Monday, November 06, 2017
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, attends a candlelight vigil
REUTERS
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who is Catholic, attends a candlelight vigil after a mass shooting Nov. 5 at the First Baptist Church in rural Sutherland Springs. A lone gunman entered the church during Sunday services taking the lives of at least 26 people and injuring several more. (CNS photo/Joe Mitchell, Reuters) See TEXAS-SHOOTING-MASSACRE Nov. 6, 2017.
Catholic News Service
Sunday, November 05, 2017
At Vatican, ‘Tenets of Faith’ Seen as Crucial in Climate Change Effort
NOV. 4, 2017
Jerry Brown, the governor of California, underlined the importance of religious leaders’ involvement in climate change efforts. Credit Alessandra Tarantino/Associated Press
VATICAN CITY — Religious leaders need to tell congregations that global warming can affect not just the environment, but also the spread of diseases and other threats to human health, participants said at a Vatican conference on Saturday on climate change, an issue that has been a priority of Pope Francis.
Persuasion “starts with the tenets of faith” more than with scientific data, said the Rev. Leith Anderson, president of the United States-based National Association of Evangelicals, noting that most of the world’s population has some religious affiliation. “Environmental catastrophes” like recent storms, flooding and droughts, he said, “create opportunities to persuade.”
The Rev. Mitchell C. Hescox, president of the Evangelical Environmental Network, said he had given hundreds of talks on the issue. “Many evangelicals believe in climate change or understand the science in climate change, but they still see it as a future event,” he said. “It’s not something they have to worry about, and that is what we have to change.”
Mr. Hescox added: “The way to move conservatives around the world is to talk about how it impacts or affects their children, their own lives.”
The three-day conference on public health and the planet, which ended Saturday, was hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. The conference reviewed studies and data that have emerged since Francis issued a forceful 2015 encyclical that highlighted the social and ethical issues caused by climate change, including mass migration and famine.
The participants shared “the most recent solid science on how climate change and air pollution undermines health, increases chronic diseases and the early results on how it impacts the brain,” said Joachim von Braun, the president of the Pontifical Academy. “Science is not just pointing at the environmental consequences of climate change, but also human health consequences” that affect both the poor and the wealthy.
Jerry Brown, the governor of California, who also spoke at the conference, underlined the importance of religious leaders’ involvement. “Until religious leaders from every part of the world and every denomination are engaged, we will not be able to move aside the huge rock of indifference, complacency and inertia,” he said.
“The American people in the majority are very much in support of serious climate action,” said Mr. Brown, who will head to the United Nations’ climate change conference this coming week in Bonn, Germany.
While governments have responsibility to enact change, he said, individuals also have an obligation. Unless people reorient their habits and way of life, he said, it will be difficult to reverse the changes affecting the planet.
Deadliest Church Shooting in American History Kills at Least 26
Nick Wagner/AP
PRAYERS
A gunman in ‘full gear’ walked into First Baptist Church outside San Antonio, Texas, and opened fire, killing scores and wounding more than a dozen, including children.
Kelly Weill
11.05.17 3:23 PM ET
At least 26 people are dead after a gunman opened fire inside a Texas church on Sunday morning, officials say.
The shooting occurred at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, approximately 30 miles from San Antonio, around 11:30 a.m. The shooter, who is believed to have acted alone, fled the church on foot and was killed by police, officials said. Police told reporters that the victims range in age from 5 to 72, with approximately 20 wounded being treated at area hospitals.
The shooter has been identified as Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, of nearby New Braunfels, Texas. Kelley was married and his mother-in-law listed a P.O. box in Sutherland Springs as a mailing address. His LinkedIn describes him as serving in the U.S. Air Force from 2009 until 2013, after which he briefly taught at a summer Bible school. Days before the shooting, he posted a picture of an assault weapon on Facebook with the caption: “She’s a bad bitch.”
One witness told a KSAT reporter the he was dressed “in full gear.” During a press conference in Sutherland Springs, state and local officials said that Kelley had an “assault-type” rifle and first fired outside the church before entering the building. An armed citizen pursued Kelley by vehicle after he left the church.
Whatever the final death toll, it is already the deadliest shooting at a place of worship in modern American history, surpassing the nine killed at Emanuel AME Baptist Church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015.
11.05.17 3:23 PM ET
At least 26 people are dead after a gunman opened fire inside a Texas church on Sunday morning, officials say.
The shooting occurred at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, approximately 30 miles from San Antonio, around 11:30 a.m. The shooter, who is believed to have acted alone, fled the church on foot and was killed by police, officials said. Police told reporters that the victims range in age from 5 to 72, with approximately 20 wounded being treated at area hospitals.
The shooter has been identified as Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, of nearby New Braunfels, Texas. Kelley was married and his mother-in-law listed a P.O. box in Sutherland Springs as a mailing address. His LinkedIn describes him as serving in the U.S. Air Force from 2009 until 2013, after which he briefly taught at a summer Bible school. Days before the shooting, he posted a picture of an assault weapon on Facebook with the caption: “She’s a bad bitch.”
One witness told a KSAT reporter the he was dressed “in full gear.” During a press conference in Sutherland Springs, state and local officials said that Kelley had an “assault-type” rifle and first fired outside the church before entering the building. An armed citizen pursued Kelley by vehicle after he left the church.
Whatever the final death toll, it is already the deadliest shooting at a place of worship in modern American history, surpassing the nine killed at Emanuel AME Baptist Church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015.
Saturday, November 04, 2017
Why are shops in Germany closed on Sundays?
Photo: DPA
27 October 2017
14:12 CEST+02:00
Many of you are probably familiar with waking up on a Sunday morning to an empty fridge and not being able to buy food because all the grocery stores are closed. But have you ever wondered how Germany's strict shopping hours came to be?
Germany is renowned for having some of the strictest laws for opening hours in Europe, much to the frustration of many modern shoppers.
Not only are the majority of shops closed throughout Germany on Sundays, but during the week they often shut earlier in the evening than in most other countries.
After the first country-wide laws on opening hours were set out in 1900, by 1919 it was illegal for shops to open on Sundays and, on weekdays, shops could only be open from 7am to 7pm.
The reasoning behind this was not only religious, as in certain faiths the Sabbath is considered a day of rest and a day to honour God, but also to take the interests of workers into consideration.
Making it a legal requirement for people to have a day off on Sundays meant people were guaranteed a day to relax at home and to avoid a 7-day work week. Because of this, the concept of a 'Ruhetag' (resting day) is held dear to many Germans.
Quincentennial of the Protestant Reformation
Larissa Tenorio Gessner
October 31, 2017
Do you know the significance of the Protestant Reformation and why it is so widely commemorated?
This year, 2017, we as a church have been commemorating the quincentennial of the Protestant Reformation, the beginning of which many consider as October 31, 1517, with Martin Luther's 95 theses. Many of our churches worldwide have held conferences and special meetings in celebration (including a few listed below). The subject of this quarter's Sabbath School Lesson is Justification by Faith to further study and better understand a driving topic of the Reformation. This year's Week of Prayer theme will also be the anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
Do you know the significance of the Protestant Reformation and why it is so widely commemorated? Prior to the Reformation, the Bible was unavailable to all except a very selected few. The conditions in the world were so that, the masses were illiterate, the Bible was only available in languages they did not speak, and the few copies and translations of the Bible were locked away and hidden. Martin Luther himself spent years as a student of theology in ingorance of the Bible's existence.
"Rome withheld the Bible from the people, and required all men to accept her teachings in its place. It was the work of the Reformation to restore to men the Word of God;" (The Great Controversy, p. 388).
Today we commemorate 500 years since God's Word began to be rediscovered. How fitting, then, that our celebration include an earnest study of His word, time and devotion dedicated to His precious gospel, and dedication in working out the prophecies included in His letter to us.
Friday, November 03, 2017
Thursday, November 02, 2017
Wednesday, November 01, 2017
A World With Many Dangers, Toils, And Snares
Volume XXXVI Issue XI November 2017
Last Trumpet Ministries, PO Box 806, Beaver Dam, WI 53916
Phone: 920-887-2626 Internet: http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org
A World With Many Dangers, Toils, And Snares
"Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame."
I Corinthians 15:33-34
"Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil."
Ephesians 5:14-16
"He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known."
Proverbs 10:9
"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one."
Psalm 14:1-3
In this issue of the Last Trumpet Newsletter, we will assess the distressing conditions of this age, and recent events which continue to show that we live in a world with many dangers, toils, and snares. The troubles facing the people of earth are pervasive. In Europe many areas have become lands of anger and discontent spurred by the arrival of 1.5 million migrants from the Middle East and Africa since 2015. (1) Research from the Pew Research Center which was published in June 2017 shows that 90 percent of the Greeks who were surveyed disapprove of the European Union's handling of the migrant crisis. The disapproval percentages in other European nations were also high, including 80 percent of respondents in Italy, 78 percent in Sweden, and 67 percent in Spain. (2) Another indicator of discontent in Europe was the election of billionaire Andrej Babis as Prime Minister of the Czech Republic in October 2017. The new leader has said that the Czech Republic should not have to accept refugees, a policy which has apparently resonated with the nation's people. (3) Reports from the media have described the new Prime Minister as a "Czech Donald Trump." (4) Meanwhile, there is trouble in Catalonia as the people of this region have sought to declare independence from Spain in recent weeks. On October 1, 2017, the Catalan people held a referendum in which 90 percent of voters favored independence. The government of Spain declared the vote illegal even as Spanish police forces worked to disrupt the voting process, and in so doing, injured 844 people. (5) Even as Spanish officials have promised to discipline the disobedient citizens of Catalonia, secessionists in the region have urged Catalans to engage in "massive civil disobedience." (6)
There is also great turmoil in the South American country of Venezuela. Due to the socialist government policies of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his successor President Nicolas Maduro, a full 82 percent of the people in Venezuela now live in poverty. (7) Even as food shortages and violence take their toll, thousands have fled to other countries in an effort to escape their dire circumstances. "Everything there has turned ugly. There's hunger and crime. You can't leave your house after 5 p.m. because you're going to be robbed or killed," said a woman who left Venezuela for the brighter prospects of Peru. (7)
The JFK Assassination: A cast of characters
Oct 27, 2017
As new documents about the killing of President John F. Kennedy are released, The New York Times's Peter Baker walks us through who’s who in this American tragedy.
New York Times
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