Monday, April 27, 2009

Religion and science: “isolation is not an option”

Sheila Liaugminas Monday, 27 April 2009

Religion and science: “isolation is not an option”

The Vatican recently invited friends and foes to an unprecedented conference on evolution. Our correspondent captures the intellectual drama of the week-long dialogue.



This was an all-star gathering nearly unprecedented in character. The Pontifical Council for Culture, the Pontifical Gregorian University and the University of Notre Dame assembled some of the world’s leading scientists, philosophers and theologians for a week-long conference in Rome called ‘Biological Evolution: Facts and Theories’ sub-headed ‘A Critical Appraisal 150 Years After "The Origin of Species"’. Throughout the five days, just about each of those words was challenged or parsed.

On the first morning of the March 2-7 gathering, evolutionary biologist Douglas Futuyma said that though conferences on the different disciplines are frequently held and attended by those assembled at the Gregorian, this one was different. And he looked forward to it immensely, he enthused, as potentially the best week of his life. What made this occasion so extraordinary was its nature as an interdisciplinary meeting of physicists, biologists, molecular geneticists, paleontologists, mathematicians, philosophers and theologians – some in the higher reaches of Vatican offices – to professionally exchange ideas about Darwinian evolution. They do not engage in dialogue often, some perhaps never before. And whatever gulf may actually exist between and among them has been deeply exacerbated by popular media and pop culture, creating an unnecessary "Creation-Evolution" divide.

In 1988, in a compelling letter to Fr George Coyne SJ, Director of the Vatican Observatory, Pope John Paul II eagerly encouraged this kind of dialogue. "The matter is urgent", John Paul said, and "the options do not include isolation." We have unprecedented opportunities today "for a common interactive relationship in which each discipline retains its integrity and yet is radically open to the discoveries and insights of the other... Christians will inevitably assimilate the prevailing ideas about the world, and today these are deeply shaped by science… We must ask ourselves whether both science and religion will contribute to the integration of human culture or to its fragmentation. It is a single choice, and it confronts us all. For a simple neutrality is no longer acceptable."

Nor is it popular. Celebrity atheists and neo-Darwinian scientists assail religion on perpetual book tours promoting their bestsellers. High-profile believers scorn atheistic science in their burgeoning movement to put God back in nature. They talk at but not with each other.

So when this conference opened with a welcoming address by Cardinal William Levada, head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, international media were present to cover it. Levada said the Catholic Church acknowledges the "wide spectrum of room" for belief in both the scientific basis for evolution and faith in God the Creator. Modern science cannot disprove the existence of God, Levada said. And Christian doctrine does not explain the physical processes by which creation took place. "We believe that however creation has come about and evolved, ultimately God is the creator of all things," he affirmed. Pressed to comment on the debate over creationist theory, the prelate said the Church would not take a stand on a properly scientific issue. "The Vatican listens and learns," he said.

Since Pope Pius XI instituted the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1936, the Church has relied on certain scholars to keep the Holy See current on developments in scientific research "to serve the truth", as John Paul put it in 1996 when he addressed its plenary assembly. "How do the conclusions reached by the various scientific disciplines coincide with those contained in the message of Revelation?" the Pope probed in that address. "And if, at first sight, there are apparent contradictions, in what directions do we look for their solution? We know, in fact, that truth cannot contradict truth."

But few know what the Church teaches regarding evolution. In fact, very little has officially been said about evolutionary biology and the theistic understanding of man. Pope Pius XII’s 1950 encyclical Humani generis was a marker that opened the way for scholars to develop thought along with advancing science. Church teaching on the doctrine of evolution, Pius XII said, remains something of an open question. He called it "praiseworthy" to take science into account, "in the case of clearly proved facts…" However "caution must be used when there is rather question of hypotheses, having some sort of scientific foundation, in which the doctrine contained in Sacred Scripture or in Tradition is involved," (emphasis added). So, the Pope said, the Church allows research and discussions between scholars in science and theology "with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter -- for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God."

In John Paul’s 1996 address to the Academy of Sciences, he took such openness further, saying that since Humani generis was issued, "new knowledge has led to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis."

Those papal excerpts capture much of the March 2009 Rome evolution conference.

Facts and Theories

It was an intense week. Even the terminology in the presentations was continually challenged. "Can we claim that any statement is a fact?" mused Futuyma, reframing a participant’s question. "What do we mean by fact? It’s not something I know with unshakeable certainty, but something with so much supportive evidence that we must treat it as if it were true." Roman anthropologist Giorgio Manzi questioned the term "theory" in presentations of science, philosophy and theology. "Perhaps we should refer to possible approaches instead," suggested Gennaro Auletta, Gregorian Science Director. Provided they have solid grounding as science, philosophy or theology, was the underlying predication.

One participant took advantage of the Q&A session opening morning to launch a lengthy argument for the "Intelligent Design" theory. He got exactly the attention he intended when his colleague recorded the incident and posted it on YouTube. Though media reported that Turkish surgeon Oktar Babuna was denied a right to speak, that’s not true. He was in fact given the same ability as any participant to frame a question briefly and allow presenters to respond. He elaborated the "Intelligent Design" challenges to the evidence for biological evolution in the fossil record, but after repeated attempts failed to get him to pose a single question, conference organizers turned off his microphone and asked him to return to his seat. He continued to filibuster, but eventually was escorted off the floor. Futuyma personally spoke with Babuna on the side, explaining scientific evidence for evolution and transitional forms. Two Vatican officials also spoke personally with Babuna, and listened to his views.

Conference organizers say they intended to present "the facts of evolution" by scientists, hear philosophical reflection on them, and conclude with theological considerations of the nature of man. "Religious belief can exist with the sciences without losing itself," said German philosopher Jurgen Mittelstrass. "There is a bridge to Darwin. One only has to know how to walk on it without giving up on religion or giving in to science completely."

The problem, or one of them, is who controls the narrative. That was one point of agreement here. "Public relations encounters science in news and views these days with unfortunate consequences," said one presenter. He called for some epistemology on the "theory of everything"… which was essentially what they were doing there in the first place.

Both mathematics and philosophy are needed

Which made a roomful of such diverse experts, who see things dramatically differently, so fascinating. The first couple of days were devoted to science: random mutations, "the common ancestry of diverse species", evolutionary biology, natural selection, and slides on jaws and skulls and bacteria and the human eye. Early presentations relied on the necessity of mathematics for doing science. Later ones turned the philosophical corner. "The mathematical model describes everything and explains nothing," said Belgian philosopher of science, Dominique Lambert, warning that such models can trap and limit thought. "Kant’s question ‘What is man?’ can only be considered after asking ‘What can I know?’, ‘What ought I to do?’, and ‘What may I hope?’ said Mittelstrass. "Nature gives no ethical lessons."

Cardinal Georges Cottier, former theologian to the Pope, calmly said "the need for metaphysics has to be recognized," to a significant number of conference participants who have not considered it either necessary or relevant. "Everything exists from God, the first and universal cause," continued Cottier. "Everything."

That ex nihilo concept of making something from nothing invokes Thomas Aquinas, who believed the existence of something rather than nothing proves the existence of God. But the Catholic Church doesn’t embrace creationism and never did, he specified. Aquinas drew a distinction between creation and change, and saw God’s providence in the natural sciences. The changes in nature that move and can be perceived and measured by science, Cottier said, comprise the relationship between creation and God.

He talked about the soul, and the human nature of Christ. Cottier spoke of the immortality of the soul and the meaning of the resurrection. And about parents as God’s collaborators in creation. The room was respectfully attentive. Some participants who had taken furious notes during scientific presentations were politely listening. Many who had leaned on their hands earlier in the week were taking notes as fast as they could write. "This debate required the Church to speak out, and many times to address the incorrect understanding of the imago Dei," Cottier continued. "The human soul is directly created by God. But the concept of soul is not widely considered today." That was a grand understatement, given the audience.

Cottier said the soul is "an antiquated concept that brings a smile to faces today," but it’s more like a snicker or frown or worse… complete disregard. He challenged philosophers to fix that.

"The spiritual soul doesn’t proceed from the accidents of nature, but from being," Cottier continued. "With the infusion of the spiritual soul by God, man is created. Thomas says species should be considered in the ‘order of things’. The perfection of this order is human. All elements of the cosmos tend towards man."

Establishing a dialogue

Just two days earlier, conference participants had heard an evolutionary biologist declare "the Darwinian revolution consisted of removing man from the center of the universe and making him just one in an assortment of species, just one more among more than 10 million." Such was the dynamic tension of the proceedings. So after Cottier’s lecture, Auletta asked all present to respect the constraints of each field and discipline. "We ought to confront ourselves and challenge our opinions," he urged. "I invite you all to try to understand each other in a mutual way."

Science wasn’t ‘doing God’, but scientists were listening, and some were taking notes. Like Futuyma. In a coffee break conversation, he dismissed the doctrine of original sin and ‘the Fall,’ but Futuyma was at least willing to engage the question, obviously enjoying the weeklong engagement.

"All we can do is compare beliefs with beliefs, but not directly to a known reality," Massimo Stanzione suggested in the next lecture. Some experts "don’t believe in objective truth, but believe in being honest in these discussions," he said. That’s an encouragement to "bring home all aspects of this great debate."

French philosopher Jean-Michel Maldame returned to clarifying terms, at times in bullet-point form. "Theories are the considerations of facts," he stated. "What are facts, first of all? Facts can’t be challenged. Theories or principles should. They lead to a philosophical debate. There is no spontaneous generation—that has a temporal nature. Scientific research investigates fossils and places them in a continuum of time… The theory of evolution presents itself as an historical exploration. But we can’t go back and experiment on origins."

Maldame probed further, parsing the ideas of "origin" and "beginning". "In Genesis, ‘In the beginning’ can also be translated as an origin rather than just the beginning." What’s the difference? "Origin is a constituent of what appears on a continuum. Beginning does not. An origin is not a beginning. Be careful of referring to origin as beginning…. Science applies to change or energy. Philosophy applies to reasons for change, and for life itself."

The conference was indeed provocative.

"God’s role in causality can be understood as interactive," Maldame said in setting up an analogy. "Take, for example, the music produced by a musician playing an instrument. All is produced by both, and if you eliminate either you lose it. This allows us to understand God’s action in the forces of nature. Everything comes from both God and nature. My explanation of God is not to negate science."

However….

Tension between science and religion

There is "tension still between science and religion, with a lot of skeptical bystanders," said French philosopher Jacques Arnauld. He invoked the "render unto Caesar" analogy. "We can have discussions with scientists, inviting but not obliging them to consider the things that are of God," said Arnauld. "Just take God into account. Don’t blow out the candle or the lamp post saying ‘Stay here.’ But instead, say ‘Go out’, and encourage the journey of finding the way."

Even before it ended, these final lectures brought the conference full circle, venturing where the Pontifical Council for Culture and partner sponsors intended it to "journey".

To those who believe the Church tortured Galileo and abhors science, this would all be rather stunning. Auletta, a professor of philosophy at the Gregorian, told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that the Church is rich in scientific scholarship and pointed to Cardinal John Henry Newman as a supporter of Darwinism.

"This is one of the many reasons that in my opinion make all the efforts to recover or rehabilitate Darwin superfluous, because neither the Catholic Church nor her most important exponents have ever condemned Darwinism or the theory of evolution," he said.

In that 1988 letter to Vatican Observatory director Fr George Coyne, Pope John Paul II emphasized the importance of diverse disciplines converging for a unified vision of humanity and humanism. But he qualified it, with keen awareness and insight: "Yet the unity that we seek… is not identity. The Church does not propose that science should become religion or religion, science. On the contrary, unity always presupposes the diversity and the integrity of its elements. Each of these members should become not less itself but more itself in a dynamic interchange… We are asked to become one. We are not asked to become each other."

On that occasion, the 1988 tri-centennial of Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (philosophy of mathematical principles of natural philosophy), John Paul said the benefit from this exchange is mutual. "Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes… Only a dynamic relationship between theology and science can reveal those limits which support the integrity of either discipline, so that theology does not profess a pseudoscience and science does not become an unconscious theology.

"You are called to learn from one another, to renew the context in which science is done and to nourish the inculturation which vital theology demands. Each of you has everything to gain from such an interaction, and the human community which we both serve has a right to demand it from us."

Whatever the other evolution conference participants do with the proceedings in their own particular disciplines, it’s up to the Pontifical Council for Culture to tell the culture that they’re working on it.

Sheila Gribben Liaugminas is an Emmy Award winning journalist who reported for Time magazine for more than 20 years. She blogs at InforumBlog.com and on MercatorNet.



Source:http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/religion_and_science_isolation_is_not_an_option/



P.S. Highlights added for emphasis.

'How hate crimes laws forced me into exile'


Brazilian pro-family activist Julio Severo


'Pro-family activist stages own disappearance


Posted: April 20, 2009
8:45 pm Eastern


By Alyssa Farah
© 2009 WorldNetDaily



Brazilian pro-family activist Julio Severo

Julio Severo, a prominent Brazilian pro-family activist, has been forced into exile because of the "hate crimes" laws that are being implemented in his native land, perhaps providing a preview of what Christians can expect in the United States should similar "hate crimes" proposals be implemented.

And several organizations are reporting Congress could begin adopting measures similarly draconian to Brazil's as early as this week.

"It is imperative that we contact all members of the House and demand that they vote against this bill as it will not protect a pastor, Bible teacher, Sunday School teacher, youth leader or anyone else from prosecution if he or she teaches against homosexuality if an individual who hears their message then goes out and commits a crime against a homosexual," wrote Pastor Rick Scarborough of Vision America Action, which as a website link to make that contact.

"Hate crimes laws that include sexual orientation are a bad idea, because they elevate homosexuality to the same status as race and do nothing to prevent violent crimes. All crimes are motivated by hate," said Mathew Staver, chief of Liberty Counsel, which also is alerting people to the congressional plans.

"Hate crimes laws will not be used to punish the perpetrators but will be used to silence people of faith, religious groups, clergy, and those who support traditional moral values," Staver said.

Severo reports he was forced to flee his homeland after federal prosecutors there recently charged him with "homophobia' for his statements about the nation's "Gay" Parade in 2006.

Get "The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom"

Severo told WND that while Brazil does not criminalize Christianity, it does regulate what biblical principles can and cannot be preached, and it bans biblical citations that disapprove of the homosexual lifestyle.

"Brazil grants freedom to preach Christianity, provided that the sermons avoid negative mentions of state-protected behaviors and cultural trends," Severo said. "The Brazilian government is establishing more and more categories of protected behaviors, banning negative mentions. So Brazilian preachers need to get updated on the latest political changes and preach a Gospel according to the state interests."


He said, "Today it is risky to preach a complete Gospel in Brazil. Because of the diversity politics, you cannot say anything negative about witchcraft, especially when such practices are from Africa."

He cited an example of what is happening.

"In Rio, a Pentecostal minister led a criminal to Jesus and convinced him to deliver himself to police. Rev. Isaías da Silva Andrade accompanied the former criminal to police and when they asked how his life had been changed, the minister answered that the former criminal lived under the influence of demons from Afro-Brazilian religions which inspired him to criminal conduct, but now he found salvation in Jesus. Because of this innocent account, Rev. Andrade is now being prosecuted for discrimination against the Afro-Brazilian 'culture'! If condemned, he will serve between two and five years in jail," Severo said.

Severo reported on his blog that prosecutors were working to find him by demanding his address from friends and acquaintances.

So he said he took matters into his own hands to protect himself and his family, as well as his friends, from further discrimination.

'"I was forced to leave the country with my family: a wife in the advanced stages of pregnancy and two little children," he reported on his blog. "We are now in a place that is completely foreign to us. What choice did we have?"

He said Brazil has no law stating that the broadly interpreted "homophobia" – a term used derogatorily against those who choose to follow biblical precepts and not endorse homosexuality – is illegal.

But he said case rulings show that it is considered a crime. In fact, he said Brazil is one of a growing number of countries cracking down on "homophobia."

Severo said an influential homosexual activist attempted to publish his name and contact information, which he believes was an attempt to intimidate him. He said he became alarmed and concerned for his own safety and that of his family.

"Because of the fierce opposition of gay militants and their charges against me, I had limited freedom to appear openly in Brazil," Severo said. "The most important homosexual leader in Brazil tried to publish my complete name, physical address and telephone number, in a stealth way of intimidating me. Yet, even now I have to be careful."


President Barack Obama

WND has reported that the Obama administration has stated its dedication to strengthening "federal hate crimes legislation" and expanding "hate crimes protection."

Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission was among those raising the warning of impending "hate crimes" legislation in the United States.

"One of the gravest threats to religious liberty and freedom of speech is proposed hate crime legislation. Even while national attention is focused on the economy and Obama's radical economic and foreign policy, the far left is at work undermining our First Amendment rights at home with hate crime legislation," he said.

"In other countries where these types of laws have been implemented, pastors and Christians have been jailed and fined for their faithful adherence to the Scriptures," he said.

He reported Barney Frank, an openly homosexual congressman, announced Thursday that the House Judiciary Committee will be considering "hate crimes" legislation, H.R. 1913, this week.

"Frank is expecting the committee to pass the bill which would leave it in the House to vote on later this spring, according to a news release issued by Barney Frank on his website last week," Cass said.

As reported earlier by CADC, the bill, H.R. 1913, is named the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The bill already had 42 co-sponsors. The bill was introduced into the House on April 2 by U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

"All freedom loving Americans must voice their opposition to this bill. If this bill passes it lays the foundation for censoring Christians. In other countries, like in Canada and Sweden, where these types of hate crime laws have been implemented, pastors and Christians have been jailed and fined for their faithful adherence to biblical values," he said.

Also raising the alarm was the Traditional Values Coalition, where Executive Director Andrea Lafferty said, "the so-called hate crimes bill will be used to lay the legal foundation and framework to investigate, prosecute and persecute pastors, business owners, Bible teachers, Sunday School teachers, youth leaders, Christian counselors, religious broadcasters and anyone else whose actions are based upon and reflect the truths found in the Bible."

The organization warned based on a broad definition of "intimidation," even "a pastor's sermon could be considered 'hate speech' … if heard by an individual who then acts aggressively against persons based on any 'sexual orientation.'"

The organization noted during markup of the plan in a 2007 committee hearing, Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., admitted that the law would not protect a pastor from prosecution.

Scarborough reported the U.S. plan is to be voted on in the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday.

"Hate crimes laws are actually 'thought crimes' laws that violate the right to freedom of speech and of conscience," warned Liberty Counsel. "Hate crimes laws will have a chilling effect on people who have moral or religious objections to homosexual behavior. Evidence of a person’s beliefs will be used against any individuals who are even suspected of criminal activity.

"Hate crimes laws are unnecessary, as criminal laws already provide criminal penalties for the violent crimes," the organization continued. "Additional penalties will subject individuals to scrutiny of their beliefs, rather than focusing on a person’s criminal actions, and will do nothing to prevent crime."

Severo said, "If they wish to continue with their absurd acts against me for 'homophobia,' I state that I am no longer in Brazil. Leave my friends in peace."

But that doesn't mean people won't hear from him.

"I will not be silenced. The voice that God gave me will continue to be used to alert Brazil, whether I am in India, Kenya, Nicaragua, or any other country in the world," he said.

The article that originally sparked controversy, in which Severo criticized Brazil's homosexual parade, also urged homosexuals to repent of their behavior and turn to Christianity. The article went on further to suggest that there are links between homosexual organizations and pedophilia.

Some in the U.S. are fighting back, too, including Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas.

He appears in a YouTube video arguing against the earlier plan.

"A large part of this is that many people do not understand the Christian heart," he said. "They just don't like people who disagree with them. The true Christian heart can disagree with people, and still love them deeply," he said.

But the law, Gohmert said, would allow prosecutors to "go after a minister … who says [sexual] relations outside of the marriage of a man and a woman are wrong."

The congressman says if there is a crime, and the suspect says he was inspired by a minister, the preacher suddenly also would be a defendant in the crime.

The video is here:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMh4jvRRsNM&feature=player_embedded




Tony Perkins of FRC Action also was busy alerting his constituents.

He emphasized that the scenario explained by Gohmert not only is possible but probable.

"How would it happen? A federal 'hate crimes' law prohibiting 'bodily injury' could be construed by many law enforcement officials and judges to include words that inflict emotional or psychological distress," he said. "That means an 'offended' homosexual could accuse a religious broadcaster … a pastor … Sunday School teacher … or other individual of causing emotional injury simply by expressing the biblical view that homosexual behavior is morally wrong and unhealthy.

"That's all it could take to trigger a wave of federal prosecutions and begin an era of censorship like America has never seen!" he warned.

Critics have said "hate crimes" laws actually criminalize thought because they demand enhanced penalties because of the "perception" of the victim by the perpetrator. A mugger, for example, who attacks a victim while screaming an epithet denoting a race or sexual preference could get a much more significant penalty than a mugger who attacks a victim but doesn't say anything.

Matt Barber, director of cultural affairs at Liberty Counsel, has spoken out repeatedly in opposition to the idea.

"The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees equal protection under the law," he said. "Hate crimes legislation is … [a] violation of the Fourteenth Amendment in that it elevates one class of citizen based upon their chosen sexual behaviors above other people."

Coral Ridge Ministries, launched by the late D. James Kennedy, has published a book on the issue by John Aman, who says such laws put into doubt "the future of religious liberty and freedom of speech for Christians."
.

Glenn Beck: A Savvy Fraud Who Knows Just How to Please His Audience of Conservative Suckers






The faux right-wing pundit is laughing and crying in the backseat of his stretch limo, all the way to the bank.


Fox News host Glenn Beck has done all the necessary spadework to position himself at the center of a brewing and increasingly paranoid right-wing insurgency. From challenging Democratic Congressman Keith Ellison to prove he isn't working with Al Qaeda, to taking tearful stands against Barack Obama's Democratic Reich, the self-described “rodeo clown” is pushing his televised tirades and skits closer to the angrier, more unhinged fare of his daily talk radio show, now ranked third nationally, where he has been honing his confessional Molotov-throwing shtick for a decade.

Glenn Beck is deft at making himself an elusive and slippery target. As media watchdogs and satirists step up their attacks on Beck's blubbering baboonery, the host has countered with well-practiced public relations Aikido. He has embraced comparisons between himself and Network's Howard Beale, who rode an on-air crack-up to record ratings. On his shows and in print, he has claimed at turns to be “crazy,” “borderline schizophrenic,” and “just a clown.”

But is he really? After all of the Comedy Central satires, the studious cataloging of falsehoods and outrages, and the public back-and-forth about his mental state, the big questions about Beck — Who the hell is this guy? And is he for real? — remain largely unanswered and even unasked in any serious way.

Fortunately, Beck has actually gone far toward answering these questions himself. Between his thousands of hours of tv and radio recordings, his semi-annual stage tours, and a surprisingly frank memoir, he has provided enough information to piece together the puzzle of the “real” Glenn Beck.

The first casualty of any study of Glenn Beck is the idea that he is cracking up, a la Howard Beale. Mental illness runs in Beck's family — his mother and brother suffered from depression and committed suicide, and he himself considered suicide in the mid-90s — but Glenn Beck is not crazy. His frequent choke-ups are no more the early signs of a looming crack-up than his bestselling-author status portends a National Book Award.

Glenn Beck has been fake crying for years. It started on his radio show in Tampa, where he first turned the confessional mode of the support-circle — Beck calls it “honesty” — into fodder for self-denigrating humor and ratings gold. After ten years, the fake crying is best seen as a corporate brand handle. It differentiates him from tough-guy competitors in a conservative media universe dominated by manly men and manlier women. Even Beck himself is becoming increasingly open about this. The plug for his upcoming “Common Sense” comedy tour describes him as “America's favorite hysterical, fear-mongering, tv and radio crybaby.”

Those who take a single drop of Beck's tears seriously need simply watch recordings of his stage shows. As he paces the stage, Beck switches the tear-ducts on and off like a switch, sometimes as many as six times in a single hour. He even chokes himself up for slick produced segments like the trailer for the stage show based on his bestselling (and ghostwritten) Christmas novel, The Christmas Sweater. Then there is the memorable Freudian slip Beck dropped on Fox back in early February, while recounting the story of a missing girl. “Two years ago, I made the father a promise,” Beck says, choking up, “that I would not let this story dry — er, die….” Any lingering doubts that Beck is just acting are were buried during his turn guest hosting Larry King Live last summer. Watch that clip, and you will see a master tailor of on-air persona at work. He is in full-control and almost unrecognizable.

To understand Glenn Beck, you just need to fade out the apocalyptic hysterics and pull back the Patton-size flag. Do that, and staring back at you are three words: Mercury Radio Arts. Therein lies everything you need to know about Fox's new megastar.

Mercury Radio Arts is Beck's production company. It is his pride, his joy, and his multi-teet cash cow. The company, whose tag line is “The fusion of entertainment and enlightenment,” produces or co-produces his radio and television shows, his live events, and his many publishing and digital media projects, all of which promote and expand the Glenn Beck brand. Its full-time staff of 20 is not based in the small-town “Real America” Beck claims to hold so dear, but in the cynical media capital of the world, Manhattan.

Beck founded Mercury Radio Arts in 2002, the year his talk radio show went national. The name is a respectful nod to the Mercury Radio Theater, the New York drama company founded by Orson Welles most famous for producing a 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds.

Beck's nod to Welles is a revealing one. Like Beck, Welles made his national name scaring the pants off of gullible Americans with a scripted, emotional act. (Unlike Beck, Welles was a staunch leftist and did not incorporate politics into his radio work.) Beck shares Welles' love of dramatic radio, and is very proud of the fact that he directed and acted in the first live commercial radio drama in 40 years for XM Radio. Everything Beck does should be seen in this light.

Beck's self-image as an entertainer is rivaled only by his self-image as a businessman. He admits as much in his 2003 book, The Real America, which alternates between shlocky by-the-numbers conservative homily and frank autobiography. Beck writes that while he admires Welles for dreaming big and revolutionizing radio, he is disappointed that he died poor. Beck finds more to admire in two of Hollywood's most flaming Democrats, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. After sketching the business architecture of Damon and Affleck's “Project Greenlight,” Beck writes in near-awe:

That's four distinct forms of entertainment, four ways to reach their audience, four products that act as marketing and publicity for each other and four sources of revenue…. This is what Mercury Radio Arts aspires to be … We want to start with the Glenn Beck Program and find ways to … maximiz[e] its ratings and revenue.

If Glenn Beck could have built up Radio Mercury Arts on the back of Howard Stern-style shock-jock persona, he would have done it. In fact, that's basically what he tried to do during his “lost” decade railing fat cocaine caterpillars off the asses of small-town strippers. And for a while it looked like he was destined for Stern-like stardom. But despite a quick and promising start in radio — Beck made was making six-figures and riding limos in his early 20s — he bottomed out in 1994 working a tiny market in suburban Connecticut. He flirted with killing himself, but cleaned up instead and found a new ambition, just as Newt Gingrich's Republicans stormed Congress and Clinton-era right-wing radio really took off, led by Rush Limbaugh. Beck's official biography is spotty on the mid- to late-90s, but he appears to have spent these years plotting his conservative talk radio success.

Beck finally got his big break in 1999. That was the year Clear Channel bought Tampa's WFLA, home to the popular liberal talk legend Bob Lassiter. Lassiter was squeezed out within a year of the sale and replaced by Beck, who jerked Tampa talk radio to the right. He is remembered by locals during this time for his skits depicting Satan writing love poems to Hillary Clinton, and for dangerously stoking anti-Democrat sentiment in Florida surrounding the tense 2000 election recount.

His new masters were pleased. Just weeks after the 9/11 attacks, 18 months after he took his first caller, Beck signed a national contract with Premiere Radio Networks, a Clear Channel subsidiary. Beck claims that before 9/11 he was “a big fat, lazy sloth who just wanted to sit on my couch eating HoHos and Doritos.” But that's unlikely. Beck must have been studying conservative talk radio during the late 90s. That, and honing his vision for Mercury Radio Arts, which he launched quickly after the money started flowing again in 2002.

Beck wasted no time positioning himself on the crest of a frenzied post-9/11 super-patriotism. In March of 2003, Beck used his show to organize a series of “Rallies for America,” which he attended in stretch limos. At the time of the rallies, Paul Krugman and others accused Beck of doing the bidding of his employer Clear Channel, which had connections to the Bush Administration. But Beck doesn't need anyone to tell him to tour the country and jump on a bunch of stages if it can raise his profile and allow him to out-patriot his competitors.

The “Rallies for America” were the precursor for Beck's newest self-promotional patriotic initiative, the “9/12 Project,” which is an attempt to literally stamp his brand on the very memory of 9/11. If this seems shameless, it is. But it makes perfect business sense if you're Glenn Beck. The post-9/11 period is exactly concurrent with his meteoric and lucrative career on the national stage. He arguably does not exist as a megastar without the attacks on New York and Washington, the wars that followed, and their warping effect on the nation's politics and economy. Without 9/11, Beck's newest Premiere contract would almost certainly not be worth $50 million.

Glenn Beck likes to brag about this new contract, and to talk about money in general. Six sentences into his memoir, The Real America, and he is already mentioning that Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh still make more money than he does. In a stage monologue about his conversion to Mormonism, recorded shortly after he negotiated his latest contract with Premiere, he tells a middle-class audience that, by the way, he just made $50 million.

Of course, strong and even ruthless capitalist instincts are no mark of shame on the right. Beck views the pursuit of wealth as the duty of every “Real American” — and Christian. His conservative fans no doubt agree with him. But Beck is not a lifelong conservative who happened to make a lot of money in the capitalist system he loves. For most of his adult life, he was, in his own words, “a bitter, hopeless [drug-using] alcoholic who hated people.” He long ago started putting money before country, and there's every reason to believe that he still does. His metamorphosis into a right-wing values-crusader matches up neatly with the birth of his Wellesian/Limbaughsian dreams of national talk radio fame and entertainment empire. He understood 15 years ago that the way to own a sprawling mansion estate in New Canaan, Conn., is to rant about the sprawling Malibu estates of Hollywood liberals. His on-air persona is a product of his own reinvention, even if he calls it "redemption."

Beck's obsession with getting as rich as possible also runs through his Mormon Christianity, which he adopted in 1999, which incidentally is the same year he got married and launched his talk radio career. In The Real America, Beck briefly describes his semester studying religion at Yale at age 30. (His enrollment was made possible by a letter of recommendation written by Joe Lieberman). Here's Glenn Beck, theologian:

It's interesting to me that Jesus said, 'Inside my Father's house there are many mansions…' That means that wealth and riches are not bad things… God believes you deserve a mansion. Do You? … There is a universe full of money. There are riches beyond your wildest dreams. God doesn't give you a taste of ice cream unless he's willing for you to have the entire cone.
Beck's pursuit of “the entire cone” goes far toward explaining his Apocalyptic politics. Beck is the nation's best-known and most mainstream peddler of End Times fears and apocalyptic scenarios (excluding climate change). This obsession is epitomized in a segment on his show called “The War Room,” in which panelists discuss various nightmare scenarios and how to prepare for them.

For Beck, the End Times shtick is literally pure gold. The precious metals dealer Goldline, whose fortunes rise on anxieties of social and economic collapse, has hired Beck as a spokesman and is one of his biggest sponsors. His website is also sponsored by Newsmax (another right-wing media fear-monger whose ad offers a “free emergency radio…[for when] terrorists attack.”) and a company called Survival Seeds, which warns of imminent food riots. It is perhaps no coincidence that Beck's new corporate logo resembles nothing so much as a radiation symbol.

Nothing is sacred in Glenn Beck's business strategy to grow his company by stoking rightwing anger, anxiety, and paranoia. This is true even of those things he wants us to believe he holds most sacred. The poster for his upcoming comedy tour is the same Revolutionary War-era severed-snake symbol that Beck chose as the logo for his dead serious “9/12 Project.” He just swapped the words “Laugh or Die” for the original “Join, Or Die,” then stamped it with his corporate logo.This fluid, self-serving, and multi-platform use of a hallowed symbol — from teary-eyed professions of selfless “9/12” patriotism to the promotion of his crappy observational comedy — is classic Beck.

So make fun of him all you want, but Glenn Beck is not crazy. He is a very wealthy and possibly visionary fraud, the Bernie Madoff of conservative anger and fear in the Obama era. He is laughing and crying in the plush backseat of his stretch limo right along with you, all the way to the bank.



Tens of Thousands of Taxpayers to Protest at 100s of Bank of America Branches Nationwide...


On the Eve of Bank of America's Annual Shareholder Meeting



SEIU, MoveOn.org and other Community Groups to Collect 20,000+ 'Taxpayer Proxies' to Call for Ousting of CEO Ken Lewis, Reform of Predatory Banking Practices, Voice for Bank Workers


100s of Actions Include DC, LA, San Francisco, NY, Chicago, Pittsburgh & Philadelphia


WASHINGTON, April 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Fueled by mounting frustration over an economic system that rewards corporate executives for their bad decisions while working people struggle to stay afloat, tens of thousands of taxpayers will protest at Bank of America branches across the country on April 28th in advance of Bank of America's Annual Shareholder Meeting.


After accepting $45 billion in bailout funds, taxpayers are one of the largest shareholders of Bank of America. They will join bank employees, consumers and activists to demand that the bank fire CEO Ken Lewis and commit to financial reform that puts consumers and workers ahead of profits.


More than 10,000 Americans have already signed "taxpayer proxies" calling on the bank to: (1) Fire Ken Lewis; (2) Commit to real financial reform; (3) Stop consumer abuses and predatory lending practices that hurt our communities; (4) Provide health insurance to all its employees; and (5) Stop lobbying against pro-worker legislation like the Employee Free Choice Act that would support working families and restore balance to our economy and ensure bank workers have a voice on the job to protect consumers. [See sample proxy pasted below.]


Led by SEIU, MoveOn.org and other community groups, the taxpayer proxies will be delivered to the Bank of America Annual Shareholder Meeting in Charlotte, NC, on April 29.


WHO: SEIU, MoveOn.org, United Students Against Sweatshops, Catholics United, Center for Community Change, TrueMajority.org, Brave New Films, USAction, Women's Voices, and Women Vote Action Fund


WHAT: Taxpayer Protest of Bank of America, Call for Fundamental Reform of bank's profit model that is bad for consumers, bad for taxpayers, bad for employees and dangerous for larger economy


WHERE: Hundreds of locations nationwide, including: Washington, DC, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco


WHEN: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 [Contact Kawana Lloyd for specific event times]


The "proxy" includes four questions:



Fire CEO Ken Lewis, who has helped destroy the bank and our overall economy.
Commit to real financial reform.
Stop consumer abuses that hurt our communities, like skyrocketing fees and predatory lending.
Support bank workers' voice on the job to protect consumers and improve living conditions and wages by supporting the Employee Free Choice Act.
Provide affordable quality health care to employees so they do not have to rely on taxpayer-funded public health programs.



For more information on actions happening across the country, please visit http://www.takebacktheeconomy.org/.

Website: http://www.seiu.org/



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Global Swine Flu Emergency (Emerging NAU and NWO)


US Declares Public Health Emergency Over Swine Flu
New York Times - ‎6 hours ago‎
As a news conference in Washington, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano called the emergency declaration “standard operating procedure,” and said ...

Video: Swine flu draws international attention
KRQE.com
Swine flu update: US public health emergency declared, 20 cases in... San Jose Mercury News
Swine-flu fears grow as US declares emergency MarketWatch
Bizjournals.com - Wall Street Journal
all 19,210 news articles »

Straits Times
EU Holds Emergency Meeting on Flu Outbreak
FOXNews - ‎2 hours ago‎
... experts were "following the situation very closely" and reassured Europeans that the health emergency was still limited to the North American continent. ...
EU plans emergency meeting to address severity of swine flu GulfNews
EU health minister: Don't travel to Mexico or US Seattle Times
all 142 news articles »

Dallas Morning News
Crews go through drills for potential emergencies at new Cowboys ...
Dallas Morning News - ‎3 hours ago‎
Arlington firefighters moved a training victim to an ambulance during a medical emergency exercise outside of the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington on Sunday ...
Mock disaster drill at new Cowboys stadium gives responders practice Fort Worth Star Telegram
all 9 news articles »
Swine flu emergency declared, but no Colorado cases confirmed yet
Bizjournals.com - ‎16 hours ago‎
Federal authorities Sunday declared a national public-health emergency because of an outbreak of the swine flu, and while no cases have been reported in ...

CBC.ca
Thailand lifts emergency, plans charter reforms
Reuters - ‎Apr 24, 2009‎
By Pracha Hariraksapitak BANGKOK, April 24 (Reuters) - Thailand's prime minister ended a 12-day state of emergency in Bangkok on Friday and called for ...
World Briefing Asia Thailand: State of Emergency Will Be Lifted New York Times
Thailand's Premier Lifts Emergency Order in Bangkok Bloomberg
Thai PM lifts state of emergency Aljazeera.net
The Associated Press - United Press International
all 778 news articles »

ABC News
US Declares Public Health Emergency, Confirms 20 Cases Around the ...
ABC News - ‎16 hours ago‎
US Declares Public Health Emergency, Confirms 20 Cases Around the ... ABC News
all 5 news articles »
Get creative and seek help with financial emergencies
Baltimore Sun - ‎Apr 26, 2009‎
"If there are no emergency savings, you need to take stock of assets, liabilities, income expenses. Is there equity in a home that you need to tap? ...

FOXNews
US declares swine flu emergency
NBC Augusta - ‎16 hours ago‎
WASHINGTON (AP) - The US declared a public health emergency as it deals with a deadly new strain of swine flu. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says ...
Obama declares emergency then goes golfing This is London
White House: Obama Updated Regularly, Despite Golf Outing FOXNews
Obama Admin. Releases Stockpile of Antiflu Virus Drug ABC News
Action 3 News - kypost.com
all 238 news articles »

Health Newstrack
Contagion on a Small Planet
New York Times - ‎Apr 26, 2009‎
The first meeting of the Emergency Committee was held on Saturday 25 April 2009. After reviewing available data on the current situation, Committee members ...
FACTBOX-Some facts about the WHO's Int'l Health Regulations Reuters
all 25 news articles »
Red Cross opens emergency aid station for fire clients
South Carolina Now - ‎13 hours ago‎
MYRTLE BEACH – The American Red Cross has opened an Emergency Aid Station in the parking lot of the Barefoot Resort Clubhouse located at 4980 Barefoot ...
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Persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem


1And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.

2And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.

3As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.

4Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.

5Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.

6And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.

7For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed.

8And there was great joy in that city.


Acts 8:1-8.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

The IMF: Raping The World, One Poor Nation at a Time


The IMF: Raping The World, One Poor Nation at a Time

By Dana Gabriel http://www.borderfirereport.net/dana-gabriel/the-imf-raping-the-world-one-poor-nation-at-a-time.php

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been described as one of the enforcers of globalization. Nations who receive IMF assistance are often forced to surrender more sovereignty and further open up their borders to international banks and multinational corporations. Much of their wealth is then sucked dry by foreign predators with its resources and population essentially becoming the collateral for such financial aid. As a result of the global economic crisis, many more nations are having to turn to the IMF for help. At the recent G-20 Summit in London, the IMF’s role was expanded and its powers enhanced. There was little mention of its failed policies and its less then stellar record of effectively promoting development and democracy around the world. While some talk of reform, the IMF continues to rape the world, one poor nation at a time.

The IMF, along with the World Bank were established as financial sister institutions with both originating out of the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement. They are part of the United Nations system. The IMF was designed to help stabilize the post-World War II international financial system and is the framework for a central bank of issue. It provides short term financial assistance to nations that qualify, but this is at a very high price. These countries are placed in an economic straitjacket with the IMF and World Bank working in tandem, dictating large portions of public policy.

Some IMF conditions that countries have been forced to comply with can only be described as harsh and undemocratic. Often the devaluation of a nation’s currency has been a precondition for IMF assistance. In order to qualify for IMF loans, some nations have also been forced to lower tariffs, restrict governmental subsidies and spending, balance budgets, as well as sell-off state institutions to foreign interests. In some cases, the IMF has even prohibited wage increases as some countries have tried to do so, in order to compensate for a sharp rise in food prices and other commodities. Environmental and labor rights have also taken a hit as a result of IMF policies. Under the guise of helping economic distraught countries, the IMF is really bailing out foreign investors and multinational corporations. They have further fueled chaos and instability in some of the poorest regions in the world.

At the recent G-20 Summit, leaders pledged to boost the IMF’s financial resources to $750 billion. It will also assume a more central role in monitoring and regulating global markets, playing a key role in the design of a new financial system. The IMF’s power to create money has been activated and they will be able to issue up to $250 billion of new Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). Some countries are calling on SDRs to be used as a full reserve currency to challenge the dollar. In a recent article that appeared in the New American , William F. Jasper writes, “If the IMF is empowered with global monetary and financial regulatory powers, along with the ability to issue a global currency and bonds, it will no longer have to ask its member states for funding. Nor will the UN. The IMF will be able to provide the UN with the revenues it needs to become an actual world government.”

The IMF and World Bank will be holding meetings in Washington on April 25 and 26. On the agenda will be reform measures which could include changing some conditions attached to receiving emergency funds. They will also discuss how best to distribute the extra money they have been allocated. There is a sense that as part of IMF’s new role, it must also address the concerns of emerging economies who are suffering from the global recession. The IMF recently approved a $47 billion line of credit to Mexico who became the first G-20 country to apply for such assistance and may not be the last. There still exists a double standard which allows richer countries to use fiscal expansion in the face of recession while poorer nations are forced into stricter economic restraints.

The global elite envision a world without borders. They continue to push their agenda of global governance through the IMF, the World Bank, the United Nations, the WTO and trade deals such as NAFTA. It is our duty to resist the tyranny of globalization or face enslavement. In the end, national sovereignty must prevail—if we are to have any future.


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Deadly new flu breaks out in Mexico, U.S.


24 Apr 2009 19:43:50 GMT
Source: Reuters



* New mixture of viruses in flu never seen before

* Eight cases found in California and Texas

* WHO says Mexico, U.S. well-equipped to handle outbreak

* No need to change travel plans, say WHO and CDC (Adds eighth case in United States; details)

By Alistair Bell and Noel Randewich

MEXICO CITY, April 24 (Reuters) - A strain of flu never seen before has killed as many as 61 people in Mexico and has spread into the United States, where eight people have been infected but recovered, health officials said on friday.

Mexico's government said at least 16 people have died of the disease in central Mexico and that it may also have been responsible for 45 other deaths.

The World Health Organization said tests showed the virus in 12 of the Mexican patients had the same genetic structure as a new strain of swine flu, designated H1N1, seen in eight people in California and Texas. [nLO274836]

Because there is clearly human-to-human spread of the new virus, raising fears of a major outbreak, Mexico's government canceled classes for millions of children in its sprawling capital city and surrounding areas.

"Our concern has grown as of yesterday," U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acting director Dr. Richard Besser told reporters in a telephone briefing.

It first looked mostly like a swine virus but closer analysis showed it is a never-before-seen mixture of swine, human and avian viruses, according to the CDC. [nN24420522].

"We do not have enough information to fully assess the health threat posed by this new swine flu virus," Besser said.

Humans can occasionally catch swine flu from pigs but rarely have they been known to pass it on to other people.

The WHO said it was ready to use rapid containment measures if needed, including antivirals, and that both the United States and Mexico are well equipped to handle the outbreak.

Both the WHO and the CDC said there was no need to alter travel arrangements in Mexico or the United States.

CLOSE TO 1,000 SUSPECTED CASES IN MEXICO

Eight people were infected with the new strain in California and Texas, but all of them have recovered. Mexico said it had close to 1,000 suspected cases there.

The CDC's Besser said scientists were working to understand why there are so many deaths in Mexico when the infections in the United States seem mild.

Worldwide, seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people in an average year, but the flu season for North America should have been winding down.

The U.S. government said it was closely following the new cases. "The White House is taking the situation seriously and monitoring for any new developments. The president has been fully briefed," an administration official said.

Mexico's government cautioned people not to shake hands or kiss when greeting or to share food, glasses or cutlery for fear of infection.

The outbreak jolted residents of the Mexican capital, one of the world's biggest cities and home to some 20 million people.

One pharmacy ran out of surgical face masks after selling 300 in a day.

"We're frightened because they say it's not exactly flu, it's another kind of virus and we're not vaccinated," said Angeles Rivera, 34, a federal government worker who fetched her son from a public kindergarten that was closing.

The virus is an influenza A virus, carrying the designation H1N1. It contains DNA from avian, swine and human viruses, including elements from European and Asian swine viruses, the CDC has said. [nN23355101]

The Geneva-based U.N. agency WHO said it was in daily contact with U.S., Canadian and Mexican authorities and had activated its Strategic Health Operations Center (SHOC) -- its command and control center for acute public health events.

The CDC said it will issue daily updates at http://www.cdc.gov/flu/swine/investigation.htm.

Surveillance for and scrutiny of influenza has been stepped up since 2003, when H5N1 bird flu reappeared in Asia. Experts fear that or another strain could spark a pandemic that could kill millions. [nN24440477]

In Egypt, a 33-year-old woman died of bird flu, becoming the third such victim there in a week. The H5N1 bird flu, a completely different strain from the swine flu, has infected 421 people in 15 countries and killed 257 since 2003.

An outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, killed 44 people in Canada in 2003. (Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Maggie Fox in Washington; Writing by Kieran Murray; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Source: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N24524032.htm

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Shall He find faith?




Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

Luke 18:8
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Local Presbyterians OK gay clergy


Add voice to national debate


By (Contact) Wednesday, April 22, 2009


Local Presbyterians voted overwhelmingly Tuesday night to approve an amendment to their church constitution to allow gay clergy.

The vote, announced just after 8 p.m. at a crowded meeting at National Presbyterian Church in Northwest, was 222-102 with one abstention. The voters represented 34,000 Presbyterians in the District, Northern Virginia and five Maryland counties who belong to the National Capital Presbytery.

"This presbytery has consistently voted along these lines," said the Rev. Tim Cargal, moderator for National Capital. "They wanted to record their support of having this language removed from the Book of Order."

The church's constitution is divided into a Book of Order and a Book of Confessions. The amendment replaces language that requires clergy to maintain "fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness." The new language specifies only that clergy will "declare their fidelity to the standards of the church."

The amendment was passed last summer in San Diego at a General Assembly of the 2.2-million-member Presbyterian Church USA. To become church law, it must be approved by a majority 87 of the denomination's 173 presbyteries, or geographic regions.

Along with National Capital Presbytery and Salem Presbytery in central North Carolina, which also voted for the amendment Tuesday, 67 presbyteries have voted to ratify. Voting results from two other presbyteries San Francisco and Wabash Valley in Indiana which also made their decisions Tuesday, were not known as of Tuesday night.

However, 85 presbyteries have voted against the amendment. If two more vote no, the amendment will fail.

Speakers at the National Capital Presbytery meeting did not seem concerned that their decision could become moot. About 20 percent of the 335 attendees wore rainbow-colored knit scarves to signify their support of the amendment, and the majority of those who spoke up during the four-hour meeting were in favor of the amendment.

Cindy Stauffer, an elder at Bradley Hills Presbyterian in Bethesda, pointed out that her assistant pastor, the Rev. Eric Scott Winnette, had a huge stake in the vote's outcome.

"Scott is gay, and it saddens me to think any gay or lesbian person called to ordination in our church not be embraced in our denomination," she said.

"Do we want to create a denomination our children will want to be a part of?" asked the Rev. Ruth Everhart of Poolesville Presbyterian Church in Maryland. "I have two college-age daughters and they do not get this. They do not have a clue as to what gay people are not good enough to be part of church."

Opponents to changing the amendment's language pointed out that members of the Presbyterian Church USA have been battling over the issue for several decades with little to show for it.

"This issue is the greatest gift we have given to Satan from this church," said Henry Kim, a member of Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church. "We have lost a half-million or more members since I became a Presbyterian; the blood is neck-deep on this issue and absolutely nothing will be resolved by this vote."




Christians in name only


Saturday, April 25, 2009
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Christians in name only
Exclusive: Dave Welch charges millions with spiritual identity theft
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Posted: April 21, 2009
1:00 am Eastern

By Dave Welch
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One of the most massive and widespread occurrences of identity theft has happened, and it is not even attracting the attention of local, state or national leaders. This particularly insidious method targets a minority group, stealing their most precious possession, and yet even more compelling is that the perpetrator assumes nearly permanent "residency" in the victim's identity.

The mastermind behind this worldwide ring has cells in every city and town in America – including operatives in many unsuspecting homes. The evidence of this outrage is right before our eyes, but we have simply chosen to ignore its existence, pretending that the consequences will be insignificant.

The "victim" is biblical Christianity, and the operatives of this fraud are millions of Americans, both clergy and laity, who are walking around using that identity with no right to do so. The consequences are a nation without the spiritual, moral, social and political anchor that held us firm through over 400 years of tempests and storms.

Maybe President Obama wasn't so far off when he gushed to Islamic leaders that, "…we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation. … we consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values. I think modern Turkey was founded with a similar set of principles."

His confusion in comparing American ideals – which have led us to fight, bleed and die to free others – with Turkey's – which have led them to slaughter, oppress and persecute non-Muslims – is understandable. Why do I make such an outrageous claim?

Why have today's churches become largely irrelevant? Read "God's Got a Problem" and find the solution

Many will insist that we all have the right to practice Christianity as our conscience dictates. Wrong. We have the privilege of living out a faith based on absolute truth as given to us by the Author and Finisher of that faith without error or omission in His written word. If we want to invent our own religion, we are "free" to do so, "free" to reap the consequences and "free" to call it anything we want – but Christianity.

Former President William Jefferson Clinton may have had a difficult time defining the word "is"; however, we must have no hesitation defining what "Christian" is – and exposing the counterfeits.

For example, among the most recent illustrations of this crisis is a survey by Barna Research in which six out of 10 Christians surveyed believe "that Satan 'is not a living being but is a symbol of evil.'"

In addition, only 25 percent strongly disagree that God the Holy Spirit is "a symbol of God's power or presence but is not a living entity." The coup de grace of this snapshot of anarchy is that less than one-half of Christians strongly disagreed that "Jesus Christ sinned when He lived on earth."

The first of those beliefs reflects either complete ignorance or rejection of Scriptural truth, while the second and third are clear heresy against orthodox Christian doctrines of the Holy Trinity and the sinless nature and life of Jesus Christ. Those are "deal breakers."

These are crises of orthodoxy – what we believe – and are the core of other sequential crises of belief that have destroyed the common principles that were essentials in creating our constitutional republic. The nation that has produced the greatest good for the greatest number is teetering on the precipice of civil tyranny and moral anarchy because, foremost, we have rejected the only Source of freedom, His sovereignty of all of His creation and the absolute truth revealed in His Son and written word.

In British scholar Harry Blamire's "The Christian Mind," he asserts:

For the secularist, God and theology are playthings of the mind. For the Christian, God is real, and Christian theology describes his truth revealed to us. For the secular mind, religion is essentially a matter of theory; for the Christian mind, Christianity is a matter of acts and facts. The acts and facts which are the basis of our faith are recorded in the Bible. They have been interpreted and illuminated in the long history of the church.
(Column continues below)


If 50 to 70 percent of students consistently fail to pass their exams, if professional sports teams lose most of their games and if corporate businesses regularly go deeply in the red (at least once upon a time prior to Bailout Mania), we expect the teachers and principals, coaches and CEOs to be reprimanded or replaced. When the vast majority of Christians – real and perceived – do not grasp and cannot explain or defend essential doctrines, the moment has arrived to challenge every pastor in the land to reassess how we are "doing business."

Pastors, in this poll we are observing the SAT (Spiritual Aptitude Test) results of our congregants, and they – as well as we, their teachers – have failed.

It is obvious that the Christianity of our fathers has become an endangered species even as compared to 1892 when the U.S. Supreme Court declared in the Church of the Holy Trinity v. U.S. opinion that, "We are a Christian people, and the morality of the country is deeply engrafted upon Christianity, and not upon the doctrines or worship of those imposters."

Conservative Republicans coined a term for those who claim affiliation with the party but do not adhere to any or most of the platform principles: RINO's (Republican In Name Only). CINO doesn't have quite the same ring; however, the application is the same.

Don't tell us how much someone "loves the Lord" (including the president) if he or she denies "all that I commanded you." Don't call yourself a Christian if you are going to deny essential doctrines.

For the rest of us in pulpit and pew, we must reassert those truths FIRST if we want the power of God with us in the battle to rebuild the social, cultural and political foundations of this great nation.


Edict of Constantine


Edict of Constantine

On 7 March 321, Constantine I decreed that Sunday (dies Solis) will be observed as the Roman day of rest [CJ3.12.2]:



On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for grain-sowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost. [41]

Though some Christians use the decree in support of the move of the Sabbath day to Sunday, in fact the decree was in support of the worship of the Sun-God (see Sol Invictus). In any event, the decree did not apply to Christians or Jews. It was part of the Roman civil law and religion and not an edict of the Church.[citation needed]


Although this does not indicate a "change" of the Sabbath, it does favor a different day for rest, in the cities at least, over the Jewish Sabbath day. The dominant religions in the regions of the world where Christianity was developing were pagan, and in Rome, Mithraism, specifically the cult of Sol Invictus, had taken hold. Mithraism met on Sunday. Some[who?] theorize that, because the practice favored the Christian day by coincidence, it also helped the church to avoid implicit association with the Jews. Jews were being persecuted routinely at this time, because of the Jewish-Roman Wars, and for this reason Constantine's edict, and Christian reception of it, is sometimes labelled anti-semitic. On a closely related issue, the Quartodeciman, Eusebius in Life of Constantine, Book III chapter 18, claims Constantine stated: "Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Saviour a different way."



Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbath_in_Christianity

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Friday, April 24, 2009

A little lockdown at the White House


The White House just experienced another facet of its modern life: lockdown. About 12:40 p.m., Secret Service officers began ordering camera people, correspondents, and anyone else on the White House driveway into the press building -- an unidentified threat had materialized.

This happens more often that you think, and usually turns out to be a knapsack accidentally left outside the gate, or a plane that wanders into restricted space too close to the White House.

About 10 minutes later, the all clear was given and people could return to the sunshine. Word is it was a wandering airplane.

Update at 1:38 P.M. ET:From AP, "The episode was over within minutes as two F-16 fighter jets and two Coast Guard helicopters were dispatched and intercepted the plane. U.S. Northern Command spokesman Michael Kucharek says two helicopters established communications with the pilot and escorted the plane. The FAA says it landed at Indian Head Airport in Charles County, Maryland."

Authorities also took steps toward evacuating the Capitol. Writes the AP: "The Senate was in session, and briefly recessed. The House was not meeting."

Update at 2:33 p.m. ET: Press secretary Robert Gibbs said President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were relocated within the White House complex during the brief lockdown "out of an abundance of caution."

(Posted by David Jackson)

LCWR officers meet with Vatican officials, including Cardinal Levada


LCWR-VATICAN Apr-24-2009 (630 words) xxxi

LCWR officers meet with Vatican officials, including Cardinal Levada

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Four top officers of the U.S. Leadership Conference of Women Religious met at the Vatican in late April with the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who had ordered a "doctrinal assessment" of the group's activities.

The president, president-elect, past president and executive director of the organization of superiors of most of the women's religious orders in the United States met April 22 with U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the doctrinal congregation.

They also met April 24 with officials of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, said Sister Annmarie Sanders, a member of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and LCWR director of communications.

The officers involved in the Vatican meetings were: Sister J. Lora Dambroski of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Providence of God, LCWR president; Sister Marlene Weisenbeck of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, president-elect; Sister Mary Whited of the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood, past president; and School Sister of Notre Dame Jane Burke, executive director.

Sister Annmarie said the leaders, who had been planning their Vatican visit before they learned of the doctrinal investigation, also met with officials of the Congregation for Eastern Churches and the pontifical councils for Justice and Peace, Migrants and Travelers, and Interreligious Dialogue.

In a Feb. 20 letter, Cardinal Levada informed the LCWR about the investigation, which will be headed by Bishop Leonard P. Blair of Toledo, Ohio, a member of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Doctrine.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said Cardinal Levada asked Bishop Blair "to undertake in the coming months a study regarding doctrinal problems that have presented themselves in the area of female religious life in the United States."

While Cardinal Levada's letter to the LCWR has not been made public, the National Catholic Reporter, an independent national Catholic newspaper based in Kansas City, Mo., said April 15 it had obtained a copy of LCWR's letter explaining its contents to its members.

The newspaper had said the doctrinal assessment was presented as a follow-up to a 2001 meeting between LCWR leaders and officials of the doctrinal congregation. At the 2001 meeting, the women religious were asked to report on "the initiatives taken or planned" to promote acceptance of Vatican teachings on "the problem of homosexuality," the ordination of women to the priesthood and the 2000 declaration "Dominus Iesus."

A statement issued April 23 by the four LCWR officers who were in Rome did not mention any of the subjects discussed with the Vatican officials. Reached by telephone, Sister Annmarie said she could not comment further.

The only mention of the investigation in the leaders' statement said they were disappointed to learn from the National Catholic Reporter that some U.S. bishops "may have requested" the Vatican to order the doctrinal assessment.

"We have always been clear that we are open to dialogue with our U.S. bishops and, during the last 12 months, have been in contact with several of them over issues of concern regarding our ongoing relationships with local and international church leaders," the four said.

"We continue to remain open to conversation with the (U.S. bishops') Committee on Doctrine and any bishop who would be interested in speaking to us," they said.

The four officers thanked their members who "offered their prayer and fasting for our work this week as we met in Rome with various officials of the Vatican. This expression of support has only strengthened the great solidarity that exists among us as we together carry out the mission of LCWR."

The members of the conference, which is based in Maryland, represent about 95 percent of the 67,000 women religious in the United States.

U.S. Cities Increasing Use of Armed Mercenaries to Replace Police




Some estimate that private security inside the US actually outnumber police 5-to-1.


The United States is in the midst of the most radical privatization agenda in its history. We see this in schools, health care, prisons, and certainly with the US military/national security/intelligence apparatus.

There are almost 200,000 "private contractors" in Iraq (more than U.S. soldiers) and President Barack Obama is continuing to use mercenaries there and in Afghanistan and Israel/Palestine. At present, 70 percent of the U.S. intelligence budget is going to private companies.

This privatization trend is hardly new, but it is accelerating. While events such as the Nisour Square massacre committed in September 2007 by Blackwater operatives in Baghdad show the lethal danger of unleashing mercenary forces on foreign soil, one area with the potential for extreme abuses resulting from this privatization is in domestic law enforcement in the U.S.

Many people may not be aware of this, but since the 1980s, private security guards have outnumbered police officers.

"The more than 1 million contract security officers, and an equal number of guards estimated to work directly for U.S. corporations, dwarf the nearly 700,000 sworn law enforcement officers in the United States," according to the Washington Post. Some estimate that private security operate inside the U.S. at a 5-to-1 ratio with police.

In New Orleans, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of the city, private security poured in. Armed operatives from companies like Blackwater, Wackenhut, Intercon and DynCorp spread out in the city. Within two weeks of the hurricane, the number of private security companies registered in Louisiana jumped from 185 to 235.

In New Orleans at the time, I interviewed Israeli commandos from a company called Instinctive Shooting International as they operated an armed checkpoint on Charles Street after having been hired by a wealthy businessman. I also interviewed private guards who bragged of shooting "black gangbangers."

The abuses by private security guards in New Orleans and elsewhere has not to this day been thoroughly investigated. Moreover, the legality and constitutionality of the deployment of these modern-day Pinkertons needs to be seriously explained to the U.S. public.

Now it seems that some cities think it is a great idea to expand the use of these private forces using taxpayer funds.

The Wall Street Journal this week reported, "Facing pressure to crack down on crime amid a record budget deficit, Oakland is joining other U.S. cities that are turning over more law-enforcement duties to private armed guards. The City Council recently voted to hire International Services Inc., a private security agency, to patrol crime-plagued districts. While a few Oakland retail districts previously have pooled cash to pay for unarmed security services, using public funds to pay for private armed guards would mark a first for the city."

In a stunning development revealed late Wednesday night, Oakland dropped its plan to hire International Services Inc. after the firm's founder and two other executives were arrested on charges of defrauding the state of California out of more than $9 million in workers compensation.

Although this particular company may be going down in flames, that doesn't seem to deter Oakland's advocates for using private forces. According to the WSJ:

Ignacio De La Fuente, a city council member who led the drive to hire armed guards, said he will push to retain another security service. "There is still a very serious need for security in some of our more crime-plagued areas," he said. Before selecting [International Services Inc.], Mr. De La Fuente said, he and representatives of Oakland's police department interviewed security candidates and found nothing out of the ordinary.

Regardless of the specific company, this trend toward hiring private security companies is an ominous development. As it is, Oakland (and many other cities) have severe problems holding accountable police (and other law enforcement) for brutality and extrajudicial killings.

"Oakland, unfortunately, has had a history of treating the African American community unfairly," said George Holland Sr., an attorney who heads the Oakland chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "The community has a great distrust for police officers because they feel they can't be punished."

Most recently, the January execution-style killing of Oscar Grant, a 22-year old unarmed African-American man, on a Bay Area Rapid Transit train platform by a BART police officer, has sparked outrage. A decision is still pending on whether the officer in that case will be tried for murder. With activist groups already decrying the state of police/law enforcement oversight in the city, some powerful officials in Oakland want to use private armed operatives with fewer mechanisms for accountability than the police.

Why do some Oakland officials want this? On the one hand, the belief that it will bring security, but also to save money:

Hiring private guards is less expensive than hiring new officers. Oakland -- facing a record $80 million budget shortfall -- spends about 65 percent of its budget for police and fire services, including about $250,000 annually, including benefits and salary, on each police officer.

In contrast, for about $200,000 a year, the city can contract to hire four private guards to patrol the troubled East Oakland district where four on-duty police officers were killed in March. And the company, not the city, is responsible for insurance for the guards.

As in many cities, this is a contentious issue in Oakland, which has struggled to deal with substantial violence on the one hand and police brutality on the other. According to the San Francisco Chronicle:

The areas where the armed guards were supposed to have been deployed have a disproportionate share of homicides, assaults with deadly weapons and robberies. … The crime rate in the area, according to a 2003 blight study, is between 225 and 150 percent higher than the city as a whole.

Shortly after the Grant killing, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums tabled the hiring of the private guards, putting him in opposition to local city council members who faced pressure from businesses to hire private security guards to patrol the streets.

"The same way you had problems with a BART cop killing somebody, what happens if a guard who doesn't have the same training as a police officer shoots somebody?" said City Administrator Dan Lindheim. "It's not worth the risk."

Predictably, the Oakland police opposed the deployment of private security for union and overtime reasons.

John Macdonald, a criminology professor at the University of Pennsylvania who did a study on private security for the Rand Corp. told the WSJ he opposes turning to a private security service to take the place of police officers: "If an unfortunate event were to happen," he says, "it could cost the public more in the long term than what the city believes it could save."

That's very true. But money is just one issue. More pressing is, who will be responsible if these guards kill an unarmed kid? What happens if they unlawfully detain people? The most urgent question now is what can the public can do to pre-emptively protect itself from unaccountable private forces?

Here are some questions (obviously there are many more) that should be publicly answered by Oakland and any other city that wants to use these private forces in a "law enforcement" capacity before these forces deploy on the streets:

What training do these forces have in protection and respect for constitutional rights?
What will the oversight system for these private forces consist of?
Will these forces be required to produce documents and other information under state, local and federal Freedom of Information Act requests (and state and local equivalents)?
Will these forces have arrest powers? If so, what about Miranda rights?
Will these forces have authority to use lethal force? If so, what are the rules governing when they are "authorized" to pull the trigger?
What happens if these private guards are accused of violating civil rights? Who gets sued?
Oakland is certainly not alone in looking to private security. This is an issue that is going to be increasingly popping up in cities across the US.

It is also becoming a major issue on the U.S.-Mexico border, as mercenary companies offer privatized border agents to the U.S. government.

If the public isn't vigilant, this will metastasize rapidly.


Source: http://www.alternet.org/story/138180/us_cities_increasing_use_of_armed_mercenaries_to_replace_police/
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