Feb. 24, 2012
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Friday, February 24, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Obama apologizes for Quran burning in Afghanistan
US President Barack Obama with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.—File Photo
KABUL:President Barack Obama apologized Thursday for the burning of copies of the Muslim holy book at a US military base this week, as violent protests raging nationwide led a man dressed in an Afghan army uniform to kill two US troops.
The Afghans’ furious response to the Quran burning, three days of riots in several cities nationwide, reflected the anger at what they perceive as foreign forces disrespect for Afghan laws and culture.
In a letter sent to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Obama expressed his administration’s ”regret and apologies over the incident in which religious materials were unintentionally mishandled,” White House national security council spokesman Tommy Vietor said.
He added that the letter was delivered by Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador to Afghanistan, Thursday afternoon.
Karzai’s office said Obama called the Quran burnings ”inadvertent,” adding that the US ”will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, to include holding accountable those responsible.”
US apologies for the desecration, and an appeal from Karzai for calm, have failed to temper the anger of Afghans, who staged rallies in seven provinces Thursday, sparking clashes with Afghan police and security forces that left at least five demonstrators dead. Seven protesters were killed in clashes on Wednesday.
Source
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Christian loses employment tribunal over Sunday working
23 February 2012 Last updated at 08:54 ET
Source
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Celestina Mba said she was forced to choose between her job and her faith
A Christian woman who claimed she was forced to leave her job because she was made to work on Sundays, has lost her case against Merton Council.
An employment tribunal ruled that Celestina Mba, 57, was not constructively dismissed from her job in 2010.A Christian woman who claimed she was forced to leave her job because she was made to work on Sundays, has lost her case against Merton Council.
Miss Mba, from south London, worked helping children with severe learning difficulties.
The council said it had a duty to ensure children had weekend care.
Ms Mba worked for Merton Council at Brightwell Respite Care House in Morden for three years.
She told the tribunal she was prepared to work night-time and Saturday shifts, or to have accepted less pay, to be able to observe Sunday as a day of rest.
'Amazed'She said she had told her employer she had "difficulties" working on Sundays before she was employed, but did not specify they were religious.
The tribunal in Croydon found there were no viable alternatives to requiring Miss Mba to work Sundays.
Merton Council director of children schools and families, Yvette Stanley, said: "As a local authority, we have a duty to ensure our children with disabilities who need weekend care are supported by carers who are familiar with their specific needs."
Miss Mba said: "I am amazed by this decision.
"I thought that this country was a Christian country.
"I worked hard for years at my job, and to lose it because of intolerance towards my faith is shocking to me."
In 2003, quarry worker Stephen Copsey also lost a claim of constructive dismissal on religious grounds for being required to regularly work on Sundays.
Source
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Midair helicopter collision kills 7 Marines
updated 12:46 PM EST, Thu February 23, 2012
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Six of the Marines who died were from Camp Pendleton
- The Marine Corps says the collision occurred during routine training
- A UH-1Y helicopter and an AH-1W helicopter crash midair
- Spokeswoman: Marines onboard were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan
(CNN) -- Seven U.S. Marines were killed in the midair collision of two U.S. military helicopters in southern Arizona, officials said Thursday.
The crash occurred during routine training operations Wednesday night along the California-Arizona border, the Marine Corps said in a statement.
The collision, which occurred near the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, involved an AH-1W "Super Cobra" attack helicopter and a UH-1Y "Huey" utility chopper.
The aircraft were part of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing and based in Camp Pendleton in California.
Six of the Marines killed in the crash were from Camp Pendleton, and one was from Yuma, the Marine Corps said.
Authorities were investigating the collision.
"We won't know exactly what happened until the investigation is complete, and we can't make any assumptions right now," said 1st Lt. Maureen Dooley, a Marine Corps spokeswoman.
The Marines onboard were preparing for deployment to Afghanistan, she said.
This UH-1Y Huey is on the flight line at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan.
"We have aircraft going out to Yuma training ranges on a weekly basis, and they go out there primarily because the aircraft mimics what they will see in Afghanistan," Dooley said.
Authorities did not plan to release the names of the Marines involved until their families were notified.
Marine Corps Air Station Yuma is home to about 4,000 active duty Marines and sailors. It supports 80% of the Marine Corps air-to-ground aviation training and covers five square miles in southeastern Yuma.
The air station "hosts approximately 70 aviation units, bringing an average of 600 aircraft and 14,000 personnel for ongoing training that takes place throughout the year," utilizing U.S. and NATO forces, the station's website said.
The military has long used the AH-1W and UH-1 Huey for a variety of tasks. The military describes the AH-1W as "the backbone of the United States Marine Corps' attack helicopter fleet." The UH-1Y is a twin-engine, medium-size helicopter, according to the military.
CNN's Ashley Hayes and Moni Basu contributed to this report.
Social Security numbers exposed for 6 years, UF says
Published: Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 2:28 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 2:28 p.m.
The University of Florida is notifying 719 individuals that their Social Security numbers were improperly posted on a state website for more than six years.
The numbers came from students and others with unclaimed money from such things as financial aid or parking fine refunds. In July 2005, the university submitted their information including Social Security numbers in its annual unclaimed property report to the state Department of Financial Services.
The department posted the information on its Bureau of Unclaimed Property website. It was taken down Jan. 12, the same day it was discovered, according to UF.
UF officials don’t know if the information was accessed or used. No other personal information from its annual reports was improperly posted online, according to UF.
State law requires UF’s Privacy Office to issue notifications if personal identification was improperly released so that protective steps can be taken. Previous incidents include two computer hard drives containing names, addresses and Social Security numbers being stolen in September 2011 from the College of Engineering building.
In April 2011, the privacy office notified 617 cardiothoracic patients that their Social Security numbers were provided to a national database. In March, the office discovered a privacy breach that happened in 2002 involving Social Security numbers and other personal information from a physics department server being accessible online.
The university is directing anyone with concerns about privacy breaches to call the privacy office hot line at 1-866-876-HIPA.
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Our View: Va. measure on Sunday hunting dies
Va. senator calls pastime a 'constitutional freedom'
Feb. 22, 2012
You can't hunt on Sunday in Virginia. It's one of the few states that bans it. The state code itself prohibits the practice, calling it a "rest day for all species of wild bird and wild animal life."
A bill approved by the Virginia Senate that would have repealed the Sunday hunting ban died in a House of Delegates subcommittee last week.
It was an issue that divided Virginians on scientific and moral grounds. But the bill should have passed, and the ban should have been lifted.
It wouldn't have cost state coffers a dime and would have encouraged more people to enjoy a proud pastime. It would have provided more commerce and helped thin overpopulated herds.
The state's ban on Sunday hunting is a throwback to a time when Sunday, like it or not, held more significance than it does today. That's not a criticism of the biblical idea of a holy day of rest or a criticism of people who use Sundays for worship, reflection and fellowship.
But society has changed. Sunday shopping and Sunday employment are commonplace today. It's hard to imagine otherwise.
Varying work schedules mean it's harder to work in hunting activities. The ever-increasing activities of children and families make it harder to find time to teach the tradition of hunting. More time is needed.
"We've designated hunting and fishing as a constitutional freedom in Virginia," said state Sen. Chap Petersen of northern Virginia. "How can you restrict hunting one day of the week?"
State wildlife biologists with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries say there is no biological reason to ban Sunday hunting. And increasing numbers of deer on the Eastern Shore of Virginia show more days to thin the population are necessary.
Sunday hunting could also reverse a trend of fewer hunters in the commonwealth, where hunting license sales have dropped 200,000 in the just over two decades. Studies have shown adding hunting on Sunday would pump almost $300 million into the state economy.
"It is time for the Commonwealth of Virginia to make a decision that the government should not be telling us, as property owners, what we can do on our property, and (when) we can do it," said state Sen. Ralph Northam, a native of Accomack County who today lives in Norfolk and represents the Virginia Shore.
Still, the issue remains sensitive. Parishioners of rural churches worry about the sounds of distant gunfire during worship services. People who enjoy outdoor pursuits ranging from hiking to horseback riding say hunting would interfere with other activities.
A bill that would end the ban on Sunday hunting seemingly is introduced during every General Assembly session. It would be advantageous for advocates to find ways to reach out to those who support the hunting ban and address their concerns so that the idea gets more traction next year.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
SANTORUM'S SATAN WARNING
Tue Feb 21 2012 09:27:20 ET
"Satan has his sights on the United States of America!" Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has declared.
"Satan is attacking the great institutions of America, using those great vices of pride, vanity, and sensuality as the root to attack all of the strong plants that has so deeply rooted in the American tradition."
MORE
The former senator from Pennsylvania warned in 2008 how politics and government are falling to Satan.
"This is a spiritual war. And the Father of Lies has his sights on what you would think the Father of Lies would have his sights on: a good, decent, powerful, influential country - the United States of America. If you were Satan, who would you attack in this day and age?"
"He attacks all of us and he attacks all of our institutions."
Santorum made the provocative comments to students at Ave Maria University in Florida.
MORE
The White House contender described how Satan is even taking hold of some religions.
"We look at the shape of mainline Protestantism in this country and it is in shambles, it is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it."
Developing...
Source
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White House typo has vice president Joe Biden headed to 'Road Island'
9:47 AM, Feb. 22, 2012
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The vice president is hitting the road — to what the White House wrote as “Road Island,” mistakenly spelled R-O-A-D instead of R-H-O-D-E.
A release outlining Joe Biden’s plans for the week showed him traveling to Providence in misspelled “Road Island” on Thursday for a campaign event.
The vice president is scheduled to visit Boston and Manchester, N.H., on the same day. No misspellings there.
An updated schedule sent out by the White House on Monday night noted the correct spelling of the state.
Source
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The vice president is hitting the road — to what the White House wrote as “Road Island,” mistakenly spelled R-O-A-D instead of R-H-O-D-E.
A release outlining Joe Biden’s plans for the week showed him traveling to Providence in misspelled “Road Island” on Thursday for a campaign event.
The vice president is scheduled to visit Boston and Manchester, N.H., on the same day. No misspellings there.
An updated schedule sent out by the White House on Monday night noted the correct spelling of the state.
Source
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Ash Wednesday busy day for NYC's Cardinal Dolan
Photo (Courtesy) http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/02/22/cardinal-dolan-to-lead-ash-wednesday-mass-on-first-day-back-in-nyc/FEBRUARY 22, 2012, 8:50 A.M. ET.
Associated Press
NEW YORK — New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan has a busy schedule on his first full day back from Rome where he was elevated to cardinal.
Dolan began his day early Wednesday at a Roman Catholic church in Manhattan where he distributed bags of food to the hungry.
Later in the day he will participate in Ash Wednesday celebrations, leading a Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Ash Wednesday marks the first day of Lent.
Dolan was among 22 Catholic churchmen who were elevated to cardinal Saturday by Pope Benedict XVI ((the 16th).
Cardinals are the pope's top advisers. They are the elite group of churchmen who will eventually elect Benedict's successor.
Source
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Santorum’s Ash Wednesday test
Posted at 10:55 AM ET, 02/22/2012
By E.J. Dionne
It’s utterly appropriate in a campaign that of late has been saturated with religion that tonight’s potentially decisive debate is being held on Ash Wednesday. And the Ash Wednesday debate is absolutely critical to Rick Santorum.
Mitt Romney’s campaign has been exceptionally clever in the last week, and Santorum has played into Romney’s hands. It’s striking that conservative Web sites sympathetic to Romney have dumped out all sorts of old videos of Santorum waxing very right-wing on matters such as contraception and the family — and even a sermon he delivered on Satan. Having spent two years covering the Vatican (I even wrote news stories on Satan), Santorum’s talk about the Evil One didn’t surprise me. But it does sound very strange in the context of a presidential campaign.
Never one to run from a fight, Santorum has continued to speak out on these themes, reinforcing his standing as a social and religious conservative so staunch that he would prefer to lose an election than give up on his core beliefs. This has allowed Romney to perform some jujitsu. His fingerprints are not on any of the reports or criticisms of Santorum’s eagerness to run toward the religious right. This has all been handled by surrogates. But Romney has subtly suggested that Santorum is too conservative to beat Obama with such oblique comments as his recent declaration that Santorum has not been “as carefully viewed by the American public” as other candidates. It’s Romney’s invitation to Republican primary voters to take a look at all those videos.
My sense is that Santorum’s social issue extravaganza has put him in danger of losing the Michigan primary. There are plenty of quite conservative Republican women who may now view Santorum as a step too far. They could add to Romney ballots already in the bank from early voting.
Santorum has more than made his point to religious conservatives that he is one of them. Tonight, he needs the discipline to appeal to more moderate conservatives who may appreciate his blue-collar roots and find him more authentic than Romney. Yes, Santorum needs to show he can move to the center at least a little bit and be a reassuring presence. And he needs to find a way to put Romney on the defensive quickly.
Many Republicans doubt that Santorum can win the fall election, and for good reason. How Santorum performs against Romney in this debate will be a good test of his ability to transition from the leader of a moral crusade into a presidential campaigner. As for Romney, he has to hope that Santorum is asked one question after another about his religious and moral views. Santorum may not be able to resist the temptation (which he sees as an obligation) to defend his faith, and his vision of morality.
By E.J. Dionne
It’s utterly appropriate in a campaign that of late has been saturated with religion that tonight’s potentially decisive debate is being held on Ash Wednesday. And the Ash Wednesday debate is absolutely critical to Rick Santorum.
Mitt Romney’s campaign has been exceptionally clever in the last week, and Santorum has played into Romney’s hands. It’s striking that conservative Web sites sympathetic to Romney have dumped out all sorts of old videos of Santorum waxing very right-wing on matters such as contraception and the family — and even a sermon he delivered on Satan. Having spent two years covering the Vatican (I even wrote news stories on Satan), Santorum’s talk about the Evil One didn’t surprise me. But it does sound very strange in the context of a presidential campaign.
Never one to run from a fight, Santorum has continued to speak out on these themes, reinforcing his standing as a social and religious conservative so staunch that he would prefer to lose an election than give up on his core beliefs. This has allowed Romney to perform some jujitsu. His fingerprints are not on any of the reports or criticisms of Santorum’s eagerness to run toward the religious right. This has all been handled by surrogates. But Romney has subtly suggested that Santorum is too conservative to beat Obama with such oblique comments as his recent declaration that Santorum has not been “as carefully viewed by the American public” as other candidates. It’s Romney’s invitation to Republican primary voters to take a look at all those videos.
My sense is that Santorum’s social issue extravaganza has put him in danger of losing the Michigan primary. There are plenty of quite conservative Republican women who may now view Santorum as a step too far. They could add to Romney ballots already in the bank from early voting.
Santorum has more than made his point to religious conservatives that he is one of them. Tonight, he needs the discipline to appeal to more moderate conservatives who may appreciate his blue-collar roots and find him more authentic than Romney. Yes, Santorum needs to show he can move to the center at least a little bit and be a reassuring presence. And he needs to find a way to put Romney on the defensive quickly.
Many Republicans doubt that Santorum can win the fall election, and for good reason. How Santorum performs against Romney in this debate will be a good test of his ability to transition from the leader of a moral crusade into a presidential campaigner. As for Romney, he has to hope that Santorum is asked one question after another about his religious and moral views. Santorum may not be able to resist the temptation (which he sees as an obligation) to defend his faith, and his vision of morality.
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Why Ash Wednesday belongs out of the church and out on the streets
Lauren Winner Religion News Service, Updated: Wednesday, February 22, 10:10 AM
DURHAM, N.C. — There is something decidedly public about Ash Wednesday. Walking around all day with a gash of gray ash across one’s forehead — this is among the most visible Christian things I do each year. This is a rare day when I cannot and could not hide my Christian commitments and my Christian aspirations, even if I wanted to.
This year, I will be joining many Episcopal priests in taking the public witness of Ash Wednesday one step further. On Wednesday, my colleague Catherine Caimano and I will put on cassocks and surplices, and go to a corner near Duke University Hospital with small containers of ashes and copies of a litany of repentance from the Book of Common Prayer. We will offer “the imposition of ashes” to people in the street.
We will offer to pray with people — prayers that name our failings and our striving to change: “We confess to you and to one another, and to the whole communion of saints in heaven and on earth, that we have sinned by our own fault in thought, word, and deed,” our Ash Wednesday litany bids us to say.
“We confess our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other people ... our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and our dishonesty in daily life and work ... our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us.”
And Cathie and I will offer to mark people’s forehead with a cross of ashes. As we make the sign of the cross, we will say “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Because we suspect that penitence is usually done best when one joins in a community of people who are pursuing penitence together, Cathie and I will also have on hand small cards listing the whereabouts and Web pages of nearby Episcopal churches. And we will offer people a copy of a devotional book called “Bread And Wine: Readings For Lent And Easter,” which might prompt the people we meet to continue to reflect on and pray about the things our streetside liturgy names: sin; repentance; forgiveness.
Repentance has a public aspect and a private aspect. Jesus speaks very clearly about doing one’s repentance in secret — not chattering on in public about how hungry your pious fasting has left you. At the same time, the church also has a ministry to call — publicly — for repentance, to sometimes play the role of John the Baptist. Calls for repentance happen every week, every day, inside religious buildings, inside religious communities. Sometimes calls for repentance need to happen out on the street corners, too.
Still, this is a strange thing to do, this liturgy outside a hospital. It does not feel entirely comfortable to me — but I am not sure anything about Ash Wednesday ever feels entirely comfortable.
“Why exactly are you doing this?” a student of mine asked me.
One priest, who began imposing ashes in public in 2010, has noted that there is an aspect of institutional flexibility to imposing ashes on a street corner. It acknowledges that some people “want to be able to claim the symbols of their faith and that relationship with God”... but that they just “can’t get to church.”
I would add that there is something about Ash Wednesday — the day the church sets aside for people to acknowledge, before God and one another, our mortality, our finitude and our moral failings — that suggests taking this particular liturgical action into the streets (besides following, as it does, the public revelry of Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday). We are going into public with our ashes because Jesus died in public. He didn’t die in the Upper Room surrounded only by his disciples.
What ministers with their ashes are offering is a bodily marker of God’s entry into our death. The ashes Cathie will inscribe on my forehead, and I on hers, let me name truths that most days I cannot or will not name — that I have sinned; also, that I have a body, and I am going to die. To walk around all day with a cross on your head is to walk around in a body inscribed with death. It is also, oddly, to walk around inscribed with hope — the hope that comes through Jesus’ having joined us in our mortality.
To my mind, the priests who offer ashes in public on Wednesday are not doing something for the sake of convenience or expediency; this is not liturgical fast food. Cathie and I will be in front of the hospital offering an invitation to willing passersby to join us in reflecting on our limitations and sins and our need for God’s grace. And we will be in public, with our prayers and our crosses of ash, to meet the Christ who died in a public place.
(Lauren Winner teaches at Duke Divinity School in Durham, N.C., and was recently ordained an Episcopal priest. Her new book is “Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis.”)
Source
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DURHAM, N.C. — There is something decidedly public about Ash Wednesday. Walking around all day with a gash of gray ash across one’s forehead — this is among the most visible Christian things I do each year. This is a rare day when I cannot and could not hide my Christian commitments and my Christian aspirations, even if I wanted to.
This year, I will be joining many Episcopal priests in taking the public witness of Ash Wednesday one step further. On Wednesday, my colleague Catherine Caimano and I will put on cassocks and surplices, and go to a corner near Duke University Hospital with small containers of ashes and copies of a litany of repentance from the Book of Common Prayer. We will offer “the imposition of ashes” to people in the street.
We will offer to pray with people — prayers that name our failings and our striving to change: “We confess to you and to one another, and to the whole communion of saints in heaven and on earth, that we have sinned by our own fault in thought, word, and deed,” our Ash Wednesday litany bids us to say.
“We confess our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other people ... our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and our dishonesty in daily life and work ... our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us.”
And Cathie and I will offer to mark people’s forehead with a cross of ashes. As we make the sign of the cross, we will say “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Because we suspect that penitence is usually done best when one joins in a community of people who are pursuing penitence together, Cathie and I will also have on hand small cards listing the whereabouts and Web pages of nearby Episcopal churches. And we will offer people a copy of a devotional book called “Bread And Wine: Readings For Lent And Easter,” which might prompt the people we meet to continue to reflect on and pray about the things our streetside liturgy names: sin; repentance; forgiveness.
Repentance has a public aspect and a private aspect. Jesus speaks very clearly about doing one’s repentance in secret — not chattering on in public about how hungry your pious fasting has left you. At the same time, the church also has a ministry to call — publicly — for repentance, to sometimes play the role of John the Baptist. Calls for repentance happen every week, every day, inside religious buildings, inside religious communities. Sometimes calls for repentance need to happen out on the street corners, too.
Still, this is a strange thing to do, this liturgy outside a hospital. It does not feel entirely comfortable to me — but I am not sure anything about Ash Wednesday ever feels entirely comfortable.
“Why exactly are you doing this?” a student of mine asked me.
One priest, who began imposing ashes in public in 2010, has noted that there is an aspect of institutional flexibility to imposing ashes on a street corner. It acknowledges that some people “want to be able to claim the symbols of their faith and that relationship with God”... but that they just “can’t get to church.”
I would add that there is something about Ash Wednesday — the day the church sets aside for people to acknowledge, before God and one another, our mortality, our finitude and our moral failings — that suggests taking this particular liturgical action into the streets (besides following, as it does, the public revelry of Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday). We are going into public with our ashes because Jesus died in public. He didn’t die in the Upper Room surrounded only by his disciples.
What ministers with their ashes are offering is a bodily marker of God’s entry into our death. The ashes Cathie will inscribe on my forehead, and I on hers, let me name truths that most days I cannot or will not name — that I have sinned; also, that I have a body, and I am going to die. To walk around all day with a cross on your head is to walk around in a body inscribed with death. It is also, oddly, to walk around inscribed with hope — the hope that comes through Jesus’ having joined us in our mortality.
To my mind, the priests who offer ashes in public on Wednesday are not doing something for the sake of convenience or expediency; this is not liturgical fast food. Cathie and I will be in front of the hospital offering an invitation to willing passersby to join us in reflecting on our limitations and sins and our need for God’s grace. And we will be in public, with our prayers and our crosses of ash, to meet the Christ who died in a public place.
(Lauren Winner teaches at Duke Divinity School in Durham, N.C., and was recently ordained an Episcopal priest. Her new book is “Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis.”)
Source
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On Ash Wednesday, Catholics have Protestant company.
Amelia Kunhardt/The Patriot Ledger.
Charlie Donnelly of Hanover receives ashes from Maryluo Maddalena on Ash Wedesday, Feb. 22, 2012, at St. Albert The Great Catholic church in Weymouth. Parishioners opened the church at midnight to give ashes to other church members.
By Lane Lambert
The Patriot Ledger
Posted Feb 22, 2012 @ 07:34 AM
Last update Feb 22, 2012 @ 07:47 AM
From the early morning hours today through the evening, Roman Catholics throughout the Boston archdiocese will begin their observance of Lent by receiving Ash Wednesday ashes on their foreheads – the age-old symbol of mortality and repentance.
Some Protestants will, too.
While not required by their denominations, the 40-day season of reflection before Easter has become increasingly popular in the United Church of Christ, United Methodist, Evangelical Lutheran and Presbyterian denominations.
The Episcopal Church has long observed Ash Wednesday and Lent, much like its predecessor, the Church of England.
Mainline Protestant churches that once shunned Catholic practices now also encourage members to devote extra time during Lent to prayer, study, volunteer service and giving to the poor. They place less emphasis on the traditional Catholic discipline of giving up something for the season.
The Massachusetts United Church of Christ is encouraging individual believers and congregations to join a 40-day “carbon fast,” through such actions as taking quicker showers, buying locally grown food and driving slower, to burn less gas.
In years past, some Protestant churches have collected Lenten donations for Heifer International, which supplies farm animals for families in poor countries. Catholic parishes make "rice bowl" collections for similar overseas missions. On the South Shore, the Harbor United Methodist Church in Scituate will hold an evening Ash Wednesday service, as will Bethany Congregational in Quincy, East Weymouth Congregational and Old South Union Congregational in Weymouth, and First Presbyterian in Quincy.
At least two South Shore Episcopal churches will offer multiple services to receive ashes – St. Stephen’s in Cohasset and St. Chrysostom’s in Quincy.
While numerous local Catholic parishes are holding multiple Masses, St. Albert the Great in Weymouth will again offer the most ambitious Ash Wednesday worship. Like last year, St. Albert will be open until past midnight Thursday.
St. Albert held last year’s 24-hour observance as part of the Boston archdiocese’s “Catholics Come Home” campaign. Pastoral associate Betsy Clifford said, “We didn’t want it to be a one-time event,” after last year’s vigil drew parishioners who typically didn’t show up on Ash Wednesday – from hospital nurses in scrubs on their way home from a night shift to parents with young children they couldn’t bring to a typical evening service.
“We found that it was a good way to be as open and welcoming as we can,” Clifford said.
Lane Lambert may be reached at llambert@ledger.com.
Source: http://www.patriotledger.com/lifestyle/faith/x306964620/On-Ash-Wednesday-Catholics-have-Protestant-company#ixzz1n7pQGcYx
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By Lane Lambert
The Patriot Ledger
Posted Feb 22, 2012 @ 07:34 AM
Last update Feb 22, 2012 @ 07:47 AM
From the early morning hours today through the evening, Roman Catholics throughout the Boston archdiocese will begin their observance of Lent by receiving Ash Wednesday ashes on their foreheads – the age-old symbol of mortality and repentance.
Some Protestants will, too.
While not required by their denominations, the 40-day season of reflection before Easter has become increasingly popular in the United Church of Christ, United Methodist, Evangelical Lutheran and Presbyterian denominations.
The Episcopal Church has long observed Ash Wednesday and Lent, much like its predecessor, the Church of England.
Mainline Protestant churches that once shunned Catholic practices now also encourage members to devote extra time during Lent to prayer, study, volunteer service and giving to the poor. They place less emphasis on the traditional Catholic discipline of giving up something for the season.
The Massachusetts United Church of Christ is encouraging individual believers and congregations to join a 40-day “carbon fast,” through such actions as taking quicker showers, buying locally grown food and driving slower, to burn less gas.
In years past, some Protestant churches have collected Lenten donations for Heifer International, which supplies farm animals for families in poor countries. Catholic parishes make "rice bowl" collections for similar overseas missions. On the South Shore, the Harbor United Methodist Church in Scituate will hold an evening Ash Wednesday service, as will Bethany Congregational in Quincy, East Weymouth Congregational and Old South Union Congregational in Weymouth, and First Presbyterian in Quincy.
At least two South Shore Episcopal churches will offer multiple services to receive ashes – St. Stephen’s in Cohasset and St. Chrysostom’s in Quincy.
While numerous local Catholic parishes are holding multiple Masses, St. Albert the Great in Weymouth will again offer the most ambitious Ash Wednesday worship. Like last year, St. Albert will be open until past midnight Thursday.
St. Albert held last year’s 24-hour observance as part of the Boston archdiocese’s “Catholics Come Home” campaign. Pastoral associate Betsy Clifford said, “We didn’t want it to be a one-time event,” after last year’s vigil drew parishioners who typically didn’t show up on Ash Wednesday – from hospital nurses in scrubs on their way home from a night shift to parents with young children they couldn’t bring to a typical evening service.
“We found that it was a good way to be as open and welcoming as we can,” Clifford said.
Lane Lambert may be reached at llambert@ledger.com.
Source: http://www.patriotledger.com/lifestyle/faith/x306964620/On-Ash-Wednesday-Catholics-have-Protestant-company#ixzz1n7pQGcYx
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Church offers drive-thru for Ash Wednesday
'It’s a drive-thru,' Ohio pastor says, 'Not a drive-by'
CINCINNATI — An Ohio church is offering a drive-thru Ash Wednesday blessing for parishioners who might be pressed for time.
The Rev. Patricia Anderson Cook of Mt. Healthy United Methodist Church in suburban Cincinnati plans to provide the service for people of all faiths and services beginning around 5 p.m. in the church's parking lot.
“Some people are very busy, and some people get a little intimidated walking into a church, this is for them," Cook told the Cincinnati Inquirer.
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Christian season of Lent, which concludes after 40 days with the celebration of Easter.
In addition to ashes, Cook will provide a church brochure and a Lenten booklet.
“It’s a drive-thru,” she said. “Not a drive-by.”
The church is also offering a more traditional Ash Wednesday service inside at 7 p.m.
Source
CINCINNATI — An Ohio church is offering a drive-thru Ash Wednesday blessing for parishioners who might be pressed for time.
The Rev. Patricia Anderson Cook of Mt. Healthy United Methodist Church in suburban Cincinnati plans to provide the service for people of all faiths and services beginning around 5 p.m. in the church's parking lot.
“Some people are very busy, and some people get a little intimidated walking into a church, this is for them," Cook told the Cincinnati Inquirer.
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Christian season of Lent, which concludes after 40 days with the celebration of Easter.
In addition to ashes, Cook will provide a church brochure and a Lenten booklet.
“It’s a drive-thru,” she said. “Not a drive-by.”
The church is also offering a more traditional Ash Wednesday service inside at 7 p.m.
Source
Ash Wednesday: Episcopalians Take 'Ashes To Go' To The Streets
First Posted: 02/21/2012 12:33 pm Updated: 02/21/2012 12:33 pm
By Piet Levy
Religion News Service
(RNS) Five years ago, the Rev. Teresa K.M. Danieley had an epiphany of sorts. If people can grab breakfast on the go or pay a bill from their cell phone, she thought, why shouldn't they be able to get their ashes in a flash?
That's why, on Ash Wednesday 2007, Danieley planted herself in full priestly regalia at a busy intersection in St. Louis, smudging the sign of the cross on the foreheads of bicyclists, drivers and bus passengers.
This year, at least 49 Episcopal parishes across 12 states will offer ashes to passersby at train stations, bus stops and college campuses on Ash Wednesday (Feb. 22) as Danieley's "Ashes to Go" concept spreads nationwide.
"We live in a time where we can't just sit back and wait for people to come to us," said Bishop Stacy F. Sauls, chief operating officer for the New York-based Episcopal Church. "We have to meet people where they actually are."
Danieley, the rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in St. Louis, said the idea was born in a Bible study discussion in late 2006 or early 2007. That first year, she offered a brief Ash Wednesday liturgy to about 75 or 100 people who crossed her path.
"It started sort of half-jokingly, but it became something pretty profound," Danieley said. "It's fulfilling a spiritual need but also a pragmatic need. It's showing flexibility in an institution often seen as very inflexible."
For at least some people, it's working. Kathleen Dimmich, a 26-year-old real estate agent, became an active St. John's parishioner after getting her ashes from Danieley in 2009.
"I had been in St. Louis for maybe a month and hadn't found a church yet," Dimmich said. The mobile Ash Wednesday program showed that St. John's "was obviously an active parish in my neighborhood, which was important to me."
That very same day that Dimmich first experienced Ashes to Go, the Rev. Emily A. Mellott held a 7 a.m. Ash Wednesday service at Calvary Episcopal Church in Lombard, Ill. Only three people showed up.
In 2010, Mellott decided to give her friend Danieley's idea a try and offered Ash Wednesday ashes during the morning rush hour. Within a year, she had 25 area churches participating.
"In my congregation, a lot of folks can't get to church, not just on a Wednesday but on a Sunday," Mellott said. "But there's a lot of people who really want to be able to claim the symbols of their faith and that relationship with God."
Last year, the Episcopal Church Foundation asked Mellott to write an Ashes to Go resource guide. It generated so much interest that Mellott created AshesToGo.org to detail churches' activities. In Dayton, Ohio, Christ Episcopal Church will host an ecumenical effort with Baptist, United Methodist and Presbyterian ministers; in College Station, Texas, St. Thomas Episcopal Church is offering tacos with the ashes.
While the program may never gain churchwide approval, it has the support of top church leaders like Sauls -- especially as active membership in the Episcopal Church has dropped 11 percent in the past five years.
"It's a really creative idea for how to crack the door open and engage people in a small way in their spiritual life this time of year," Sauls said.
Still, supporters acknowledge that convenience comes with compromises. Sauls said Ashes to Go misses the "full life of the community" experienced in a traditional church setting.
And within the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, where Ashes to Go is most popular, only about 20 to 25 percent of churches are participating, Mellott said. Some have declined for logistical reasons, while other leaders feel it's too lighthearted a concept for the start of the church's most solemn season of the year.
But Danieley rejects any notion that Ashes to Go is cheap grace.
"We can't pretend that the way we did things 50 years ago is what we should be doing today," she said. "When a church is seen as inflexible, it's seen as not in touch. What is more important: that someone participates in a meaningful liturgy or that they do it in a particular space?"
Religion News Service
(RNS) Five years ago, the Rev. Teresa K.M. Danieley had an epiphany of sorts. If people can grab breakfast on the go or pay a bill from their cell phone, she thought, why shouldn't they be able to get their ashes in a flash?
That's why, on Ash Wednesday 2007, Danieley planted herself in full priestly regalia at a busy intersection in St. Louis, smudging the sign of the cross on the foreheads of bicyclists, drivers and bus passengers.
This year, at least 49 Episcopal parishes across 12 states will offer ashes to passersby at train stations, bus stops and college campuses on Ash Wednesday (Feb. 22) as Danieley's "Ashes to Go" concept spreads nationwide.
"We live in a time where we can't just sit back and wait for people to come to us," said Bishop Stacy F. Sauls, chief operating officer for the New York-based Episcopal Church. "We have to meet people where they actually are."
Danieley, the rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in St. Louis, said the idea was born in a Bible study discussion in late 2006 or early 2007. That first year, she offered a brief Ash Wednesday liturgy to about 75 or 100 people who crossed her path.
"It started sort of half-jokingly, but it became something pretty profound," Danieley said. "It's fulfilling a spiritual need but also a pragmatic need. It's showing flexibility in an institution often seen as very inflexible."
For at least some people, it's working. Kathleen Dimmich, a 26-year-old real estate agent, became an active St. John's parishioner after getting her ashes from Danieley in 2009.
"I had been in St. Louis for maybe a month and hadn't found a church yet," Dimmich said. The mobile Ash Wednesday program showed that St. John's "was obviously an active parish in my neighborhood, which was important to me."
That very same day that Dimmich first experienced Ashes to Go, the Rev. Emily A. Mellott held a 7 a.m. Ash Wednesday service at Calvary Episcopal Church in Lombard, Ill. Only three people showed up.
In 2010, Mellott decided to give her friend Danieley's idea a try and offered Ash Wednesday ashes during the morning rush hour. Within a year, she had 25 area churches participating.
"In my congregation, a lot of folks can't get to church, not just on a Wednesday but on a Sunday," Mellott said. "But there's a lot of people who really want to be able to claim the symbols of their faith and that relationship with God."
Last year, the Episcopal Church Foundation asked Mellott to write an Ashes to Go resource guide. It generated so much interest that Mellott created AshesToGo.org to detail churches' activities. In Dayton, Ohio, Christ Episcopal Church will host an ecumenical effort with Baptist, United Methodist and Presbyterian ministers; in College Station, Texas, St. Thomas Episcopal Church is offering tacos with the ashes.
While the program may never gain churchwide approval, it has the support of top church leaders like Sauls -- especially as active membership in the Episcopal Church has dropped 11 percent in the past five years.
"It's a really creative idea for how to crack the door open and engage people in a small way in their spiritual life this time of year," Sauls said.
Still, supporters acknowledge that convenience comes with compromises. Sauls said Ashes to Go misses the "full life of the community" experienced in a traditional church setting.
And within the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, where Ashes to Go is most popular, only about 20 to 25 percent of churches are participating, Mellott said. Some have declined for logistical reasons, while other leaders feel it's too lighthearted a concept for the start of the church's most solemn season of the year.
But Danieley rejects any notion that Ashes to Go is cheap grace.
"We can't pretend that the way we did things 50 years ago is what we should be doing today," she said. "When a church is seen as inflexible, it's seen as not in touch. What is more important: that someone participates in a meaningful liturgy or that they do it in a particular space?"
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Missouri 4.0 earthquake felt across 13 states
U.S. - US
Published February 21, 2012
SIKESTON, Mo. – A magnitude 4.0 earthquake struck early Tuesday in the southeast corner Missouri, waking up residents in as many as 12 other surrounding states.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake hit at 3:58am local time (4:58am ET). Its epicenter was located a shallow 3.1 miles (5km) underground, about 150 miles (240km) south of St. Louis, near the New Madrid fault line.
Hundreds reported feeling the quake in Missouri, according to the USGS, with the most significant shaking occurring in Sikeston, a small city about nine miles away from the epicenter.
Outside of Missouri, the temblor was felt in Illinois, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas and Indiana. Residents also reported feeling the ground shake in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Kansas and Oklahoma.
Save for a few reports of items falling off shelves and windows cracking, the rumbling caused no real damage.
But experts said it serves as an important reminder of how earthquakes in the eastern part of the US, though they occur more rarely, have the potential to cause damage over a much wider region than on the West Coast.
The earth's deep crust in the eastern US is "very hard, cold and dense like a slab of concrete," allowing seismic waves to travel a much greater distance than in the west, said Gary Patterson of the Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI) at the University of Memphis.
East Coasters and Midwesterners were reminded of that in August when a 5.8 magnitude earthquake in Mineral, Va., shook buildings as far away as New York and Chicago.
Magnitude 4.0 quakes are not uncommon along the New Madrid fault line, with about a dozen occurring over the last decade, Patterson said. And the one that struck early Tuesday does not necessarily change the forecast for future earthquakes in the area.
Seismologists estimate there is a 25 to 40 percent chance a magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquake will strike the region in the next 50 years, Patterson said, and just a seven to 10 percent probability a massive 7.5 to 8.0 magnitude temblor will occur within the next half-century.
Tuesday's shaking comes nearly 200 years to the day after a powerful earthquake in nearly the same spot destroyed New Madrid, Mo., and heavily damaged St. Louis.
The Feb. 7, 1812 quake, which seismologists today guess was about 7.7 in magnitude, reportedly cracked sidewalks in Washington, D.C., and caused church bells to ring as far away as Boston and Toronto. It was the last in a series of four earthquakes that struck the region from December 1811 to February 1812.
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/21/missouri-40-earthquake-felt-across-13-states/#ixzz1n4nCUuND
.
Published February 21, 2012
SIKESTON, Mo. – A magnitude 4.0 earthquake struck early Tuesday in the southeast corner Missouri, waking up residents in as many as 12 other surrounding states.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake hit at 3:58am local time (4:58am ET). Its epicenter was located a shallow 3.1 miles (5km) underground, about 150 miles (240km) south of St. Louis, near the New Madrid fault line.
Hundreds reported feeling the quake in Missouri, according to the USGS, with the most significant shaking occurring in Sikeston, a small city about nine miles away from the epicenter.
Outside of Missouri, the temblor was felt in Illinois, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas and Indiana. Residents also reported feeling the ground shake in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Kansas and Oklahoma.
Save for a few reports of items falling off shelves and windows cracking, the rumbling caused no real damage.
But experts said it serves as an important reminder of how earthquakes in the eastern part of the US, though they occur more rarely, have the potential to cause damage over a much wider region than on the West Coast.
The earth's deep crust in the eastern US is "very hard, cold and dense like a slab of concrete," allowing seismic waves to travel a much greater distance than in the west, said Gary Patterson of the Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI) at the University of Memphis.
East Coasters and Midwesterners were reminded of that in August when a 5.8 magnitude earthquake in Mineral, Va., shook buildings as far away as New York and Chicago.
Magnitude 4.0 quakes are not uncommon along the New Madrid fault line, with about a dozen occurring over the last decade, Patterson said. And the one that struck early Tuesday does not necessarily change the forecast for future earthquakes in the area.
Seismologists estimate there is a 25 to 40 percent chance a magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquake will strike the region in the next 50 years, Patterson said, and just a seven to 10 percent probability a massive 7.5 to 8.0 magnitude temblor will occur within the next half-century.
Tuesday's shaking comes nearly 200 years to the day after a powerful earthquake in nearly the same spot destroyed New Madrid, Mo., and heavily damaged St. Louis.
The Feb. 7, 1812 quake, which seismologists today guess was about 7.7 in magnitude, reportedly cracked sidewalks in Washington, D.C., and caused church bells to ring as far away as Boston and Toronto. It was the last in a series of four earthquakes that struck the region from December 1811 to February 1812.
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/21/missouri-40-earthquake-felt-across-13-states/#ixzz1n4nCUuND
.
Monday, February 20, 2012
World's biggest biometric ID scheme forges ahead
12 February 2012 Last updated at 19:47 ET
UID chairman Nandan Nilekani says one million are enrolling every day
Many see this as a potential game-changer in India, bringing the country's poorest citizens into the mainstream, reducing waste while ensuring federal welfare money reaches those who need it most.
If handled right, many believe it could change the face of India.
Source
.
The world's largest biometric identity exercise, which is taking place in India, is well on its way to reaching its target of half the country's population, reports the BBC's Sanjoy Majumder.
Jahangirpuri is one of the biggest slums in the Indian capital, Delhi, home mostly to rubbish pickers and daily wage labourers.
Today many of them are lined up outside a tiny, single-room office, waiting patiently.
As each one of them goes inside, two young men and women enter their details into a computer before they are photographed and their fingerprints and iris are scanned.
'Every nook and corner'
It's a process that's being repeated at similar centres around India.
For the past two years, the Indian government has been creating the world's largest and most sophisticated database of personal identities. It's part of an ambitious project to hand over a unique identification number (UID) to each of the country's 1.2bn people.
"From the time we began this centre, we've had hundreds of people come by every day," says Col Ravinder Kumar, who manages the Jahangirpuri UID centre.
Among those in the queue is Kamala, a daily wage labourer.
UID chairman Nandan Nilekani says one million are enrolling every day
It's people like her, the poorest of the poor, who are expected to benefit the most from the UID. They have no proper identity papers and therefore no access to services such as subsidised food rations, a phone connection, even a bank account.
"It's so difficult to get anything done without a proper identity," she says. "We're often forced to pay bribes to get subsidised grains or fuel.
"With the UID I hope things will improve - we can buy cheap food and I can help educate my children."
Since its launch in 2010, nearly 200 million UIDs have been generated. The goal is to cover half the population by 2014.
Nandan Nilekani, who used to head one of India's biggest IT companies, Infosys, is now the chairman of the UID project and gives a sense of the logistical scale of the operation.
"We are enrolling at the rate of one million a day. We have over 20,000 locations across the country where this is happening."
"Now we are confident that we have built a system to scale and it's just a question of widening the reach and taking it to every nook and corner."
Furious debate
It's in Jharkhand, 1,200km east of the capital and one of the country's poorest states, that you get a sense of the potential of the UID on the ground.
Villagers line up at the local council office to collect their wages under a flagship government rural employment programme.
Only this time, their pay is being handed out against their newly acquired UID numbers, after their fingerprints are verified.
"The estimate is that the government spends some $60bn each year on welfare programmes," says Rajesh Bansal, assistant director general at the UID headquarters.
Not all of this money reaches those it is meant for. Some of it is held up by red tape, siphoned by middlemen or simply lost due to corruption.
"It makes the system much more transparent because the UID ensures that only the intended beneficiary gets the money and the whole system can easily be monitored," says Mr Bansal.
The UID has also tied up with state-owned banks to enable migrant workers to transfer money from the cities to their families in the villages, using their UID numbers.
But the project has also sparked a furious debate.
There are concerns over its cost, implications for national security and fears that the data could be misused.
Nearly 200 million UIDs have already been issued
"You say you are going to cut out corruption and leakage. Who are the people who are going to control this? The assumption is that technology is neutral and cannot be manipulated," says Usha Ramanathan, an independent law researcher who has been campaigning against the UID.
"What technology does depends on who controls it. You are saying the whole system is corrupt, so let's centralise data and hand it over to the same people. What sense does that make?"
For now the governmenthas agreed to build in safeguards and the UID project is gathering pace.
Many see this as a potential game-changer in India, bringing the country's poorest citizens into the mainstream, reducing waste while ensuring federal welfare money reaches those who need it most.
If handled right, many believe it could change the face of India.
Source
.
Debt Slavery: 30 Facts About Debt In America That Will Blow Your Mind
Posted: 02/09/12
When most people think about America's debt problem, they think of the debt of the federal government. But that is only part of the story. The sad truth is that debt slavery has become a way of life for tens of millions of American families. Over the past several decades, most Americans have willingly allowed themselves to become enslaved to debt. These days, most of us are busy either going into even more debt or paying off the debt that we have accumulated in the past. When your finances are dominated by debt, it makes it really hard to ever get ahead. Incredibly, 43 percent of all American families spend more than they earn each year. Even while median household income continues to decline (now less than $50,000 a year), median household debt continues to go up. According to the Federal Reserve, median household debt in America has risen to $75,600. Many Americans spend decades caught in the trap of debt slavery. Large numbers of them never even escape at all and die in debt. It can be a lot of fun to spend lots of money and go into lots of debt, but it can be absolutely soul crushing to toil and labor for years paying off those debts while making others wealthy in the process. Hopefully this article will inspire many people to try to escape the chains of debt slavery once and for all.
Because the truth is that the American people need a wake up call. Consumer borrowing rose by another $19.3 billion in December. Right now it is sitting at a grand total of $2.5 trillion according to the Federal Reserve.
Overall, consumer debt in America has increased by a whopping 1700% since 1971.
We always criticize the federal government for going into so much debt, but we rarely criticize ourselves for our own addiction to debt.
Debt slavery is destroying millions of lives all across this country, and it is imperative that we educate the American people about the dangers of all this debt.
The following are 30 facts about debt in America that will absolutely blow your mind....
Credit Card Debt
#1 Today, 46% of all Americans carry a credit card balance from month to month.
#2 Overall, Americans are carrying a grand total of $798 billion in credit card debt.
#3 If you were alive when Jesus was born and you spent a million dollars every single day since then, you still would not have spent $798 billion by now.
#4 Right now, there are more than 600 million active credit cards in the United States.
#5 For households that have credit card debt, the average amount of credit card debt is an astounding $15,799.
#6 If you can believe it, one out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.
#7 The average interest rate on a credit card that is carrying a balance is now up to 13.10 percent.
#8 According to the credit card calculator on the Federal Reserve website, if you have a $10,000 credit card balance and you are being charged a rate of 13.10 percent and you only make the minimum payment each time, it will take you 27 years to pay it off and you will end up paying back a total of $21,271.
#9 There is one credit card company out there, First Premier, that charges interest rates of up to 49.9 percent. Amazingly, First Premier has 2.6 million customers.
Auto Loan Debt
#10 The length of auto loans in America just keeps getting longer and longer. If you can believe it, 45 percent of all new car loans being made today are for more than 6 years.
#11 Approximately 70 percent of all car purchases in the United States involve an auto loan.
#12 A subprime auto loan bubble is steadily building. Today, 45 percent of all auto loans are made to subprime borrowers. At some point that is going to be a massive problem.
Mortgage Debt
#13 Total home mortgage debt in the United States is now about 5 times larger than it was just 20 years ago.
#14 Mortgage debt as a percentage of GDP has more than tripled since 1955.
#15 According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, approximately 8 million Americans are at least one month behind on their mortgage payments.
#16 Historically, the percentage of residential mortgages in foreclosure in the United States has tended to hover between 1 and 1.5 percent. Today, it is up around 4.5 percent.
#17 According to Dylan Ratigan, 46 percent of all mortgaged properties in Florida are underwater, 50 percent of all mortgaged properties in Arizona are underwater and 63 percent of all mortgaged properties in Nevada are underwater.
#18 Overall, nearly 29 percent of all homes with a mortgage in the United States are underwater.
#19 If you can believe it, the mortgage lenders now have more equity in U.S. homes than the American people do.
Medical Debt
#20 Medical debt is a major problem for a growing number of Americans. One study discovered that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.
#21 Sadly, the number of Americans that are protected by health insurance continues to decline. An all-time record 49.9 million Americans do not have any health insurance at all right now, and the percentage of Americans covered by employer-based health plans has fallen for 11 years in a row.
#22 But even if you do have health insurance, there is still a good chance that you could end up with huge medical debt problems. According to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine, medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States. Of those bankruptcies that were caused by medical bills, approximately 75 percent of them involved individuals that actually did have health insurance.
Student Loan Debt
#23 Total student loan debt in the United States is rapidly approaching 1 trillion dollars.
#24 If you went out right now and starting spending one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.
#25 In America today, approximately two-thirds of all college students graduate with student loan debt.
#26 The average student loan debt load is now approximately $25,000.
#27 After adjusting for inflation, U.S. college students are borrowing about twice as much money as they did a decade ago.
#28 One survey found that 23 percent of all college students actually use credit cards to pay for tuition or fees.
#29 The student loan default rate has nearly doubled since 2005.
#30 Student loans made to directly to parents have increased by 75 percent since the 2005-2006 academic year.
At this point, most Americans are up to their eyeballs in debt. According to a recent study conducted by the BlackRock Investment Institute, the ratio of household debt to personal income in the United States is now 154 percent.
Our entire economy has become based on credit.
Do you need a car?
Just get an auto loan.
Do you need a house?
Just get a mortgage.
Do you need to fill up your house with stuff?
Just get a credit card.
Do you need an education?
Just get a student loan.
In fact, if you are anything like a typical American, you probably have a mortgage you can barely afford, you probably have at least one auto loan, you probably have several credit card balances and you probably have a student loan that you deeply regret.
So what should you do if you are drowning in debt?
First, make a firm decision that you are going to break the chains of debt slavery once and for all.
Secondly, come up with a plan to reduce your debt. Paying off debt that carries a high rate of interest first (such as credit card debt) is usually a good idea.
The big financial institutions want to get us into as much debt as possible, because all of this debt makes them incredibly wealthy.
Don't play their game.
Yes, that may mean that you may have to put off certain purchases until you can come up with the money, but in the long run you will be much better off.
So do any of you have any debt slavery stories to share? Please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts below....
Distributed by www.worldviewweekend.com
.
When most people think about America's debt problem, they think of the debt of the federal government. But that is only part of the story. The sad truth is that debt slavery has become a way of life for tens of millions of American families. Over the past several decades, most Americans have willingly allowed themselves to become enslaved to debt. These days, most of us are busy either going into even more debt or paying off the debt that we have accumulated in the past. When your finances are dominated by debt, it makes it really hard to ever get ahead. Incredibly, 43 percent of all American families spend more than they earn each year. Even while median household income continues to decline (now less than $50,000 a year), median household debt continues to go up. According to the Federal Reserve, median household debt in America has risen to $75,600. Many Americans spend decades caught in the trap of debt slavery. Large numbers of them never even escape at all and die in debt. It can be a lot of fun to spend lots of money and go into lots of debt, but it can be absolutely soul crushing to toil and labor for years paying off those debts while making others wealthy in the process. Hopefully this article will inspire many people to try to escape the chains of debt slavery once and for all.
Because the truth is that the American people need a wake up call. Consumer borrowing rose by another $19.3 billion in December. Right now it is sitting at a grand total of $2.5 trillion according to the Federal Reserve.
Overall, consumer debt in America has increased by a whopping 1700% since 1971.
We always criticize the federal government for going into so much debt, but we rarely criticize ourselves for our own addiction to debt.
Debt slavery is destroying millions of lives all across this country, and it is imperative that we educate the American people about the dangers of all this debt.
The following are 30 facts about debt in America that will absolutely blow your mind....
Credit Card Debt
#1 Today, 46% of all Americans carry a credit card balance from month to month.
#2 Overall, Americans are carrying a grand total of $798 billion in credit card debt.
#3 If you were alive when Jesus was born and you spent a million dollars every single day since then, you still would not have spent $798 billion by now.
#4 Right now, there are more than 600 million active credit cards in the United States.
#5 For households that have credit card debt, the average amount of credit card debt is an astounding $15,799.
#6 If you can believe it, one out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.
#7 The average interest rate on a credit card that is carrying a balance is now up to 13.10 percent.
#8 According to the credit card calculator on the Federal Reserve website, if you have a $10,000 credit card balance and you are being charged a rate of 13.10 percent and you only make the minimum payment each time, it will take you 27 years to pay it off and you will end up paying back a total of $21,271.
#9 There is one credit card company out there, First Premier, that charges interest rates of up to 49.9 percent. Amazingly, First Premier has 2.6 million customers.
Auto Loan Debt
#10 The length of auto loans in America just keeps getting longer and longer. If you can believe it, 45 percent of all new car loans being made today are for more than 6 years.
#11 Approximately 70 percent of all car purchases in the United States involve an auto loan.
#12 A subprime auto loan bubble is steadily building. Today, 45 percent of all auto loans are made to subprime borrowers. At some point that is going to be a massive problem.
Mortgage Debt
#13 Total home mortgage debt in the United States is now about 5 times larger than it was just 20 years ago.
#14 Mortgage debt as a percentage of GDP has more than tripled since 1955.
#15 According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, approximately 8 million Americans are at least one month behind on their mortgage payments.
#16 Historically, the percentage of residential mortgages in foreclosure in the United States has tended to hover between 1 and 1.5 percent. Today, it is up around 4.5 percent.
#17 According to Dylan Ratigan, 46 percent of all mortgaged properties in Florida are underwater, 50 percent of all mortgaged properties in Arizona are underwater and 63 percent of all mortgaged properties in Nevada are underwater.
#18 Overall, nearly 29 percent of all homes with a mortgage in the United States are underwater.
#19 If you can believe it, the mortgage lenders now have more equity in U.S. homes than the American people do.
Medical Debt
#20 Medical debt is a major problem for a growing number of Americans. One study discovered that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.
#21 Sadly, the number of Americans that are protected by health insurance continues to decline. An all-time record 49.9 million Americans do not have any health insurance at all right now, and the percentage of Americans covered by employer-based health plans has fallen for 11 years in a row.
#22 But even if you do have health insurance, there is still a good chance that you could end up with huge medical debt problems. According to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine, medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States. Of those bankruptcies that were caused by medical bills, approximately 75 percent of them involved individuals that actually did have health insurance.
Student Loan Debt
#23 Total student loan debt in the United States is rapidly approaching 1 trillion dollars.
#24 If you went out right now and starting spending one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.
#25 In America today, approximately two-thirds of all college students graduate with student loan debt.
#26 The average student loan debt load is now approximately $25,000.
#27 After adjusting for inflation, U.S. college students are borrowing about twice as much money as they did a decade ago.
#28 One survey found that 23 percent of all college students actually use credit cards to pay for tuition or fees.
#29 The student loan default rate has nearly doubled since 2005.
#30 Student loans made to directly to parents have increased by 75 percent since the 2005-2006 academic year.
At this point, most Americans are up to their eyeballs in debt. According to a recent study conducted by the BlackRock Investment Institute, the ratio of household debt to personal income in the United States is now 154 percent.
Our entire economy has become based on credit.
Do you need a car?
Just get an auto loan.
Do you need a house?
Just get a mortgage.
Do you need to fill up your house with stuff?
Just get a credit card.
Do you need an education?
Just get a student loan.
In fact, if you are anything like a typical American, you probably have a mortgage you can barely afford, you probably have at least one auto loan, you probably have several credit card balances and you probably have a student loan that you deeply regret.
So what should you do if you are drowning in debt?
First, make a firm decision that you are going to break the chains of debt slavery once and for all.
Secondly, come up with a plan to reduce your debt. Paying off debt that carries a high rate of interest first (such as credit card debt) is usually a good idea.
The big financial institutions want to get us into as much debt as possible, because all of this debt makes them incredibly wealthy.
Don't play their game.
Yes, that may mean that you may have to put off certain purchases until you can come up with the money, but in the long run you will be much better off.
So do any of you have any debt slavery stories to share? Please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts below....
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