Tuesday, May 29, 2012

The Kuwaiti Incubator Baby Hoax

A key event in generating momentum for the first U.S. War on Iraq, "Operation Desert Storm" was a fraudulent report of the murder of Kuwaiti babies by Iraqi soldiers. On October 10, 1990, the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus held a hearing on the subject of Iraqi human rights violations. The centerpiece of the event was the emotional testimony of a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl, known only by her first name, Nayirah. Her full name was supposedly being kept secret to protect her from Iraqi reprisals. The girl relayed a shocking story while sobbing.

I volunteered at the al-Addan hospital. While I was there, I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with guns, and go into the room where . . . babies were in incubators. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators, and left the babies on the cold floor to die.
The massacre never occurred. The girl was actually the daughter of a Kuwaiti emir, and had been coached by the public relations firm Hill and Knowlton to give persuasive false testimony.

e x c e r p t
title: How PR Sold the War in the Persian Gulf
authors: John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton
...
In fact, the most emotionally moving testimony on October 10 came from a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl, known only by her first name of Nayirah. According to the Caucus, Nayirah's full name was being kept confidential to prevent Iraqi reprisals against her family in occupied Kuwait. Sobbing, she described what she had seen with her own eyes in a hospital in Kuwait City. Her written testimony was passed out in a media kit prepared by Citizens for a Free Kuwait.
...
Three months passed between Nayirah's testimony and the start of the war. During those months, the story of babies torn from their incubators was repeated over and over again. President Bush told the story. It was recited as fact in Congressional testimony, on TV and radio talk shows, and at the UN Security Council. "Of all the accusations made against the dictator," MacArthur observed, "none had more impact on American public opinion than the one about Iraqi soldiers removing 312 babies from their incubators and leaving them to die on the cold hospital floors of Kuwait City."


site: www.prwatch.org page: www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html

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Monday, May 28, 2012

Clean and Unclean / The Whole Truth - Walter Veith





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The Annan Assad Encounter

Kofi Annan
Kofi Atta Annan (ANNN-NAAN) the peace envoy is on a mission from the Arab League and the United Nations to meet with Bashar Hafez al-Assad (ASSS-ADD), President of Syria regarding the lastest Massacre in Hula, Syria.
Bashar al-Assad

Miami hardware store swears off the penny


Miami Herald reporter Douglas Hanks on why a hardware store has decided to get rid of the penny.

Tess Vigeland: Everyone loves money, right? But not so with the humble penny. Canada has recently banned their 1-cent currency. The penny debate has been raging in this country for a while. And one stateside store have taken matters into it own hands. The Miami Herald's Doug Hanks has written about Shell Lumber, a hardware store in Florida, that decided a penny saved is a penny that's not worth the effort. Doug joins us now. Welcome to the program.

Doug Hanks: Thanks for having me.

Vigeland: So you found this one hardware store in the Miami area that has actually banned the penny. Tell us why.

Hanks: Well, they decided that it just really wasn't worth the trouble counting pennies any more. The spending power is so low that this hardware store said, 'We're counting like a thousand pennies a day by the time it's all over and what do we get out of it?' They said let's just stop it. And they put up big signs with pennies and big slash marks through and said to customers no more pennies, we're going to round in your favor. So if the change says that you should get three pennies back, they'll just give you the nickel and they eat the two-cent loss.

Vigeland: Yeah, 'cause I guess you could certainly change your prices, but you always have sales tax. Right?

Hanks: Right. And that's the thing. They tried to work it out and the accountants weren't happy about it, but they really got sick of bookkeepers saying, 'Hey, your drawer is off by three cents.' And their answer basically was why do we care? They're not the only ones in researching this story. For instance, overseas military bases, they stopped using pennies in the '80s.

Vigeland: What happens if, say, a customer comes in and wants to pay with five pennies instead of a nickel. They'll take the pennies, right? It's currency.

Hanks: There are a few things that you could actually use pennies to pay for. Like, there's a little washer that sells for three cents. But basically when someone tries to make out the exact change, they just say keep your pennies, keep your pennies, we don't need it. Now, I think you could really screw 'em up by bringing in 100 pennies, maybe they'd have to take it. So far it looks like it's fairly popular. Some people thought that they were getting ripped off, but once they were told no no, we're saving you money, they're very happy about it.

Vigeland: So Shell Lumber has been doing this for a month now. How has it been for them?

Hanks: It's been popular. This is a store that likes to have the brand of the old-fashioned neighborhood hardware store. They give away snow cones on Saturdays, they have a popcorn machine. So they saw this as just another way to make it easier to shop at Shell Lumber than say, Home Depot, which is their big cross-town rival. So they say it's been well-received and it's just one more interesting thing they do.

Vigeland: What about, say, the gumball machine? What happens there?

Hanks: Yeah, gumball machines have stopped taking pennies. It's really hard to find anything that's still taking pennies -- toll booths don't take them. The vending machine industry, they want dollar coins to catch on, but they're done with pennies. So it has very little use. Even the Federal Reserve, they used to -- when the banks would deposit pennies, they would weigh them to make sure the deposit was right. They stopped doing that about 10 years ago. Now they essentially say, we trust you. It's not worth counting all these pennies.

Vigeland: I know that there is this big movement in this country to get rid of the penny, so presumably this has caused celeb for them.

Hanks: It is. When Barack Obama was running for president, he actually sort of off-handedly endorsed getting rid of the penny as long as -- this is the senator from Illinois at the time -- they could find a coin for Abraham Lincoln.

Vigeland: For Abraham Lincoln, right?

Hanks: Yeah. That's the big stumbling block -- Abraham Lincoln.

Vigeland: All right. Well Doug Hanks, reporter for The Miami Herald, I would thank you for giving us a penny for your thoughts, but I'll round it up to a nickel.

Hanks: Thank you very much.

About the author

Tess Vigeland is the host of Marketplace Money, where she takes a deep dive into why we do what we do with our money.



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Lloyd’s Of London Preparing For Euro Collapse As Greece Is Warned Of Possible Public Finances Collapse




05/27/2012 ICA

By Andrew Cave, The Telegraph – “Richard Ward said the London market had put in place a contingency plan to switch euro underwriting to multi-currency settlement if Greece abandoned the euro.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph he also revealed that Lloyd’s could have to take writedowns on its £58.9bn investment portfolio if the eurozone collapses.

Europe accounts for 18pc of Lloyd’s £23.5bn of gross written premiums, mostly in France, Germany, Spain and Italy. The market also has a fledgling operation in Poland.

Lloyd’s move comes as a major Franco-German provider of credit insurance for eurozone trade, Euler Hermes, said it was considering reducing cover for trade with Greece because of the risk the country might leave the eurozone.

When a company goes bust, it is often sparked by withdrawal of credit insurance for suppliers wanting to trade with it.

A spokesman for Euler Hermes, Bettina Sattler, told Bloomberg: ‘The outcome of the new elections in June remains highly uncertain. Consequently, the situation is further deteriorating. The risk of Greece exiting the eurozone has been revived.

‘In light of the recent developments, Euler Hermes will most probably have to switch to a more prudent approach. [We have] maintained a high level of cover for [our] customers until today. But now we are confronted with a changing situation.’

Lloyd’s fears are likely to be shared by a number of European businesses, which are watching developments in Greece.” Read more.

Greece warned of public finances collapse – “Greece’s public finances could collapse as early as next month, leaving salaries and pensions unpaid unless a stable government emerges from the June 17 election, according to Lucas Papademos, the technocrat prime minister who left office after this month’s inconclusive vote. Mr Papademos warned that conditions were deteriorating faster than expected with cash flow likely to turn negative in early June amid a sharp fall in tax revenues and a loosening of spending controls during two back-to-back election campaigns.” Read more.



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Tropical Storm BERYL




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Sunday, May 27, 2012

Lloyd's 'ready for euro collapse'


The boss of insurance market Lloyd's of London is prepared for a collapse of the euro, it has been reported, and has reduced its exposure to the troubled single-currency region.

Chief executive Richard Ward told the Sunday Telegraph that the London market has put in place a contingency plan to switch euro underwriting to multi-currency settlement if Greece abandons the euro.

Mr Ward has warned that the Lloyd's market, which is made up of around 80 insurance syndicates, could have to take writedowns on its £58.9 billion investment portfolio if the eurozone collapses.

Europe accounts for 18% of Lloyd's £23.5 billion of gross written premiums, mostly in France, Germany, Spain and Italy. The market also has a fledgling operation in Poland.

Mr Ward told the Sunday Telegraph: "I'm quite worried about Europe. With all the concerns around the eurozone at the moment, we've got to be careful doing business in Europe and there are a lot of question marks over writing business in the future in euros."

Mr Ward said Lloyd's had been working hard on contingency planning and had the capability to switch settlement of European underwriting from euros to other currencies.

The contingency planning comes as German politicians piled the pressure on Greece ahead of elections on June 17.

The country's crisis deepened earlier this month after leaders failed to form a coalition government.

If an anti-austerity party is elected in June, many fear Greece will be denied further tranches of bailout cash and the country will have to exit the euro.


SOURCE



Just Doing His Job Is Catholic Official's Defense

Just Doing His Job Is Catholic Official's Defense
by BARBARA BRADLEY HAGERTY



Weekend Edition Sunday [4 min 12 sec]



Matt Rourke/AP
Monsignor William Lynn leaves the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia in March. When he finally took to the stand after two months of testimony, the prosecutor called him a liar over and over.

May 27, 2012

A clergy sex-abuse trial in is reaching a crescendo in a Philadelphia courtroom. One defendant is James Brennan, a priest accused of trying to rape a minor, which is not that unusual.

What's drawing attention is the second defendant, Monsignor William Lynn. Lynn is first high-level Catholic official to be criminally prosecuted — not for abusing minors himself, but for failing to protect children from predator priests.

Failure To Protect?

So far, it's been a brutal trial for Lynn. He served as the archdiocese's secretary for clergy between 1992 and 2004, and it was his job to investigate sex abuse claims and protect children.

For eight weeks, prosecutors presented a mountain of evidence — nearly 2,000 documents and some 50 witnesses — that Lynn put the priests and the Church ahead of abused children.

But possibly the most compelling evidence against Lynn was his own words: statements before a grand jury a decade ago when he detailed what he did, or more importantly, did not do about priests suspected of abuse.

"He never called the police," says Ralph Cipriano, a journalist who has chronicled every day of testimony for the blog Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial. "He never talked to authorities of any kind. He never reported anything to anybody except his superiors. And he kept everything in-house. It seemed to be like an intelligence network set up totally for the benefit of the Church."

Taking The Stand

After two months of punishing testimony, Cipriano and others say, defense attorneys worried they could be losing the case. So they took a risk. They put Lynn on the stand.

"The thinking seemed to be ... 'It's fourth and 35, let's try the Hail Mary. Send in Lynn, and let's see what he can do,'" Cipriano says, "and maybe if the prosecutor will cooperate by beating him up so badly, that perhaps the jury will feel sympathetic for him."

Lynn did take a beating from the prosecutor, Patrick Blessington, who called Lynn a liar over and over again. Blessington forced the priest to admit he did not follow up on anonymous complaints. He said Lynn didn't tell victims when there were other allegations against a priest. Blessington also claimed Lynn even misled victims, by implying that the accused priests were out of ministry when they still had access to children.

Lynn replied the prosecutor was twisting his words. When Lynn said was doing his best to protect children, Blessington shot back, "Your best is nothing."

The prosecution paid particular focus to a document that Lynn created in 1994 — a list of 35 priests who were known or suspected abusers. Dave Pierre heads The Media Report, which has provided the Church's perspective on the trial. He says, as with much of the evidence, there are two ways to look at the list.

"The prosecution has presented this list as basically a smoking gun, in that this list shows that Lynn knowingly allowed priests to remain in ministry," Pierre says. "Lynn's defense, on the other hand, is, 'Wait a moment, this list shows that I sought to tackle this problem and address this problem.'"

That is Lynn's first defense — that he did more than any of his predecessors to stop sexually abusive priests.

Chain Of Command

Lynn's second defense, Pierre says, is that he was low man in the hierarchy.

"He did not really have defining authority," Pierre says. The power in the archdiocese rested with Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, who died earlier this year.

"Only Bevilacqua had the power to assign priests and move them around and remove them from ministry, and Lynn has argued that his role was merely advisory to the bishop," Pierre says.

Marci Hamilton, a professor at Cardozo Law School who has represented victims of abuse, calls this "the classic Mei Lei defense or the Nuremberg defense."

"It's the idea that ... as someone who was under orders, the person had no choice as to what they could do," Hamilton says. "But it's not a defense to criminal charges because you're charged according to your actions, and his actions were clearly part of a conspiracy to cover up abuse and to permit these abusers to have access to numerous children."

Hamilton believes the defense is hoping the jury will acquit Lynn because he wasn't ultimately responsible.

On Tuesday, the prosecutor will resume his cross-examination of Lynn. Then the attorneys for Brennan — the priest accused of trying to rape a 14-year-old boy — will put on their defense. Closing arguments could come as early as this week.




Vatican In Chaos After Butler Arrested For Leaks

by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


VATICAN CITY May 27, 2012, 01:06 pm ET


VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican's investigation into the source of leaked documents has yielded its first target with the arrest of the pope's butler, but the investigation is continuing into a scandal that has embarrassed the Holy See by revealing evidence of internal power struggles, intrigue and corruption in the highest levels of the Catholic Church governance.

The detention of butler Paolo Gabriele, one of the few members of the papal household, capped one of the most convulsive weeks in recent Vatican history and threw the Holy See into chaos as it enters a critical phase in its efforts to show the world it's serious about complying with international norms on financial transparency.

The tumult began with the publication last weekend of a book of leaked Vatican documents including correspondence, notes and memos to the pope and his private secretary. It peaked with the inglorious ouster on Thursday of the president of the Vatican bank. And it concluded with confirmation Saturday that Pope Benedict XVI's own butler was the alleged mole feeding documents to Italian journalists in an apparent bid to discredit the pontiff's No. 2.

"If you wrote this in fiction you wouldn't believe it," said Carl Anderson, a member of the board of the Vatican bank which contributed to the whirlwind with its no-confidence vote in its president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi. "No editor would let you put it in a novel."

The bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, issued a scathing denunciation of Gotti Tedeschi in a memorandum obtained Saturday by The Associated Press. In it the bank, or IOR by its Italian initials, explained its reasons for ousting Gotti Tedeschi: he routinely missed board meetings, failed to do his job, failed to defend the bank, polarized its personnel and displayed "progressively erratic personal behavior."

Gotti Tedeschi was also accused by the board of leaking documents himself: The IOR memorandum said he "failed to provide any formal explanation for the dissemination of documents last known" to be in his possession.

In an interview with the AP, Anderson said the latter accusation was independent of the broader "Vatileaks" scandal that has rocked the Vatican for months. But he stressed: "It is not an insignificant issue."

Gotti Tedeschi hasn't commented publicly about his ouster or the reasons behind it, saying he has too much admiration for the pope to do so. He also hasn't been arrested, avoiding the fate that befell Gabriele.

The 46-year-old father of three has been in Vatican detention since Wednesday after Vatican investigators discovered Holy See documents in his apartment. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Gabriele had met with his lawyers and that the investigation was taking its course through the Vatican's judicial system.

Gabriele, the pope's personal butler since 2006, has often been seen by Benedict's side in public, riding in the front seat of the pope's open-air jeep during Wednesday general audiences or shielding the pontiff from the rain. In private, he is a member of the small papal household that also includes the pontiff's private secretaries and four consecrated women who care for the papal apartment.

Lombardi said Gabriele's detention marked a sad development for all Vatican staff. "Everyone knows him in the Vatican, and there's certainly surprise and pain, and great affection for his beloved family," the spokesman said.

The "Vatileaks" scandal has seriously embarrassed the Vatican at a time when it is trying to show the world financial community that it has turned a page and shed its reputation as a scandal plagued tax haven.

Vatican documents leaked to the media in recent months have undermined that effort, alleging corruption in Vatican finance as well as internal bickering over the Holy See's efforts to comply with international norms to fight money laundering and terror financing.

The Vatican in July will learn if it has complied with the financial transparency criteria of a Council of Europe committee, Moneyval — a key step in its efforts to get on the so-called "white list" of countries that share financial information to fight tax evasion.

Anderson acknowleged that the events of the last week certainly haven't cast the Holy See in the best light. And he said the bank's board appreciated that the ouster of its president just weeks before the expected Moneyval decision could give the committee pause.

"The board considered that concern and decided that all things considered it was best to take the action at this time," Anderson said. "These steps were taken to increase the IOR's position vis-a-vis Moneyval."

The Vatileaks scandal began in January when Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi broadcast letters from the former No. 2 Vatican administrator to the pope in which he begged not to be transferred for having exposed alleged corruption that cost the Holy See millions of euros in higher contract prices. The prelate, Monsignor Carlo Maria Vigano, is now the Vatican's U.S. ambassador.

Nuzzi, author of "Vatican SpA," a 2009 volume laying out shady dealings of the Vatican bank based on leaked documents, last weekend published "His Holiness," which presented a trove of other documents including personal correspondence to the pope and his secretary — many of them painting Benedict’s No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, in a negative light.

Nuzzi has said he was offered the documents by multiple Vatican sources and insisted he didn't pay a cent € to any of them.

Gabriele was in Vatican custody and unavailable for comment. No known motive has come to light as to why Gabriele, if he is found to be the key mole, might have passed on the documents. Nuzzi declined to comment Saturday on whether Gabriele was among his sources.

Bertone, 77, has been blamed for a series of gaffes and management problems that have plagued Benedict's papacy and, according to the leaked documents, generated a not inconsiderable amount of ill will directed at him from other Vatican officials.

"For some time and in various parts of the church, criticism even by the faithful has been growing about the lack of coordination and confusion that reign at its center," Cardinal Paolo Sardi, the former No. 2 official in the Vatican secretariat of state, wrote to the pope in 2009, according to the letter cited in "His Holiness."

Anderson, who heads the Knights of Columbus, a major U.S. lay Catholic organization, said he was certain the Holy See would weather the storm and that the Vatican bank, at least, could move forward under a new leader with solid banking credentials as well as a desire to show off the bank's transparency.

"I hope this will be the beginning of a new chapter for the IOR and part of that chapter will be restoring the public image of the IOR," he told AP. "I think we have a good story to tell."

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Connect with Nicole Winfield on Twitter: www.twitter.com/nwinfield





An unlimited broadcasting station


I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in. ~George Washington Carver
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Saturday, May 26, 2012

Vatican translates rules for assessing apparitions for first time

By CAROL GLATZ on Friday, 25 May 2012

Pilgrims pray around a statue of the Virgin Mary on Apparition Hill in Medjugorje (CNS photo)

Pilgrims pray around a statue of the Virgin Mary on Apparition Hill in Medjugorje (CNS photo)

The Vatican has translated and published procedural rules used to determine the credibility of alleged Marian apparitions which for 30 years have only been available in Latin.

The “Norms regarding the manner of proceedings in the discernment of presumed apparitions or revelations” were approved by Pope Paul VI in 1978 and distributed to the world’s bishops, but never officially published or translated into modern languages.

However, over the past three decades, unauthorised translations have appeared around the world, according to Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

In a note dated December 2011 the cardinal wrote that the doctrinal office “believes it is now opportune to publish these ‘Norms,’ providing translations in the principle languages” so as to “aid the pastors of the Catholic Church in their difficult task of discerning presumed apparitions, revelations, messages or, more generally, extraordinary phenomena of presumed supernatural origin”.

His note and the newly translated norms have been published on the congregation’s website www.doctrinafidei.va.

Cardinal Levada wrote that he hoped the norms “might be useful to theologians and experts in this field of the lived experience of the Church, whose delicacy requires an ever-more thorough consideration”.

More than 1,500 visions of Mary have been reported around the world, but in the past century only nine cases have received Church approval as worthy of belief.

Determining the veracity of an apparition falls to the local bishop, and the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation established the norms to guide the process.

Granting approval is never brief, with some cases taking hundreds of years. Visionaries and witnesses must be questioned and the fruits of the apparitions, such as conversions, miracles and healings, must be examined.

According to the norms, the local bishop should set up a commission of experts, including theologians, canonists, psychologists and doctors, to help him determine the facts, the mental, moral and spiritual wholesomeness and seriousness of the visionary, and whether the message and testimony are free from theological and doctrinal error.

A bishop can come to one of three conclusions: he can determine the apparition to be true and worthy of belief; he can say it is not true, which leaves open the possibility for an appeal; or he can say that at the moment he doesn’t know and needs more help.

In the last scenario, the investigation is brought to the country’s bishops’ conference. If that body cannot come to a conclusion, the matter is turned over to the pope, who delegates the doctrinal congregation to step in and give advice or appoint others to investigate.

The alleged apparitions at Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina are an example of a situation in which the country’s bishops requested that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith intervene.

In that case, the congregation established an international commission in 2010 to investigate the claims of six young people who said Mary had appeared to them daily beginning in 1981.

The apparitions purportedly continue and thousands travel to the small town each month to meet the alleged seers and to pray.

Pope Benedict XVI has reaffirmed that the Church never requires the faithful to believe in apparitions, not even those recognised by the Church.

In his note, Cardinal Levada quoted the Pope saying: “The criterion for judging the truth of a private revelation is its orientation to Christ himself,” in that it doesn’t lead people away from Jesus, but urges them toward closer communion with Christ and the Gospel.

The cardinal also quoted from the writings of St John of the Cross, who emphasised that God said everything he had to say in Jesus Christ – in his one and only son and Word.

“Any person questioning God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behaviour but also of offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely on Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty,” the saint wrote.

Church approval of a private revelation, in essence, is just the Church’s way of saying the message is not contrary to the faith or morality, it is licit to make the message public “and the faithful are authorised to give to it their prudent adhesion,” the Pope said in his 2010 Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, “Verbum Domini” (“The Word of the Lord”)


Source


Richard Land: Constraint on Gov't, Not Citizens Regarding Religious Freedom Issues

(Photo: Lauren Hammond)
Dr. Richard Land receives the national award at the 10th annual Religious Liberty Dinner at the Canadian embassy in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, May 24, 2012.


By Michelle A. Vu , Christian Post Reporter
May 26, 2012|1:12 pm


WASHINGTON – The constraint is on the government, not citizens when it comes to church-state issues according to the Constitution, stated Dr. Richard Land, who was honored with a national religious liberty award earlier this week at the Canadian embassy.

"I'm always fond of pointing out to people that when you look at our First Amendment to the Constitution, which is in large part there because Baptists insisted that it be there in order for them to vote to ratify the Constitution, all of the restrictions are on the government, not on citizens," said Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, at the 10th annual Religious Liberty Dinner on Thursday.

He continued, "It says Congress shall make no laws establishing a religion nor interfere with the free exercise thereof. It doesn't say that we as people of faith cannot bring our faith conviction into the public square."

The annual Religious Liberty banquet is sponsored by the more than 100-year-old Liberty Magazine, which is dedicated to covering religious freedom issues, the International Religious Liberty Association, the North American Religious Liberty Association, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The event counts ambassadors, high-level diplomats, and U.S. politicians among its guests.

Past honorees and speakers of the Religious Liberty Dinner include Hillary Clinton, Suzan Johnson Cook, John McCain, John Kerry, Trent Franks, and Barry Black.

This year, Land was honored with the event's national award, while Gerald Chipeur, a well-known civil rights lawyer who frequently appears in the Supreme Court of Canada, received the international award for religious liberty.

Land, who is also the executive editor of The Christian Post, told CP after the dinner that he is honored to receive the award that has been given to such prestigious leaders in the past.

During his brief speech after accepting the award, Land said that religious freedom is not only an American value, but a universal and human value.

"Every human being deserves the right to work out his or her relationship with their creator without coercive interference from any government or ecclesiastical [body]," the 2012 National Religious Liberty awardee stated.

Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird agreed with Land that religious freedom is a universal value. Baird, who was the keynote speaker, said history has proven that religious freedom and democratic freedom are inseparable.

"Societies that protect religious freedom are more likely to protect other freedoms," said Baird, who was elected to be Canada's foreign minister last year. "They are typically more stable and they are typically more economically prosperous. When we have religious freedom, other freedoms follow."

He also reflected on Canada's past of trying to be an "honest broker" and not taking a strong stand on hot-button issues, saying, "I call it being afraid to take a clear position even when that's what's needed. So I am proud to say Canada is no longer a country that goes along to get along in the conduct of our foreign affairs.

"We will stand for what is principled, regardless of whether it is popular, convenient or expedient," he declared. "We do so as part of our commitment to human rights for all."

Part of Baird's campaign promise last year was to establish the Office of Religious Freedom. He briefly spoke about it during the speech, saying that the office will help diplomats around the world support religious freedom. But details about the progress of setting up the office, according to Canadian media, are scant.






Execute true judgment


4 Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying,

5 Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?

6
And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?

7 Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain?

8 And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying,

9 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother:

10 And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.

11 But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.

12 Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts.

13 Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts:

14 But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate.



Zechariah 7 :4-14.
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Friday, May 25, 2012

While The United Nations And Obama Endorse Same-Sex Marriage,..

PRESS RELEASE
May 23, 2012, 1:21 p.m. EDT

While The United Nations And Obama Endorse Same-Sex Marriage, The World Congress Of Families VI Meets In Madrid To Affirm The Natural Family As The Future Of Society

MADRID, May 23, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The World Congress of Families Defends the Rights of Children to Have a Mother and Father in Every Home

In two days, World Congress of Families VI will open in Madrid's Palacio de Congresos to affirm the natural family as the fundamental unit of society while President Barack Obama and world leaders try to force so-called same-sex marriage on a global society suffering from economic decline, moral bankruptcy, family breakdown, and social chaos.

The theme for WCF VI in Madrid, Spain (May 25-27) is "Marriage and Family, Future of Society." This theme reflects that there is no greater social indicator for the future success of our civilization than the strength of natural marriage and natural families in society. For example, decades of research indicates that natural marriage can reduce rates of poverty by over 80%.

"We had no idea when we began planning our sixth Congress over two years ago that it would come on the heels of an announcement by a U.S. president that he supports homosexual 'marriage,' based on spurious claims of equality and ignoring the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the rights of children to be raised by their biological mothers and fathers," said Larry Jacobs, World Congress of Families Managing Director.

In many ways, the timing is providential, Jacobs observed: "The Congress will open in Spain almost two weeks to the day after President Obama announced his repudiation of the natural family. Spain's civil society and economy is still recovering from many years of a socialist government, led by Zapatero, who forced the legalization of same-sex marriage and abortion on the Spanish people despite overwhelmingly public opposition. Just as our radical opponents have lobbied and organized to make their voice heard, advocates for the natural family must continue to organize internationally and speak out against radical LGBT and feminist injustice against children and families."

Speakers at the three-day Congress will include Cardinal Ennio Antonelli (President of the Pontifical Council on the Family) on "The Natural Family and the Revolution Against the Family," Rabbi Moshe Bendahan (Chief Rabbi of Spain) on "Family, the Future of Society," Erich W. Kopischke (Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) on "The Value of the Natural Family," Fr. Philaret Bulekov (delivering a message from Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev of the Russian Orthodox Church) and Dr. Paige Patterson (President of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary).

Speeches by social scientists, authors, physicians and officeholders will touch on such varied topics as: the worldwide decline in fertility, how government policies impact on the family, the family and international law, contraception vs. natural family planning, the health effects of promiscuity and infidelity, family economics and social capital, rediscovering the role of homemaker, the culture of life versus the culture of death, fighting for freedom to educate, the social cost of pornography and sexual slavery, and family-friendly entertainment.

A plenary session on The Homosexual Lobby will include addresses on: "Solutions to Homosexual Behavior," "Violation of Rights of Conscience Today," "Effects of Social Experimentation and Same-Sex Adoption," and "Hate Speech Laws and Anti-Discrimination Measures to Marginalize Believers."

"Just as the movement to de-construct marriage and the natural family are international in scope, so too must be our response," Jacobs declared. "World Congress of Families is uniting individuals across diverse faiths and cultures in support of institutions which serve as the bedrock of civilization. Article 16 (3) of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR ratified by all nations in 1948) states that, "The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State."

Delegates, including Pro-family leaders, scholars and activists from over 60 nations, are expected to attend the Madrid Congress. Previous World Congresses of Families have been held in Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004), Warsaw (20070 and Amsterdam (2009). World Congress of Families VII is scheduled for Sydney, Australia in 2013.

Those interested in attending World Congress of Families VI in Madrid (May 25-27) can register online at www.worldcongress.es .

WCF VI is organized by HazteOir.org (the local host committee) and The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society. Co-conveners for WCF VI in Madrid include Alliance Defense Fund, Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute and Focus on the Family. World Congress of Families is also supported annually by our 35 partners, in 11 countries. Click here for a complete list of WCF Partners.

For more information on World Congress of Families go to www.worldcongress.org . To schedule an interview with Larry Jacobs, contact Communications Director Don Feder at 508-405-1337 , dfeder@rcn.com or Judy Hodge 815-964-5819 , media@worldcongress.org.

The World Congress of Families (WCF) is an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, leaders and inter-faith people of goodwill from more than 80 countries that seek to restore the natural family as the fundamental social unit and the 'seedbed' of civil society (as found in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948). The WCF was founded in 1997 by Allan Carlson and is a project of The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society in Rockford, Illinois. To date, there have been five World Congresses of Families - Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004), Warsaw, Poland (2007) and Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2009). World Congress of Families VI will be held in Madrid, Spain in May 25-27, 2012.

SOURCE World Congress of Families





AP: Churches To Raise Money To Fight Gay Marriage

by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORTLAND, Maine May 25, 2012, 03:04 am ET


PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Scores of Maine churches will pass the collection plate a second time at Sunday services on Father's Day to kick off a fundraising campaign for the lead opposition group to November's ballot question asking voters to legalize same-sex marriages.

Between 150 and 200 churches are expected to raise money for the Protect Marriage Maine political action committee, said Carroll Conley Jr., executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine evangelical organization and a member of the PAC. Conley is also trying to drum up support for the Maine campaign from religious leaders from around the country.

It's unusual, but not unheard of, for churches to take up collections for political causes. Maine's Catholic diocese says it raised about $80,000 with a designated collection in 2009 in its effort to overturn Maine's same-sex marriage law, which was passed by the Legislature that year and later rejected by voters. The Catholic church isn't actively campaigning this time, instead focusing on teaching parishioners about the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman Father's Day, June 17, seemed an appropriate time to kick off this year's fundraising campaign because of the day's focus on family, Conley said. Additional collection-plate offerings at churches are expected in the months ahead.

"The messaging we're using is that those who are seeking to redefine marriage in Maine believe there's no difference between moms and dads," Conley told The Associated Press. "We believe those differences are relevant. We don't think the differences in the genders are societally imposed roles, and we believe that children benefit when they're in that ideal environment where there's a mom and dad."

Protect Marriage Maine has been in contact with about 800 churches across the state and expects 150 to 200 to participate in the Father's Day collections, Conley said. They include Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, Nazarene, Church of God, Wesleyan, Evangelical Free, Advent Christian and other denominations.

While many churches are joining the campaign against the referendum, others of various denominations are working to support the ballot measure.

Some churches have hosted phone banks where congregation members have made calls in favor of the referendum, said the Rev. Sue Gabrielson, the minister at the Sanford Unitarian Universalist Church. Other churches have held educational forums and training sessions on door-to-door canvassing.

The referendum, she said, is about inclusion, a "loving God" and being nonjudgmental and compassionate.

"What we want is for people to know that this is a religious issue," she said.

Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, who created an international uproar when he became the first openly gay bishop in the Anglican church in 2003, is coming to Maine in early June on behalf of the campaign in support of gay marriage. He will appear at three screenings of the film "Love Free or Die," which depicts his life, in Portland, Lewiston and Ellsworth.

Churches in Maine and elsewhere have raised money from parishioners for political campaigns in the past on issues including gay rights, doctor-assisted suicide, abortion and gambling.

Federal law prohibits churches and other 501(c) (3) charitable organizations from supporting or opposing candidates running for office, either through financial contributions or endorsements, said Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, a Washington advocacy group that supports separation of church and state.

"But they can, with near impunity, support issues and causes, including same-sex marriage referenda," Walker said.

Supporters of Maine's ballot question have said they expect to raise $5 million or more for their campaign. Opponents have said they expect to raise far less, but collection plate offerings will go a long way toward helping fund the campaign, Conley said.

Conley has been in Washington, D.C., this week at a pastors conference organized by the conservative Family Research Council. There, he met with other gay marriage opponents from Minnesota, Washington and Maryland, where same-sex marriage ballot initiatives are being debated.

Minnesota will decide in November whether a ban on gay marriage should be part of the state constitution. Maryland and Washington are expected to have ballot measures seeking to overturn same-sex marriage laws that were recently passed by their legislatures.

Conley's also seeking endorsements from well-known pastors who might be willing to record video and audio clips that can be played at churches taking part in Maine's collection-plate drive, he said. Those clips would also be sent to the state's Christian radio stations as public service announcements.

Conley said he realized churches should play a central role in the Maine campaign after being in North Carolina earlier this month when voters approved an amendment to the state constitution affirming that marriage may only be a union of a man and a woman.

"I was impressed with the coordination I saw among the faith community in North Carolina," he said.





The battle among Catholic bishops

E.J. Dionne Jr.
Opinion Writer


By E.J. Dionne Jr., Published: May 23

There is a healthy struggle brewing among the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops. A previously silent group, upset over conservative colleagues defining the church’s public posture and eagerly picking fights with President Obama, has had enough.

The headlines this week were about lawsuits brought by 43 Catholic organizations, including 13 dioceses, to overturn regulations issued by the Obama administration that require insurance plans to cover contraception under the new health-care law. But the other side of this news was also significant: The vast majority of the nation’s 195 dioceses did not go to court.

It turns out that many bishops, notably the church leadership in California, saw the litigation as premature. They are upset that the lawsuits were brought without a broader discussion among the entire membership of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and wanted to delay action until the conference’s June meeting.

Until now, bishops who believed that their leadership was aligning the institutional church too closely with the political right had voiced their doubts internally. While the more moderate and liberal bishops kept their qualms out of public view, conservative bishops have been outspoken in condemning the Obama administration and pushing a “Fortnight for Freedom” campaign aimed at highlighting “threats to religious freedom, both at home and abroad.”

But in recent months, a series of events — among them the Vatican’s rebuke of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, encouraged by right-wing U.S. bishops — have angered more progressive Catholics and led to talk among the disgruntled faithful of the need for a “Catholic spring” to challenge the hierarchy’s shift to the right.

Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, Calif., broke the silence on his side Tuesday in an interview with Kevin Clarke of the Jesuit magazine America. Blaire expressed concern that some groups “very far to the right” are turning the controversy over the contraception rules into “an anti-Obama campaign.”

“I think there are different groups that are trying to co-opt this and make it into [a] political issue, and that’s why we need to have a deeper discussion as bishops,” he said. “I think our rhetoric has to be that of bishops of the church who are seeking to be faithful to the Gospel, that our one concern is that we make sure the church is free to carry out her mission as given to her by Christ, and that remains our focus.”

Clarke also paraphrased Blaire as believing that “the bishops lose their support when the conflict is seen as too political.”

Blaire’s words were diplomatic. But in a letter to the national bishops conference that has not been released publicly, lawyers for California’s bishops said the lawsuits would be “imprudent” and “ill-advised.” The letter was not answered by the national bishops group before the suits were announced.

Already, there are reports that some bishops will play down or largely ignore the Fortnight for Freedom campaign, scheduled for June 21 to July 4, in their own dioceses. These bishops fear that it has become enmeshed in Republican election-year politics and see many of its chief promoters, notably Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, as too strident.

The irony in the current acrimony is that Catholics were broadly united in January across political lines in opposing the Department of Health and Human Services’ initial rules on contraception because they exempted only a narrow category of religious institutions from the mandate.

Facing this challenge, the president fashioned a compromise under which employees of Catholic organizations such as hospitals and social service agencies would still have access to contraceptive services but the religious entities would not have to pay for them. This compromise was accepted by most progressive Catholics, though many of them still favor rewriting the underlying regulations to acknowledge the religious character of the church’s welfare and educational work.

But where the progressives favor pursuing further negotiations with the administration, the conservative bishops have acted as if it never made any concessions at all. Significantly, Blaire identified with the conciliatory approach. As Clarke wrote, “Bishop Blaire believes discussions with the Obama administration toward a resolution of the dispute could be fruitful even as alternative remedies are explored.”

For too long, the Catholic Church’s stance on public issues has been defined by the outspokenness of its most conservative bishops and the reticence of moderate and progressive prelates. Signs that this might finally be changing are encouraging for the church, and for American politics.

ejdionne@washpost.com