Wednesday, December 04, 2013

Heavy duty last minute negotiations continue... Benjamin Fulford


Monday, December 2, 2013
Benjamin Fulford - December 2, 2013: Heavy duty last minute negotiations continue...



Heavy duty last minute negotiations continue, Okinawa, Korea and Sunni/Shia divide remain sticking points


Based on high level contacts being made to the White Dragon Society, it is clear there is a growing consensus that the old dollar system be used to start a $700 trillion campaign to end poverty and stop environmental production, without impeding the continuation or start-up of alternative financial systems. However, as the world waits impatiently for the campaign to be announced, ongoing high level geopolitical negotiations, with a bit of saber rattling as a back-drop, are continuing to delay implementation, according to multiple high-level sources.

The main sticking points to world peace and the start of a new golden age are now the ancient Shia/Sunni political divide in the Islamic world, Israel and a few unresolved issues in East Asia, notably the Korean Peninsula and the Okinawan archipelago.

In Asia, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin four times and the heads of all the ASEAN countries in a campaign to build a coalition to contain China. The Pentagon, worried about continued financing, secretly supports this as it is keeping the war card as its last big negotiation leverage.

The Chinese, for their part, are strong enough now to insist on resolving some historical injustices before they agree to support the $700 trillion campaign. In particular, they resent the fact that all the Islands near China have been taken away from them by superior imperialist navy forces.

The Chinese have a strong card to play, which is to use their vastly superior ground military forces to force the unification of the Korean peninsula and derive the United States of its South Korean tributary vassal state.

The White Dragon Society has made the following suggestion to both sides as a way of breaking the stalemate. First of all return Okinawa to its historical status as an independent kingdom and a neutral meeting point between Japan and China. In such a deal China and Japan would each pay 50% of the costs of US troops there in order to ensure the Islands remain neutral. The Okinawan archipelago could then become a duty free and fun meeting and resting place.

As mentioned before, Northern and Southern Korea could be united by making Kim Jon-un a symbolic emperor of Korea and leaving the Southern Korean families in charge of the economy. In such a deal the newly united Korea might agree to keep US forces in central Korea as a guarantor of Korean independence.

The alternative to agreeing to the above proposals will be the inevitable bankruptcy of the US, an abrupt withdrawal of US forces from the region and subsequent chaos.

Also last week, some unidentified entity calling itself the Bank of New York (but not the Bank of New York, Mellon) has been buying majority stakes in many major Japanese corporations, according to the Black Dragon Society. One US government agency source suspects Goldman Sachs to be behind this but it may also be a cyber-attack on Japan’s economic infrastructure. The Japanese authorities have been advised to make sure human beings carrying physical stock certificates be produced and if the “Bank of New York” cannot do that, then the systems at the Tokyo Stock Exchange may have to be temporarily shut down.

Also, two missile launchers were found outside the US Yokota airbase in Tokyo last week. This was a warning by the gnostic Illuminati that they will destroy the Kanto plain with a nuclear weapon hidden in a tunnel system near the base unless the new financial system is announced, according to a gnostic illuminati grandmaster.

The P2 Freemason lodge honcho Marco Di Mauro also made some statements last week that were straight out of the X-files. He said that 24 “encantadores,” or magicians, had started work on building a new continent in the South Pacific. Normally, I would not report such statements but after he told me this, news reports appeared saying Mount Etna in Italy was blowing smoke rings and that 35 volcanoes around the Pacific rim had started erupting simultaneously.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2507799/Shes-smoking-Mount-Etna-puffs-dozens-rings-measuring-hundreds-feet-spews-molten-lava.html

http://www.ibtimes.com/volcano-indonesia-one-35-currently-erupting-volcanoes-heres-where-they-are-map-1486866

This could be some sort of propaganda but it is clear the Vatican and the P2 still have a lot of real geopolitical influence. Last week Vladimir Putin met with Pope Francis to discuss the Middle East. Putin now has real influence on the ground in the Middle East while the Pope has religious influence. According to news reports, they were discussing ways to ensure peace in that region.

The White Dragon Society has suggested that the only way to really calm the region down would be for the world as a whole to force the Sunni and Shia branches of Islam to resolve their ancient split by selecting a Caliph. In such a scenario, as suggested before, Israel could become a Jewish autonomous zone in the region. However, once the Jews learn how much they have been lied to and brainwashed by their own leaders, many may well decide to return to their ancestral European homes.

Meanwhile, back in the US, we are getting credible reports that US special forces are getting ready to move on Washington.

http://www.wikiarmy.com/index.php/15-breaking-news/63-seal-commander-says-special-operations-assault-on-obama-has-begun

With support for Congress running at 6% and so many people wondering why mass arrests have not taken place, we sure hope it is true this time. To help compile the list of who to arrest, I will conclude this week’s report with an open letter to Jim Stone of Jim Stone freelance, a genuine NSA whistleblower who has done so much to alert the world about the Fukushima mass murder and terror war crime attack.

Mr. Stone,

First of all, thanks for your courageous and ground breaking work on uncovering the Fukushima mass murder and terror operation. I am writing this e-mail to provide you with forensic evidence that I have gathered on what the 311 tsunami attack was about and exactly who was involved.

My sources for what I am about to write include Japanese military intelligence, former Prime Minister Naoto Kan (whom I have known personally for many years), members of the crew that smuggled the nuclear weapons used in the attack into Japan, members of both the French and British branches of the Rothschild family, senior CIA agents and a member of the team that actually drilled the nuclear weapons into the seabed before the 311 attack.

The first thing you need to know is that the attack was planned many years before it happened. The Japanese business magazine Zaikai Tembo, citing a CIA report, wrote in February of 2007 that the US had decided that Japan was getting too much of its energy from nuclear power and that if that trend continued, Japan would no longer be dependent on US controlled oil and thus would no longer have to obey the US. The conclusion of the report was that the best way to ensure Japan remained a colony would be to destroy the Tokyo Electric Power company, the people who run the Fukushima plant.

Senator J. Rockefeller, whose family controls (through foundations) General Electric, the manufacturers of the plant, was deeply involved in this operation. As a preliminary to destroying Japan’s nuclear power generation capability, Westinghouse and General Electric sold their nuclear power plant manufacturing businesses to Toshiba and Hitachi. This was insider trading at the highest level and Hitachi and Toshiba should sue.

The ongoing attempt in recent years by an Asian/Western secret society to wrest control of global finance from Western oligarch families is a bigger back-ground to the Fukushima sub-plot.

For example, Democratic Party of Japan Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa was asked at a G7 meeting in 2009 to hand over $100 billion to the cabal. He answered that he would raise the money by selling $100 billion worth of US Treasury bonds. He was going to say this at the press conference that followed the G7 meeting, so he was drugged to prevent him from doing so. Later, when he returned to Japan, he was murdered by CIA death squads.

Getting back to Fukushima, the refusal of the Japanese Democratic Party and authorities to hand over any real hard currency to the Western Oligarch families resulted in their decision to go ahead with the Fukushima operation as a way of intimidating the Japanese once again into surrender and obedience.

One key source of mine, who has variously gone by the names of Richard Sorge, Alexander Romanov, etc., was part of a multi-agency Western ring involved in smuggling drugs into Japan. I have confirmed through a long term acquaintance by the name of Steve McClure, a supposed music journalist, that Richard Sorge was his long term supplier of drugs. He claims to have been recruited into the Illuminati by former Chess champion Bobby Fischer.

In any case, Sorge told me that he was summoned to Pattaya, Thailand, by a member of the British Special Air Service, a South African going by the name of Spencer and told to bring 70 kilograms of “thai stick” Marijuana, heavily laced with mind destroying chemicals and approach me. He was told to tell me to introduce the yakuza to him or else I would be killed. The Yakuza told me it was a trap and to keep away from it, which I did. Sorge also told me that when he was in Thailand, he was shown a 700 kiloton nuclear missile that was stolen from the sunken Russian submarine the Kursk. This missile was smuggled into Japan together with the drugs.

The man overseeing the smuggling operation was a former Hong Kong deputy police commissioner by the name of Stephens, according to Sorge and Spencer. The man in overall operational control of this operation against Japan was General Richard Meyers, according to CIA and other sources.

Based in subsequent interviews with members of Pentagon military intelligence and MI5, the route taken by the missile to Japan has been identified. It was part of a batch of four nuclear missiles stolen from the Kursk by Nazi underground forces who took them to their submarine base in the Atlantic Island of Sao Tome, according to MI5. From there, it was taken to another submarine base in New Guinea, according to Pentagon Military intelligence.

From there it was taken to the Philippines Yatch club where Stevens’ crew then took it by yacht to a remote island on the Okinawan archipelago. From there it was transported by fishing boat to the port of Kyushu. From Kyushu, the missile was taken by van to a property owned by former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone in Hi No De Cho, in Western Tokyo. From there it was taken to the North Korean Citizen’s organization headquarters near the Yasukuni shrine, according to Sorge.

Sorge risked his life and has survived multiple murder attempts because he attempted to warn the Japanese authorities about the impending nuclear terror attack. He told them the missile was at Nakasone’s property and he told me as well. The Japanese authorities ignored our warnings. Later we again told them the missile was located at the North Korean headquarters in Japan.

For his efforts, Sorge was arrested by plain clothes police who ignored his warnings about impending nuclear terror and instead asked him to testify falsely that I was a drug dealer.

A South African/British agent by the name of Michael Meiring, who had both legs blown off by a bomb he said was set by George Herbert Walker Bush Senior also began contacting me around this time. He came to me under the name of Dr. Michael Van de Meer and he showed me a bullet proof attaché case, 7 passports and an Uzi machine-gun. Dr. Van de Meer told me that Tony Blair had bragged I would be arrested on drug charges.

In any case, Japanese authorities failed to react to our warnings and the bomb was loaded onto the deep sea drilling ship Chikyu. Local news reports place the Chikyu drilling into the seabed off-shore from Sendai in the months before the March 11, 2011 Tsunami and nuclear terror attack against Japan.

Furthermore, multiple witnesses have come forth to testify that the Prime Minister Naoto Kan was seen inside the Japan Freemason headquarters building near Tokyo tower on the day before the 311 attack. He was being shown a map of Japan missing the Tohoku region where the tsunami it.

The Israeli company Magna BSP was in charge of security at the Fukushima nuclear plant at the time. A Miyagi prefectural government official says employees of this company loaded plutonium into the plant against his will in the months before 311.

Immediately after the tsunami and nuclear terror attack began, Prime Minister Naoto Kan was asked to order the evacuation of 40 million people from the Kanto plain, Kan said during a press conference at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan.

He also received a phone call from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the day after the attack demanding that he sign over ownership of all Japanese government holdings of US government bonds to cabal oligarchs, which he did, according to Japanese military intelligence.

Following the attacks, a member of the Japanese self-defense forces who was involved in breaking up the nuclear bomb from the Kursk into several smaller bombs and drilling them into the seabed, showed up at the Tachikawa Christian church run by Pastor Paolo Izumi asking for protection. He said that 14 of his colleagues who were involved in the drilling operation, not understanding the purpose of what they were doing, had been murdered in order to silence them and that he feared for his life. The man was sheltered by the church and is now in the witness protection program.

After the 311 attack, this writer went to South Korea at the invitation of Dr. Van de Meer. While in Korea he was told the Rothschild family had planned the attack because they wanted to force 40 million Japanese refugees to take shelter in North and South Korea. The Rothschild family intended to move the base of their Asian operations from Tokyo to a planned new special economic zone in Korea, he said. He knew in advance of the 311 attack and looked deeply ashamed when he admitted he did not warn me about it.

Following the 311 attack, un-marked planes were spotted dumping radio-active industrial waste containing cesium, according to a Japanese gangster whose gang was sub-contracting for the CIA and Mossad around Fukushima.

The massive propaganda fear campaign following the 311 attack can be traced to Mossad, the Pentagon and the CIA.

In addition to the people named above, some of the individuals involved in this mass murder and fear propaganda campaign include Kenneth Curtis, the head of CIA Japan, Michael Green, the head of Mossad Japan and Richard Armitage.

Other people involved in this mass murder campaign include George Bush Sr. and Jr., Michael Chertoff, James Baker, Paul Wolfowitz, Senator J. Rockefeller, Michael Hayden, Guy de Rothschild, Evelyn de Rothschild, Peter Hans Kolvenbach, former Pope Maledict, and others yet to be named.



Source:
http://benjaminfulford.net/2013/12/02/heavy-duty-last-minute-negotiations-continue-okinawa-korea-and-sunnishia-divide-remain-sticking-points/


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President Bush's national address on the Economic Crisis of 2008




President Bush Addresses Nation on Economic Crisis



tpmtv·


Uploaded on Sep 25, 2008

President Bush national address, September 24, 2008
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Monday, December 02, 2013

Memorable Events of 2008


The 35th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus convened on 5 January 2008 and elected Fr. Adolfo Nicolás as the new Superior General (seen here with Peter Hans Kolvenbach).





Financial Crisis of 2008
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6 Catholics, 3 Jews


Does it matter that there might soon be no Protestants on the Supreme Court?

Elesha Coffman

[ posted 5/11/2010 4:05PM ]


If Elena Kagan, President Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court, is confirmed, the nation's high court will be, for the first time in its history, devoid of Protestants. Kagan is Jewish, as are Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. All of the other justices—Chief Justice John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Sonia Sotomayor—are Catholic. How did this situation come about in a historically Protestant-dominated country? And should evangelicals be concerned?

It's important to note that the composition of the Supreme Court has never reflected the composition of the country. All justices were white until the appointment of Thurgood Marshall in 1967, and all justices were male until the appointment of Sandra Day O'Connor in 1981. When President Andrew Jackson appointed the court's first Catholic member, Roger Taney, in 1836, the Roman Catholic Church was already well on its way to becoming the country's largest single Christian body. Most justices have also shared connections to a small group of elite schools. Harvard Law School trained the highest number, 14 justices, including five members of the current court. (Justice Ginsburg attended HLS but graduated from Columbia.) Kagan, a graduate and former dean of HLS, would make a sixth.

Throughout the court's history, some groups—notably Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Unitarians, and Jews—have been significantly overrepresented in comparison to their prevalence in the American population, while other groups have been significantly underrepresented. Though Baptists constitute the country's largest Protestant group, there have been just three Baptist justices. The second-largest Protestant group, Methodists, have supplied only five. There has never been a Pentecostal justice, despite that movement's explosive growth since the Azusa Street Revival of 1906.

The mismatch between Supreme Court members and average Americans is in part an example of the generally non-representational nature of elites, even in the supposedly egalitarian United States. From the late eighteenth to the middle of the twentieth century, a white Protestant establishment held sway, as Congregationalists (the heirs of the New England Puritans), Episcopalians, and Presbyterians pretty much ran the country and the rest of America's Christians pretty much let them. Unitarians, who controlled Harvard, got to participate heavily in governance as well, despite the fact that most Americans considered them heretics. The revivalist traditions that caught fire in the nineteenth century, including Baptists, Methodists, and Disciples of Christ, rapidly outstripped the establishment churches in membership but never overtook them in terms of cultural power. Evangelicals, for the most part descendents of the revivalists, have enjoyed even less access to the country's most exclusive halls of power, including the Supreme Court, the Senate, and the presidential offices at Ivy League universities.

The makeup of the current Supreme Court also reflects trends peculiar to jurisprudence. Judaism and Catholicism have extremely long and rich legal traditions, while Protestantism generally, and evangelicalism specifically, does not. American Jewish legal thinking has aligned well with liberal politics, which helps explain why all but one of the seven (soon, potentially, eight) Jewish Supreme Court justices have been nominated by Democratic presidents. American Catholic legal thinking has not aligned so closely with either political party, but Catholic teachings on Natural Law and the sanctity of life have made conservative Catholic nominees particularly attractive to Republican presidents who oppose abortion. As Robert Wuthnow argued in The Restructuring of American Religion, conservative Protestants have consistently made common cause with conservative Catholics on the subject of abortion in recent decades, nearly to the point of erasing centuries-old antipathies between these two branches of Christianity. The evangelical electorate might prefer to see one of their own on the high court, but they have had no problem supporting the current crop of conservative Catholic justices.

The jury is out on whether evangelicals are poised for greater influence in elite arenas like the Supreme Court. Sociologist D. Michael Lindsay, author of Faith in the Halls of Power, based on interviews with 360 evangelical leaders, suggests that they are. Sociologist John Schmalzbauer, in People of Faith: Religious Conviction in Journalism and Higher Education, agrees, though he, significantly, looks at both evangelicals and Catholics, assuming a significant overlap in interests between the two groups. But James Davidson Hunter sounds an emphatic no in his recent book To Change the World. According to Andy Crouch's review in Books & Culture,

Christianity in America, as Hunter sees it, is very much on the periphery, for all its numerical strength. Its institutions, such as they are, are weak, they tend to not be in culturally central locations, and they tend to address the "lower and peripheral areas" of culture—secondary education rather than university research, popular culture rather than high art, ministries of mercy rather than public policy. At their worst they glory in their marginal status, feeding a subculture that churns out substandard cultural products for consumption by other Christians, simultaneously the most energetic and the least effective culture-makers you could imagine.

Whether or not Hunter is correct in this bleak assessment, given the current occupant of the White House and the slow rate of turnover on the Supreme Court, evangelicals should not expect to see a member of their own ranks on the bench anytime soon. Instead, they must ask whether the likely roster of six Catholics and three Jews on the court represents their interests and worldview. Regarding Elena Kagan, the answer is, probably not. There has never been a consistently conservative female justice on the Supreme Court (O'Connor, though nominated by Ronald Reagan, turned out to be a moderate who voted to uphold Roe v. Wade), nor a socially conservative Jewish justice. There is almost nothing with which American evangelicals can identify in either Kagan's personal or professional life, and the same is likely to be true of her legal philosophy as it emerges. Fortunately for evangelicals, in replacing liberal Justice John Paul Stevens, Kagan would not markedly alter the balance of power on the court. At the same time, unfortunately for evangelicals, that balance of power will leave them in the position of highly engaged outsiders looking in.

Elesha Coffman is assistant professor of history at Waynesburg University in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.


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Supreme Court won’t hear challenge to Obamacare’s employer mandate





By Aaron Blake



December 2 at 12:22 pm


The Supreme Court opted Monday not to take up a case challenging Obamacare's requirement that most employers provide health insurance to their employees.

The court instead opted to leave in place an appeals court's ruling striking down the lawsuit, which was brought by Liberty University, an evangelical college in Virginia.

It is the second time the court has opted not to hear an appeal to the health-care law's employer mandate. The court previously declined to review the employer mandate while taking up the individual health-insurance mandate — a mandate that it eventually upheld.

The health-care law requires employers with at least 50 workers to provide basic health insurance coverage.

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., originally struck down Liberty's lawsuit.

"...it is simply another example of Congress’s longstanding authority to regulate employee compensation offered and paid for by employers in interstate commerce," the appeals court wrote.

The court announced last week that it will also hear a case challenging Obamacare's requirement that employers provide health insurance that includes contraception.

For more on the Supreme Court's moves today, see Robert Barnes's recap.


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 Related

Current U.S. Supreme Court Members

The following table lists the current members of the United States Supreme Court, including the Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices.

See Also: Past U.S. Supreme Court Members

Service Birth
Name, stateAssoc. JusticeChief JusticeYrs Place Date Died Religion
Antonin Scalia, DC 1986–N.J. 1936 Roman Catholic
Anthony M. Kennedy, Calif. 1988–Calif. 1936 Roman Catholic
Clarence Thomas, DC 1991–Ga. 1948 Roman Catholic
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, DC 1993–N.Y. 1933 Jewish
Stephen G. Breyer, Mass. 1994–Calif. 1938 Jewish
John G. Roberts, DC2005–N.Y.1955Roman Catholic
Samuel A. Alito, Jr., N.J.2006–N.J.1950Roman Catholic
Sonia Sotomayor N.Y.2009–N.Y.1954Roman Catholic
Elena Kagan N.Y.2010–N.Y.1960Jewish

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Healthcare.gov is Down Once Again



Christine Rousselle | Dec 02, 2013







Despite promises from the president that healthcare.gov would be better for the "vast majority" of people by December 1, the website has once again run into problems.

Simply clicking the "log in" button will trigger an error message explaining that the website currently has "a lot of visitors right now!" and urges customers to leave their email addresses and try again another time.

President Obama had said he believed things with the website would only get better from this point on, but it appears that his prediction was slightly off.

On Friday, the website went down for an extended period of time to "fix" the majority of the problems and expand capacity to 50,000 people.


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Don't Shop Today: One Woman's Campaign To Keep Thanksgiving About Family

Thursday, November 28, 2013




(vxla/Flickr)

Macy’s is opening its doors for Thanksgiving shopping for the first time. But some people are dismayed by the commercialization of the holiday.
One of those people is Annie Zirkel, an author from Ann Arbor, Mich. She has started a Facebook page and a campaign to keep Thanksgiving from becoming the first day of the holiday shopping season, with mad crowds rushing through shopping malls.

In an open letter on her website, Zirkel writes:


Is Thanksgiving disappearing because of corporate profit chasing? Or has our disinterest and irreverence for protecting what is truly valuable invited this disregard for a once-cherished day of giving thanks?

Well besides the answer being BOTH – I think the more important question might be: What can be done?

Will a letter to my local mall or large retailer help? Not likely. But should I write those letters? Yes. Because Thanksgiving means something to me. Because I am not willing to passively watch as this headless, soul-less corporate world runs over something I value – gratitude.

Guest
Annie Zirkel, author based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She tweets @anniezirkel.
More in Life
StoryCorps Marks 10 Years Chronicling American Lives
November 27, 2013 close

Transcript


MEGHNA CHAKRABARTI, HOST:

Well clearly not everyone loves the idea of shopping on a day that's supposed to be about gratitude. Several online petitions are urging stores to stay closed today. One on change.org has nearly 400,000 signatures. Annie Zirkel of Ann Arbor, Michigan, started her own save Thanksgiving Facebook page. She's spending today with family, but when we spoke to Annie earlier, she told us why she's so opposed to shopping on Thanksgiving.

ANNIE ZIRKEL: Well, where do I start? Probably the first thing I want to say is that the purpose of Thanksgiving is to be grateful for what you already have. So this idea of going out and getting more stuff is completely counter to the day. Then we move on to the fact that shopping on this national holiday really ruins a lot of people's Thanksgivings. So in order for you to get that sale, that deal, people have to leave their families.

It's just one day of the year where we go the other way. If you want to shop, you have 363 other days of the year. Just give us one.

CHAKRABARTI: You know, I'll admit that for me personally I am very sympathetic to your point of view. But I imagine that there might be some listeners out there who say hey, look, you know, being - we shop together as a family, and making that transition to the rest of the holiday season through those first days of shopping is part of what we do. So we don't mind doing it on Thanksgiving. I mean, what would you say to them?

ZIRKEL: Sure, well, if you're shopping on Thanksgiving, it's a pretty new tradition because we haven't had this kind of creep into the actual day of Thanksgiving. I guess one of the things I say, and I've said this on the Facebook page because a lot of people have shared different stories, is that you're taking away someone else's holiday in order for you to have family time. And that's just an irony to me. That doesn't make sense to me.

CHAKRABARTI: So you mentioned your Facebook page. What are some of the other stories or comments that people have been leaving on the page there?

ZIRKEL: For the most part people are very frustrated. They feel like this tradition, this national tradition is just - has been picked away, and they don't know where to put their frustrations. So they're coming on the page, and they're sharing a lot of sadness, really, but also a serious commitment to not shop on this day or to support retailers who are more connected to their employees and aren't making them have to choose between work and family.

CHAKRABARTI: Have you heard from any retailers? Have they chimed in on the Facebook page or responded to your campaign to preserve Thanksgiving Day from the dirty hands of commerce?

ZIRKEL: I have not heard on the Facebook page, but I've sent out my letters, I've made some phone calls, and I've gotten a pretty standard response, that it's customer demand. And I'd like to meet the customer who demanded that Thanksgiving Day be turned into a commercial holiday.

But the other thing is, and I'm not actually anti-retail, I know it may sound like that, I'm anti-retail on this day. I'm anti-any opportunities to take family away. So of course you have the, you know, police, and you have hospital workers and firefighters and even news people who, you kind of have to be there. But let's keep that to a minimum. Let's not just go overboard, and hey, let's all sort of detract from this.

CHAKRABARTI: I really take your point about the fact that Thanksgiving is, you know, one of the last national holidays where the purpose is to express gratitude rather than consumption. But I also wonder if you're kind of fighting a losing battle because isn't - doesn't it feel like de facto that the Christmas and holiday season has already taken over Thanksgiving?

I mean, you walk into coffee shops and other retail establishments already, and they've begun sort of their Christmas season decorations, at the very least.

ZIRKEL: Yes, I have to say I did walk out of a store when I heard a Christmas jingle. I just thought I'm not ready for this, I can't handle that. So I had to leave. You know, your question about a losing battle, well, I guess the thing is it's not to me about whether we win on a mass scale or a small scale. Every person has to make their own choice. And so if this awareness campaign, which is what I'm really doing, and other people - I mean, there are 100 pages similar to mine with maybe smaller numbers or some bigger numbers.

But I guess the thing is: Is it worth it? And it is worth it to me. Gratitude is so important to me. I have to stand up for it. I'm not willing to give defeat to retailers and people who don't really care about this holiday. I feel like there's a whole other voice that has to be heard on this day.

CHAKRABARTI: And finally, Annie, I'm wondering if you want to share with us what's your favorite thing for you and your family to do on Thanksgiving. What do you love about it the most?

ZIRKEL: Thank you for asking me that. Actually this year we're going to be one short because we lost someone fairly suddenly a couple of months ago.

CHAKRABARTI: Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.

ZIRKEL: And that's really I think why we have to take this seriously. There's only so many Thanksgivings you get in this world, and so I think we're just really looking for the gratitude, you know, making those moments count.

CHAKRABARTI: First of all, Annie, I'm very sorry to hear about the loss in your family. But I am, in addition, very grateful that you spent some time with us here today. Thank you so much for joining us.

ZIRKEL: Thank you for having me.

CHAKRABARTI: Annie Zirkel of Ann Arbor, Michigan. She's one of several people who have started campaigns encouraging retailers to respect the spirit of Thanksgiving. And we should note that there are three states where it's actually against eth law for major retailers to open today. In Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine, so-called blue laws bans large supermarkets and big box stores from doing business on Thanksgiving. This is HERE AND NOW. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Could Hawaii Become A Same-Sex Wedding Destination?



by Molly Solomon
December 02, 2013 2:55 AM


Listen to the Story 

Morning Edition
3 min 48 sec



Sunset on the Hawaiian island of Maui. iStockphoto




Starting Monday, same-sex marriage is legal in Hawaii. The state has long been a destination for weddings and honeymoons. And now state officials, as well as hotels and restaurants, are hoping the latest marriage-equality law will spur a new market for wedding tourism.

Wedding planner Keane Akao is showing off a secluded beach wedding site, one of several on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

"You can use the beach for pictures," he tells a couple, "and this is actually called Secret Beach."

His company, Perfectly Planned Hawaii, offers wedding planning for same-sex couples. Swaying palm trees and clear blue water make for a dream ceremony.

Akao started his company with his business partner less than six months ago, just before Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie called for a special session to debate same-sex marriage.

"People now can look at Hawaii as a destination to have their marriage done legally," says Akao, "and for it to be recognized by the federal government, no matter what state they may live in."

He has received more than two-dozen confirmations since the bill passed last month.

One couple planning to marry in the islands is Cira Abiseid and Cyrilla Owle. Last month, they celebrated their union in a ceremony with family and friends at home in Conway, Ark. But their home state doesn't recognize same-sex marriage, so Owle says they're going to Hawaii to make it official.

"I think there's two things that came in effect when planning where we wanted to be married," says Owle. "First, like any couple, we wanted to see where we wanted to go for our honeymoon. So who doesn't want to go to Hawaii for their honeymoon, right? And the second reason was, where could we get a license?"

"Same-sex couples will be attracted to Hawaii for the same reasons that opposite-sex couples are attracted to Hawaii," says Sumner La Croix, an economist at the University of Hawaii. "It's the great weather, it's the warm water, it's the beautiful scenery. And it's also the aloha spirit."

La Croix estimates that over the next three years, gay marriage will boost tourism in Hawaii by $217 million. Unlike some other states with marriage equality laws, Hawaii already has a booming tourism industry. La Croix believes that gives Hawaii an advantage.

"The machinery of marriage is already in place here. There are hotels that are in the marriage business," he says. "They're used to catering to couples who are honeymooning or want to get married or are celebrating a marriage. There are wedding photographers. There are caterers. There's a large number of firms that are specialized in the marriage business."

In Hawaii, tourism is a $14 billion industry. Now, the island chain is positioning itself for a spike in visitors — among them, Honolulu-based hotel chain Aqua Hospitality. It already offers LGBT travel deals, including the "out and proud" package and the "civil unions romance special."

Bigger beachfront resorts are also getting in on the action. The Sheraton Waikiki is the only hotel on Oahu providing on-site marriage licenses. General Manager Kelly Sanders says now the hotel is running a new ad campaign in mainland LGBT publications.

"Yes, there's a revenue opportunity," says Sanders. "There's an opportunity for all of us to really have that great success, but in my mind it's something that should have happened already. And so it's just now being able to really open all of our arms as wide as they can be and say welcome."

It was Hawaii that back in 1991 touched off the national conversation about same-sex marriage. Then, three couples sued to force the state to issue them marriage licenses. Now, more than two decades later, Hawaii is the latest state to recognize marriage equality.
 

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New Pope's 'Dream' Includes Tolerance, Compassion And Tradition



November 30, 2013 3:00 PM



Listen to the Story
All Things Considered

3 min 49 sec


This week, Pope Francis released a new document called the "Evangelii Gaudium" (The Joy of the Gospel). His first major document has captured the attention of Vatican watchers, who describe a vision statement of what Francis sees for the future of the Catholic Church.

Copyright © 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

ARUN RATH: Once again, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR West. I'm Arun Rath.

If you've ever been to the Vatican, the opulence is staggering. It couldn't be a greater contrast to Pope Francis who assumed the papacy just eight months ago. Before he became Pope Francis, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio crusaded for the poor and made a point of living a modest lifestyle. From day one, it was obvious this was a different kind of pope.

He lives in a simple guesthouse at the Vatican. He prefers a Ford Focus over a Mercedes limo. And he said that the church was too obsessed with issues like gay marriage and abortion and must be more active in helping the poor.

This week, Pope Francis put his vision for the future in writing with a document called "The Joy of the Gospel."

John Allen is senior correspondent at the National Catholic Reporter, and he's been covering the Vatican for nearly two decades. He says "The Joy of the Gospel" is a type of papal document called an apostolic exhortation. But this one is a bit different.

JOHN ALLEN: I've seen a lot of these apostolic exhortations come and go. This is the first one I can think of that has become a global sensation. And I think it's because this isn't just a set of minutes about a meeting, but it really is a very personal vision statement from Pope Francis about the kind of church he wants Catholicism to be in the early 21st century.
: And even though it doesn't set doctrine as such, I imagine that nothing that the pope writes is unimportant.

Certainly nothing the pope writes is unimportant. Now, there actually are doctrinal points in this document. I mean, for one thing, he talks about the need for a healthy decentralization in the church, and in particular, with regard to the power of the Vatican. But I think the bigger picture here is this is a kind of Magna Carta from Pope Francis about what he wants Catholicism to be in his time, and it's resonating in remarkable ways around the world.

Beyond this decentralization, what is this vision that the pope is laying out in this document?

I actually call this Francis' "I Have a Dream" speech in my piece for the National Catholic Reporter because he opens with a dream. He says: I dream of a church that is more focused on reaching out rather than collapsing in on itself and a church that is more merciful. That is, rather than on focusing on what he calls rules that make us harsh judges, he wants a church that is more tolerant and compassionate.

ALLEN: And I think everything else in the document, including his very strong language about the need for the church to stand on the side of the poor, all of that flows out of those two core pillars of his vision - a missionary and a merciful church.
: There isn't much made about some of the more what might be termed liberal aspects of this document, but there are other ways in which the pope is not giving any ground either.

ALLEN: No. That's absolutely right. On two of the most hot-button questions in Catholic life, that is the ordination of women as priests and church teaching on abortion, Francis made it abundantly clear in this document - as he has on other occasions - that there's not going to be any change. So it's not that everything is up for grabs. In that sense, I think the right way to read Francis, probably, is that he is the pope of the Catholic middle. He's not pursuing the radical program of the left, but he's certainly not the kind of traditionalist that would win hearts and minds on the right.

: Do you have the sense that this document is going to be a defining milestone, or can things sort of go back to business as normal with the church now?

ALLEN: The watershed moment that this document represents is there can no longer be debate about whether Francis is a reforming pope. It is now obvious that he is, and we have a comprehensive statement of the kind of reform that he wants. And the drama now is no longer going to be what kind of pope Francis aspires to be. The drama now is can he pull it off?

: John Allen is senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter. John, thank you so much.

ALLEN: You're very welcome.


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Pope Francis meets with Netanyahu at Vatican




By CNN Staff
updated 9:37 AM EST, Mon December 2, 2013



Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu presents Pope Francis with a Menorah during their meeting at the Vatican, Monday, December 2.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Vatican expresses hope for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks
Netanyahu meets with pope at Vatican's Apostolic Palace
Pope expected to visit Israel, Palestinian territories next year


(CNN) -- Pope Francis and Vatican officials expressed hope that Palestinians and Israelis can forge a peace agreement "as soon as possible" as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the pontiff Monday, the Vatican said.

The meeting with Netanyahu at the Vatican's Apostolic Palace comes months ahead of Francis' anticipated trip to the Holy Land, a biblical region that includes Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Netanyahu also met with the Vatican's secretary of state, Archbishop Pietro Parolin.

The discussions focused on "the complex political and social situation in the Middle East, with particular reference to the reinstatement of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, expressing hope that a just and lasting solution respecting the rights of both parties may be reached as soon as possible," the Vatican said.

Pope Francis calls for big changes in Roman Catholic Church

Pope Francis is expected to visit Israel on May 25-26, an official Israeli source told CNN last month. The Vatican would not confirm the exact dates of the trip.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas invited Francis to travel to the Palestinian territories during Abbas' visit to the Vatican in October.

Pope Francis met with Israeli President Shimon Peres at the Vatican in April. A Vatican communique issued after that meeting said they had discussed the hope for a speedy resumption of direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

The Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, visited the Holy Land in May 2009.

PHOTOS: Pope Francis

CNN's Hada Messia contributed to this report.


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Saturday, November 30, 2013

Spiritual Formation "From where have you come to where do you go" - Bill Hughes



Bill Hughes
Spiritual Formation - From where have you come to where do you go



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Uploaded on Oct 15, 2011

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Pope Signals A New Direction For The Church




November 30, 2013 8:00 AM



Listen to the Story

Weekend Edition Saturday

4 min 46 sec



Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation criticized the way much of the world, including the United States, does business. Host Scott Simon talks with the Rev. James Martin, editor at large for America magazine, on why this document is so interesting.


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It was a fundamental principle of the order that the end justifies the means


Throughout Christendom, Protestantism was menaced by formidable foes. The first triumphs of the Reformation past, Rome summoned new forces, hoping to accomplish its destruction. At this time the order of the Jesuits was created, the most cruel, unscrupulous, and powerful of all the champions of popery. Cut off from earthly ties and human interests, dead to the claims of natural affection, reason and conscience wholly silenced, they knew no rule, no tie, but that of their order, and no duty but to extend its power. (See Appendix.) The gospel of Christ had enabled its adherents to meet danger and endure suffering, undismayed by cold, hunger, toil, and poverty, to uphold the banner of truth in face of the rack, the dungeon, and the stake. To combat these forces, Jesuitism inspired its followers with a fanaticism that enabled them to endure like dangers, and to oppose to the power of truth all the weapons of deception. There was no crime too great for them to commit, no deception too base for them to practice, no disguise too difficult for them to assume. Vowed to perpetual poverty and humility, it was their studied aim to secure wealth and power, to be devoted to the overthrow of Protestantism, and the re-establishment of the papal supremacy.


When appearing as members of their order, they wore a garb of sanctity, visiting prisons and hospitals, ministering to the sick and the poor, professing to have renounced the world, and bearing the sacred name of Jesus, who went about doing good. But under this blameless exterior the most criminal and deadly purposes were often concealed. It was a fundamental principle of the order that the end justifies the means. By this code, lying, theft, perjury, assassination, were not only pardonable but commendable, when they served the interests of the church. Under various disguises the Jesuits worked their way into offices of state, climbing up to be the counselors of kings, and shaping the policy of nations. They became servants to act as spies upon their masters. They established colleges for the sons of princes and nobles, and schools for the common people; and the children of Protestant parents were drawn into an observance of popish rites. All the outward pomp and display of the Romish worship was brought to bear to confuse the mind and dazzle and captivate the imagination, and thus the liberty for which the fathers had toiled and bled was betrayed by the sons. The Jesuits rapidly spread themselves over Europe, and wherever they went, there followed a revival of popery.


The Great Controversy, pp.234, 235 
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Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Jesuits in Middle East Speak Out on Syria


"Respect for the dignity of the person as well as for human rights should constitute a criterion and a preliminary primary point of reference for all material aid"








Rome, October 31, 2013 (Zenit.org)

Here is a statement from Oct. 25 from the Conference of Jesuit Provincials in the Middle East and Europe concerning Syria.


* * *

We the Jesuit Provincials, as major superiors of the Society of Jesus in the Middle East and in Europe, warmly welcome the Holy Father’s recent statement on Syria. With all his strength, he alerted international opinion to the Syrian tragedy and asked “all the parties in conflict to listen to the voice of their own conscience and not close themselves in solely on their own interests”. With him, we also declare that “never has the use of violence brought peace in its wake”,*[1]but that the only way to peace is through the culture of encounter and the culture of dialogue.

Steps toward peace

Therefore, we rejoice that the threat of air attacks against Syria has ceased and we support the launching of the process which aims at the destruction of all chemical weapons found on Syrian soil. We welcome negotiations for a peace conference for Syria which have now begun and we urge that this peace process moves forward rapidly, courageously and firmly. We ask all parties in the conflict, as well as the international community,

- to urgently seek a cease-fire guaranteed by an international authority;

- to establish a road-map to prepare the meeting of all the parties in conflict;

- to convene the peace conference to reach a common agreement which safeguards the lives of the Syrian people.

Social and civil mobilization

At the same time, we call once again for mobilization of all civil and social agencies to help the Syrian people face one of the biggest humanitarian tragedies of our century. The care of refugees both within and outside the country (about one quarter of the population), the need for food, medicine and medical aid, freeing detainees and hostages, and the reopening of educational institutions, continue to be urgent needs.

Interests at play

We also wish to draw attention to the necessity of acknowledging and naming the real interests that are at play, both locally, regionally or internationally, and which, unfortunately, do not always correspond with the interests of the Syrian people. In particular, we call for a reflection on the consequences of the production and sale of arms; we call for the cessation of the delivery and the sale of arms to all parties in conflict.

Necessary discernment

We would like to urge the wider international community, to refuse all support, whether diplomatic or military, for every party, which openly advocates any forms of violence, fanaticism or extremism. Respect for the dignity of the person as well as for human rights should constitute a criterion and a preliminary primary point of reference for all material aid.

Christian communities in Syria

Finally, we point particularly to the future of Christian communities living in Syria. Present in Syria since the beginning of the Christian era, these communities constitute an inseparable element of its social fabric and its cultural richness and they contribute actively to its development. Solutions advocating the exile or the elimination of these communities are unacceptable. We want to encourage those Christian communities and to assure them that they can play a valuable role in their societies through faithful witness to the Gospel: a gospel that calls for peace, justice, forgiveness, understanding and reconciliation.

Rome – Friday 25th October 2013

*[1] Pope Francis - Angelus prayer - 1st September 2013
(October 31, 2013) © Innovative Media Inc.


 

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Pilgrim Separatists and the Founding of America - Drive Thru History



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Pope Francis Declares Consumers and Capitalists Need to Help the Poor






Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty



By Daniel Gross
November 26th 20131:55 pm

In a new declaration, the pope warns that the ‘culture of prosperity deadens us,’ taking aim at free market capitalists and consumers alike.

“How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?”

I guess Pope Francis doesn’t watch Bloomberg TV.

This quote is one of the many zingers Pope Francis aims at global capitalism in his just-issued Apostolic Exhortation (here’s the PDF version)

The economic sections were a small component—items 54-60 of a 106-item, 86-page document. But they were noteworthy for injecting the Vatican into the raging global debate about inequality. And they are likely to delight many followers and alarm many others who generally look to the Vatican for guidance on spiritual and policy matters. Earlier this month, Sarah Palin kicked up a storm when she expressed concern about some of Pope Francis’s views on a range of issues—from poverty to the treatment of gays. “He’s had some statements that to me sound kind of liberal, has taken me aback, has kind of surprised me,” she told CNN. I wonder what she’s thinking now that Francis has unleashed a broadside at supply-siders, defenders of the prerogatives of finance, and at consumers in general.

Francis, of course, hails from Latin America, the wellspring of the radical, feared ‘Liberation Theology’ movement of the 1960s and 1970s. While no leveler, Francis is allergic to ostentation. He doesn’t like the imperial trappings of the office. He has no entourage, and moved into rooms at the Casa Santa Maria, the Vatican hotel, instead of occupying the large papal penthouse at the Apostolic Palace. Not for him the Red Prada slippers of his predecessor. His church has cracked down on showy displays of wealth. This fall, he suspended of the Bishop of Limburg, who spent millions of Euros renovating his residence.

Francis has been relentless in talking about the church’s mission and need to serve the poor. Poverty and inequality used to be accepted as an order imposed by God. Today, Francis forthrightly pinned the blame on humans. The global economy has grown in every year since 1944 except one—2009. Broadly speaking, living standards are rising around the world, and hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of abject poverty. Yet there are glaring, often violent deficiencies in the system.

Popes have never been big fans of Darwinism. This Pope takes direct aim at economic Darwinism. “Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless,” he wrote. Francis has little use for those who argue that cutting taxes for the rich helps the poor. “Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world,” he said in a mini-rant that wouldn’t be out-of-place on MSNBC. “This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.”

Time and again, he goes after the malign influence of the theology of free-market, financial, consumer-based capitalism. As for money, “we calmly accept its dominion over ourselves and our societies.” There are too many worshippers of Mammon among us. “The worship of the ancient golden calf (cf. Ex. 32:1-35) has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.”

That’s old school. But Francis also engages in the sort of critique of modern finance that has emerged in the slew of post-crisis books: the financial industry captures government, redirects policies and resources to benefit itself at the expense of everybody else—with toxic results. “While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few,” he writes. “This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control.” He complains about excessive debt and “self-serving tax evasion” among the wealthy. And even as they rig the system, those at the top often “content themselves with blaming the poor and the poorer countries themselves for their trouble.” He calls for reforms that make finance subservient to industry and for the redistribution of wealth. “The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but he is obliged in the name of Christ to remind all that the rich must help, respect and promote the poor.”

As I read this, I imagined a fresco depicting the economic section of the document. In the central panel, Sen. Elizabeth Warren whispers into the ear of the Pope as Mitt Romney and hedge fund managers are flayed. To one side, a group of union organizers rip up a copy of the Republican Party’s 2012 platform. In one corner, a pile of Apple iPads and Google glasses are torched in a bonfire. In another, makers, personified by the small, suited figure of Paul Ryan beg forgiveness from a gallery of takers, which include bedraggled peasants with the faces of Bernie Sanders, Noam Chomsky, and Che Guevara. And Alan Greenspan, clutching a copy of Atlas Shrugged, boils in a bath of molten gold.

It’s not just financiers who come in for censure. Consumers take it on the chin, too. Gadgets, technology, and stuff, contrary to what you read in advertisements, don’t make us happier or better people. “The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase. In the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.”

It’s a message we should all keep in mind—Catholic or not—as we flood the malls in search of Black Friday deals.


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God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise



But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Matthew 4:4


And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.
 Deuteronomy 8:3 



1 Corinthians 1
King James Version (KJV)


1 Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,

2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their's and our's:

3 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;

5 That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;

6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:

7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:

8 Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

11 For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.

12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.

13 Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?

14 I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius;

15 Lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name.

16 And I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.

17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.

18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:

23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;

24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.

30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
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Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Atheists Take On The IRS


By Victoria Bekiempis / November 22 2013 4:17 PM





Top American secularists allege the tax agency discriminates against them. Reuters


IRS policies on church tax exemptions aren’t just potentially making America poorer – they also illegally discriminate against atheists, a lawsuit alleges.

American Atheists and several other secularist groups claim that the Internal Revenue Service gives preferential treatment to churches and religious organizations who seek or have 501(c)(3) non-profit status compared to secular non-profit organizations. The groups say this violates non-believers’ Constitutional rights because it treats churches differently than non-churches and equates to government support of religion.

Under current IRS policy, churches automatically qualify for 501(c)(3) status, though nonreligious 501(c)(3)s must go through an extensive application process to get the same tax benefits. In addition, religious organizations do not have to fill out annual Form 990 returns reports, which detail charities’ finances so the IRS or nonprofit watchdogs can identify possible fiscal wrongdoing and law-breaking. Critics, who have recently renewed their calls for religious exemption reform, say that these filing differences cost the U.S. government from some $17 to $71 billion annually.

Though American Atheists’ first filed their federal lawsuit in December 2012, oral arguments in the case began late this week.

“We find it discriminatory, so we’re suing,” American Atheists spokesman Dave Muscato tells Newsweek. “The way that this is set up, we all pay for it. We’re all supporting churches for what they do.”

In court filings, the advocacy group argues that a 1961 U.S. Supreme Court opinion that “neither the federal government nor state governments can ‘constitutionally pass laws or impose requirements which aid all religions as against non-believers, and neither can aid those religions based on a belief in the existence of God, as against those religions founded on different beliefs’” supports their claims. American Atheists is also arguing that church-only tax breaks, such as the “parsonage exemption,” which lets clergy members write off housing expenses from their taxable income, aren’t constitutionally kosher, since “non-religious entities may not take any deductions for the housing or living expenses of their employees or volunteers.”

IRS policies also discriminate against donors to non-religious organizations, American Atheists alleges. Non-religious nonprofits must identify, on Form 990, contributors who give more than $5,000, or 2 percent of the organization’s total contributions and grants. But religious non-profits don’t have to disclose mega donors, because they don’t have to fill out a 990. These policies, plus the expense and labor required to meet 501(c)(3) filing requirements, gives churches a “fundraising advantage” and put atheists at risk. “Because there’s a lot of stigma about atheism, many people talk to us and say they would donate more but don’t want their name publicized in that way,” Muscato says.

Court proceedings are set to continue in the coming weeks.

The IRS did not immediately reply to requests for comment, though the agency often does not comment on pending litigation.

When asked previously about the issue, an IRS spokesman sent Newsweek an e-mail linking to a tax guide for religious nonprofits.

 
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UN Climate Change Conference in Warsaw keeps governments on a track towards 2015 climate agreement


23 / 11 / 2013


 


(Warsaw, 23 November 2013) The UN Climate Change Conference in Warsaw ended on Saturday, keeping governments on a track towards a universal climate agreement in 2015 and including significant new decisions that will cut emissions from deforestation.

“Warsaw has set a pathway for governments to work on a draft text of a new universal climate agreement. So it appears on the table at the next UN Climate change conference in Peru. This is an essential step to reach a final agreement in Paris, in 2015, said Marcin Korolec, President of the COP19 conference.”

In the context of 2015, countries decided to initiate or intensify domestic preparation for their intended national contributions towards that agreement, which will come into force from 2020. Parties ready to do this will submit clear and transparent plans well in advance of COP 21, in Paris, and by the first quarter of 2015.

Countries also resolved to close the pre-2020 ambition gap by intensifying technical work, including through workshops, and increased opportunities for information sharing. Work will also be intensified through the more frequent engagement of Ministers by means of Ministerial Dialogues.

“We have seen essential progress. But let us again be clear that we are witnessing ever more frequent, extreme weather events, and the poor and vulnerable are already paying the price,” said Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

“Now governments, and especially developed nations, must go back to do their homework so they can put their plans on the table ahead of the Paris conference,” she said.

In addition, governments provided more clarity on mobilizing finance to support developing country actions to curb emissions and adapt to climate change. This includes requesting developed countries to prepare biennial submissions on their updated strategies and approaches for scaling up finance between 2014 and 2020, complemented by a decision to hold a similar schedule of high-level ministerial dialogues on finance.

The Warsaw meeting also resulted in concrete announcements of forthcoming contributions of public climate finance to support developing nation action, including from Norway, the UK, EU, US, Republic of Korea, Japan, Sweden, Germany and Finland.

Meanwhile, the Green Climate Fund Board is to commence its initial resource mobilization process as soon as possible and developed countries were asked for ambitious, timely contributions by COP 20, in December, next year, to enable an effective operationalization.

The conference also decided to establish an international mechanism to provide most vulnerable populations with better protection against loss and damage caused by extreme weather events and slow onset events such as rising sea levels. Detailed work on the so-called “Warsaw mechanism” will begin next year.


Cutting emissions from deforestation

Today’s agreements included a significant set of decisions on ways to help developing countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and the degradation of forests, which account for around one fifth of all human-generated emissions. The agreement on REDD+ is backed by pledges of 280 million dollars financing from the US, Norway and the UK.

President Korolec said: “I am proud of this concrete accomplishment. We are all aware of the central role that forests play as carbon sinks, climate stabilizers and biodiversity havens. Through our negotiations we have made a significant contribution to forest preservation and sustainable use which will benefit the people who live in and around them and humanity and the planet as a whole. I am proud that this instrument was named Warsaw Framework for REDD.”


Further progress in help for developing nations


In Warsaw, a landmark was passed after 48 of the poorest countries of the world finalized a comprehensive set of plans to deal with the inevitable impacts of climate change. With these plans, the countries can better assess the immediate impacts of climate change and what they need in the way of support to become more resilient. Developed countries, including Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland have also paid or pledged over 100 million dollars to add to the Adaptation Fund, which has now started to fund national projects.

Governments completed work on the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) so that it can immediately respond to requests from developing countries for advice and assistance on the transfer of technology.

The CTCN is open for business and is encouraging developing countries to set up focal points to accelerate the transfer of technology.


Climate action at all levels

COP19 has been a showcase for climate action by business, cities, regions and civil society.

The UNFCCC secretariat also celebrated its annual Momentum for Change lighthouse activity awards for climate actions that demonstrate positive results through innovative finance, by women and the urban poor. In addition, Momentum for Change launched a new initiative focusing on contributions by information and technology sector to curb emissions and increase adaption capacity.

“A groundswell of action is happening at all levels of society. All major players came to COP19 to show not only what they have done but to think what more they can do. Next year is also the time for them to turn ideas into further concrete pledges,” Ms. Figueres said.


2014 New York Summit


In Warsaw, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon reiterated his invitation to all governments, and leaders from finance, business, local government and civil society, to a climate summit in New York on 23 September 2014. This will be a solutions summit, complementing the UNFCCC negotiations. “I ask all who come to bring bold and new announcements and action.  By early 2015, we need those promises to add up to enough real action to keep us below the internationally agreed two degree temperature rise,” he said.

The next UNFCCC meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform is to take place in Bonn from 10 to 14, March, 2014.





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