Monday, August 17, 2009

Hurricane Bill Getting Stronger in Atlantic

By JONATHAN M. KATZ,
AP

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Aug. 17) – The first hurricane of this year's Atlantic season gathered force far out to sea Monday, while two weaker storm systems drenched the northeastern Caribbean and the Florida Panhandle with rain.

Hurricane Bill was expected to become a major storm in the next couple of days, with winds topping 110 mph (177 kph) as it moved on a track expected to be near Bermuda by the end of the week.



Weather Underground / AP
Hurricane Bill, far right, was about 1,000 miles east of the Lesser Antilles on Monday.




The storm is very large, with tropical winds extending out 200 miles, so Bermuda faced a potential threat even if the Atlantic island avoided a direct hit, said Nick Camizzi, a forecaster with the British territory's weather service.

"We are keeping an eye on it for sure," Camizzi said.

It was too soon to tell if Bill would threaten the eastern coast of the United States, said John Cangialosi, a meteorologist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center. It was not expected to threaten Florida.

"The system is certainly large and eventually will be a powerful hurricane," Cangialosi said. But colder waters and wind shear could weaken it when it moves farther north.

What began as Tropical Storm Ana, the first named storm of the season, weakened into a tropical depression as it raced past the Leeward Islands, U.S. and British Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, apparently moving too quickly to cause more than minor flooding.

But even as the system dissipated it posed a potential threat to Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where impoverished riverside communities are extremely vulnerable to flooding.

Dominican authorities evacuated more than 100 people from areas at risk for flooding and mudslide, but the rains turned out lighter than expected as the broke apart.

Still, officials maintained flood alerts for 12 provinces in the east, warning that the storm could drop up to 150 millimeters (6 inches) of rain in some areas.

"As of now the rivers are rising above their normal levels, but nonetheless we do not have flooding, thank God," said Carlos Paulino, a deputy director of the Center for Emergency Operations in the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo.

Officials in neighboring Haiti, devastated last year by four successive storms that killed some 800 people and caused $1 billion in damage, said they were relieved that Ana had weakened. But residents were warned to continue exercising caution around rivers and coastal areas.

In Puerto Rico, rain from Ana flooded highways in the capital, San Juan, and three schools closed as a precaution in the northern coastal city of Arecibo. The U.S. territory was expecting 2 to 4 inches of rain.

Ana was moving at a relatively fast pace, said Dave Roberts, a Navy hurricane specialist at the U.S. hurricane center. Although tropical storm watches were canceled for the storm Monday afternoon, Roberts said it could still be a big rain event for Haiti and the Dominican Republic, especially in higher elevations.

Along the Florida Panhandle, Tropical Storm Claudette quickly weakened after it made landfall at Fort Walton Beach, and was downgraded to a tropical depression with winds of about 30 miles per hour.

The storm wasn't expected to cause significant flooding or wind damage as it moved northwest into Alabama and Mississippi.

A man in his mid-20s died after being pulled from surf as Claudette approached Sunday. In Bay County, authorities searched for another man whose boat ran aground Sunday night, though they believed he made it ashore. Neither man's identity was released.

After the storm passed east of Pensacola Beach on Monday morning, joggers and tourists seeking sea shells dotted the beach.

Far out in the Pacific, Hurricane Guillermo weakened to a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds near 60 mph. Guillermo was centered about 695 miles east of Hilo, Hawaii, and moving west-northwest near 18 mph.

Associated Press writers Melissa Nelson in Pensacola and Kelli Kennedy in Miami contributed to this report.

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Source: http://news.aol.com/article/hurricane-bill-in-atlantic/624904?icid=mainhtmlws-maindl1link4http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fhurricane-bill-in-atlantic%2F624904

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127th Knights of Columbus Convention Continues in Phoenix


PHOENIX, , Aug. 5 Knights-convention-09

International award winners to be announced today


PHOENIX, Aug. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The world's largest lay Catholic organization, the Knights of Columbus, will continue its annual convention at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa this week. The convention began Aug. 4 and runs through Aug. 6


There are many opportunities for feature coverage and excellent photographic opportunities at the event.

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 5th SCHEDULE


August 5 - Wednesday morning's Mass takes place at 8:00 a.m., with Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop emeritus of Washington, as principal celebrant, and Cardinal William Levada, the head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Pope Benedict's job before he became pope) as the homilist.

Wednesday afternoon, at an awards session beginning at 3:00 p.m., we will honor the International Family of the Year, as well as the winners of awards in major categories including: family activities, community activities, youth activities, church activities and pro-life activities.
The Knights of Columbus is one of the country's most active charitable organizations.
Despite the economic downturn, the Knights set new charitable records last year, with members donating more than $150 million and nearly 69 million hours of volunteer service. Over the past decade, Knights have donated more than $1.325 billion and nearly 626 million hours to charity.
Founded in New Haven in 1882, and with members in Canada, Mexico, Latin America, the Philippines, the Caribbean and Poland, the Knights of Columbus is the world's largest lay Catholic organization, with more than 1.78 million members. More than 80 bishops - including several cardinals - are attending this year's convention in Phoenix.


Additional information is available online at http://www.kofc.org/


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P.S. Highlights and Italics added.
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American Nuns Under the Vatican Microscope

By Mary E. Hunt
August 17, 2009

The Vatican is investigating US Women religious, concerned that nuns are not in line on issues like same-sex love, women’s priestly ministry, and interreligious dialogue. But this time they've gone too far.




Sr. Hilary Ross, in the lab (Photo courtesy Daughters of Charity)



The Vatican is up to its old tricks, investigating US women religious. Its “divide and conquer” technique pits the nuns who conform to male clerical expectations against those who assert their own moral and spiritual agency. But at the heart of the matter is the power to be “publicly” Catholic, something the men have long reserved for themselves. Now that Catholic women, including nuns, are saying “this is what Catholic looks like,” there is trouble in Vatican City and a new day for Catholicism.

Expected outcomes are predictable, and not pretty, as this latest round of intra-Catholic struggle unfolds. I think Roman Catholic Church officials have gone one step too far this time in their efforts to rein in the very women who make the Church look good in the wake of priest pedophilia crimes and episcopal cover-ups. They could save a lot of time and money by simply sitting down with some of these women and listening—yes, listening—to their experiences. I daresay they would come away edified by choices the women have made and inspired to live their own religious commitments with an ounce more integrity.

Three Nuns, or Three Million; It’s Not the Point

Two separate but interrelated Vatican investigations are in process this year. The first is an Apostolic Visitation to assess the “quality of religious life” of the roughly 59,000 women in canonical communities in the United States. Contemplative groups are not part of the exercise. The original intent was to figure out why the vast majority of the communities have far fewer members than they had in their heyday in the 1960s. (The median age for members is now over 70; only several hundred sisters are in their 30s.)

The concern for numbers is really, as subsequent materials from the investigators have shown, an entrée to looking at the lives, beliefs, and practices of women who strive to live coherently, melding their religious convictions with the needs of the world. Whether there are three nuns or three million is not the issue. What has changed (and the Vatican wishes hadn’t) is the fact that Catholic women, including nuns, think and act on their own without relying on male authorities to tell them how.

A second investigation is underway to look specifically at the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. LCWR is an association of the heads of the various communities that “assists its members to collaboratively carry out their service of leadership to further the mission of the Gospel in today’s world.” The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith initiated this study. That body is where the current Pope, then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, engineered much of the decades-long rightward movement of the Catholic Church. Now an American, William Cardinal Levada, is at the helm. He appointed Bishop Leonard P. Blair of Toledo, Ohio, to initiate a “doctrinal assessment” of the group. Of course I would suggest that the women consider a similar assessment of the curia—but that awaits a better day.

Areas of concern are the group’s views on homosexuality, the ordination of women, and the Vatican declaration Dominus Iesus, which asserts that Jesus is the unique and only road to salvation. The Cardinal’s assumption is that American nuns are accepting of same-sex love, supportive of feminist ministry (including ordination of women), and embracing of persons of many and no faiths. I only hope he is as right about their views as he is wrong about how to evaluate them.

An investigation of this sort is an unusual move against a group that is extremely diverse in its makeup. The mind boggles at just how one would assess such matters, given that American religious communities whose leadership populates LCWR are very diverse in their views. With war, economic inequality, ecological concerns, immigration, the well-being of women and dependent children, anti-racism work, and health care (to name just a few concerns occupying the vast majority of active nuns), this narrow agenda of Vatican concern is morally embarrassing.

It appears that the intention of the investigation is to maintain control over women and to preserve the Vatican’s Catholic view of the world via the hot-button issues that are contested in the Church at large. Though on Dominus Iesus, I wonder whether most members of LCWR have given it little more than passing notice. How these men flatter themselves to think that most of us read what they write, especially when it flies in the face of our experience and theological judgment. Maybe that’s the problem: they are losing ground and face by the day. Few people pay them much attention any more. Perhaps in intimate Vatican circles, officials do not even realize how limited their influence has become. Other Catholics speak, as in the case of the nuns, often making more sense with their lives than the documents do. In any case, the Vatican is under pressure from the Catholic religious right to enforce their version of orthodoxy and they appear intent to do so.

I am not a nun, never have been, and have no privileged information. But, as they say, “some of my best friends” are members of communities. I respect the choices they have made to cast their lots with one another. I also appreciate the dilemma many face as they seek to maintain fidelity to their God, their sisters, their church, their work, and themselves. As in any relationship personal or communal, life changes over time. The trick to a long-term one seems to be that all parties agree to keep growing together, a dynamic the Vatican shows few signs of embracing. That said, it is a mistake to analyze the nuns’ problems in a vacuum. They are part of the shifting power structure that has, for millennia, allowed a few clerical men to define and control the message and organization of Catholicism. Those days are over. Women and lay men consider ourselves just as Catholic as the Pope.

I have watched the kyriarchal Catholic Church long enough to know that process and product are deeply interwoven. In this case, the process of investigating women religious, many of them of retirement age and beyond, is one more effort to solidify the fractured clerical base; a last-ditch effort to reassert the monarchy’s will in the face of greatly diminished credibility. Chances of its success in the long run are slim even if there are some seeming “victories” for the right wing. What pains me this time is to see women pitted against one another, some doing the dirty work of the men who make decisions for them. I don’t understand why such women don’t understand that the same men who will promote them over their progressive sisters can just as easily promote others over them. It is the power dynamic, not just the people, that is at issue here.

Postmodern Catholicism is a different animal than its pre-Vatican II cousin. Catholics (women and men, lay and clerical, secular and religious) think for themselves, forming new syntheses of faith and solidarity. Nuns, perhaps more than many other Catholics, took the mandates of Vatican II seriously to rethink and reground their communities in the charisms of their founders, and to develop ways of living out those values in contemporary society. Their many ways of doing so have given rise to a variety of communities, ranging from very traditional to interreligious groups that serve as models for how the rest of us can live. This variety is emblematic of the whole Church, which has changed from being “Catholic” in the strictly identifiable Roman-focused way, to something closer to the original Greek sense of “catholic,” meaning universal, broad, and inclusive. It is this tension that is at play in the investigations.

The Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (at the behest of Franc Cardinal Rode in December 2008) initiated the probe into the more than 350 US congregations of women. Mother Mary Clare Millea, leader of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, carries the awkward title of “Apostolic Visitator.” She was deputized by Rome to lead the four-step process that culminates in her confidential (the nuns will not see it) report to headquarters.

The initial step of meeting with leaders of the various communities has been followed by the recent publication of an Instrumentum Laboris that details the kinds of issues to be probed in the second phase; a questionnaire that leaders will be asked to answer for their groups. Then some groups (the ones whose answers may diverge from the Vatican’s norms, we may presume) will get a personal visit from a Vatican-approved investigator who has signed a loyalty oath to assure orthodoxy. The results of the whole study will be reported by Mother Millea to the Cardinal. After that, it is anyone’s guess. Oh, and the communities being investigated are asked to provide hospitality for the visitors they have not invited, and if possible, pay for their travel. Yes, something is radically wrong with this picture.

At first blush, one might be duped into thinking that the Vatican really wants the progressive religious communities to thrive and grow so that their work with migrants and other poor people, their ministries in hospitals and education, their work in parishes and base communities, their courageous efforts to support women who need reproductive health care, their work on farms and in retreat centers might flourish. Guess again.

The questions on the table include, for example, whether daily mass is a priority for the members and whether they “participate in the Eucharistic Liturgy according to approved liturgical norms.” Read: no feminist liturgies allowed.

The queries include how groups deal with “sisters who dissent publicly or privately from the authoritative teaching of the Church.” That classic “when did you stop beating your wife” question is really a warning to keep a short leash on those who might think for themselves. There are questions about the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience: what they mean and how they are lived out. There are questions about finances and care of the elderly, but there is no inquiry into how the sisters love one another and how that love propels their ministry. There is no concern for how a community supports a nun who does civil disobedience and goes to jail to help stop war or nuclear weapons. A number of the questions are clearly designed to elicit answers the Vatican knows full well it won’t like.

The data will provide the pretext for concluding that the decline in numbers in progressive groups is a result of their lack of obedience and conformity to the men’s rules. Solution: tighten up the ranks. Enter the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, the alternative to LCWR; a group of conservative nuns who are dedicated “to foster the progress and welfare of religious life in the United States.”

This group now comprises the Vatican’s favored daughters, the good girls in veils whose model of religious life conforms to the dictates of Rome. For the record: the International Union of Superiors General, the highest-ranking such organization, threw its weight behind the American communities, calling their renewal work “a great gift, not only to the pluralistic society in which they live, but also to the universal Church.” Perhaps they envision more such investigations popping up around the globe.

LCWR has its roots in the Vatican-requested Conference of Major Superiors of Women (CMSW) in 1956 (beware the similar names). The women gradually developed their own democratic ways of operating; their three-stage presidency and their regional approach stood in sharp contrast to the increasingly more verticalist Vatican. Many of the women had served in Latin America, as per a 1960s Vatican request that each US community send 10% of their people South.

That experience, both direct and via other community members, served as one form of motivation (like anti-racism work, the women’s movements, and other social changes) for women religious to put less emphasis on conformity to rules and strict obedience and more on communal efforts to love well and do justice as adult moral agents responsible for their own well-being. By 1971, the CMSW voted itself a name change to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious with an ambitious agenda to provide education, networking, and other resources to facilitate and amplify the life and work of the communities.

There were women religious who feared that the shifts in name and focus would lead them away from what they considered the “essentials” of religious life. They formed the Consortium Perfectae Caritatis (CPC) to support their views. These include the centrality of the spousal bond (nuns as “Brides of Christ”), the three vows understood as narrowly as possible, and strict conformity to top-down community governance. Their views are now advanced by the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (which it seems the Vatican has in the wings to eclipse LCWR when the doctrinal probe is completed).

CMSWR recently published a book of essays, The Foundations of Religious Life: Revisiting the Vision. Complete with Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur, the five essays read like a blueprint for a 19th-century way of living. The premise is that a religious community, just as each member of it, is part of a “hierarchically-structured reality” in which obedience to higher authority is the norm.

Contra the theologians expressing more egalitarian views of religious life (notably Sandra Schneiders, IHM, Margaret Farley, RSM, and other highly respected scholars), the essay authors reject democratic governance and attention to inclusive process as inappropriate for religious communities. The devil is in the footnotes, where the conservative authors decry the progressive scholars’ “feminist overload and polarization,” and “artificial understanding of vows.” The point that they miss is that the more progressive nuns are not demanding everyone does it their way. The conservatives, on the other hand, take the Roman “my way or the highway” approach.

Coincidentally, or perhaps not-so, the book was launched at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC, on the very day (May 16, 2009) that LCWR opened its impressive exhibit of the history of US women’s religious communities at a museum in Cincinnati. “Women and Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America is a carefully researched, well funded, expertly mounted exhibit of the proud and stunning history of American nuns. The Vatican could save itself a lot of trouble by simply sending its staff to the Cincinnati History Museum where the exhibit is currently on display or to the Women’s Museum in Dallas, Texas, the Smithsonian in Washington DC, or the Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque, Iowa, where it will travel.

On exhibit, they would see the artifacts and read the stories of amazing women who are every bit as much the public face of American Catholicism as any bishop. They would learn about everything from the nurses who staffed a Navy medical ship in the Civil War to the sisters who raised seven million dollars and supported their colleagues working in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf region. They would read about the women who established this country’s largest private school system and built some of its largest health care corporations. They would have the chance to be inspired by the nine sisters who have been killed in the last two decades in their efforts to bring about peace and justice abroad; most recently Sister of Notre Dame Dorothy Stang who took a stand in the Amazon that cost her her life. Without putting too fine a point on it, the research is all done and on the record to show the momentous achievements of American women religious. Any other investigation is superfluous.

That does not deter the Vatican from its tactic to divide and conquer women in what I predict is a futile effort to consolidate its waning power. The apostolic visitation will unfold as communities put in writing who they are and what they do. I anticipate that most will reject any sense of intimidation that might lead to self-censorship. The chips will fall where they may. Likewise, I expect that the investigation of LCWR will turn up just what their Summer 2009 meeting in New Orleans shows: namely, that they are about the work of love and justice with a preferential option for those who are in need. That will clearly not placate the Vatican on same-sex love, women’s priestly ministry, or whether Buddhism is a road to salvation. But it will demonstrate once again that Catholic women are not going away.

There is talk of dire consequences if the Vatican is displeased. Much of it is like the hype around health care; worst-case scenarios that are the creation of those who oppose change. My own guess is that the Vatican is not prepared to intervene much, if at all, in the everyday lives of the nuns. I believe those officials are banking that the fear instilled by its veiled threats (all puns intended) will be sufficient to bring the progressive nuns into conformity.

I submit that the progressive women have only to look at their own histories and realize that their ancestors in the orders paved the way for new, creative, communal ways of living their commitments as postmodern Catholics. Pioneer American nuns of three centuries ago made their way from Europe through dangerous seas; they headed West in covered wagons to found institutions that would serve the needs of poor and marginalized people. Surely their heirs, this generation of nuns, has the wherewithal to care for their elderly, act as responsible stewards of their resources, carry out their ministries, and explain firmly but collegially to the Roman men that they are an integral part of what American Catholicism looks like. That will be their legacy, enhanced by finding common cause with all of their sisters.

Note: Image is from “Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America,” a traveling American history exhibit opening May 16 at the Cincinnati Museum Center, documenting the sisters’ contributions to shaping America’s health care, educational and social justice institutions. Sr. Hilary Ross (pictured) was an outstanding scientist and award-winning medical photographer who authored over 40 scientific papers on the biochemistry of leprosy. (Photo courtesy Daughters of Charity.)
Author
Mary E. Hunt, Ph.D., is a feminist theologian who is co-founder and co-director of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER) in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. A Roman Catholic active in the women-church movement, she lectures and writes on theology and ethics with particular attention to liberation issues.


Source: http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/religionandtheology/1766/american_nuns_under_the_vatican_microscope?page=entireHighlights

Note: Highlights added.

'Water for All' Concerns Raised

August 17, 2009

WASHINGTON, Aug 17 (OneWorld.net) - World leaders meeting this week are being urged to ensure that the rich/poor and urban/rural divides don't determine who has access to clean water as climate and population pressures drive the number of those living without beyond 1 billion.




Women and girls in developing countries often struggle to provide clean, safe water for their families on a daily basis. © IRIN




What's the Story?

Global leaders are gathering in Sweden this week to discuss water and sanitation issues. Hosted by the Stockholm International Water Institute, this week-long event is being held under the banner "Responding to Global Changes: Accessing Water for the Common Good" and serves as a forum to discuss challenges and solutions to water-related issues.

Improved access to water and sanitation can have a widespread positive impact, improving health, child education, and poverty, and reducing conflict -- and important gains have been made over the past 20 years. But as the world's population grows and the competition for clean water intensifies, these goals are now threatening to drift farther away.

"Every day approximately 4,500 children die before their fifth birthday due to unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene," says the United Nations Children's Fund. "Access to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, and improved hygiene is crucial for infants and children to get the best possible start in life." [See the full statement from UNICEF below.]

Some Progress on Water, Less on Sanitation

The United Nations declared the years 2005 to 2015 the international decade to take action on water. Although 87 percent of the global population now has access to safe drinking water -- up from 77 percent in 1990 -- a lot of work remains to bring clean water to the other 1 billion people. In urban areas, coverage is now over 95 percent. But only 58 percent of the population of sub-Saharan Africa had satisfactory access to water in 2006, notes OneWorld.net's Water and Sanitation topic guide.

There are also concerns that the progress being made will not hold. Rising prices and climate change could reverse the gains made in the last two decades and limit access to water for millions of poor families.

The number of people without access to clean water is expected to rise as water becomes more scarce due to the effects of pollution, urbanization, and climate change, warn researchers at the nonprofit Worldwatch Institute, a Washington, DC-based think tank. Higher levels of pollution from urbanization and agriculture will reduce the amount of clean water available, and the effects of climate change could alter rainfall patterns, causing severe droughts and floods.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that the number of people living without access to clean water will rise to 1.8 billion by 2025.

And progress on sanitation has been even slower, as this issue attracts only a little over 10 percent of funds available for all water and sanitation programs. From 1990 to 2006, access to safe sanitation increased from 54 to 62 percent, but 2.5 billion people still did not have proper facilities to use, most of them in rural areas.

One promising initiative is the WASH-in-Schools program, which has extended drinking water, sanitation facilities, and hygiene education to 1,000 schools worldwide over the past year. The effort has brought together nonprofit organizations, corporations, U.S. schools and government entities, and the United Nations to help turn schools around the world into centers for community health.

Water as a Human Right

In recent years, changing weather patterns, the global economic crisis, and a number of humanitarian emergencies have left millions without basic water and sanitation services. In the face of these difficulties, advocacy groups have been reiterating that access to water is a fundamental right, as it is a prerequisite for human health.

"The world is facing increasing crises, many of which are intensifying competing demands for water in most regions of the world," says Jan Eliasson, the chair of the Sweden-based advocacy group WaterAid. "Already, billions of the world's poorest people are affected by the water and sanitation crisis. As a global community, we must ensure that concerted action is taken."

Access to clean water is not included in the original Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 2002, the UN Committee on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights recognized providing access to water and sanitation as a goal for signatory countries, but not a universal obligation.

Universal access to water has benefits beyond reducing the rates of disease, explains the U.S.-based ONE campaign: "When water is unavailable, tensions grow both within and among nations, and water scarcity has contributed to political unrest in Sudan and other countries. Lack of water also has educational ramifications.... Girls may often drop out of primary school because their schools lack separate toilets and easy access to safe water."

Tens of thousands of advocates have urged U.S. lawmakers to support a bill that would provide 100 million people worldwide access to clean water and sanitation by 2015. The Durbin-Corker "Water for the World" act will target developing countries to improve access and affordability.
Investment efforts should be focused on simple, affordable, and effective interventions, argues the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). For example, providing facilities and teaching children to wash their hands with soap and water can help reduce deaths from diarrhea by up to 47 percent.

"Safe water and good sanitation are essential to poverty reduction and good health," explains Nigel Ede, an IFRC staff member in Indonesia. "But when you compare international funding, remarkably little is spent on clean water and sanitation."

The other side of water scarcity is water management. Many advocacy groups fear that as water becomes more precious, it will be reserved for the world's wealthy population.

"With water availability expected to be one of the major and most severe impacts of climate change in many areas of the world, sufficient and equitable allocation of water will become more and more vital for both people and nature," warns the environmental watchdog group WWF.
- This article was compiled by Brittany Schell.



2009 World Water Week: "Responding to Global Changes: Accessing Water for the Common Good"

From: UNICEF
8/16/09

Leaders and experts gather in Stockholm to take stock of water-related issues

STOCKHOLM, 16 August 2009 - Access to water is becoming more challenging every year due to a rising water demand and unreliable availability. With almost one billion people lacking access to safe water, the annual World Water Week (16-22 August) serves as a forum for global leaders and experts to share innovative solutions on water-related issues and its impact on poverty, health, education, gender equality and the environment.

Hosted and organized by the Stockholm International Water Institute, this weeklong event aims to build capacity, promote partnerships, and review progress achieved. The theme of World Water Week 2009 is: "Responding to Global Changes: Accessing Water for the Common Good - With a Special Focus on Transboundary Waters."

UNICEF is hosting and participating in several seminars, workshops and side events including: (i) Unite for children - Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in Schools, (ii) Diarrhoea: What's WASH Got to Do with it?, (iii) Safe Water Services in Post-conflict and Post-disaster Contexts (iv) Sanitation Promotion 101: What are the Various Promotional Approaches We Use?

Access to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and improved hygiene is crucial for infants and children to get the best possible start in life.

For school-aged children water supply, sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools have a profound impact on school attendance and retention. An easily accessible water source close to the home will free up girls from the often laborious, and time consuming task of fetching water thus allowing them to take their rightful place in the classroom.

Whereas it is encouraging to note that 87 per cent of the global population or approximately 5.7 billion people worldwide have access to safe drinking water, much remains to be done, particularly as water stress grows due to increasing demand and the impacts of climate change.
Every day approximately 4,500 children die before their fifth birthday due to unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene. Simple, affordable and effective interventions such as handwashing with soap and water help reduce the incidence diarrheal morbidity - the second biggest killer of children under five - by up to 47 per cent.

In recent years the global economic turmoil along with an increase in emergencies has left millions, particularly women and children, without basic services including access to water and adequate sanitation and hygiene. Climate change will further exacerbate this situation.
In many countries, UNICEF is the only agency to work on all levels; from local communities to international agencies. This broad spectrum of access allows for customized and sustainable interventions/change. UNICEF places an increased emphasis on water access, and quality in conjunction with sanitation and hygiene programmes -- providing an accelerated response during emergencies.

Maximum child survival and development benefits are only realized when water supply, sanitation and hygiene programmes are successfully incorporated into national policy formulation.

Governments must integrate water into their development agenda recognizing that a policy of common good must appreciate the rural/urban, rich/poor divide.
The United Nations declared 2005-2015 the International Decade for Action ‘Water for Life' realizing that achieving the millennium development targets for water and sanitation have wide-ranging benefits including yielding greater socio-economic returns via improved health, a productive workforce, and educated children.

For more information please visit: worldwaterweek.org



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3 indicted over largest cyber-theft in US history

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:02:22 GMT


Albert Gonzalez



One American and two Russian nationals are indicted for supposedly stealing more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers.

A prosecutor said late on Sunday that the three carried out the largest computer hacking and identity-theft caper in US history.

He said the 28-year-old American, Albert Gonzalez, believed to be one of the nation's cybercrime kingpins has been in federal custody in New York since May 2008 over hacking cases across Florida.

The two Russians, whose names were not revealed -- and were only identified as Hacker 1 and Hacker 2 -- were indicted in the federal district court in New Jersey on charges related to five corporate data breaches from 2006 to 2008.

Prosecutors said the three stole card numbers in those breaches from credit-card processor Heartland Payment Systems and retail chains 7-Eleven Inc. and Hannaford Brothers Co. The US attorney's office in New Jersey said they also targeted two other corporations, but declined to name those companies.

The Russians also targeted large corporations by scanning the Fortune 500's list and exploring corporate websites before setting out to identify vulnerabilities.

Each defendant could face up to 35 years in prison and large fines if convicted.

FTP/SME/MMN
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A Prayer of Desperation



Psalm 88


1O lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:

2Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;

3For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.

4I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:

5Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.

6Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

7Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.

8Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

9Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.

10Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah.

11Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?

12Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

13But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.

14LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?

15I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.

16Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.

17They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.

18Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Fascist America: Are We There Yet?


By Sara Robinson
August 6, 2009 - 1:23am ET


All through the dark years of the Bush Administration, progressives watched in horror as

Constitutional protections vanished, nativist rhetoric ratcheted up, hate speech turned into intimidation and violence, and the president of the United States seized for himself powers only demanded by history's worst dictators. With each new outrage, the small handful of us who'd made ourselves experts on right-wing culture and politics would hear once again from worried readers: Is this it? Have we finally become a fascist state? Are we there yet?

And every time this question got asked, people like Chip Berlet and Dave Neiwert and Fred Clarkson and yours truly would look up from our maps like a parent on a long drive, and smile a wan smile of reassurance. "Wellll...we're on a bad road, and if we don't change course, we could end up there soon enough. But there's also still plenty of time and opportunity to turn back. Watch, but don't worry. As bad as this looks: no -- we are not there yet."

In tracking the mileage on this trip to perdition, many of us relied on the work of historian Robert Paxton, who is probably the world's pre-eminent scholar on the subject of how countries turn fascist. In a 1998 paper published in The Journal of Modern History, Paxton argued that the best way to recognize emerging fascist movements isn't by their rhetoric, their politics, or their aesthetics. Rather, he said, mature democracies turn fascist by a recognizable process, a set of five stages that may be the most important family resemblance that links all the whole motley collection of 20th Century fascisms together. According to our reading of Paxton's stages, we weren't there yet. There were certain signs -- one in particular -- we were keeping an eye out for, and we just weren't seeing it.

And now we are. In fact, if you know what you're looking for, it's suddenly everywhere. It's odd that I haven't been asked for quite a while; but if you asked me today, I'd tell you that if we're not there right now, we've certainly taken that last turn into the parking lot and are now looking for a space. Either way, our fascist American future now looms very large in the front windshield -- and those of us who value American democracy need to understand how we got here, what's changing now, and what's at stake in the very near future if these people are allowed to win -- or even hold their ground.

What is fascism?
The word has been bandied about by so many people so wrongly for so long that, as Paxton points out, "Everybody is somebody else's fascist." Given that, I always like to start these conversations by revisiting Paxton's essential definition of the term:

"Fascism is a system of political authority and social order intended to reinforce the unity, energy, and purity of communities in which liberal democracy stands accused of producing division and decline."
Elsewhere, he refines this further as

"a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion."
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Jonah Goldberg aside, that's a basic definition most legitimate scholars in the field can agree on, and the one I'll be referring to here.

From proto-fascism to the tipping point
According to Paxton, fascism unfolds in five stages. The first two are pretty solidly behind us -- and the third should be of particular interest to progressives right now.

In the first stage, a rural movement emerges to effect some kind of nationalist renewal (what Roger Griffin calls "palingenesis" -- a phoenix-like rebirth from the ashes). They come together to restore a broken social order, always drawing on themes of unity, order, and purity. Reason is rejected in favor of passionate emotion. The way the organizing story is told varies from country to country; but it's always rooted in the promise of restoring lost national pride by resurrecting the culture's traditional myths and values, and purging society of the toxic influence of the outsiders and intellectuals who are blamed for their current misery.

Fascism only grows in the disturbed soil of a mature democracy in crisis. Paxton suggests that the Ku Klux Klan, which formed in reaction to post-Civil War Reconstruction, may in fact be the first authentically fascist movement in modern times. Almost every major country in Europe sprouted a proto-fascist movement in the wretched years following WWI (when the Klan enjoyed a major resurgence here as well) -- but most of them stalled either at this first stage, or the next one.

As Rick Perlstein documented in his two books on Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon, modern American conservatism was built on these same themes. From "Morning in America" to the Rapture-ready religious right to the white nationalism promoted by the GOP through various gradients of racist groups, it's easy to trace how American proto-fascism offered redemption from the upheavals of the 1960s by promising to restore the innocence of a traditional, white, Christian, male-dominated America. This vision has been so thoroughly embraced that the entire Republican party now openly defines itself along these lines. At this late stage, it's blatantly racist, sexist, repressed, exclusionary, and permanently addicted to the politics of fear and rage. Worse: it doesn't have a moment's shame about any of it. No apologies, to anyone. These same narrative threads have woven their way through every fascist movement in history.

In the second stage, fascist movements take root, turn into real political parties, and seize their seat at the table of power. Interestingly, in every case Paxton cites, the political base came from the rural, less-educated parts of the country; and almost all of them came to power very specifically by offering themselves as informal goon squads organized to intimidate farmworkers on behalf of the large landowners. The KKK disenfranchised black sharecroppers and set itself up as the enforcement wing of Jim Crow. The Italian Squadristi and the German Brownshirts made their bones breaking up farmers' strikes. And these days, GOP-sanctioned anti-immigrant groups make life hell for Hispanic agricultural workers in the US. As violence against random Hispanics (citizens and otherwise) increases, the right-wing goon squads are getting basic training that, if the pattern holds, they may eventually use to intimidate the rest of us.

Paxton wrote that succeeding at the second stage "depends on certain relatively precise conditions: the weakness of a liberal state, whose inadequacies condemn the nation to disorder, decline, or humiliation; and political deadlock because the Right, the heir to power but unable to continue to wield it alone, refuses to accept a growing Left as a legitimate governing partner." He further noted that Hitler and Mussolini both took power under these same circumstances: "deadlock of constitutional government (produced in part by the polarization that the fascists abetted); conservative leaders who felt threatened by the loss of their capacity to keep the population under control at a moment of massive popular mobilization; an advancing Left; and conservative leaders who refused to work with that Left and who felt unable to continue to govern against the Left without further reinforcement."

And more ominously: "The most important variables...are the conservative elites' willingness to work with the fascists (along with a reciprocal flexibility on the part of the fascist leaders) and the depth of the crisis that induces them to cooperate."

That description sounds eerily like the dire straits our Congressional Republicans find themselves in right now. Though the GOP has been humiliated, rejected, and reduced to rump status by a series of epic national catastrophes mostly of its own making, its leadership can't even imagine governing cooperatively with the newly mobilized and ascendant Democrats. Lacking legitimate routes back to power, their last hope is to invest the hardcore remainder of their base with an undeserved legitimacy, recruit them as shock troops, and overthrow American democracy by force. If they can't win elections or policy fights, they're more than willing to take it to the streets, and seize power by bullying Americans into silence and complicity.

When that unholy alliance is made, the third stage -- the transition to full-fledged government fascism -- begins.

The third stage: being there
All through the Bush years, progressive right-wing watchers refused to call it "fascism" because, though we kept looking, we never saw clear signs of a deliberate, committed institutional partnership forming between America's conservative elites and its emerging homegrown brownshirt horde. We caught tantalizing signs of brief flirtations -- passing political alliances, money passing hands, far-right moonbat talking points flying out of the mouths of "mainstream" conservative leaders. But it was all circumstantial, and fairly transitory. The two sides kept a discreet distance from each other, at least in public. What went on behind closed doors, we could only guess. They certainly didn't act like a married couple.

Now, the guessing game is over. We know beyond doubt that the Teabag movement was created out of whole cloth by astroturf groups like Dick Armey's FreedomWorks and Tim Phillips' Americans for Prosperity, with massive media help from FOX News. We see the Birther fracas -- the kind of urban myth-making that should have never made it out of the pages of the National Enquirer -- being openly ratified by Congressional Republicans. We've seen Armey's own professionally-produced field manual that carefully instructs conservative goon squads in the fine art of disrupting the democratic governing process -- and the film of public officials being terrorized and threatened to the point where some of them required armed escorts to leave the building. We've seen Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner applauding and promoting a video of the disruptions and looking forward to "a long, hot August for Democrats in Congress."

This is the sign we were waiting for -- the one that tells us that yes, kids: we are there now. America's conservative elites have openly thrown in with the country's legions of discontented far right thugs. They have explicitly deputized them and empowered them to act as their enforcement arm on America's streets, sanctioning the physical harassment and intimidation of workers, liberals, and public officials who won't do their political or economic bidding.

This is the catalyzing moment at which honest-to-Hitler fascism begins. It's also our very last chance to stop it.

The fail-safe point
According to Paxton, the forging of this third-stage alliance is the make-or-break moment -- and the worst part of it is that by the time you've arrived at that point, it's probably too late to stop it. From here, it escalates, as minor thuggery turns into beatings, killings, and systematic tagging of certain groups for elimination, all directed by people at the very top of the power structure. After Labor Day, when Democratic senators and representatives go back to Washington, the mobs now being created to harass them will remain to run the same tactics -- escalated and perfected with each new use -- against anyone in town whose color, religion, or politics they don't like. In some places, they're already making notes and taking names.

Where's the danger line? Paxton offers three quick questions that point us straight at it:

1. Are [neo- or protofascisms] becoming rooted as parties that represent major interests and feelings and wield major influence on the political scene?

2. Is the economic or constitutional system in a state of blockage apparently insoluble by existing authorities?

3. Is a rapid political mobilization threatening to escape the control of traditional elites, to the point where they would be tempted to look for tough helpers in order to stay in charge?
By my reckoning, we're three for three. That's too close. Way too close.

The Road Ahead
History tells us that once this alliance catalyzes and makes a successful bid for power, there's no way off this ride. As Dave Neiwert wrote in his recent book, The Eliminationists, "if we can only identify fascism in its mature form—the goose-stepping brownshirts, the full-fledged use of violence and intimidation tactics, the mass rallies—then it will be far too late to stop it." Paxton (who presciently warned that "An authentic popular fascism in the United States would be pious and anti-Black") agrees that if a corporate/brownshirt alliance gets a toehold -- as ours is now scrambling to do -- it can very quickly rise to power and destroy the last vestiges of democratic government. Once they start racking up wins, the country will be doomed to take the whole ugly trip through the last two stages, with no turnoffs or pit stops between now and the end.

What awaits us? In stage four, as the duo assumes full control of the country, power struggles emerge between the brownshirt-bred party faithful and the institutions of the conservative elites -- church, military, professions, and business. The character of the regime is determined by who gets the upper hand. If the party members (who gained power through street thuggery) win, an authoritarian police state may well follow. If the conservatives can get them back under control, a more traditional theocracy, corporatocracy, or military regime can re-emerge over time. But in neither case will the results resemble the democracy that this alliance overthrew.

Paxton characterizes stage five as "radicalization or entropy." Radicalization is likely if the new regime scores a big military victory, which consolidates its power and whets its appetite for expansion and large-scale social engineering. (See: Germany) In the absence of a radicalizing event, entropy may set in, as the state gets lost in its own purposes and degenerates into incoherence. (See: Italy)

It's so easy right now to look at the melee on the right and discount it as pure political theater of the most absurdly ridiculous kind. It's a freaking puppet show. These people can't be serious. Sure, they're angry -- but they're also a minority, out of power and reduced to throwing tantrums. Grown-ups need to worry about them about as much as you'd worry about a furious five-year-old threatening to hold her breath until she turned blue.

Unfortunately, all the noise and bluster actually obscures the danger. These people are as serious as a lynch mob, and have already taken the first steps toward becoming one. And they're going to walk taller and louder and prouder now that their bumbling efforts at civil disobedience are being committed with the full sanction and support of the country's most powerful people, who are cynically using them in a last-ditch effort to save their own places of profit and prestige.

We've arrived. We are now parked on the exact spot where our best experts tell us full-blown fascism is born. Every day that the conservatives in Congress, the right-wing talking heads, and their noisy minions are allowed to hold up our ability to govern the country is another day we're slowly creeping across the final line beyond which, history tells us, no country has ever been able to return.

How do we pull back? That's my next post.

Tip o' the hat to Chip Berlet and Steven Martin for their research help and encouragement.

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Tropical Storm Claudette soaks Florida coast

Tropical Storm Claudette soaks Florida coast

Sun Aug 16, 2009 11:41pm EDT




MIAMI (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Claudette drenched the Florida panhandle but spared the U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil patch on Sunday while two other cyclones, Ana and Bill, raced through the Atlantic Ocean toward the Caribbean islands.

The six-month Atlantic hurricane season got off to a slow start with no storms in the first 2-1/2 months but exploded this weekend as three formed in just over a day.

Claudette, the third storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, was heading northwest in the Gulf just a few miles (kilometres) offshore late on Sunday in an area east of the heaviest concentration of U.S. energy platforms, which stretch along the coast from Mobile Bay, Alabama, to Brownsville, Texas.

The Gulf is home to almost half of U.S. refinery capacity, a quarter of oil production and 15 percent of natural gas output. Oil companies were monitoring the storm but had not shut down production.

"Gulf operations are normal," BP Plc spokesman Daron Beaudo said in a statement. "Nothing to report."

Claudette's winds strengthened to 50 miles per hour (80 kilometres per hour) as it neared the Florida panhandle and its center was located about 70 miles southeast of Pensacola, Florida, at 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Claudette dropped up to 5 inches of rain along the Florida coast and forecasters said it could push a 3 to 5 foot (1 to 1.5 meter) storm surge ashore.

THREAT FROM BILL

The threat to the small islands of the eastern Caribbean eased on Sunday as Tropical Storm Ana faded to a tropical depression and could be downgraded further in the near future.

Tropical storm watches, alerting residents to expect bad weather within 36 hours, were in effect from the Dominican Republic to the French island of Guadeloupe.

Ana was about 25 miles southeast of Guadeloupe and its top winds had dropped to about 35 mph, the Miami-based hurricane center said.

The bigger threat could come from Bill, which forecasters expected to whip up into a "major" Category 3 hurricane, with winds of more than 110 mph, by Friday. Hurricanes of Category 3, 4 or 5 on the Saffir-Simpson intensity scale are the most destructive type.

Some computer models suggested Bill could reach Category 4, with winds of more than 130 mph.

Bill's sustained winds increased on Sunday to 70 mph, just short of hurricane strength, but it was still 1,320 miles east of the Lesser Antilles islands. It was headed to the west-northwest at about 20 mph, the hurricane center said.

On its most likely track, Bill would be well north of the northernmost Caribbean islands, headed in the general direction of the U.S. East Coast, striking by Friday, forecasters said.

The busiest part of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30, is from about the last week of August to mid-October.

Forecasters expected this season to be a bit less active than recent years, due in part to the formation of an El Nino event in the eastern Pacific. The warm-water phenomenon tends to suppress hurricane activity in the Atlantic by increasing wind shear, which can tear apart nascent hurricanes.

(Additional reporting by Erwin Seba in Houston, editing by Philip Barbara)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE57F14V20090817?sp=true

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Medals




Carom Shot National I.D. Cards


Backdoor Plan for a National Identification Card Plus.


Eureka!
It finally dawned on me, as I pondered on what all this hoopla with National HEALTHCARE; Oops! I mean, Health Insurance Reform, is all about.

It's a carom shot (bank shot) technique for achieving the dreaded un-Constitutional National I.D.
You know? Your papers, please!

The National I.D. that the (Bush Administration) government said is needed after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 (Meanwhile the Mexican border remains wide open for infiltration by any Tomas, Dick and Habibi). Who said there's no North American Union? You and I need an I.D., but, 'Julio' Bin Abdul doesn't!

What a back-handed manner to achieve two Draconian NWO goals?

  • Ensure that every U.S. citizen is accounted for (reduced to blip on a radar) by issuing RFID embedded Identification Cards.
  • Provides the federal government the means to monopolize the Health-Medical profession; Gives it the access to a citizen's medical records (DNA, blood type, HIV status, Vaccination history, etc) or the means of restricting medical treatment if it should ever want to (provide or withhold care).

Both of these goals are un-Constitutional, and a departure from the established scope of the United States of America, Republican form of government. If it's not mandated in the Constitution, then, it's not required!

Arsenio.

P.S.

Revelation 13

. 14And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

15And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

16And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

17And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

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New Tropical Storm Heads For Panhandle


Claudette Due Ashore Tonight; T.S. Bill May Become Major Hurricane

UPDATED: 5:20 pm EDT August 16, 2009


MORE ONLINE:
Maps/Tools Hurricane Info


JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- After a slow start to the Atlantic hurricane season, the season's first three tropical storms have formed in three days. One is due to come ashore in Florida's Panhandle Sunday night and forecasters say another heading toward the Caribbean has potential to grow into a major hurricane.

At 5 a.m. Sunday, the National Hurricane Service issued a tropical storm warning for areas from the mouth of the Suwannee River west to the Alabama state line due to a tropical depression. Hours later, when a reconnaissance flight found winds near 50 mph, the hurricane center named the system Tropical Story Claudette.

At 5 p.m., the system was centered about 40 miles west-southwest of Apalachicola and moving toward the northwest at near 14 mph. The center of Claudette should move ashore near Panama City Sunday evening, and the Hurricane Service said there is a change of additional strengthening before landfall.

Rainfall of 3 to 5 inches was forecast, with isolated showers of up to 10 inches in northwest Florida, forecasters said.

"We may see some heavy rains as a result, but we don't expect any high winds or coastal flooding," said John Dosh, manager of Emergency Management. "This event is a good example of how quickly a tropical storm can develop. We won't always have a lot of warning. This is why citizens need to be prepared throughout hurricane season."

The system in the gulf appeared as people on Florida's east coast were watching tropical storms Ana and Bill moving west over open waters in the Atlantic.

The Leeward Islands were keeping a close eye on Tropical Storm Ana, where the storm is expected to make landfall early Monday.

A tropical storm watch remained in effect for the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla, St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius. Tropical storm conditions were possible within the next 36 hours.

With 35 mph sustained winds, Ana was moving west at near 23 mph. At 5 p.m., the storm was about 120 miles east of Dominica.

Anna was not expected to grow beyond tropical-storm strength and may dissipate into a low-pressure system before approaching the southern tip of Florida late Thursday.

Forecasters are more leery of Tropical Storm Bill, which formed Saturday and was about 1,440 miles east of the Lesser Antilles and moving west-northwest at near 16 mph.

Bill had winds of near 65 mph Sunday morning, but was expected to build momentum and become a hurricane as early as Monday.

"There is no doubt in my mind that Bill will be a very intense hurricane -- perhaps this season's strongest," Channel 4 chief meteorologist John Gaughan wrote on his blog, Gaughan Bloggin'. "The good news is that long-range models are indicating a sudden, hard turn to the north in seven days."

"We won't know of Bill's U.S. landfall, if any, until next weekend," said meteorologist emeritus George Winterling on his Hurricane Blog.

Meanwhile in the Pacific, Hurricane Guillermo was swirling as a Category 2 storm.

Guillermo had weakened slightly, with maximum sustained winds dropping to 100 mph. It was expected to lose more steam and dwindle to a tropical storm in the next day or two. Guillermo was moving west at 15 mph, about 1,150 miles east of Hilo, Hawaii.
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Tropical Storm Claudette Aims at Florida

By MELISSA NELSON, AP

posted: 21 MINUTES AGO

BEACH, Fla. (Aug. 16) – Brewing in the Gulf of Mexico, Tropical Storm Claudette was bringing heavy rain to the Florida Panhandle Sunday, likely becoming the first tropical storm to strike the U.S. mainland this year.

Claudette had winds of at least 50 mph, but was not expected to cause significant flooding or wind damage. Lurking more ominously was Tropical Storm Bill, which was quickly turning into a powerful storm over warm waters in the open Atlantic with sustained winds of 65 mph. Ana, a tropical storm that had also been churning in the Atlantic, had weakened to a depression.


Tropical Storm Claudette churns over Florida on Sunday afternoon.

Heavy rain began in the afternoon in Pensacola as Claudette approached. On Pensacola Beach, the National Park Service closed low-lying roads that connect the restaurants and hotels to the undeveloped National Seashore and historic Fort Pickens Fort.

The Park Service said campers would be ordered to leave the area because of the likelihood of the road flooding.

In Panama City, the Bay County Emergency Operations Center opened a shelter at a local high school for residents of low-lying areas and people with special needs.

Earlier along Pensacola Beach, surfers under gray skies enjoyed the waves and tourists mingled on the beach, despite a tropical storm warning covering most of the Panhandle, from the Alabama state line to the Suwanee River more than 300 miles to the east.

Miguel Gonzalez, on vacation from North Carolina, was unconcerned about the storm as he readied his children for day on Pensacola Beach. But he said his family would head in when the rain started.

"We will just stay out there for an hour or so, take a few pictures and then leave," he said.

Rainfall of 3 to 5 inches was expected, with isolated areas getting up to 10 inches, forecasters said.

"We may see some heavy rains as a result, but we don't expect any high winds or coastal flooding," said John Dosh, manager of Emergency Management. "This event is a good example of how quickly a tropical storm can develop. We won't always have a lot of warning. This is why citizens need to be prepared throughout hurricane season."

Pensacola Beach is still recovering from Hurricane Ivan, which devastated the western Florida Panhandle and parts of Alabama in 2004.

At 5 p.m. EDT, Claudette was about 40 miles west-southwest of Apalachicola and moving northwest near 14 mph. Its center was expected to reach the northern Gulf Coast by Sunday evening.

Meanwhile, Ana's winds had diminished to 35 mph and was expected to make landfall at the Leeward Islands early Monday. Watches were posted for Puerto Rico, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Antigua, St. Maarten and several other islands in the area. Ana was forecast to bring 2 to 4 inches of rain.

Tropical Storm Bill, however, was intensifying far from land in the open Atlantic, and could become a hurricane late Sunday or on Monday.

In the Pacific, Hurricane Guillermo had winds that had dropped to 85 mph, and it was expected to lose steam in the next day. Guillermo was moving west at 14 mph, about 995 miles east of Hilo, Hawaii, and didn't threaten any land.

Despite the storms, a warmer weather pattern called El Nino over the Pacific Ocean is generally expected to damper the formation of tropical storms in the Caribbean and Atlantic this year, said Brian Daly, a meteorologist with the national weather service in Mobile, Ala.

"It's pretty frequent that an El Nino year would be somewhat delayed with fewer storms," Daly said.

Forecasters revised their Atlantic hurricane season predictions after the first two months of the season passed without any named storms developing.

Associated Press writer Desiree Hunter in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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Source: http://news.aol.com/article/tropical-storm-warning-for-florida/612767?icid=mainhtmlws-maindl1link3http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Ftropical-storm-warning-for-florida%2F612767

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Saturday, August 15, 2009

Him will I blot out of my book


30And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.

31And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.

32Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.

33And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.

34Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them.

35And the LORD plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.


Exodus 32:30-35.
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Our Present Dangers


April 13, 1891

Our Present Dangers.

[DELIVEREDTUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 24, 1891.]


By Mrs. E. G. White.-


Brethren and sisters, I appeal to you as Seventh-day Adventists to be all that this name signifies. There is danger of departing from the spirit of the message, and adopting measures that will imperil the work of God. As the Lord has presented these things before me at several times and in different places, I have been brought into your assemblies where articles were read and statements made which were false in principle and dangerous in their tendency. I was shown that those who advocated these sentiments were not following the counsel of God, but were bringing in that which would surely lead souls away from safe ground, away from the third angel's message, into wrong paths, to a careless disregard of the injunctions of God, thus imperiling their own souls and the souls of others. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 1}
In your councils, how little experience many of you have in humbling the heart before God! How little you know of striving in prayer that you may enter in at the strait gate! The question of highest importance to you is, "Do I have an experimental knowledge of God? Am I ready to believe what he tells me, to do what he bids, instead of following my own judgment? Am I drawing nearer to God?" The Scripture says, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned." If your hearts are not fully surrendered to God, if you do not submit your will to his, you will devise and plan without the 257guidance of Him who is mighty in counsel. Some have manifested a spirit of Pharisaic prejudice and criticism. As soon as this is indulged, the holy angels depart from you; for they cannot administer to sin. You possess in a large degree the same spirit that was revealed in the Conference at Minneapolis. The deception that was upon minds there still exists. Some have not been willing to see and acknowledge their errors, and their blindness of mind remains. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 2}
You who have been educating yourselves and others in a spirit of criticism and accusing, remember that you are imitating the example of Satan. When it suits your purpose, you treat the Testimonies as if you believed them, quoting from them to strengthen any statement you wish to have prevail. But how is it when light is given to correct your errors? Do you then accept the light? When the Testimonies speak contrary to your ideas, you treat them very lightly. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 3}
It does not become any one to drop a word of doubt here and there that shall work like poison in other minds, shaking their confidence in the messages which God has given, which have aided in laying the foundation of this work, and have attended it to the present day, in reproofs, warnings, corrections, and encouragements. To all who have stood in the way of the Testimonies, I would say, God has given a message to his people, and his voice will be heard, whether you hear or forbear. Your opposition has not injured me; but you must give an account to the God of heaven, who has sent these warnings and instructions to keep his people in the right way. You will have to answer to him for your blindness, for being a stumbling-block in the way of sinners. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 4}
"To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Even the work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart is to be tested by the word of God. The Spirit which inspired the Scriptures, always leads to the Scriptures. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 5}
"Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." The True Witness says of the church, after enumerating many virtues, "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love." The prevailing idolatry and iniquity have had a paralyzing, deadening influence upon piety and godliness. There is distrust, selfishness, and suspicion. A few hold fast their profession of faith. Others have been leaving the simplicity of the faith, and as the result they are now treading on the border-land of skepticism. They are spiritually beclouded; and thus many are holding serious errors. Some sit in judgment on the Scriptures, declaring that this or that passage is not inspired, because it does not strike their minds favorably. They cannot harmonize it with their ideas of philosophy and science, "falsely so called." Others for different reasons question portions of the word of God. Thus many walk blindly where the enemy prepares the way. Now, it is not the province of any man to pronounce sentence upon the Scriptures, to judge or condemn any portion of God's word. When one presumes to do this, Satan will create an atmosphere for him to breathe which will dwarf spiritual growth. When a man feels so very wise that he dares to dissect God's word, his wisdom is, with God, counted foolishness. When he knows more, he will feel that he has everything to learn. And his very first lesson is to become teachable. "Learn of me," says the Great Teacher; "for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 6}
Would that the spiritual eyesight of all the workers might be clear to distinguish the sacred from the common. Blinded by self-love, many lose sight of the claims of others, and also of the glory of God. When you see yourselves as you really are, and see God as he wants you to see him, you will feel deeply your need of Jesus, and will seek him with contrite hearts. Then he will be found of you. You will seek for his heavenly treasure of graces as one seeks for precious pearls; and when you find it, there will be no doubt on the minds of your brethren but that you have found the pearl of great price. You will have the mind of Christ; you will work and speak as Christ did. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 7}
The people of God are not to be guided by the opinions or practices of the world. Hear what the Saviour said to his disciples, "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 8}
The word of God plainly declares that his law is to be scorned, trampled upon, by the world; there will be an extraordinary prevalence of iniquity. The professed Protestant world will form a confederacy with the man of sin, and the church and the world will be in corrupt harmony. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 9}
Here the great crisis is coming upon the world. The Scriptures teach that popery is to regain its lost supremacy, and that the fires of persecution will be rekindled through the time serving concessions of the so-called Protestant world. In this time of peril we can stand only as we have the truth and the power of God. Men can know the truth only by being themselves partakers of the divine nature. We have need now for more than human wisdom in reading and searching the Scriptures; and if we come to God's word with humble hearts, he will raise up a standard for us against the lawless element.
{GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 10}
It is difficult to hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end; and the difficulty increases when there are hidden influences constantly at work to bring in another spirit, a counter working element, on Satan's side of the question. In the absence of persecution, there have drifted into our ranks some who appear sound, and their Christianity unquestionable, but who, if persecution should arise, would go out from us. In the crisis, they would see force in specious reasoning that has had an influence on their minds. Satan has prepared various snares to meet varied minds. When the law of God is made void, the church will be sifted by fiery trials, and a larger proportion than we now anticipate, will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Instead of being strengthened when brought into strait places, many prove that they are not living branches of the True Vine; they bore no fruit, and the husbandman taketh them away. 258{GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 11}
But when the world makes void the law of God, what will be the effect upon the truly obedient and righteous? Will they be carried away by the strong current of evil? Because so many rank themselves under the banner of the prince of darkness, will God's commandment keeping people swerve from their allegiance? Never! Not one who is abiding in Christ will fail or fall. His followers will bow in obedience to a higher authority than that of any earthly potentate. While the contempt placed upon God's commandments leads many to suppress the truth and show less reverence for it, the faithful ones will with greater earnestness hold aloft its distinguishing truths. We are not left to our own direction. In all our ways we should acknowledge God, and he will direct our paths. We should consult his word with humble hearts, ask his counsel, and give up our will to his. We can do nothing without God. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 12}
There is the highest reason for us to prize the true Sabbath and stand in its defense, for it is the sign which distinguishes the people of God from the world. The commandment that the world makes void is the one to which, for this very reason, God's people will give greater honor. It is when the unbelieving cast contempt upon the word of God that the faithful Calebs are called for. It is then that they will stand firm at the post of duty, without parade, and without swerving because of reproach. The unbelieving spies stood ready to destroy Caleb. He saw the stones in the hands of those who had brought a false report, but this did not deter him; he had a message, and he would bear it. The same spirit will be manifested today by those who are true to God. The psalmist says, "They have made void thy law. Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold." When men press close to the side of Jesus, when Christ is abiding in their hearts by faith, their love for the commandments of God grows stronger in proportion to the contempt which the world heaps upon his holy precepts. It is at this time that the true Sabbath must be brought before the people by both pen and voice. As the fourth commandment and those who observe it are ignored and despised, the faithful feel that it is the time not to hide their faith but to exalt the law of Jehovah by unfurling the banner on which is inscribed the message of the third angel, the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 13}
Let not those who have the truth as it is in Jesus give sanction, even by their silence, to the work of the mystery of iniquity. Let them never cease to sound the note of alarm. Let the education and training of the members of our churches be such that the children and youth among us shall understand there are to be no concessions to this power, the man of sin. Teach them that although the time will come when we can wage the war only at the risk of property and liberty, yet the conflict must be met, in the spirit and meekness of Christ; the truth is to be maintained and advocated as it is in Jesus. Wealth, honor, comfort, home,--everything else,--is to be a secondary consideration. The truth must not be hid, it must not be denied or disguised, but fully avowed, and boldly proclaimed. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 14}
The Lord has faithful watchmen on the walls of Zion to cry aloud and spare not, to lift up their voice like a trumpet, and show his people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins. The Lord has permitted the enemy of truth to make a determined effort against the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. He designs by this means to awaken a decided interest in that question which is a test for the last days. This will open the way for the third angel's message to be proclaimed with power. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 15}
Let not one who believes the truth, be silent now. None should be careless now; let all urge their petitions at the throne of grace, pleading the promise, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do." It is a perilous time now. If this land of boasted liberty is preparing to sacrifice every principle which enters into her constitution, making decrees to suppress religious freedom, and for the enforcing of papal falsehood and delusion, then the people of God need to present their petitions in faith to the Most High. There is every encouragement, in the promises of God, for those who put their trust in him. The prospect of being brought into personal danger and distress, need not cause despondency, but should quicken the vigor and hopes of God's people; for the time of their peril is the season for God to grant them clearer manifestations of his power. We are not to sit in calm expectancy of oppression and tribulation, and fold our hands, doing nothing to avert the evil. Let our united cries be sent up to heaven. Pray and work, and work and pray. But let none act rashly. Learn as never before that you must be meek and lowly in heart. You must not bring a railing accusation against any, whether individuals or churches. Learn to deal with minds as Christ did. Sharp things must sometimes be spoken; but be sure that the Holy Spirit of God is abiding in your heart before you speak the clear-cut truth; then let it cut its way. You are not to do the cutting. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 16}
There is to be no compromise with those who make void the law of God. It is not safe to rely upon them as counselors. Our testimony is not to be less decided now than formerly; our real position is not to be cloaked in order to please the world's great men. They may desire us to unite with them and accept their plans, and may make propositions in regard to our course of action which may give the enemy an advantage over us. "Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy." While we should not seek for controversy, and should not needlessly offend, we must present the truth clearly and decidedly, and stand firm to what God has taught us in his word. You are not to look to the world in order to learn what you shall write and publish or what you shall speak. Let all your words and works testify, "We have not followed cunningly devised fables." "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place." {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 17}
The apostle Paul tells us, "After that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." This was the carrying out of God's plan for the conviction and conversion of men, who are constantly tempted to magnify their own powers. The Lord would make it manifest whether men by their own finite wisdom could acquire a knowledge of the truth, whether they could know 259God, their Creator. When Christ came to our world, the experiment had been fully made, and it proved the boasted wisdom of men to be but foolishness. Finite wisdom was utterly unable to come to right conclusions in regard to God, and therefore man was wholly incompetent to judge in regard to his law. The Lord has allowed matters in our day to come to a crisis, in the exaltation of error above truth, that he, the God of Israel, might work mightily for the greater elevation of his truth in proportion as error is exalted. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 18}
With his eye upon the church, the Lord has again and again allowed matters to come to a crisis, that in their extremity his people should look alone for his help. Their prayers, their faith, together with their steadfast purpose to be true, have called for the interference of God, and then he has fulfilled his promise, "Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am." His mighty arm has been stretched out for the deliverance of his people. God reserves his gracious interposition in their behalf till the time of their extremity; thus he makes their deliverance more marked, and their victories more glorious. When all human wisdom fails, the Lord's interference will be more clearly recognized, and he will receive the glory that is his due. Even the enemies of our faith, persecutors, will perceive that God is working for his people in turning their captivity. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 19}
What is needed in this, our time of danger, is fervent prayer, mingled with earnest faith, a reliance upon God when Satan casts his shadow over God's people. Let every one bear in mind that God delights to listen to the supplications of his people; for the prevailing iniquity calls for more earnest prayer, and God has promised that he will avenge his own elect, who cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 20}
Men are prone to abuse the long suffering of God, and to presume on his forbearance. But there is a point in human iniquity when it is time for God to interfere; and terrible are the issues. "The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked." The long-suffering of God is wonderful, because he puts constraint on his own attributes; but punishment is none the less certain. Every century of profligacy has treasured up wrath against the day of wrath; and when the time comes, and the iniquity is full, then God will do his strange work. It will be found a terrible thing to have worn out the divine patience; for the wrath of God will fall so signally and strongly that it is represented as being unmixed with mercy; the very earth will be desolated. It is at the time of the national apostasy, when, acting on the policy of Satan, the rulers of the land will rank themselves on the side of the man of sin -- it is then the measure of guilt is full; the national apostasy is the signal for national ruin. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 21}
God has thrust his people into the gap, to make up the hedge, to raise up the foundation of many generations. The heavenly intelligences, angels that excel in strength, are waiting, obedient to his command, to unite with human agencies; and the Lord will interpose when matters have come to such a pass that none but a divine power can counteract the satanic agencies at work. When his people shall be in the greatest danger, seemingly unable to stand against the power of Satan, God will work in their behalf, Man's extremity is God's opportunity. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 22}
Now is the time when the loyal and true are to arise and shine; for the glory of the Lord is risen upon them. It is no time now to hide our colors, no time to turn traitors when the battle presses sore, no time to lay aside our weapons of warfare. Watchmen on the walls of Zion must be wide awake. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 23}
I am so thankful at this time that we can have our minds taken off from the difficulties that surround us, and the oppression that is to come upon the people of God, and can look up to the heaven of light and power. If we place ourselves on the side of God, of Christ and the heavenly intelligences, the broad shield of Omnipotence is over us, the mighty God of Israel is our helper, and we need not fear. Those who touch the people of God, touch the apple of his eye. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 24}
Now the great question is, Are we Bible Christians, -- doers of the word? I have been astonished beyond measure as light has been presented to me again and again concerning the difficulties and dissensions that exist in our churches. What does it mean? With the teachings of the Bible before them, how dare they be in such disunion, apparently not caring to answer the prayer of Christ that his disciples might be one, as he is one with the Father. How dare they set up their will, and imperil the cause of God in order to carry things on in their own way? {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 25}
The spirit of self-sufficiency and selfish independence that has for years been coming into the hearts of our people is the work of the enemy, that he may cause our feet to slide; and we cannot afford to indulge it. May God help us to put it away! Begin right in your own homes; begin there to be truly courteous, as Christ was; be kind; live not to please yourselves. Then if you are Christians at home, you will carry the same spirit into the church. You will carry it into your councils, and will have evidence that Jesus is indeed your helper, your stronghold, your front guard and your rear-ward. The righteousness of Christ will go before you, and the glory of God will be your rear-ward. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 26}
Brethren, will you carry the spirit of Christ with you as you return to your homes and churches? Will you put away unbelief and criticism? We are coming to a time when, more than ever before, we shall need to press together, to labor unitedly. In union there is strength. In discord and disunion there is only weakness. God never designed that one man, or four, or twenty, should take an important work into their own hands, and carry it forward independently of other workers in the cause. God wants his people to counsel together, to be a united church, in Christ a perfect whole. The only safety for us is to enter into the counsels of Heaven, ever seeking to do the will of God, to become laborers together with him. No one company is to form a confederacy, and say, "We are going to take this work, and carry it on in our own way; and if it does not go as we want it to, we will not give our influence to have it go at all." This is Satan's voice, not God's. Do not obey such suggestions. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 27}
What we want is the spirit of Jesus. When we have this, we shall love one another. Here are the credentials that we are to bear: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love 260one to another." We need to pray more; and when we have Christ abiding in the soul, his spirit in me will harmonize with his spirit in you; and he who controls our minds, controls also the heavenly intelligences, and they co-operate with us. Then in every council you will have the presence of One mighty in counsel. Jesus will be there. There will be no contention, no strife, no stirring up of the worst passions of the heart. What we want is to find refuge in Jesus. What we want is to be converted; and O, how I have longed for the converting power of God to go through our assemblies! {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 28}
I fear that some will never be converted. Not because God is not willing to convert them; but because they have eyes, and yet see not; ears have they, but they hear not; they have understanding, and yet understand not. They are too proud to acknowledge their errors, and in contrition of heart seek God in repentance. Now shall we put away this impenitent spirit? Shall we fall on the Rock and be broken? Jesus is soon coming in the clouds of heaven. What is he doing now?--He is testing a people here upon the earth, to see if they can live in harmony, without revolt, in heaven. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 29}
Do you think he will take those who are indulging skepticism and infidelity, who, when he sends a message, stand back and refuse to accept it? Yet many have done this. When we speak of the grace of God, of Jesus and his love, speak of the Saviour as one who is able to keep us from sin, and to save to the uttermost all who come unto him, many will say, "O, I am afraid you are going where the holiness people go. I am afraid you are doing after the Salvation Army." Brethren, you need not be afraid of the plain teachings of the Bible. Do not fear to go where the voice of Jesus is heard saying, "Follow me;" for this will lead you right. Do not let any man or woman, or any council or party, lead you to suppress the precious light that God has permitted to shine from heaven in regard to the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus. You need more, much more, of the Spirit of Christ, to take the coldness and iron out of your hearts. Jesus humbled himself. His whole life was one of humiliation and suffering. He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. And all this he bore, that sinners might be redeemed. This is the spirit that must dwell in our hearts. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 30}
The object of our faith, hope, and love, should be Jesus,--Jesus always, Jesus only. A mere profession of faith will not save us; we must have real faith in Christ. Then the heart will be renewed; we shall be born again. Christ takes our sins upon himself, and imparts to us his righteousness. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 31}
In the revival work that has been going forward here during the past winter we have seen no fanaticism. But I will tell you what I have seen. I have seen men who were so lifted up in themselves, and so stubborn, that their hearts were enshrouded in darkness. All the light that Heaven graciously sent them was interpreted to be darkness. When the enemy presents a device of his own, some are ready to accept that; but they have been so very cautious that they would not receive the light which would have made them wise unto salvation. The mission of God's servants was to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God. The bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, if received, would have illuminated the soul-temple, and driven out the buyers and sellers, the pride of opinion and the lust of the flesh. But there are some who have criticised and depreciated, and even stooped to ridicule, the messengers through whom the Lord has wrought in power. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 32}
But, thank God, there are many who have been listening to his word and feasting upon it. What does Christ say?--"Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." Then let us feast upon Christ. Let us enjoy his love, and praise God for this great salvation. Then we shall come together, heart to heart. When we shall subdue our pride, when we shall pluck from the garden of the soul every fiber of the root of bitterness, our hearts will flow together as the heart of one. And the Saviour's promise is, "If any two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." Then, I ask, Where is our power?--It is in the sincere prayers going up to heaven continually that Christ will reveal himself to us. And he will do it. The light and glory of God will rest upon his people. And then the world will see, and will say, "Behold, how these brethren love one another." Then all this heart burning and distrust will cease, and in place of it, there will be love and union, courtesy, kindness, and tenderness. The very countenances will shine with the glory of God. We shall all see eye to eye. We shall speak the same things, and be of the same judgment. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 33}
Suppose we labor to this end the coming year. Suppose we try daily to have our hearts united in the bonds of Christian love. "I have somewhat against thee," says the True Witness, "because thou hast left thy first love." And he says, "Except thou repent," "I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place." Why?--Because in our separation from one another we are separated from Christ. We want to press together. O, how many times, when I have seemed to be in the presence of God and holy angels, I have heard the angel voice saying, "Press together, press together, press together. Do not let Satan cast his hellish shadow between brethren. Press together; in unity there is strength." {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 34}
I repeat the message to you. As you go to your homes, be determined that you will press together; seek God with all the heart, and you will find him, and the love of Christ, that passeth understanding, will come into your hearts and lives. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 35}
I tell you, we have enough to do. There is no time to lose in doubt and darkness and inactivity. Your attention has been called to the need of missionary work in almost all parts of the world. Today I would present before you the Southern field. How many missionaries are now ready to take hold of the work to be done among the colored people in our own country? Where are the men and women who will go in among the thousands upon thousands of these people in the South, and in a patient, humble way, seek to educate and train them? O, there is so much to do! We cannot afford to spend our time in manufacturing yokes to put upon our own necks or the necks of others. We want to go out as missionaries for God. We want to awake from the 261dead, and Christ will give us life. There are souls to be saved for whom Christ has paid the purchase money of his own blood, and I want you to feel that if souls of the colored race shall go down, unwarned, to destruction, there are those who have the light and have feasted upon it from week to week and from year to year, who will have to give an account to God; for the blood of souls will be upon their garments. Brethren, we cannot afford this. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 36}
May God help us to awake to our duty! If you have hold of the work of God, I beseech you, for Christ's sake, do not let go. If God sees that your souls are in danger, he will send reproof to you. Do not rise up against it. Say, "I will seek God, I will find him, and will be converted." The True Witness says, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent." Yes, repent. It is not for you to be jealous of the reprover. It is not for you to dissect or discount the message that God may send you. It is for you to receive it, and reform, and be thankful that the Lord has not left you to blindness of mind and hardness of heart. May God help you to be converted. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 37}
I beseech you to take Christ with you as you go to your churches. "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears." Many are unwilling to have their way crossed. Now, it is not by following your own way that you will enter heaven; it is by choosing God's way. Will you take it? It is not your spirit that is going into heaven; it is Christ's spirit. Will you have it? Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Then I ask, How is it that so many of you are saying you do not know whether you are accepted of God or not; that you want to find Jesus? Don't you know whether you have opened the door? Don't you know whether you have invited him in? If you have not, invite him now. Don't wait a moment. Open the door, and let Jesus in. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 38}
There are important interests at stake in Battle Creek, where so many of our institutions have been planted. As we were planning for the establishment of these institutions, how we prayed, and sought God day and night. Before the College was established here, my husband would say to me in the night season "What shall we do about establishing a school here? Let us get up and pray." Long before this, we used to pray about establishing the printing-office. Then it was the Sanitarium. Prayer was interwoven with our very life experience. Day by day our petitions ascended to heaven, and God heard us. Now let us continue to pray. If we needed to pray about the establishment of these institutions, how much more do we need to pray for God to keep them as guardians of the truth. They are not to lift up any false standard. They are not to be false signposts for the people. Wherever you are, pray that God will keep these institutions. If your united prayers ascend to heaven in their behalf, God will hear; and if the men who are there prove unfaithful, he will remove them, and will put others there who will be true to him. God is not at a loss for means. If men will only respond to his call, all will be well. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 39}
Now let us take Christ's yoke upon us, and learn of him. He says his yoke is easy, and I believe it. He says the burden is light, and I believe that, too. When you are wearing Christ's yoke, all your complaining and dissension will cease. When Christ's disciples fell into controversy by the way, he asked them. "What was is that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest. . . . And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when he had taken him in his arms, he said unto them, Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me: and I whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me." Now let us be like children before God. Let us be teachable, willing to learn, and then the Spirit of God will cement our hearts together, and we shall be one in Christ Jesus. Then the Father will love us, even as he loves his Son. Let this thought fill the soul with thankfulness, and go on your way to Zion, making melody in your hearts to God. You are called out of darkness to show forth his marvelous light. Go forward, rejoicing in the righteousness of Christ. {GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 40}
At the morning meetings I have enjoyed hearing the testimonies of those who came here to learn,--testimonies of how they have learned to believe that Christ has forgiven their sins. It is very late--the eleventh hour--to learn that. But, thank God, it is not too late, even at the eleventh hour, for wrongs to be made right. If we learn what is to be the joy of our calling, we shall praise God with heart and soul and voice. And at last we shall have a glorious triumph when our captivity shall be turned, and our mourning and tears shall be forever past. What a shout of praise will then go forth from human lips! Shall we begin it here? God grant that we may! God help you to put away every fiber of the root of bitterness that has been planted in so many hearts. May you put it away, so that it shall never bud nor blossom from this time. Let Christ kill it by His Holy Spirit in every heart. God grant that the root of bitterness may die! -{GCDB, April 13, 1891 par. 41}



Note: Highlights used for emphasis.


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