humans. It is unlikely that you will see gross changes in living things around you due to radiation."
According to Foreman, if you are located further out from the area where a bomb is detonated, you may not experience strong blast effects, but he noted that in that case, "you might suffer for longer."
"I think that if the bomb goes off close to you then there is nothing which you can do, there it is the problem of 'survival of the luckiest,' but if you are on the edge of the blast and heat zone then there are things which you can do to protect yourself," Foreman said.
Castle Romeo was the code name given to one of thes tests in the Operation Castle series of U.S. thermonuclear tests beginning in March 1954 at Bikini Atoll. Amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, nuclear tensions have continued to rise.GALERIE BILDERWELT/GETTY IMAGES
Foreman also spoke about the different ways you can try to protect yourself, saying that "different designs of house will give different degrees of protection against radiation—the worst I can think of is a simple wooden house with no basement."
"In some ways, the best dwelling would be about halfway up a tall tower block which has concrete load bearing walls both on the edge of the building and also inside the building," Foreman said. "A subbasement under a concrete building would be a very good place in terms of shielding, but you have to consider the problem of the building falling down and burying you under a pile of rubble."
In regard to different preparedness levels, Mistry said that it is likely that places that are struck by a nuclear bomb "would have to be both evacuated and, very much like COVID, quarantined."
"Survivors would definitely have to be evacuated but not evacuated back to another population center," Mistry said. "It would almost be like a quarantine."
Additionally, Mistry spoke about the different weather and geographical aspects that could help or hurt the chances of surviving.
"If you are in New York City and a strike is definitely several hundred miles away, you can't rule out winds blowing radiation one way or the other, so if you are downstream from the wind...New York City could still be affected."
Mistry continued, "If it's a valley, the mountains could actually keep radiation in rather than let it spread out. If it's a place near a river, the radiation could actually contaminate the water and it could go downstream and make things worse."
No Safe Place
Newsweek previously reported on some of the best places to be located to survive a potential nuclear attack on the U.S.; however, one expert said that there is no safe place.
"There's no safe place, even relatively safe place," Mistry said.
Likelihood of Attack on the U.S.
Despite ongoing concerns about the potential use of nuclear weapons, Heather Williams, the director of the Project on Nuclear Issues and a senior fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), previously spoke to Newsweek and said that the "likelihood" of Putin using a nuclear weapon "is pretty low."
"The cost would be so significant for him, it would not help him win the war in Ukraine— he would most likely lose a lot of his close partners he relies on," Williams said last week.
What Type of Nuclear Weapon Could Be Used
Williams also said that nuclear weapons have changed drastically throughout history. According to Williams, currently, the main concern would be "tactical nuclear weapons," which are far different than the ones previously used by the U.S. in Japan.
"These would be lower yield, shorter range, potentially battlefield-used nuclear weapons," Williams said.
Source
Foreman also spoke about the different ways you can try to protect yourself, saying that "different designs of house will give different degrees of protection against radiation—the worst I can think of is a simple wooden house with no basement."
"In some ways, the best dwelling would be about halfway up a tall tower block which has concrete load bearing walls both on the edge of the building and also inside the building," Foreman said. "A subbasement under a concrete building would be a very good place in terms of shielding, but you have to consider the problem of the building falling down and burying you under a pile of rubble."
In regard to different preparedness levels, Mistry said that it is likely that places that are struck by a nuclear bomb "would have to be both evacuated and, very much like COVID, quarantined."
"Survivors would definitely have to be evacuated but not evacuated back to another population center," Mistry said. "It would almost be like a quarantine."
Additionally, Mistry spoke about the different weather and geographical aspects that could help or hurt the chances of surviving.
"If you are in New York City and a strike is definitely several hundred miles away, you can't rule out winds blowing radiation one way or the other, so if you are downstream from the wind...New York City could still be affected."
Mistry continued, "If it's a valley, the mountains could actually keep radiation in rather than let it spread out. If it's a place near a river, the radiation could actually contaminate the water and it could go downstream and make things worse."
No Safe Place
Newsweek previously reported on some of the best places to be located to survive a potential nuclear attack on the U.S.; however, one expert said that there is no safe place.
"There's no safe place, even relatively safe place," Mistry said.
Likelihood of Attack on the U.S.
Despite ongoing concerns about the potential use of nuclear weapons, Heather Williams, the director of the Project on Nuclear Issues and a senior fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), previously spoke to Newsweek and said that the "likelihood" of Putin using a nuclear weapon "is pretty low."
"The cost would be so significant for him, it would not help him win the war in Ukraine— he would most likely lose a lot of his close partners he relies on," Williams said last week.
What Type of Nuclear Weapon Could Be Used
Williams also said that nuclear weapons have changed drastically throughout history. According to Williams, currently, the main concern would be "tactical nuclear weapons," which are far different than the ones previously used by the U.S. in Japan.
"These would be lower yield, shorter range, potentially battlefield-used nuclear weapons," Williams said.
Source
Friday, October 21, 2022
Thursday, October 20, 2022
The globalization myth
BY SHANNON K. O’NEIL, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 10/20/22 6:30 PM ET
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL
Getty Images
Globalization is taking a beating. Its diminishing number of defenders face a rising chorus of critics, particularly in the United States, that blame it for wage stagnation, increased inequality, and the hollowing out of once vibrant industrial towns.
Yet these often acrimonious debates miss the real underlying trend in trade of the last 40 years: As companies and money went abroad they regionalized more than they globalized. This misunderstanding is now leading to the wrong prescriptions from those who want to help U.S. companies, workers, and communities that have suffered in recent years. The path to stronger and more inclusive growth isn’t less globalization, it is more regionalization.
To be sure, global trade has grown over eleven fold since 1980, some $22 trillion in goods and services now crossing borders each year. Still, this international commercial expansion hasn’t been as deep or widespread as most imagine. Drill down and only about two dozen nations took advantage of the world’s opening to truly transform their economies, trade as a percentage of GDP doubling or more. In contrast, nearly 90 nations saw international exchanges stagnate or become a smaller part of their overall economies — if anything they deglobalized.
Add to this, these ramped up exports go and imports come from nearer by than commonly understood. The average internationally-sold product travels less than 3,000 miles, not much more than the distance between New York and California. Sure, some well known companies source parts from all over the world: Boeing boasts suppliers across 58 countries. But only a handful of companies live up to the “global” hype. A study of 365 prominent multinationals found that just 9 have truly conquered the world (measured by sales). Many, when they expanded abroad, did so mostly next door.
As international regional ties broadened and deepened, three major manufacturing and supply chain hubs rose above the rest: Europe, Asia, and North America. Together, they now churn out 90 percent of the world’s goods. Yet these regions are not created equal. Europe and Asia have integrated much more as a region than North America. Two-thirds of EU trade and over half of Asian trade remains within their respective regions, while in North America only 40 percent of trade occurs between the three nations. The rest of the world is even further behind, trade with neighbors below 15 percent.
Since regionalization gave nations a competitive boost, it helps explain in part the winners and losers from trade. And it has given Europe and Asia an edge over the U.S. and North America.
What globalization’s critics and supporters alike get right is that these trends are again changing. COVID-19 accelerated a whole set of forces reshaping global trading ties. Robots, automation, and 3D printing increasingly mean many businesses can do more with fewer workers, making cheap labor relatively less important.
Demographic shifts are raising costs in once low wage nations, specifically in China, where more workers are now exiting the labor market than entering. The value of time is growing, too. As consumers expect faster delivery, factories thousands of miles away can mean lost sales. Add the headaches of supply chain snafus and more numerous and extreme climate events, and far-flung production is becoming relatively less profitable in many industries.
Politics are changing, too: Freer markets are giving way to industrial policies and protections; and national security concerns are baked into trade agreements and influence international commercial ties.
Many of these shifts favor the United States, as do its clear legal rules, world-class universities, and wealthy consumers. But regionalization will become more—not less—important going forward, as the benefits of bigger markets and broader market access, of larger workforces with a greater range of skills, of diverse and bountiful natural resources, and of various types of financing matter.
Globalization is taking a beating. Its diminishing number of defenders face a rising chorus of critics, particularly in the United States, that blame it for wage stagnation, increased inequality, and the hollowing out of once vibrant industrial towns.
Yet these often acrimonious debates miss the real underlying trend in trade of the last 40 years: As companies and money went abroad they regionalized more than they globalized. This misunderstanding is now leading to the wrong prescriptions from those who want to help U.S. companies, workers, and communities that have suffered in recent years. The path to stronger and more inclusive growth isn’t less globalization, it is more regionalization.
To be sure, global trade has grown over eleven fold since 1980, some $22 trillion in goods and services now crossing borders each year. Still, this international commercial expansion hasn’t been as deep or widespread as most imagine. Drill down and only about two dozen nations took advantage of the world’s opening to truly transform their economies, trade as a percentage of GDP doubling or more. In contrast, nearly 90 nations saw international exchanges stagnate or become a smaller part of their overall economies — if anything they deglobalized.
Add to this, these ramped up exports go and imports come from nearer by than commonly understood. The average internationally-sold product travels less than 3,000 miles, not much more than the distance between New York and California. Sure, some well known companies source parts from all over the world: Boeing boasts suppliers across 58 countries. But only a handful of companies live up to the “global” hype. A study of 365 prominent multinationals found that just 9 have truly conquered the world (measured by sales). Many, when they expanded abroad, did so mostly next door.
As international regional ties broadened and deepened, three major manufacturing and supply chain hubs rose above the rest: Europe, Asia, and North America. Together, they now churn out 90 percent of the world’s goods. Yet these regions are not created equal. Europe and Asia have integrated much more as a region than North America. Two-thirds of EU trade and over half of Asian trade remains within their respective regions, while in North America only 40 percent of trade occurs between the three nations. The rest of the world is even further behind, trade with neighbors below 15 percent.
Since regionalization gave nations a competitive boost, it helps explain in part the winners and losers from trade. And it has given Europe and Asia an edge over the U.S. and North America.
What globalization’s critics and supporters alike get right is that these trends are again changing. COVID-19 accelerated a whole set of forces reshaping global trading ties. Robots, automation, and 3D printing increasingly mean many businesses can do more with fewer workers, making cheap labor relatively less important.
Demographic shifts are raising costs in once low wage nations, specifically in China, where more workers are now exiting the labor market than entering. The value of time is growing, too. As consumers expect faster delivery, factories thousands of miles away can mean lost sales. Add the headaches of supply chain snafus and more numerous and extreme climate events, and far-flung production is becoming relatively less profitable in many industries.
Politics are changing, too: Freer markets are giving way to industrial policies and protections; and national security concerns are baked into trade agreements and influence international commercial ties.
Many of these shifts favor the United States, as do its clear legal rules, world-class universities, and wealthy consumers. But regionalization will become more—not less—important going forward, as the benefits of bigger markets and broader market access, of larger workforces with a greater range of skills, of diverse and bountiful natural resources, and of various types of financing matter.
Why policymakers should embrace — not hinder — independent workUSDA-Wyoming agreement: A new chapter in conservation history
Expansive commercial ties with Mexico and Canada create a bigger market for U.S.-made goods and tariff free access to more of the world for U.S.-based suppliers as Mexico and Canada have free trade agreements with nearly 60 percent of global GDP, while the United States has preferred access to less than 10 percent. And exports are more globally competitive when countries make them together, as they can take advantage of differences in skills, workforces, resources, and industrial clusters and specialization to make goods better, faster and cheaper. And when products are manufactured or assembled in Mexico or Canada, they are much more likely to buy parts from U.S. factories or offices, those orders keeping and creating U.S.-based jobs.
International trade has shaken up the U.S., creating winners and losers. But shutting out the world isn’t the way to ease disparities and bring prosperity. If the U.S. wants to remain an economic powerhouse, competing with Asia, Europe and others for global consumers, businesses, and industries, it can’t go it alone. It needs its neighbors.
Shannon K. O’Neil is vice president of Studies and Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is the author of the forthcoming Book “The Globalization Myth: Why Regions Matter.”
© 1998 - 2022 NEXSTAR INC. | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Expansive commercial ties with Mexico and Canada create a bigger market for U.S.-made goods and tariff free access to more of the world for U.S.-based suppliers as Mexico and Canada have free trade agreements with nearly 60 percent of global GDP, while the United States has preferred access to less than 10 percent. And exports are more globally competitive when countries make them together, as they can take advantage of differences in skills, workforces, resources, and industrial clusters and specialization to make goods better, faster and cheaper. And when products are manufactured or assembled in Mexico or Canada, they are much more likely to buy parts from U.S. factories or offices, those orders keeping and creating U.S.-based jobs.
International trade has shaken up the U.S., creating winners and losers. But shutting out the world isn’t the way to ease disparities and bring prosperity. If the U.S. wants to remain an economic powerhouse, competing with Asia, Europe and others for global consumers, businesses, and industries, it can’t go it alone. It needs its neighbors.
Shannon K. O’Neil is vice president of Studies and Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is the author of the forthcoming Book “The Globalization Myth: Why Regions Matter.”
© 1998 - 2022 NEXSTAR INC. | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
THE UNITED NATIONS 2030 AGENDA AND THE RETURN OF JESUS CHRIST...
THE UNITED NATIONS 2030 AGENDA AND THE RETURN OF JESUS CHRIST - THE URGENT PUSH TO GATHER THE WORLD UNDER ROME BY 2030!
In connection with this page, please see our page TIME IS ALMOST UP! ARE YOU IN THE KINGDOM?
Please note, we are NOT setting any dates here, neither are we saying we have until 2030, because as the apostle Paul said, God will "finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness." (Romans 9:28). We are merely showing you that the second coming is 'AT THE DOOR' (Matthew 24:33).
The return of Christ could be before 2030 or after, but we are getting very near, which is what we are merely showing you on this page.
Many of you will have heard about the 2030 agenda that the United Nations are pushing.
But, there is an interesting connection that many of you may not have seen before. Why have the United Nations picked the year 2030? And what is the 2030 agenda? If you look at the official UN website dealing with the 'sustainable agenda', you will see their 'goals', which cover food, health, education, gender, energy, work, land, sea, and just about every aspect of our lives. And their slogan? 'Leave no one behind.' This is from their website:
"The Sustainable Development Goals are a call for action by all countries - poor, rich and middle-income - to promote prosperity while protecting the planet." (source) ... "Today, progress is being made in many places, but, overall, action to meet the Goals is not yet advancing at the speed or scale required. 2020 needs to usher in a decade of ambitious action to deliver the Goals by 2030. With only ten years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, world leaders at the SDG Summit in September 2019 called for a decade of action and delivery for sustainable development, and pledged to mobilize financing, enhance national implementation and strengthen institutions to achieve the Goals by the target date of 2030, leaving no one behind." (source)
"All countries, rich and poor ... leave no one behind"?? Sounds a lot like Revelation 13:16-17 ...'And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.'
But why is the 2030 date so important to them? Pay close attention!
Let us look at the connection between the UN 2030 agenda and the return of Christ. In the story (parable) of the good Samaritan in Luke 10:30-35, Jesus sets forth some very interesting symbolism. We all know the story well, how a certain man was robbed and beaten and left for dead, and a Levite and a Priest passed by without helping him, but a Samaritan came along and helped the man, took him to an inn and gave two pence for his stay at the inn, saying, "when I come again" I will repay any more.
The symbolism is clear. The man robbed, beaten and left for dead represents us sinners, beaten and left for dead by Satan and sin. The priest and Levite who pass by without helping, represents the law, which cannot save us from sin. The good Samaritcan represents Jesus Christ, the only one who can help us. The Inn, which the Samaritan takes the man to, represents God's kingdom and church on earth, where Jesus gathers His people to take care of each other. But what about the 'two pence' the good Samaritan gave the host? Why two pence? Remember who the Samaritan represents? Jesus. So what does the two pence represent? The Samaritan (Jesus) is saying ... "this two pence should be enough until I return." Now look at another parable Jesus gave:
Matthew 20:1-2 ...'For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.'
Who does the vineyard belong to? God. And the vineyard is the earth. Who are the labourers in that vineyard? God's church on earth. And how much was to be the pay for the work? A penny for ONE DAY. Now remember that in the good Samaritan story, the Samaritan (Jesus) gave the host (the church) two pence UNTIL HE WAS TO RETURN. So if one penny was for one day, then two pence would be enough for two days work. So if you put both parables together, Jesus is giving the church two pence for 'two days' UNTIL HE RETURNS. Now look at what Peter said:
2 Peter 3:8 ...'But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.'
One day is as a thousand years with God. So what would TWO days (two pence) be? Two thousand years! Do you see this? Was Jesus saying through this parable that He would return in around 2000 years time?
Now when was Jesus crucified and when did He go back to heaven? AD.30-31. So where does 2000 years take us to? -- 2030! -- Any coincidence that the UN wants control of the world by 2030?
Again, we are NOT setting any dates here, we are merely showing you that the second coming is 'AT THE DOOR' (Matthew 24:33), and why there is such a push by the UN to gain control by 2030. The return of Christ could be before or after 2030, but we are getting very close!
Does Satan know the scriptures? Does he know the prophecies? Yes, he knows the Bible better than anyone here on earth. Does he know about God's 6000 year timeline? Yes. Does he know when the second coming of Jesus is literally 'at the door'? Yes. This is why there is an urgency now in this world to 'gather' everyone under this United Nations 2030 plan. It is Satan's plan to gather the world under Rome's leadership, and cause everyone "both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads." (Rev.13:16).
They are seeking to get this done by 2030, knowing that the return of Christ and end of this world as we know it is literally 'at the door.' Why do you think they are screaming about 'climate change' and saying 'we only have 10 years left to do something'? They are looking to "save" this planet from it's coming destruction at the hands of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And what will be their "solution"? Rome's Sunday law!
Oh friends! I pray that this would open your eyes and wake you up to where we are in history. I pray that this would cause you to make a more full surrender of your life to Jesus. And please don't think that merely sitting in your church will keep you safe, as Satan has captured the majority of churches in this world now, and they have become part of fallen Babylon. Our only safety is in the arms of Christ - WE ARE COMPLETE IN HIM.
Jesus is coming back soon! Please make sure you are clothed with THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST.
Time is almost up! Are you in the Kingdom?
© end-times-prophecy.org
Wednesday, October 19, 2022
Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Monday, October 17, 2022
Jill Biden lashed out at WH staffers for not stopping Joe’s solo presser: report
By Mark Moore
October 17, 2022 | 1:44pm
First lady Jill Biden tore into White House staffers after they failed to cut off President Biden’s second solo press conference in January — when her husband kept taking questions even as then-press secretary Jen Psaki signaled to the president to wrap it up, according to a report.
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President Biden was grilled at the Jan. 19 news conference about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, tensions between Washington and Moscow over Ukraine and the supply chain crisis that was causing a shortage of goods across the country.
Following the presser, which went on for about two hours, Jill Biden popped into a meeting of top White House officials who were rehashing the president’s performance, the New York Times reported..
First lady Jill Biden tore into White House staffers after they failed to cut off President Biden’s second solo press conference in January.AP Photo/Morry Gash, Pool
“She pointedly asked the group, which included the president, why nobody stepped in to stop it, according to a person who was in the room,” the outlet said. “Where was the person, she demanded, who was supposed to end the news conference?”
The Times report, describing how the first lady has become a favored surrogate for the president ahead of the midterm elections, noted that she has been protective of her husband and even took part in hiring White House staffers and press aides, including vetting Psaki alongside the president.
At the January presser, the president had been answering questions from a pre-arranged list of reporters for roughly an hour when Psaki — clad in an eye-catching pink blazer — stood up in an apparent attempt to bring the proceedings to a close.
“She pointedly asked the group, which included the president, why nobody stepped in to stop it, according to a person who was in the room,” the outlet said. “Where was the person, she demanded, who was supposed to end the news conference?”
The Times report, describing how the first lady has become a favored surrogate for the president ahead of the midterm elections, noted that she has been protective of her husband and even took part in hiring White House staffers and press aides, including vetting Psaki alongside the president.
At the January presser, the president had been answering questions from a pre-arranged list of reporters for roughly an hour when Psaki — clad in an eye-catching pink blazer — stood up in an apparent attempt to bring the proceedings to a close.
According to the first lady, the staffers should have stopped Biden when the time for the presser was up.EPA/Oliver Contreras / POOL
But the president kept going, prompting Psaki to stand up again about 20 minutes later and walk to a door about 50 feet away from the seating area in another apparent attempt to end the questioning.
A short time later, the president asked his audience — which was limited to 30 reporters due to the pandemic, but was not asked to observe social distancing guidelines — how long they wanted him to continue. After looking at his watch, Biden said he’d go another 20 minutes — though he actually went on for approximately another half-hour.
The news conference became notorious for Biden suggesting that Russia would only face a muted US response for a “minor incursion” into Ukraine and predicting that Vladimir Putin would “be able to prevail over time” over Kyiv.
Additional reporting by Steven Nelson
SITREP 10.17.22 - Global Recon
<4iframe width="60" height="370" src="https://youtube.com/embed/FyYfNTliPCk" frameborder="0">
Sunday, October 16, 2022
Romanism and the Reformation – H. Grattan Guinness
October 31, 2020 James Arendt
This is an outstanding series of lectures exposing the Roman Catholic Church as “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” of Revelation 17:5. I got the text from PDF file ROMANISM AND THE REFORMATION and posted it here to make it easier to read. If you still doubt the Roman Catholic Church represents Mystery Babylon, rather that knock the idea, why not read at least the first chapter of what Henry Grattan Guiness had to say?
PREFACE
Henry Grattan Guinness – (11 August 1835 – 21 June 1910), an Irish Protestant Christian preacher, evangelist and author.
THE following lectures were delivered, by request, under the auspices of the Protestant Educational Institute, at Exeter Hall, in the spring of this year [1887]. That Institute exists to do a much needed work to keep alive, especially in the hearts of the rising generation, some measure of intelligent sympathy with the Protestant traditions of our country. England’s Protestantism has long been England’s glory, and the direct cause of her unrivaled prosperity and peculiar preeminence among the nations of Europe. That Protestantism is now sustaining a double attack, from without and from within. Yet few seem fully alive to the danger. The late Lord Beaconsfield saw it clearly enough however. “Your empire and your liberties are more in danger at this moment,” he said, “than when Napoleon’s army of observation was encamped at Boulogne.” What would he have said had he lived to see the present position of affairs!
The Reformation of the sixteenth century, which gave birth to Protestantism, was based on Scripture. It gave back to the world the Bible. It taught the Scriptures; it exposed the errors and corruptions of Rome by the use of the sword of the Spirit. It applied THE PROPHECIES, and accepted their practical guidance. Such Reformation work requires to be done afresh. We have suffered prophetic anti-papal truth to be too much forgotten. This generation is dangerously latitudinarian indifferent to truth and error on points on which Scripture is tremendously decided and absolutely clear.
See also Vietnam: Why Did We Go? - By Avro Manhattan
These lectures, simple and popular as they are, will, it is hoped, open many minds to perceive that the Bible gives no uncertain sound as to Romanism, and that those who will be guided by its teachings must shun an apostasy against which the sorest judgments are denounced.
The lectures are given as delivered, with the exception of the first and last, which have been extended and modified. In recasting and enlarging the opening lecture on the Daniel foreview, and the closing one on the Reformation, I have availed myself of the valuable help of my beloved wife, who has for so many years been my fellow laborer both in literary and evangelistic work.
I shall rejoice if these lectures obtain a wide circulation, for they contain, I am sure, truth for the times, truth deeply and increasingly needed, not only for the preservation of the civil and religious liberties of our country and empire, but for the practical guidance of the people of God in these last days.
H. GRATTAN GUINNESS Harley House, Bow, E., June 1st, 1887.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
From the first appearance of these lectures in the form in which they were originally published, I have been urged to produce a cheap popular edition suited for wide-spread distribution. I do so now the more willingly because the need of testimony to Protestant Truth is increasing instead of diminishing. Romanism and Ritualism are making extensive progress year by year, and seriously imperil “The Protestant Religion and Liberties of England.” The duty of diffusing information on the true character and history of “Romanism and the Reformation” is one which presses on God’s faithful people in these days. The apathy of many as to the present crisis only increases the danger, and intensifies the call for clear and cogent teaching suited to counteract the Romeward tendencies of these times. The testimony of Scripture, especially of the “sure word of Prophecy,” should be set forth afresh, as in the days of the Reformation, that those in danger of departing from the faith once delivered to the saints may be warned, and those who have so departed may be delivered. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual, and mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Our combat is with error, therefore let us diffuse the Truth. Books and pamphlets bearing on the questions at issue, and taking the side of Truth, should be circulated by the million. Let our readers do what they can in this direction, without delay, committing the result to Him who has promised that His word shall not return to Him void, but shall accomplish the ends for which He has sent it.
See also Popery - the Accommodation of Christianity to the Natural Heart
H. GRATTAN GUINNESS. HARLEY HOUSE, BOW, LONDON, E. MAY 1ST, 1891.
Contents
Intro
The Daniel Foreview of Romanism
THEOCRACY ON EARTH.
3. PAUL’S FOREVIEW OF ROMANISM
4. JOHN’S FOREVIEW OF ROMANISM
5. INTERPRETATION IN PRE-REFORMATION TIMES
7. INTERPRETATION IN POST-REFORMATION TIMES
8. DOUBLE FOREVIEW OF THE REFORMATION
IT WAS FORESHADOWED IN THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL
A LINE OF FAITHFUL WITNESSES
NEW TESTAMENT PROPHECY OF THE REFORMATION
SEPARATE EVANGELIC CHURCH.
CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE BEARING OF THE SUBJECT
This is an outstanding series of lectures exposing the Roman Catholic Church as “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” of Revelation 17:5. I got the text from PDF file ROMANISM AND THE REFORMATION and posted it here to make it easier to read. If you still doubt the Roman Catholic Church represents Mystery Babylon, rather that knock the idea, why not read at least the first chapter of what Henry Grattan Guiness had to say?
PREFACE
Henry Grattan Guinness – (11 August 1835 – 21 June 1910), an Irish Protestant Christian preacher, evangelist and author.
THE following lectures were delivered, by request, under the auspices of the Protestant Educational Institute, at Exeter Hall, in the spring of this year [1887]. That Institute exists to do a much needed work to keep alive, especially in the hearts of the rising generation, some measure of intelligent sympathy with the Protestant traditions of our country. England’s Protestantism has long been England’s glory, and the direct cause of her unrivaled prosperity and peculiar preeminence among the nations of Europe. That Protestantism is now sustaining a double attack, from without and from within. Yet few seem fully alive to the danger. The late Lord Beaconsfield saw it clearly enough however. “Your empire and your liberties are more in danger at this moment,” he said, “than when Napoleon’s army of observation was encamped at Boulogne.” What would he have said had he lived to see the present position of affairs!
The Reformation of the sixteenth century, which gave birth to Protestantism, was based on Scripture. It gave back to the world the Bible. It taught the Scriptures; it exposed the errors and corruptions of Rome by the use of the sword of the Spirit. It applied THE PROPHECIES, and accepted their practical guidance. Such Reformation work requires to be done afresh. We have suffered prophetic anti-papal truth to be too much forgotten. This generation is dangerously latitudinarian indifferent to truth and error on points on which Scripture is tremendously decided and absolutely clear.
See also Vietnam: Why Did We Go? - By Avro Manhattan
These lectures, simple and popular as they are, will, it is hoped, open many minds to perceive that the Bible gives no uncertain sound as to Romanism, and that those who will be guided by its teachings must shun an apostasy against which the sorest judgments are denounced.
The lectures are given as delivered, with the exception of the first and last, which have been extended and modified. In recasting and enlarging the opening lecture on the Daniel foreview, and the closing one on the Reformation, I have availed myself of the valuable help of my beloved wife, who has for so many years been my fellow laborer both in literary and evangelistic work.
I shall rejoice if these lectures obtain a wide circulation, for they contain, I am sure, truth for the times, truth deeply and increasingly needed, not only for the preservation of the civil and religious liberties of our country and empire, but for the practical guidance of the people of God in these last days.
H. GRATTAN GUINNESS Harley House, Bow, E., June 1st, 1887.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
From the first appearance of these lectures in the form in which they were originally published, I have been urged to produce a cheap popular edition suited for wide-spread distribution. I do so now the more willingly because the need of testimony to Protestant Truth is increasing instead of diminishing. Romanism and Ritualism are making extensive progress year by year, and seriously imperil “The Protestant Religion and Liberties of England.” The duty of diffusing information on the true character and history of “Romanism and the Reformation” is one which presses on God’s faithful people in these days. The apathy of many as to the present crisis only increases the danger, and intensifies the call for clear and cogent teaching suited to counteract the Romeward tendencies of these times. The testimony of Scripture, especially of the “sure word of Prophecy,” should be set forth afresh, as in the days of the Reformation, that those in danger of departing from the faith once delivered to the saints may be warned, and those who have so departed may be delivered. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual, and mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Our combat is with error, therefore let us diffuse the Truth. Books and pamphlets bearing on the questions at issue, and taking the side of Truth, should be circulated by the million. Let our readers do what they can in this direction, without delay, committing the result to Him who has promised that His word shall not return to Him void, but shall accomplish the ends for which He has sent it.
See also Popery - the Accommodation of Christianity to the Natural Heart
H. GRATTAN GUINNESS. HARLEY HOUSE, BOW, LONDON, E. MAY 1ST, 1891.
Contents
Intro
The Daniel Foreview of Romanism
THEOCRACY ON EARTH.
3. PAUL’S FOREVIEW OF ROMANISM
4. JOHN’S FOREVIEW OF ROMANISM
5. INTERPRETATION IN PRE-REFORMATION TIMES
7. INTERPRETATION IN POST-REFORMATION TIMES
8. DOUBLE FOREVIEW OF THE REFORMATION
IT WAS FORESHADOWED IN THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL
A LINE OF FAITHFUL WITNESSES
NEW TESTAMENT PROPHECY OF THE REFORMATION
SEPARATE EVANGELIC CHURCH.
CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE BEARING OF THE SUBJECT
Saturday, October 15, 2022
Friday, October 14, 2022
Thursday, October 13, 2022
Wednesday, October 12, 2022
Monday, October 10, 2022
Sunday, October 09, 2022
India’s central bank to launch digital rupee pilot
OCTOBER 7, 2022, 8:32AM EDT
by Inbar Preiss
by Inbar Preiss
The Block
Quick TakeThe Reserve Bank of India published a concept note on central bank digital currencies, stating a digital rupee prototype will be launched “soon.”
A digital rupee will likely have both retail and wholesale use cases as the central bank explores other features.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is stepping towards initiating a digital rupee pilot and indicating key features in the central bank digital currency (CBDC), according to a 50-page report released on Friday.
The Indian central bank says it will launch a pilot Digital Rupee program “soon,” and will communicate about its features and benefits “from time to time.” Some key features, however, have been cautiously revealed.
The report distinguishes between retail and wholesale use cases, for consumers and for bank-to-bank transfers, and suggests that both may be introduced.
It also discusses several issuing models, especially one where a wholesale CBDC would be account-based and issued by the central bank, while the CBDC for consumers would be token-based and managed by an intermediary.
Additionally, RBI calls for “reasonable anonymity for small value transactions” to stick to a non-interest-bearing coin that resembles physical cash.
The technology behind the digital rupee is not yet set in stone. The RBI is leaving the door open to adapt to the decentralized technology as it evolves.
The report explores different possibilities and aims to raise awareness about CBDCs, with “compelling reasons” that make a national digital currency “as attractive as cash if not more.” However, the concept note is also wary of the risks and seeks to take on the pilot program step by step.
© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
Quick TakeThe Reserve Bank of India published a concept note on central bank digital currencies, stating a digital rupee prototype will be launched “soon.”
A digital rupee will likely have both retail and wholesale use cases as the central bank explores other features.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is stepping towards initiating a digital rupee pilot and indicating key features in the central bank digital currency (CBDC), according to a 50-page report released on Friday.
The Indian central bank says it will launch a pilot Digital Rupee program “soon,” and will communicate about its features and benefits “from time to time.” Some key features, however, have been cautiously revealed.
The report distinguishes between retail and wholesale use cases, for consumers and for bank-to-bank transfers, and suggests that both may be introduced.
It also discusses several issuing models, especially one where a wholesale CBDC would be account-based and issued by the central bank, while the CBDC for consumers would be token-based and managed by an intermediary.
Additionally, RBI calls for “reasonable anonymity for small value transactions” to stick to a non-interest-bearing coin that resembles physical cash.
The technology behind the digital rupee is not yet set in stone. The RBI is leaving the door open to adapt to the decentralized technology as it evolves.
The report explores different possibilities and aims to raise awareness about CBDCs, with “compelling reasons” that make a national digital currency “as attractive as cash if not more.” However, the concept note is also wary of the risks and seeks to take on the pilot program step by step.
© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
Saturday, October 08, 2022
Laborers for God
Chapter 11—Laborers for God
Fellow laborers in the great harvest field, we have but little time left in which to labor. Now is the most favorable opportunity we shall ever have, and how carefully ought every moment to be employed. So devoted was our Redeemer to the work of saving souls that He even longed for His baptism of blood. The apostles caught the zeal of their Master and firmly, steadily, zealously went forward to the accomplishment of their great work, fighting against principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places.
We are living in a time when even greater earnestness is needed than in the apostles’ day. But among many of the ministers of Christ there is a feeling of unrest, a desire to imitate the romantic style of modern revivalists, a desire to do something great, to create a sensation, to be accounted able speakers, and to gain for themselves honor and distinction. If such could encounter perils and receive the honor given to heroes, they would engage in the work with unflagging energy. But to live and labor almost unknown, to toil and sacrifice for Jesus in obscurity, receiving no special praise from men—this requires a soundness of principle and a steadfastness of purpose that but few possess. Were there a greater effort to walk humbly with God, looking away from men and laboring only for Christ's sake, far more would be accomplished.
My ministering brethren, seek Jesus with all lowliness and meekness. Do not try to draw the attention of the people to yourselves. Let them lose sight of the instrument, while you exalt Jesus. Talk of Jesus; lose self in Jesus. There is too much bustle and stir about our religion, while Calvary and the cross areI'm forgotten.
We are in the greatest peril when we receive praise of one another, when we enter into a confederacy to exalt one another. The great burden of the Pharisees was to secure the praise of men; and Christ told them that that was all the reward they would ever receive. Let us take up our appointed work and do it for Christ; if we suffer privation, let it be for His sake. Our divine Lord was made perfect through suffering. Oh, when shall we see men laboring as He labored!
Friday, October 07, 2022
WATCH: Biden delivers remarks on job creation and American manufacturing
Biden speech begins @ 17:00:00 Mins.
Scientists At CERN Won't Admit It.. | When Science Fiction Is No Longer ...
Scientists At CERN Won't Admit It.. | When Science Fiction Is No Longer Science Fiction!
Oct 7, 2022
A&Ī© Productions
For years, Anthony Patch has researched physics, cosmology, biology, computer science and theology. He talks to Paul McGuire about science in relation to prophecy, including Transhumanism.
Go Watch The Full Videos on God TV: https://www.youtube.com/c/godtv
➤ šš«š¢š š¢š§šš„ šš¢šššØ šš«ššš¢š: CERN, Transhumanism, Science & Prophecy | Apocalypse and the End Times
Pt 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OYf8...
Pt 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlqZl...
Pt3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlZYt...
➤ šš¢šššØ ššš¢ššš šš²: Robin MĆ„hl
ššØš® ššš§ šš¢š§š š®š§ššš§š¬šØš®š«šš šš±šš„š®š¬š¢šÆš šÆš¢šššØš¬ šØš§ šØš®š« šššššš šš¢šš: https://rumble.com/user/AlphaOmegaPro...
Thursday, October 06, 2022
The Caribbean is pioneering CBDCs with mixed results amid banking difficulties
The Caribbean region is in a tough situation for banking. The 35 nations comprising the region face challenges common to many tiny economies, such as dollarization and dependence on foreign trade and remittances. In addition, the increasingly common banking practice called de-risking is taking a heavy toll. So, it is probably no coincidence that the region is also at the forefront of digital currency adoption.
Carmelle Cadet, the founder and CEO of banking solutions company Emtech, is a native of Haiti who has experience working with central banks in Haiti and Ghana. Her company is also a member of the new Digital Dollar Project Technical Sandbox Program that is exploring aspects of a United States central bank digital currency (CBDC). Cadet spoke to Cointelegraph about her experiences in the Caribbean and the United States. She said rolling out functioning CBDCs in the region is “a long game.” It is easy to see why.
The risks of banking in the Caribbean
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) lists countries that are under special monitoring for money laundering or other illegal activities. Although only four countries in the region were on the so-called gray list as of June, the list seems to cast a pall over the region as a whole. Because of it, extra due diligence efforts are required when large international banks provide services such as settlement to smaller local banks in those countries in a process called correspondent relationships.
Additional due diligence drives up international banks’ costs of doing business. Banks often choose to sever ties with banks in gray-listed countries rather than pay the increased costs. That decision is referred to as de-risking. Some Caribbean countries have lost 50% of their correspondent relationships, with severe consequences for their economies and societies.
The United States House of Representatives Financial Services Committee held hearings titled “When Banks Leave: The Impacts of De-Risking on the Caribbean and Strategies for Ensuring Financial Access” on Sept. 14. Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Amor Mottley and Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Keith Rowley attended the hearings.
#financialinclusion is possible: Modern #Regulatory Frameworks + Modern #Technology. Banks have moved away from the Caribbean and cost of payments is not going down. It feels like punishment indeed. Thank you for testifying in front of Congress on this topic! #bardados — Carmelle Cadet (@CarmelleCadet) September 14, 2022
Mottley described what banking services are like in the region:
“When we were growing up, opening a bank account was part of our rites of passage in becoming an adult. Today […] we spend weeks, and businesses that come into our region spend weeks and months, just to open a bank account.”
Ten days after the Congressional hearings, on Sept. 24, Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis brought the issue of de-risking before the United Nations General Assembly. “Why are all the countries being targeted small and vulnerable and former colonies of European states?” he asked. The Bahamas is not currently on the gray list.
CBDCs to the rescue?
According to the Atlantic Council CBDC tracker, three CBDCs have been launched in the Caribbean region: the Bahamas’ Sand Dollar, Jamaica’s Jam-Dex and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank DCash in seven of its eight member states.
The council lists Haiti’s Digital Gourde as under development. Cadet said Emtech and its Haitian partner HaitiPay presented a proof-of-concept for a CBDC at the Haitian Embassy in Washington on May 5.
Cadet, who immigrated to the U.S. in her youth, was an executive in the IBM blockchain division when the Bahamas made its request for proposals for the Sand Dollar. She was “by luck a little bit in the front seat.” In 2019, when Haiti was “making the rounds with a roadshow” to develop its CBDC, “I thought ‘if the Bahamas can do it, why not Haiti?’” Cadet said. She added, “Kudos to the central bank governor for seeing the possibilities.” She left IBM and founded Emtech.
The first financial technology companies appeared in Haiti in 2010, after the earthquake that ravaged the country, and technologies relying on mobile wallets took the lead, Haitian Central Bank Governor Jean Baden Dubois said in 2021. Dubois said mobile telephone penetration was about 60% in 2008 and “likely higher in 2021.”
Emtech’s proposed CBDC design functioned online and through mobile telephone unstructured supplementary service data. The rollout of a Haitian CBDC would include device distribution through a partnership with a charity, Cadet said. The use of telecommunications rather than data networks to support CBDC functions is a hallmark of emerging economies, she added.
Dubois said the Haitian Central Bank saw a CBDC as a means to achieve greater policy efficiency and increased transparency, which would help the FATF gray-listed country meet Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism standards.
“Dollarization undermines the central bank and its mission of stability,” Cadet said. “Using CBDCs for cross border payments would provide better liquidity and visibility on reserves.”
The peculiarities of emerging markets
Cadet said there are a number of ways in which a CBDC design for an emerging market will differ from one intended for a developed market. Developed markets can “afford to go slower,” she said, as they work toward a real-time settlement, while in emerging markets, CBDCs have a more pressing mission of inclusion.
Emerging markets have “less baggage,” she continued, so fintechs can thrive. In developed markets, commercial banking can make adoption easier, but the CBDC has more legacy systems to integrate with.
Be that as it may, it is not clear how much success CBDCs are enjoying in the Caribbean. The Sand Dollar, commonly considered the first CBDC when it launched in 2020, had only about $300,000 worth of electronic currency in circulation and 30,000 digital wallets in July 2022, with about 845 merchants accepting it. The Bahamian government makes regular efforts to promote it.
DCash, introduced in April 2021, crashed in January and was down for almost two months. A spokesperson for Grenada-based conglomerate Geo. F. Huggins & Co., the first company to accept a DCash payment, said during the outage that the CBDC represented a “minimal” portion of its sales.
Cadet said her company had been in talks with the Haitian Central Bank “to understand licensing and risk” for about a year before its proof-of-concept presentation and has been in touch with the bank since then. She said the company is now waiting for the central bank to issue a request for proposals for vendors.
Wednesday, October 05, 2022
SWIFT sets out blueprint for central bank digital currency network
October 5, 20222:19 AM EDT
China's official app for digital yuan is seen on a mobile phone next to 100-yuan banknotes in this illustration picture taken October 16, 2020. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration
LONDON, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Financial messaging system SWIFT has laid out its blueprint for a global central bank digital currency (CBDC) network following an 8-month experiment on different technologies and currencies.
The trial, which involved France and Germany's national central banks as well as global lenders like HSBC, Standard Chartered and UBS, looked at how CBDCs could be used internationally and even converted into fiat money if needed.
Around 90% of the world's central banks are now using, trialling or looking into CBDCs. Most don't want to be left behind by bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but are grappling with technological complexities.
SWIFT's head of innovation Nick Kerigan said its trial, which will be followed by more advanced testing over the next year, resembled a bicycle wheel where 14 central and commercial banks in total connected spoke-like into its main hub.
The idea is that once scaled-up, banks may need only one main global connection, rather than thousands if they were to set up connections with each counterpart individually.
"We believe that the number of connections needed is much fewer," Kerigan said. "Therefore, you are likely to have fewer breaks (in the chain) and you are likely to achieve greater efficiency."
The trial also tested different underlying CBDC technologies known as Distributed Ledger Technologies. The use of various technologies has also been raised as a potential hurdle for rapid global adoption.
There was a separate trial too carried out alongside Citi, clearing house Clearstream and Northern Trust on 'tokenised' assets - traditional assets like stocks and bonds transformed into digital tokens that can then be issued and traded in real-time.
Some countries such as the Bahamas and Nigeria already have CBDC's up and running. China is well advanced with real-life trials of an e-yuan, while central bank umbrella group, the Bank for International Settlements, has also been running cross-border trials.
SWIFT's main advantage though is that its existing network is already usable in over 200 countries and connects more than 11,500 banks and funds.
The Belgium-based firm has gone from being virtually unknown outside banking circles to a household name this year after it cut most of Russia's banks off from its network as part of the West's sanctions for the country's invasion of Ukraine.
Kerigan said that kind of move could also happen in a new CBDC system, but doubted whether it would stop countries joining one.
"Ultimately what most central banks are looking to do is to provide us with a CBDC for the people, the businesses and the organisations in their jurisdiction."
"So a solution that's fast and efficient and that gains access to as many other countries as possible would seem to be an attractive one."
Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa.
LONDON, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Financial messaging system SWIFT has laid out its blueprint for a global central bank digital currency (CBDC) network following an 8-month experiment on different technologies and currencies.
The trial, which involved France and Germany's national central banks as well as global lenders like HSBC, Standard Chartered and UBS, looked at how CBDCs could be used internationally and even converted into fiat money if needed.
Around 90% of the world's central banks are now using, trialling or looking into CBDCs. Most don't want to be left behind by bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but are grappling with technological complexities.
SWIFT's head of innovation Nick Kerigan said its trial, which will be followed by more advanced testing over the next year, resembled a bicycle wheel where 14 central and commercial banks in total connected spoke-like into its main hub.
The idea is that once scaled-up, banks may need only one main global connection, rather than thousands if they were to set up connections with each counterpart individually.
"We believe that the number of connections needed is much fewer," Kerigan said. "Therefore, you are likely to have fewer breaks (in the chain) and you are likely to achieve greater efficiency."
The trial also tested different underlying CBDC technologies known as Distributed Ledger Technologies. The use of various technologies has also been raised as a potential hurdle for rapid global adoption.
There was a separate trial too carried out alongside Citi, clearing house Clearstream and Northern Trust on 'tokenised' assets - traditional assets like stocks and bonds transformed into digital tokens that can then be issued and traded in real-time.
Some countries such as the Bahamas and Nigeria already have CBDC's up and running. China is well advanced with real-life trials of an e-yuan, while central bank umbrella group, the Bank for International Settlements, has also been running cross-border trials.
SWIFT's main advantage though is that its existing network is already usable in over 200 countries and connects more than 11,500 banks and funds.
The Belgium-based firm has gone from being virtually unknown outside banking circles to a household name this year after it cut most of Russia's banks off from its network as part of the West's sanctions for the country's invasion of Ukraine.
Kerigan said that kind of move could also happen in a new CBDC system, but doubted whether it would stop countries joining one.
"Ultimately what most central banks are looking to do is to provide us with a CBDC for the people, the businesses and the organisations in their jurisdiction."
"So a solution that's fast and efficient and that gains access to as many other countries as possible would seem to be an attractive one."
Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa.
Tuesday, October 04, 2022
Monday, October 03, 2022
What Does The Future Hold?
Volume 41 Issue Ten October 2022
Last Trumpet Ministries · PO Box 806 · Beaver Dam, WI 53916
Phone: 920-887-2626 Internet: http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org
“For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” I Cor. 14:8
What Does The Future Hold?
“And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”
Luke 18:7-8
““He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
Matthew 13:37-43
What does the future hold? As we consider the world around us and the current events of our day, many of us cannot help but ask ourselves this question. In truth, only God knows precisely what will happen in the future and everything that does happen in this world is subject to His will. According to Isaiah 46:10, God knows “the end from the beginning.” While there is much that we do not know, it is an undeniable fact that we are experiencing a season of change and our world is on the cusp of a dramatic transformation. By examining recent history and current trends, we can gain insight into the direction of our world. In the subsequent sections of this newsletter, we will examine the impact of technology, the changing religious landscape, and the shifting moral values of modern society.
Engrossing Technology
If you are old enough, you can think back to the turn of the century and quickly realize that it is not the same world it was back then. There were no iPhones or Android devices. In fact, only 12 percent of the global population had a cell phone in the year 2000, but according to an article published by the World Bank in 2019, mobile phones are now more widely used than toilets. (1) There was no Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, or Tiktok, and Amazon was still a young company primarily known for selling books. Flat-screen televisions and DVDs had only been available for three years, and if you wanted to listen to music you probably did so with a compact disc or an audio cassette. Few people had access to wireless Internet. The now ubiquitous technology known as Wi-Fi had just been invented in 1997. (2) It wasn’t until 2005 that Merriam-Webster finally added the word Wi-Fi to its dictionary. (3) Needless to say, there were far fewer distractions twenty-two years ago.
Nowadays, most people grab their favorite mobile device when they want to listen to music on Spotify, order a meal on DoorDash, or hail a ride on Uber. Smart TVs allow consumers to binge-watch their favorite movies and television shows on streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu for hours and hours. Across America, schools are trading in their textbooks for Chromebooks. According to a statement issued by Google in 2020, forty million students and educators use the Google-made laptops to perform educational tasks. (4) We are surrounded by screens at every turn. Research published in March 2022 found that the average American spends seven hours and four minutes looking at a screen every day. (5) Remarkably, a 2018 survey of two thousand people found that one out of three respondents report they use their smartphones during dinner time. (6) In another study, researchers from the University of British Columbia in Canada found that those who use their phones at the dinner table are often less happy than those who do not. “You see people in restaurants all the time who are sitting across the table from each other, and instead of staring at each other, they’re staring at their phones. We were really curious: Is it having an impact on people’s social interactions, how much they’re enjoying the time they’re spending with other people?” said researcher Ryan Dwyer as he explained why they conducted the study. (7)
With so much time given to our screens, it leaves very little time for us to give to our family and loved ones. Even worse, it gives us very little time to spend with our God. Psalm 63:6-7 declares, “When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches. Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.” Psalm 1:1-2 presents a similar message: “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” In the context of these verses, the word “meditate” means “to engage in thought or contemplation; reflect.” (8) However, it is difficult to reflect thoughtfully or contemplate the greatness of God when there is always a screen in front of our faces. It is essential for our spiritual health to make time for our God.
Sunday, October 02, 2022
Pope calls for courage in halting use of fossil fuels to protect planet
Pontiff tells young people he is pinning his hopes on their efforts to safeguard environment and help the poor
Associated Press in Assisi
Sat 24 Sep 2022 12.41 EDT
Pope Francis has called for courage in abandoning fossil fuels and lamented that older generations did not know how to protect the planet and secure peace.
The pope, who was visiting Assisi, the birthplace of his namesake saint who was close to nature, told young people on Saturday that he was pinning his hopes on their efforts in working to save the planet and to make the world’s economy more
attentive to the poor.Pope Francis has called for courage in abandoning fossil fuels and lamented that older generations did not know how to protect the planet and secure peace.
The pope, who was visiting Assisi, the birthplace of his namesake saint who was close to nature, told young people on Saturday that he was pinning his hopes on their efforts in working to save the planet and to make the world’s economy more
During his brief visit to the hill town in central Italy, Francis spoke to a gathering of 1,000 young people, some of them young economists. Others are involved in efforts, including start-ups, focused on helping the environment.
The participants came from all over the world. Among them was a woman who recounted to the pope how she and her husband were helped to flee Afghanistan after the takeover of the Taliban last year by an organisation called The Economy of Francis, which is inspired by the life of St Francis, with his attention to the poor and others in need.
The pope said a world economy is needed that expresses “a new vision of the environment and the Earth”.
“There are many people, businesses and institutions that are making an ecological conversion. We need to go forward on this road and do more,” Francis said.
The pontiff cited an urgent need to discuss models of development. “Now is the time for new courage in abandoning fossil fuels to accelerate the development of zero- or positive-impact sources of energy,” Francis said.
He told the young people: “Our generation has left you with a rich heritage, but we have not known how to protect the planet and are not securing peace.”
He lamented a lack of “creativity, optimism, enthusiasm”, and told young people that “we are grateful to God that you are here. Not only will you be there tomorrow, but you are here today.”