Saturday, May 12, 2012

Romney seeks evangelical votes; opposes gay marriage

Mitt Romney, U.S. Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor, speaks at the Liberty University commencement ceremony in Lynchburg, Virginia May 12, 2012. REUTERS-Kevin Lamarque

1 of 2. Mitt Romney, U.S. Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor, speaks at the Liberty University commencement ceremony in Lynchburg, Virginia May 12, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

LYNCHBURG, Virginia | Sat May 12, 2012 2:54pm EDT

(Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney sought on Saturday to calm fears that his Mormon faith would be an obstacle to evangelical Christian voters, stressing shared conservative values while acknowledging religious differences.

In a speech at conservative Christian Liberty University - where it is taught that Mormonism is a cult - Romney stressed their common goal of service to God and declared his opposition to gay marriage, a position essential for winning the majority of evangelicals in November.

"People of different faiths like yours and mine, sometimes wonder where we can meet in common purpose, when there are so many differences in creed and theology," the presumptive Republican nominee said in a commencement speech, addressing his Mormon faith.

"Surely the answer is that we can meet in service, in shared moral convictions about our nation stemming from a common worldview," said Romney to warm applause. Mormons, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, view themselves as Christians.

Romney went right at the latest hot-button issue, bringing much of the audience to its feet in cheers by declaring: "Marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman."

Many students and parents said that while they are wary of Romney's religion, they would rather he occupy the White House than President Barack Obama who announced his support for same-sex marriage this week.

When Romney was announced as speaker, a shout from the crowd of "Beat Obama!" rang out.

The address was a test for Romney of support among evangelicals, particularly in a swing state like Virginia, and came after a difficult week in which he was accused of being a bully at high school in the 1960s.

The announcement last month that Romney would speak at Liberty, founded by the late preacher Jerry Falwell, caused an uproar.

LARGE CROWD

Liberty teaches that Mormonism is a cult, and university officials took down a commencement Facebook page after it was flooded with hundreds of posts objecting to Romney's appearance.

But some in the large crowd of 34,000 people on Saturday said they were prepared to look past his Mormonism and see Romney as the candidate with the best message on jobs as well as family values.

"I don't believe in the Latter-Day Saints, but I don't have a problem voting for Mitt Romney," said John Gambrino, of Stafford, Virginia, who watched his son graduate.

Current Liberty chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. told parents, staff and students that "we are electing a commander-in-chief, not a pastor-in-chief."

Romney encouraged students to stand by their faith. "Culture - what you believe, what you value, how you live - matters," he said.

Often derided by conservatives as too moderate, Romney would generate enthusiasm from those on the right of his party if they become convinced he can defeat Obama.

Romney will need Christian groups' votes - and organizational heft - with polls pointing toward a close contest with Obama in November. He can get them if he keeps to a socially conservative message, and does not take their vote for granted, strategists say.

Josh Gonzalez, a biblical studies major from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, said he was concerned when Romney was announced as the speaker at Liberty.

Gonzalez praised the speech, saying it was "very classy of (Romney) recognizing we have two different beliefs."

So did Romney earn Gonzalez's vote?

"In all honesty, I'll have to pray about it," he said.

(Editing by Alistair Bell and Jackie Frank)


Source


Of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples...


28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.

Acts 20

.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

A Great Terror Soon to Come



For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. 1 Corinthians 4:9

The world is a theater; the actors, its inhabitants, are preparing to act their part in the last great drama. With the great masses of mankind there is no unity, except as men confederate to accomplish their selfish purposes. God is looking on. His purposes in regard to His rebellious subjects will be fulfilled. The world has not been given into the hands of men, though God is permitting the elements of confusion and disorder to bear sway for a season. A power from beneath is working to bring about the last great scenes in the drama—Satan coming as Christ, and working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in those who are binding themselves together in
secret societies. Those who are yielding to the passion for confederation are working out the plans of the enemy. The cause will be followed by the effect.

Transgression has almost reached its limit. Confusion fills the world, and a great terror is soon to come upon human beings. The end is very near. We who know the truth should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise....

Are we as a people asleep? Oh, if the young men and young women in our institutions who are now unready for the Lord’s appearing, unfitted to become members of the Lord’s family, could only discern the signs of the times, what a change would be seen in them! The Lord Jesus is calling for self-denying workers to follow in His footsteps, to walk and work for Him, to lift the cross, and to follow where He leads the way.

Many are readily satisfied with offering the Lord trifling acts of service. Their Christianity is feeble. Christ gave Himself for sinners. With what anxiety for the salvation of souls we should be filled as we see human beings perishing in sin! These souls have been bought at an infinite price. The death of the Son of God on Calvary’s cross is the measure of their value. Day by day they are deciding whether they will have eternal life or eternal death.


Maranatha, p.138.

.

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

US stocks fall as Europe doubts bubble to surface

Specialists Patrick King, left, and Christopher Carella work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, May 8, 2012. Stocks appear to be headed to open lower with Dow Jones industrial futures down 0.3 percent and S&P 500 futures down 0.5 percent. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Fear of European debt is once again playing havoc with Wall Street.

Stocks pitched down Wednesday in the United States as borrowing rates climbed for Spain and Italy, a sign that investors are losing confidence in those countries' finances.

Spain's 10-year borrowing rate leapt to 6.06 percent from 5.70 percent early Tuesday. Many fear that Spain, strangled by high unemployment and a real estate collapse, could be the next nation to require financial rescue.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down as much as 184 points before recovering about half of the loss. Still, the average has fallen for six consecutive days, its longest losing streak since last summer.

The Dow soared 2,624 points, or 25 percent, from Oct. 3 through May 1 as European leaders appeared to get a handle on the debt crisis. Last fall, nations that use the euro agreed to enforce budget discipline across the region.

Since May 1, when the Dow closed at a four-year high, worries about Europe have resurfaced. In elections on Sunday, Greek and French voters ousted leaders who had imposed tough spending cuts to soothe investors.

In the six losing days that ended Wednesday, the Dow gave back 444 points — one-sixth of the points it gained during its eight-month rally. The Dow closed down 97.03 points, or 0.8 percent, at 12,835.06.

Greece, without a government since Sunday's elections, appears increasingly likely to exit the euro currency union or be forced out. The resulting uncertainty could cause turmoil throughout global markets.

The spring decline has become a motif on Wall Street. In 2010 and 2011, the Dow climbed in the first three months of the year, then flat-lined or lost ground as events overseas overshadowed modest economic growth in the U.S.

The market today is tame compared with last summer, when the Dow routinely swung by hundreds of points a day.

But the atmosphere is starting to resemble last year's as traders sell anything deemed risky based on the latest headlines from Europe, said Peter Tchir, who trades a range of investments for his hedge fund TF Market Advisors.

"The concern in Spain is at such a high level that people trade the indexes or big futures contracts and are less discriminating about what risk they're taking on," he said.

On Wednesday, prices fell for commodities such as energy, copper and silver that are needed to sustain broad economic growth but are less valuable when the economy is weaker and demand wanes.

Benchmark crude oil, which sold for about $110 per barrel earlier this year, fell below $100 last week and kept sliding. It closed below $97 Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, continuing its longest decline since last July.

Commodity prices also were under pressure because the dollar rose against the euro, sending the euro down as low as $1.2910, its lowest point since Jan. 23. Commodities are traded in dollars, so a strong dollar makes them appear more expensive to investors who hold foreign currencies.

European stocks are having one of their worst weeks in months. London's FTSE 100 index is down 2.2 percent this week, its worst performance since December. Stocks in Athens are down 10.8 percent, the most since August.

Cash flowed into ultra-safe investments such as U.S. Treasurys, pushing the yield on the 10-year note as low as 1.80 percent, near a seven-month low. The yield finished the day at 1.84 percent as stocks moved off their earlier lows.

One reason that demand for Treasurys is increasing: As Europe deteriorates and hiring in the U.S. slows, traders believe that the Federal Reserve is more likely to engage in another round of bond-buying to juice the economy.

Bond-buying by the Fed lowers bond yields, pushing more cash into stocks and commodities. When traders expect the Fed to act, they buy bonds to take advantage of the extra demand that the Fed's buying will create.

Economic indicators and corporate earnings in the U.S. continue to signal recovery, albeit a choppy one. The government said after trading began that U.S. wholesale stockpiles grew in March at their slowest pace in four months, a sign demand is too weak for companies to ramp up production.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index and Nasdaq composite average both closed well above their lows for the day. The S&P fell 9.14 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,354.58. The Nasdaq dropped 11.56, or 0.4 percent, to 2,934.71.

Tchir expects the market to grow more volatile as traders track deadlines for indebted European nations to repay bond investors or raise cash. For investors who benefited from the recent rally, he said, "I think it's time to take money off the table." There's too much of a disconnect between the Dow's recent four-year high and European markets that are scraping three-year lows, he said.

European stocks rose into the close, recovering some earlier losses. Indexes in France and London closed down less than 1 percent after steep losses earlier.

In corporate news:

— Chiquita Brands plunged 28.9 percent after the banana purveyor reported first-quarter earnings that were far below the expectations of Wall Street analysts.

— Macy's lost 3.8 percent after the department store chain made an earnings forecast that fell below Wall Street projections.

— Walt Disney Co. rose 1.6 percent, the most of the 30 stocks in the Dow, after the whimsy-production conglomerate said its fiscal second-quarter earnings outpaced expectations.

Daniel Wagner can be reached at www.twitter.com/wagnerreports.



Source

.

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Pope Benedict Wants Catholic Colleges To Ensure That Faculty Are Faithful To Church Doctrine

Posted: 05/08/2012 6:57 am Updated: 05/08/2012 6:57 am




Pope Benedict XVI gestures to the faithful as he leaves after his visit at Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the Catholic University of Sacred Heart in Rome, on May 3, 2012. AFP PHOTO / ANDREAS SOLARO




By Alessandro Speciale
Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday (May 5) called on Catholic colleges and universities in the United States to do more to affirm their "Catholic identity," particularly by ensuring the doctrinal orthodoxy of their faculty and staff.

Speaking to a group of bishops from Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Wyoming, who are in Rome on a regularly scheduled visit, Benedict said there has been a "growing recognition" on the part of Catholic colleges of the need to "reaffirm their distinctive identity."

But "much remains to be done," the pope said, singling out the church law requirement that Catholic theology teachers "have a mandate from the competent ecclesiastical authority," usually the local bishop.

That requirement was introduced more than 20 years ago by Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, according to the Rev. Scott Brodeur, a professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. But there has been "continuous resistance against it."

"If he is repeating it it is because it has not yet been fully implemented," Brodeur said.

Benedict's remarks come a few months after U.S. bishops denounced Sister Elizabeth Johnson, a theology professor at Jesuit-run Fordham University in New York. Johnson's book "Quest for the Living God" does not accord with "authentic Catholic teaching," said the bishops' doctrinal committee.


Benedict said Saturday that the need for theology professors to be faithful to church doctrine becomes "all the more evident" when considering the "confusion" created by "instances of apparent dissidence between some representatives of Catholic institutions and the Church's pastoral leadership."

"Such discord," the pope added, "harms the church's witness and, as experience has shown, can easily be exploited to compromise her authority and her freedom."

Benedict also urged American bishops to ensure that young people receive a "sound education in the faith," saying that this is the "most urgent internal challenge facing the Catholic community in your country." Affirming a university's Catholic identity "entails much more than the teaching of religion" and should be achieved by encouraging students to embrace faith in "every aspect of their education," the pope said.




Monday, May 07, 2012

“The Hunger Games”: A Glimpse at the Future?



The hit movie “The Hunger Games” takes place in a dystopian future where the poor and wretched masses live under the high tech tyranny of a wealthy elite. Is the movie depicting the kind of society the elite is trying to establish for the New World Order? We’ll look at characteristics of the world presented in “The Hunger Games” and how they relate to plans for a New World Order.

Pushed by a gigantic marketing campaign, The Hunger Games did not take long to become a world-wide sensation, especially among teenagers and young adults. Sometimes referred to as the new Twilight, The Hunger Games has similar components to the previous book-to-movie craze (i.e. a young girl torn between two guys) but takes place in a very different context.

Set in a dystopian future (why is the future always “dystopian”?), The Hunger Games paints a rather grim picture of the world of tomorrow, whether it be from a social, economical or political point of view. In short, it is a big-brotherish nightmare where a rich elite thrives on the backs of a starving population. Meanwhile, the perversity and voyeurism of mass media is taken to absurd levels and is used by the government as a glue to keep its unjust social order intact. Is The Hunger Games giving teenagers a glimpse of a not-too-distant future? It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see the elite are trying to take the world in that direction. Is the author Suzanne Collins communicating a strong anti-NWO message to the youth by showing its dangers or is it getting the youth used to the idea? Let’s look at the fictional, yet possible, future world of The Hunger Games.

Note: This article is about the movie and not the book series. The movie has been formatted in a different way and conveys a slightly different message.

The NWO for Teenagers

The Hunger Games takes place in a context that is strikingly on-par with descriptions of the New World Order as planned by today’s global elite. One of the main characteristics of the New World Order is the dissolving of regular nation-states to form a single world government to be ruled by a central power. In The Hunger Games, this concept is fully represented as the action takes place in Panem, a totalitarian nation that encompasses the entire North-American territory. The United States and Canada have therefore merged into a single entity, a step that many predict that will happen before the full-on creation of the NWO.

The President of Panem addressing the Nation.

In Panem, the concepts of democracy and freedom have disappeared from America to be replaced by a high-tech dictatorship based on surveillance, monitoring, mass-media indoctrination, police oppression and a radical division of social classes. The vast majority of the citizens of Panem live in third-world country conditions and are constantly subjected poverty, famine and sickness. These difficult living conditions are apparently the result of a devastating event that engendered the complete economic collapse of North America. In District 12, home of the hero Katniss Everdeen, the locals live in conditions similar to the pre-industrial era where families of coal miners lived makeshift in shacks and eat rodents as meals.

While the masses look as if they are living in the 1800s, they are nevertheless subjugated to the high-tech rule of the Capitol, which uses technology to monitor, control and indoctrinate the masses. Surveillance cameras, RFID chips and 3D holograms are abundantly used by the government to manipulate the will of a weak and uneducated population (although there are signs of solidarity and rebelliousness among the peasants). To preserve the fragile social order, the Capitol relies on a massive police force that is always ready repress any kind of uprising. The workers are often rounded up in civilian camps where they are shown state-sponsored propaganda videos. Panem is therefore a high-tech police state ruled by a powerful elite that seeks to keep the masses in poverty and subjugation. As we’ve seen in previous articles on this site, all of these concepts are also thoroughly represented in other forms of media as there appears to be a conscious effort to normalize the ideas of a high-tech police state as the only normal evolution of the current political system.

Living in sharp contrast to the proletariat, the elite in The Hunger Games inhabits the glistening Capitol city and indulges in all sorts of extravagances and fashion trends. This upper-echelon of society perceives the rest of the population as an inferior race to be ridiculed, tamed and controlled. All valuable resources have been vacuumed from the people living in the districts to profit the Capitol, creating a clear and insurmountable divide between Regular People and The Elite. The concept of an opulent elite ruling over the dumbed-down and impoverished masses (thus making them easily manageable) is an important aspect of the New World Order and it is clearly depicted in The Hunger Games. The government’s reliance on high-tech surveillance and mass media to keep the population in check is something we are already seeing and, if we keep going in that direction, the world of The Hunger Games will soon become reality. There is another concept important to the occult elite that is at the heart of The Hunger Games, however: Blood sacrifices to strike fear and gain power.


Blood Sacrifices for the Elite

Katniss is selected as tribute of her district.

The government of Panem created the Hunger Games in order to remind the masses of the “great treason” they have committed by engaging in a rebellion. As punishment for their insubordination, the twelve districts of Panem must offer to the Capitol one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to be part of The Hunger Games. The teenagers must fight to the death in an outdoor arena in a Roman Gladiator-like event that is televised across the nation. The rules of the Games reflect the elite’s contempt and total lack of respect for the masses. The name of the Games itself is a reminder of the state of perpetual starvation the lower class is purposely kept in by the rulers in order to better control it.

The boys and girls that are selected to take part in The Hunger Games are called “tributes”, a term that usually describes a payment rendered by a vassal to his lord and thus even reflects the servitude of the mass to its rulers. Since time immemorial, blood sacrifices were considered to be the highest form of “tribute” to gods and, on an occult level, were said to wield the most potent power to be tapped by rulers and sorcerers. The same way ancient Carthaginians sacrificed infants to the god Moloch, inhabitants of Panem sacrifice their children to the Capitol. The Hunger Games are therefore a modern version of these ancient rituals that the masses had to participate in to avoid the wrath of their superiors. The entire nation of Panem is forced to watch the sacrificial ritual that takes place in the Capitol, stirring up fear, anger and blood lust within them, amplifying the power of the ritual. We’ve seen in previous articles that the deaths of specific people (Whitney Houston, Heath Ledger, Amy Winehouse) become such a media event that they are, in fact, mega-rituals that entire nations participate in. The Hunger Games reflect this concept of highly publicized mega-rituals.

"Tributes" for The Hunger Games become the property of the state and are revoked of all their rights.

In The Hunger Games, the ritualistic death of young people chosen from the mass is sold as a sporting event, a nation-wide celebration that is packaged as a reality show. Not only do the poor people participate in these demeaning events, they even cheer for their favorites. Why do they accept all of this? One of the reasons is that mass media can get people to accept anything … if it is entertaining.

Appealing to the Basest Instincts

The games are broadcast to the nation in the form of a reality-show, complete with TV hosts who analyze the action, interview the tributes and judge their performance. The tributes are so indoctrinated in this culture that they readily accept the rules of the game and turn are fully willing to start killing to win the Games. The masses also actively participate in the event, cheering for their district’s representatives, even though the entire event celebrates the sacrifice of their own. This reflects a sad but true fact concerning mass media: Any kind of message can reach people if it manages to capture their attention. There are two things that automatically, almost irresistibly, grab our attention: Blood and sex, the remnants of our primal instincts. The sheer violence of the event grabs the attention of the masses, who forget that the Games serve as a reminder of the people’s servitude to its elite. This concept is already well-known and fully exploited in today’s mass media, as elite-sponsored messages are constantly sold to consumers as being “entertainment”. The Hunger Games therefore aptly portray the role of media in the manipulation of public opinion. Will the movie help young people realize this fact?

At one point in The Hunger Games, the death of a little girl shocked the people to a point that it brought a brief moment of lucidity and solidarity as the kill highlighted the atrocity of the Games. The live broadcasting of the death lead to a violent uprising in her district as the locals realized that they were willing participants in something terrible. The uprising was quickly quelled however, by the ever-present police force of the state. Furthermore, in order to prevent further social trouble, the producers of the show introduced a new element to the show: Love between Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, the girl and the boy from District 12. By introducing love (and, by extension, sex) into the show, the producers managed to quell the masses and brought them back to their usual state of silent stupor. This part of the movie reflects how mass media is used by the powers that be today. The worldwide reach of The Hunger Games series itself proves that stories that cleverly feature the ingredients of sex and violence are bound to get people hooked. And, even though The Hunger Games seems to be denouncing the perversity of violence in mass media, it sure brings more of it into movie theatres.

Desensitizing to a New Type of Violence

While there is no shortage of violence in Hollywood, The Hunger Games movie crosses a boundary that is rarely seen in movies: Violence by minors and towards minors. In this PG-13 movie we see kids aged between 12 and 18 violently stabbing, slashing, strangling, shooting and breaking the necks of other children – scenes that are seldom seen in Hollywood movies. While it is surely a way for the movie the grab the attention of the movie’s target audience (which happens to be teenagers aged 12 to 18) The Hunger Games brings to the forefront a new form of violence that was previously deemed too disturbing to portray in movies. But in the particular kill-or-be-killed scenario of The Hunger Games, the viewers easily go beyond this psychological barrier and find themselves yelling stuff at the movie like “Come on, Katniss, take your bow and shoot that vicious little f**cker in the head!”.

In Conclusion

The Hunger Games is set in world that is exactly what is described to be the New World Order: A rich and powerful elite, an exploited and dumbed-down mass of people, the dissolving of democracies into a police state entities, high-tech surveillance, mass media used for propaganda and a whole lot of blood rituals. There is indeed nothing optimistic in the dystopian future described in The Hunger Games. Even human dignity is revoked as the masses are forced to watch their own children killing each others as if they were caged animals. That being said, there is little to no difference between movie goers who watch the movie The Hunger Games and the masses in the movie that witness the cruelty of the Games. Both are willing participants in an event that portrays the sacrifice of their own under the amused eye of the elite. Furthermore, one can argue that the movie accomplishes the same functions as the Games in the movie: Distracting the masses with blood and sex while reminding it of the elite’s power.

Is The Hunger Games attempting to warn an apathetic youth of the danger of allowing the current system to devolve into a totalitarian nightmare? Or is it simply programming it to perceive the coming of a New World Order as an inevitability? That question is up for debate. But reading what is being said in the mass media about The Hunger Games, it seems there is an even more important question up for debate: Are you Team Peeta or Team Gale?


Source


Sunday, May 06, 2012

Dominican Republic: Church celebrates religious freedom on the island

Libna Stevens
May 2, 2012
A colorful festival-filled with music and drama-celebrated religious freedom as a gift from God and capped off a week of scholarly presentations and panels at the 7th World Congress for Religious Freedom.
image by Abel Marquez/IAD
The Third Festival for Religious Freedom in the Dominican Republic was held in the Aula Magna on the historic campus of Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Apr. 28, 2012.
May 2, 2012 - Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic....Bettina Krause/IAD Staff

A colorful festival-filled with music and drama-celebrated religious freedom as a gift from God and capped off a week of scholarly presentations and panels at the 7th World Congress for Religious Freedom. The event was held at Aula Magna on the historic campus of Universidad Autónoma in the nation's capital, Santo Domingo, on Apr. 28, 2012, and drew some 3,000 people from across the Dominican Republic, as well as many international participants from the 7th World Congress.

Pastor Ted N.C. Wilson, president of the Seventh-day Adventist world church, spoke to those crowded into the venue, saying that every Adventist Church member is called to be a "champion of religious liberty and freedom of conscience."

"Religious liberty and freedom of conscience is important for everyone in the world," said Pastor Wilson. "If we wish to be proclaimers of religious liberty and reach the world, we must base this proclamation on a relationship with God including a clear, clean, pure lifestyle as did Daniel and his three friends."

Pastor Wilson concluded by emphasizing that justice, fairness, and goodness are God's character, and to be faithful to God and His Word until the second coming.

"As we carry the great banner of religious freedom not only in the Dominican Republic, but in the entire world, may we help the people to understand there is a God in heaven who gives freedom of choice. Where freedom is, there is freedom in His Law," Pastor Wilson said.

The festival event was the third held on the island, one which followed brought an opportunity to celebrate the religious freedom held in the Dominican Republic and to recognize authorities of the country who are ensuring equality and religious liberty issues, said Pastor Cesario Acevedo, president of the church in the Dominican Republic.

Pastor Wilson and John Graz, Secretary General of the International Religious Liberty Association, unveiled a bronze plaque that was cast in commemoration of the 7th World Congress-the first IRLA World Congress to be held in Inter-America and the largest and most diverse, with almost 900 attendees from some 65 countries.

Dr. Aquilina Alcequiez, advisor to the Dominican Republic president for Religious Affairs, read out the text on the plaque: "In remembering the 7th IRLA World Congress on Religious Liberty, held in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, April 24 to 26, 2012. Religious Freedom is a gift of love from God to every human being...The IRLA delegates, coming from 60 countries to attend the World Congress, commend the Dominican Republic for its religious freedom. As million of believers are suffering discrimination, torture, and death in the world, the delegates encourage the Dominican people to join their voices with all people who love justice and freedom."

Representative of the president of the Senate of the Republic as well as the deputy leader of the city of La Romana were awarded a plaque for their efforts in recently approving a law on religious matrimonies and civil issues.

Festivals such as these are important and necessary to hold in countries where religious freedom is enjoyed, said Roberto Herrera, secretary general of IRLA for Inter-America, who has coordinated dozens of religious festivals throughout the Inter-American territory.

"We must continue to be grateful to local governments and taking the opportunity to speak more of religious freedom and what it means to every citizen," said Herrera.

A central feature of the program was a musical drama performed by young people, which told the story of religious freedom in song and drama.

Wally Amundson and Rene Gomez contributed to this report

For more on the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Dominican Republic, visitwww.adventistas.org.do


To view photos of the event, click here

image by Abel Marquez/IAD
Dr. Aquilin Alcequiez, advisor to the Dominican Republic president for religious affairs, read a bronze plaque cast in commemoration of the 7th IRLA World Congress held last week.



Source

.

4 risky places to swipe your debit card


By Claes Bell • Bankrate.com

Debit cards are different

Would you give a thief direct access to your checking account?

No? Unfortunately, you may be doing just that by regularly using your debit card. Debit cards may look identical to credit cards, but there's one key difference. With credit cards, users who spot fraudulent charges on their bill can simply decline the charges and not pay the bill. On the other hand, debit cards draw money directly from your checking account, rather than from an intermediary such as a credit card company.

Because of that, even clear-cut cases of fraud where victims are protected from liability by consumer protection laws can cause significant hardship, says Frank Abagnale, a secure-document consultant in Washington, D.C.

He cites the example of the The TJX Companies Inc.'s T.J. Maxx data breach that exposed the payment information of thousands of customers in 2007. The incident resulted in $150 million in fraud losses, and much of it was pulled directly from customers' bank accounts. While credit card users got their accounts straightened out and new cards in the mail within a few days, the case created major problems for debit card holders who waited an average of two to three months to get reimbursed, Abagnale says.

While debit card fraud is always a possibility, being careful where you use it can help keep your checking account balance out of the hands of criminals.


Read more

.

Secularism in America: Growing American movement raises concerns


Posted By April 20, 2012 | 6:34 pm | Spiritual
'REASON RALLY' DREW ATHEISTS, NONBELIEVERS TO WASHINGTON IN MARCH

By Chaz Muth
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Arianne Gasser of Canton, Ohio, is proud to call herself a graduate student at a prestigious Catholic university, and she also is proud to call herself an atheist.
The pride she has in her atheist status is part of what inspired her to travel from the Philadelphia area, where she is enrolled at Villanova University, to Washington in March to join thousands of other atheists, agnostics and other nonbelievers for the “Reason Rally,” an event that was billed as an assembly to unify secular people nationwide.
Carrying a sign that reads, “This is what an atheist looks like,” Gasser is part of a growing segment of Americans under the age of 30 who identify themselves as atheists or agnostics.
It’s a movement that concerns Catholic leaders worldwide, including Pope Benedict XVI.

“We have morals and we have beliefs and we have these values,” said Gasser, as she walked along the National Mall and marveled at how many people turned out for the rally. “People just think that we’re evil, God-hating. We’re just people. We just don’t believe that something happens to us after we die.”
A survey released in 2009 by the Pew Research Center found that a quarter of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 surveyed said they were atheists, agnostics or had no religion.
“Radical secularism” threatens the core values of American culture, the pope warned a group of U.S. bishops visiting the Vatican in January. He called on the church in the U.S., as well as politicians and other laypeople, to render “public moral witness” on crucial social issues.
“The larger concern with secularism is that it damages people, and that it actually keeps people from being reasonable with one another,” said Chad C. Pecknold, assistant professor of systematic theology in the School of Theology and Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington.
“It creates a great level of intolerance for people of faith. I think secularism for Pope Benedict is a feature of this growing bifurcation between faith and reason,” he told Catholic News Service.
Pecknold, who also is the author of the 2010 book “Christianity and Politics: A Brief Guide to the History,” said secularism is a greater threat to humanity than to the Catholic Church because it could lead to great social unrest and fragmentation.
Vilification of Muslims in the United States following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania can be viewed as an example of secularists’ intolerance.
Richard Dawkins, vice president of the British Humanist Association and author of the 2006 book “The God Delusion,” was quoted as saying religion is dangerous “because it gives people unshakeable confidence in their own righteousness. Dangerous because it gives them false courage to kill themselves, which automatically removes normal barriers to killing others.”
His remarks are an illustration of hostilities toward people of faith, Pecknold said.
“These are all examples of an attempt to cause civil unrest, which I don’t think are sustainable,” he said. “It could actually lead to greater and greater social unrest, and could potentially give so much power to culture wars that we become an increasingly fragmented society.”
The greatest threat to civil society comes from militant atheists, Pecknold told CNS.
Gasser and many of the atheists and agnostics who gathered at the “Reason Rally” said they don’t see the secular movement as a threat to society. They just want people to respect their right to shun organized religion and to have their voices heard by politicians and policymakers.
They carried signs that read “Good without a God,” “Proud to be an atheist,” and “It’s OK to be an atheist.”
Others carried signs or wore shirts that had more provocative messages, such as “If you really believe prayer worked, you’d stop voting,” “Freedom is the distance between church and state,” and “No God, No Devil, Just Us.”
Gasser said she just wants her voice to be heard with the same volume as Christians, Muslims and Jews.
“I’m not really into politics, but I do think that secular beliefs need to be treated equally with people who are believers,” she told CNS. “I don’t think we’re recognized in the government policies and the way people cover campaigns. It’s just all appealing to religious people, but there are so many of us who want to have a say in how our country is run.”
The poll numbers revealing growing atheist numbers and events like the “Reason Rally” have theology scholars focusing on what they believe is driving the secularism movement.
“The cultural conditions have become more conducive to atheism. We can see that in economic ways in that we are encouraged to think of ourselves as economic individuals,” Pecknold said.
“We see that in the Tea Party, a libertarian approach to economic good in which economics is something that is merely representing my own self-interests,” he said. “That kind of radical individualism in economic terms or philosophical terms is itself kind of a practical atheism, in which you detach yourself from any sort of transcendent notion of the good, any sort of sense of a common good that you would participate in.
“A kind of view in which I can participate in something bigger than myself is kind of eroded from our economic practice as human beings.”


PHOTO:Alberto Valdez from Del Rio, Texas, joins others March 24 for the Reason Rally, a gathering of atheists and nonbelievers held on the National Mall in Washington. Research shows a growing number of young adults who say they are atheists, agnostics or have no religion. (CNS photo/Tyrone Turner courtesy of Religion News Service)


Source

.





.

The Moon was 14% bigger? Pseudofactotechnicalisis

Last night the Moon was the closest to Earth it will be until next year.
They claimed that it would appear 14% bigger than usual.

Who measures these sizes? Who predicts these statistics? Rocket scientists?

Isn't this similar to Ivory Soap's claim that their soap is 99.9% pure?

So much frivolous information is passed off as NEWS by the Wi-Fi Media.

I have coined a word to describe this symptom: pseudofactotechnicalisis.

Arsenio.
.

Saturday, May 05, 2012

Race and Religion in the US Presidential Election

Published May 05, 2012
Fox News Latino


Campaign Race And Religion.jpg

FILE - This combination of 2012 file photos shows U.S. President Barack Obama, left, and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in Boulder, Colo. and Cape Canaveral, Fla. How unthinkable it was, not so long ago, that a presidential election would pit a candidate fathered by an African against another condemned as un-Christian. And yet, here it is: Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney, an African-American and a white Mormon, representatives of two groups and that have endured oppression to carve out a place in the United States. How much progress has America made against bigotry? (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, Charles Dharapak)


Only a few years ago it would seem strange that the United States presidential election would pair off a candidate fathered by an African against another condemned as un-Christian.
Yet here it is: Barack Obama versus Mitt Romney, an African-American and a white Mormon, representatives of two groups and that have endured oppression to carve out a place in the United States.
How much progress has America made against bigotry? By November, we should have some idea.
Perhaps mindful of the lingering power of prejudice, both men soft-pedal their status as racial or religious pioneers. But these things "will be factors whether they're explicitly stated or not, because both Obama and Romney are minorities," said Nancy Wadsworth, co-editor of the anthology "Faith and Race in American Political Life."
Mormons are 1.7 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Pew Research Center. African-Americans are 12.6 percent
"Americans like to obsess about ways that people are different," said Wadsworth, a political science professor at the University of Denver. Voters of all types say that a candidate's race or religious beliefs should not be cause for bias, "but Americans are really conflicted about this, and they talk out of both sides of their mouth."
In an October 2011 Associated Press-GfK poll, 21 percent of respondents said they would be less likely to cast a presidential vote for a Mormon. Four percent said they would be less likely to vote for a black person. An AP poll during the 2008 campaign found that nearly 40 percent of white Americans had at least a partly negative view of black people.
The gap between America's high-minded ideals and narrow-minded practice is not new.
In 1620, the Puritans landed on Plymouth Rock searching for religious freedom. The Constitution forbade a religious test for president. Still, the religion of presidential candidates historically has been a major issue, though nearly all have been Protestant.
Thomas Jefferson, who coined the phrase "separation between church and state," was decried as godless. Nearly 160 years later, John F. Kennedy was tarred as a Roman Catholic who would answer to the pope instead of the American people.
In 1787, the same colonists who had demanded equal rights in their dealings with England wrote a Constitution that reduced blacks to three-fifths of a person. Nearly 80 years would pass before that changed and another century before blacks would be assured the vote.
Obama remains the sole member of the most exclusive club in the world, racial minorities who were nominated for president by a major party.
In 2012, it's unlikely that more than a smattering of die-hard bigots will be repelled by both presidential choices. But even well-intentioned people can be influenced by the powerful emotional pull of these issues.
Obama has been assailed by racially charged accusations since he became the first black president: Obama isn't a citizen; he refused to punish New Black Panthers who intimidated white voters; he's seeking payback for past white racism by redistributing tax money to poor minorities; he's using the Trayvon Martin killing for political gain.
Wes Anderson, a Republican consultant and pollster, said many white swing voters who chose Obama in 2008 think he has governed further to the left than they expected, which has fed ideas that Obama is a typical "black liberal politician" who is "pandering to minorities."
"From their perspective, I think race will be a convenient excuse for why he has not met their expectations," Anderson said.
Wadsworth said that even after three-plus years of a black president, racial bias remains "super-loaded and super-coded."
"It's coded into political 'otherness' — he's a socialist, he's dangerous, maybe a Muslim," she said. "I think down underneath there's a lot of race bias, it's just that they've figured out ways to channel that into seemingly race-neutral codes."
Then there's bald racism.
This April, bar owner Patrick Lanzo in Paulding County, Ga., posted a roadside sign outside his establishment that used the n-word to convey his disdain for the president. "I don't feel bad about (the sign) whatsoever," Lanzo told Fox 5 News in Atlanta.
Obviously, Obama's victory in 2008 did not put racial issues to rest. "He is never on stable ground, racially," Wadsworth observed.
Romney has tried to push past anti-Mormonism, with mixed success. His membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been an issue his entire political career.
In 2007, during his presidential primary battle against Arizona Sen. John McCain, he gave a speech to quiet concerns about his faith. "I do not define my candidacy by my religion. A person should not be elected because of his faith nor should he be rejected because of his faith," Romney said in the address, which used the word "Mormon" only once.
There continue to be blatant expressions of hostility toward Mormons. For example, there is an "I Hate Mormons" page on Facebook.
But J.B. Haws, a historian at Brigham Young University who researches public perception of the Mormon church, said most common suspicions about Mormons were rehashed in the 2008 election and this year's GOP primary, so moving forward the discussion is likely to be more substantive and informed.
"But that doesn't change the fact that the questions will still be tough and pointed," Haws said.
The Mormon church was founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith, who said God directed him to restore the true Christian church by revising parts of the Bible and adding the Book of Mormon as a sacred text. Smith said an angel directed him to a buried holy book in upstate New York, written on golden plates, which he translated from "reformed Egyptian" into the Book of Mormon. Theological differences have led many Christians to conclude that Mormons are not part of historic Christianity.
There's the issue of polygamy, though the Mormon church renounced the practice in 1890.
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, recently took the opportunity of a Daily Beast interview to say that Romney's father, George, was "born into (a) polygamy commune in Mexico." (Mitt Romney's grandfather, Gaskell, had one wife, but his great-grandfather, Miles Park Romney, had four and fled to Mexico in 1885 to escape U.S. anti-polygamy laws.)
One of the toughest questions probably will focus on the Mormons' former ban on men of African descent in the priesthood. When the church lifted the prohibition in 1978, leaders didn't explain the theology behind it. That left questions about church doctrine on race, even though Mormon leaders repeatedly denounce racism.
It's an issue that Mormons discuss among themselves. But when it's brought up in a campaign setting, many Mormons say it's just an attempt to embarrass Romney.
Several conservatives have recently predicted that liberals, rankled by Mormon opposition to gay marriage and emphasis on stay-at-home motherhood, would use religion to "smear" Romney. "It's way out of bounds, but that's what's going to happen," said a prominent Mormon, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
But liberals are not the only ones who are suspicious of the Mormons. Vice President Joe Biden told Esquire magazine that faith shouldn't be a factor in elections, so "that's why I'm so angry about the way they're treating Romney." By "they," Biden probably was focusing on evangelicals, who make up a big part of the GOP base.
When Liberty University, the school founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, announced Romney as commencement speaker on May 12, hundreds of angry comments were posted on Liberty's Facebook page by people who said they were students or alumni, objecting to giving a Mormon a platform. The school responded by affirming its welcome to Romney.
But evangelicals are among the country's most politically conservative voters, and "they're going to hold their nose and vote for Romney. They're certainly not going to join the Obama campaign," said Patrick Mason, author of "The Mormon Menace: Violence and Anti-Mormonism in the Postbellum South."
Anderson, the pollster, said his research has found that evangelicals know more than other groups about what Mormons actually believe, and despite their religious differences tend to view Mormon values as positive.
"Is the bigger problem for Romney not evangelical Christians, but more secular voters who are skeptical of what Mormonism is, or just ignorant?" Anderson asked.
Perhaps it is just their growing hostility to religion in general, Mason said. "Mormonism becomes the lens through which they can paint their critique."
Regardless, the Romney campaign "would be crazy if they didn't have a plan in place already" to deal with Mormon bias, said Mark Noll, a University of Notre Dame historian who wrote "God and Race in American Politics," ''just like Obama's people are just dusting off whatever they had ready in 2008."
In 2008, racial issues threatened to torpedo Obama after the emergence of militant pro-black sermons by his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Obama defused the issue with a major speech on race, but the Wright connection fed a GOP narrative that Obama was not "one of us." Democrats labeled such statements coded language that appealed to racial prejudices.
In the final stages of his losing campaign, McCain declined entreaties from some advisers to use Wright's sermons to attack Obama.
"John McCain, whatever else you want to say about him, did not use all the racial weapons he could have used," said Randall Kennedy, a Harvard Law School professor and author of "The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency."
"Well, McCain lost," Kennedy continued. "I can't help but think that this time around, if there is anything that could plausibly be used, no matter how ugly, it will be used. So I anticipate a very messy, ugly campaign."
"I hope I'm wrong," Kennedy said, "but I expect it to be worse."
Based on reporting by Jesse Washington and Rachel Zoll of The Associated Press.



.