Tuesday, March 04, 2014

Facebook Wants to Build 11,000 Drones to Bring Internet to Africa



Rise of the Drones



All drones everywhere.


By Jordyn Taylor 3/04 9:43am





Check out this atmospheric satellite a.k.a. FACEBOOK DRONE. (Screengrab: YouTube)

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Nope — it’s a Facebook drone.

The social media site reportedly wants to use drones to bring Internet connection to the two thirds of the world that still lack connectivity, starting with parts of Africa. The initiative is part of the internet.org project, which Facebook backs.

To do so, Facebook could have bought some individual drones. Instead, overachievers that they are, they bought a drone company. According to TechCrunch, Facebook is shelling out $60 million to acquire Titan Aerospace, a company that makes “atmospheric satellites” — basically, solar-powered drones capable of staying in the sky for up to five years.

Facebook is specifically interested in building 11,000 of Titan Aerospace’s “Solara 60″ aircraft, TechCrunch reported. The company’s site indicates the Solara aircraft have a bunch of communications abilities, which we expect will be useful for Facebook’s mission.

According to this comprehensive YouTube video, the Solara 60 can complete most of the same functions as an orbital satellite, but is cheaper and more versatile. It can also stay at an altitude of 20km for up to five years, without ever having to come back down and refuel. Fancy.

TechCrunch specified that Titan Aerospace’s products would only be used for the internet.org initiative, which means that if you’re reading this now, a fleet of Facebook drones probably won’t be coming to a sky near you.

Check out Titan Aerospace’s Solara 50 and 60 aircraft:




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Roadside Service: Drive-In Church Brings God To Your Car


by Amy Kiley
March 03, 2014 4:00 PM

from WFME

Listen to the Story
All Things Considered

3 min 54 sec




Sun, surf and sermons: At the Daytona Beach Drive In Christian Church in Florida, parishioners attend services by parking their cars in a grassy lot. Amy Kiley/WMFE



When most people drive to church on Sunday, it's to sit for an hour-long service on uncomfortable wooden pews. Not at the Daytona Beach Drive In Christian Church in Florida.

As church attendance continues to decline in the United States, some parishes are doing what they can to draw congregants: embracing social media, loosening dress codes and even altering service times for big sporting events. At this church, people park in rows on the grass facing an altar on the balcony of an old drive-in theater. To hear the service, they switch on their radios.

Pastor Bob Kemp-Baird was skeptical of the church's approach when he was first recruited two years ago, but now says he understands that the worship style works for his congregation.

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"Is there a feeling of the presence of the holy in this place?" Kemp-Baird asks. "Is there a feeling that Christ's presence is made known? I do know: it lives here."

Liturgical purists might balk at a worship style in which even Communion isn't very communal. Parishioners in their cars drink wine from plastic ramekins with tiny rectangles of bread under the lids. As they do so, the radio pipes out instructions over organ music: "Remove this inner lid and, holding this cup, join me in prayer."

But for the parishioners of the , the drive-up approach works.

When Shirley Oenbrink was battling stage 4 cancer, attending church provided her with strength through her illness, she says. But during her year of chemotherapy, she says she could barely get out of bed, let alone into a church pew.

Now that she has beaten the cancer, having a private space during worship helps her cope with the emotional ups and downs of recovery.

"It the time to let the tears flow and you don't get questioned," she says. "I don't like for people to feel sorry for me. And when I cry, my eyes get big, my nose swells up ... I need to stay in my car."


For Russell and Teresa Fry, who are legally blind, the ability to walk to the church and hear the service through speakers is important. They say they both carry wounds from discrimination at churches they've attended in the past, and Teresa Fry says that makes her "standoffish."

"I don't want to get hurt. So I stand back and wait for a second to see how they're going to react to me with being visually impaired, because my eyes do jerk a lot," she says. "People sometimes think I'm kind of crazy when I'm not crazy."

The Frys say the church is a safe place for people who need privacy and healing, and that the congregation readily accepted them.

Other parishioners say the drive-in approach is perfect for those who have trouble walking or for antsy children who enjoy the open space. Others say they revel in the ocean air and Florida sunshine. And some say they like that the church welcomes the whole family, including pet dogs: When ushers hand out Communion, even the dogs get treats.
At the service's close, things get even livelier when people use their car horns to "clap."

Those who want human interaction can then gather in the fellowship hall, which used to be the theater's concession stand. Today, it offers a Christian tradition that transcends even locked cars: doughnut hour.


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Interstate traffic in Dallas area moving slowly after ice problems


Associated Press | March 3, 2014 | Updated: March 3, 2014 8:01pm




Photo By Richard W. Rodriguez/Associated Press
1 of 15
Traffic backs up on Texas 121 in Hurst, Texas, Sunday, March 2, 2014. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for North Texas on Sunday as day-time temperatures dip into the 30s. Forecasts call for freezing rain and sleet that could make driving hazardous. (AP Photo/The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Richard W. Rodriguez) MAGS OUT; (FORT WORTH WEEKLY, 360 WEST); INTERNET OUT










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DALLAS — The Texas Department of Public Safety says interstate traffic in North and East Texas is moving slowly after sections were closed because of multiple accidents caused by icy conditions.

DPS Sgt. Lonny Haschel said Monday the concern is the interstates refreezing as temperatures in North Texas are expected to fall into the 20s overnight.

Traffic on Interstate 45 south of Dallas on Sunday night and into Monday was at a virtual standstill for hours as accidents and tractor-trailers unable to climb steep grades blocked other vehicles.

Haschel says the backup on northbound lanes extended for at least 15 miles.

Motorists on Interstate 20 in East Texas also were stuck for hours.

The hazardous driving could extend to the Austin and Houston areas as winter weather advisories have been issued from Monday evening into Tuesday.


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Bill Gates reclaims top of Forbes billionaire list from Slim


By Jonathan Stempel

Mon Mar 3, 2014 4:40pm EST



Microsoft founder Bill Gates attends a session at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos in this file photo from January 24, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Denis Balibouse/Files



(Reuters) - Bill Gates has returned to the top of Forbes magazine's annual list of the world's richest people, as rising stock markets swelled the ranks of billionaires, which included a record number of women.

With a net worth of $76 billion, the Microsoft Corp co-founder reclaimed the top spot after a four-year hiatus, toppling Mexico's telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim Helu, who placed second at $72 billion, Forbes said in announcing the list on Monday.

Amancio Ortega, the Spanish founder of clothing conglomerate Inditex SA, which includes the Zara fashion chain, ranked third at $64 billion.

Investing icon Warren Buffett, who runs Berkshire Hathaway Inc and is a frequent bridge partner for Gates, was fourth at $58.2 billion. Oracle Corp chief Larry Ellison came in fifth at $48 billion.

Gates has topped the list in 15 of the last 20 years.

A record 1,645 billionaires with a total net worth of $6.4 trillion made Forbes' list, up from 1,426 last year.

Just over 10 percent were female, with 172 women compared with 138 a year earlier.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc heiress Christy Walton was the highest-ranking woman, in ninth place, at $36.7 billion. France's Liliane Bettencourt, who got much of her wealth from cosmetics company L'Oreal SA, was next among women at $34.5 billion, and ranked 11th overall.

The Internet was well-represented. Google Inc founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin ranked 17th and 19th, worth a respective $32.3 billion and $31.8 billion, while Amazon.com Inc's Jeff Bezos was between them at $32 billion.

Facebook Inc founder Mark Zuckerberg, 29, more than doubled his net worth to $28.5 billion, and ranked 21st.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who left office two months ago, was 16th at $33 billion, built mainly through his eponymous media company.

Forbes said the year's biggest loser was Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista, whose net worth fell below $300 million from $10.6 billion as his oil and natural resources empire collapsed amid too much debt and falling output.

Roughly two-thirds of the world's billionaires, or 1,080, were self-made. The United States had the most billionaires, with 492, followed by China at 152 and Russia at 111. Algeria, Lithuania, Tanzania and Uganda joined the list with one each.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Jan Paschal)


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The City Slums


In the great cities are multitudes who receive less care and consideration than are given to dumb animals. Think of the families herded together in miserable tenements, many of them dark basements, reeking with dampness and filth. In these wretched places children are born and grow up and die. They see nothing of the beauty of natural things that God has created to delight the senses and uplift the soul. Ragged and half-starved, they live amid vice and depravity, molded in character by the wretchedness and sin that surround them. Children hear the name of God only in profanity. Foul speech, imprecations, and revilings fill their ears. The fumes of liquor and tobacco, sickening stenches, moral degradation, pervert their senses. Thus multitudes are trained to become criminals, foes to society that has abandoned them to misery and degradation.

Not all the poor in the city slums are of this class. God-fearing men and women have been brought to the depths of poverty by illness or misfortune, often through the dishonest scheming of those who live by preying upon their fellows. Many who are upright and well-meaning become poor through lack of industrial training. Through ignorance they are unfitted to wrestle with the difficulties of life. Drifting into the cities, they are often unable to find employment. Surrounded by the sights and sounds of vice, they are subjected to terrible temptation. Herded and often classed with the vicious and degraded, it is only by a superhuman struggle, a more than finite power, that they can be preserved from sinking to the same depths. Many hold fast their integrity, choosing to suffer rather than to sin. This class especially demand help, sympathy, and encouragement.

If the poor now crowded into the cities could find homes upon the land, they might not only earn a livelihood, but find health and happiness now unknown to them. Hard work, simple fare, close economy, often hardship and privation, would be their lot. But what a blessing would be theirs in leaving the city, with its enticements to evil, its turmoil and crime, misery and foulness, for the country's quiet and peace and purity.

To many of those living in the cities who have not a spot of green grass to set their feet upon, who year after year have looked out upon filthy courts and narrow alleys, brick walls and pavements, and skies clouded with dust and smoke--if these could be taken to some farming district, surrounded with the green fields, the woods and hills and brooks, the clear skies and the fresh, pure air of the country, it would seem almost like heaven.

Cut off to a great degree from contact with and dependence upon men, and separated from the world's corrupting maxims and customs and excitements, they would come nearer to the heart of nature. God's presence would be more real to them. Many would learn the lesson of dependence upon Him. Through nature they would hear His voice speaking to their hearts of His peace and love, and mind and soul and body would respond to the healing, life-giving power.

If they ever become industrious and self-supporting, very many must have assistance, encouragement, and instruction. There are multitudes of poor families for whom no better missionary work could be done than to assist them in settling on the land and in learning how to make it yield them a livelihood.

The need for such help and instruction is not confined to the cities. Even in the country, with all its possibilities for a better life, multitudes of the poor are in great need. Whole communities are devoid of education in industrial and sanitary lines. Families live in hovels, with scant furniture and clothing, without tools, without books, destitute both of comforts and conveniences and of means of culture. Imbruted souls, bodies weak and ill-formed, reveal the results of evil heredity and of wrong habits. These people must be educated from the very foundation. They have led shiftless, idle, corrupt lives, and they need to be trained to correct habits.

How can they be awakened to the necessity of improvement? How can they be directed to a higher ideal of life? How can they be helped to rise? What can be done where poverty prevails and is to be contended with at every step? Certainly the work is difficult. The necessary reformation will never be made unless men and women are assisted by a power outside of themselves. It is God's purpose that the rich and the poor shall be closely bound together by the ties of sympathy and helpfulness. Those who have means, talents, and capabilities are to use these gifts in blessing their fellow men.

Christian farmers can do real missionary work in helping the poor to find homes on the land and in teaching them how to till the soil and make it productive. Teach them how to use the implements of agriculture, how to cultivate various crops, how to plant and care for orchards.

Many who till the soil fail to secure adequate returns because of their neglect. Their orchards are not properly cared for, the crops are not put in at the right time, and a mere surface work is done in cultivating the soil. Their ill success they charge to the unproductiveness of the land. False witness is often borne in condemning land that, if properly worked, would yield rich returns. The narrow plans, the little strength put forth, the little study as to the best methods, call loudly for reform.

Let proper methods be taught to all who are willing to learn. If any do not wish you to speak to them of advanced ideas, let the lessons be given silently. Keep up the culture of your own land. Drop a word to your neighbors when you can, and let the harvest be eloquent in favor of right methods. Demonstrate what can be done with the land when properly worked.

Attention should be given to the establishment of various industries so that poor families can find employment. Carpenters, blacksmiths, and indeed everyone who understands some line of useful labor, should feel a responsibility to teach and help the ignorant and the unemployed.

In ministry to the poor there is a wide field of service for women as well as for men. The efficient cook, the housekeeper, the seamstress, the nurse--the help of all is needed. Let the members of poor households be taught how to cook, how to make and mend their own clothing, how to nurse the sick, how to care properly for the home. Let boys and girls be thoroughly taught some useful trade or occupation.
  



The Ministry of Healing, E.G. White, p.189-194.
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The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you


1 After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.

2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.

3 Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.

4 Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way.

5 And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house.

6 And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again.

7 And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.

8 And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you:

9 And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.

10 But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say,

11 Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.

12 But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city.

13 Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

14 But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you.

15 And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell.

16 He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.

17 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.

Luke 10:1-17.
King James Version (KJV) 
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EUROPEAN DAY FOR A WORK-FREE SUNDAY ON 3 MARCH 2014



CALL for ACTION !
3 March 2014


The European Sunday Alliance reminds all members and supporters to also take action on the Eve of the 3 March on Sunday, 2 March 2014, as the EUROPEAN DAY FOR A WORK-FREE SUNDAY!

The focus of this year’s CALL FOR ACTION will lie on combining work-free Sunday and decent working hours for workers and citizens and economic competitiveness.

For a couple of years now, the socio-economic crisis has been overshadowing European Union policy making. Austerity, further liberalisation and flexibility are very often seen as key solutions for getting out of the crisis. Social protection and social rights seem to be put aside. However, employment and the creation of jobs and economic competitiveness in Europe are the main requirements for overcoming the crisis. But what kind of jobs do we need in Europe? Can competitiveness and decent work and a common weekly rest day go hand in hand, and under what conditions? Sunday protection strengthens the social cohesion of our societies. It therefore represents a precious value, which should be recognised as a pillar of the European Social and Economic Model.

We believe: Competitiveness needs innovation, innovation needs creativity and creativity needs recreation!

We believe: Legislation and practices in place at the EU and Member State levels need to be more protective of the health, safety, dignity of everyone and should more attentively promote the balance between family and private life and work.

With the European Elections at the horizon we call on members, supporters and all citizens to make our common demand visible on Sunday 2nd and Monday 3rd of March 2014!

Simply sending out a press release already helps to create awareness!

What else can YOU do?




Contact your MEP and MEP-Candidate and call on her/him to commit her/himself:

1. To ensure that all relevant EU-legislation both respects and promotes the protection of a common weekly day of rest for all EU citizens, which shall in principle be on a Sunday, in order to protect workers' health and promote a better balance between family and private life and work;

2. To promote EU-legislation guaranteeing sustainable working time patterns based on the principle of decent work benefiting society as well as the economy as a whole.



Ask them to SIGN THE PLEDGE !


To make our common mission as visible as possible, please let us know what you are planning and send us your press release, a photo or a video on your action. We will publish it on our website!



Actions:

Press release in Slovakia


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Monday, March 03, 2014

Russia And China 'In Agreement' Over Ukraine



Russia is in "operational control" of Crimea as soldiers surround Ukrainian troops and seize a ferry port.

5:28pm UK, Monday 03 March 2014



Video: Andrew Wilson reports from Crimea Enlarge



Alistair Bunkall looks at the military balance of power between Russia and Ukraine.

Video: Ukraine / Russia: The Military Match Up Enlarge







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Russia has said China is largely "in agreement" over Ukraine, after other world powers condemned Moscow for sending troops into the country.

Hundreds of Russian soldiers have surrounded a military base in Crimea, preventing Ukrainian soldiers from going in or out.

:: Click here for the latest on the crisis - Russia Delivers 'Assault Storm' Deadline

The convoy blockading the site, near the Crimean capital Simferopol, includes at least 17 military vehicles. Russian soldiers surround Ukrainian military units in Perevalnoye, Crimea

Russian troops are also reported to have taken control of a ferry terminal in the city of Kerch on the eastern tip of Crimea, which has a majority Russian-speaking population.

Ukraine's defence ministry said two Russian fighter jets violated the country's air space in the Black Sea on Sunday night and that it had scrambled an interceptor aircraft to prevent the "provocative actions".

And reports claimed pro-Russian protesters had occupied a floor of the regional government building in Donetsk. The 11-storey building has been flying the Russian flag for the last three days. A Russian navy ship enters the port of Sevastopol

Ukrainian prime minister Arseny Yatseniuk has insisted his country "will never give up Crimea to anyone" and urged Russian forces to withdraw.

Mr Yatseniuk said: "I was and am a supporter of a diplomatic solution to the crisis, as a conflict would destroy the foundations for stability in the whole region."

In an interview with Sky News, Foreign Secretary William Hague said the crisis is likely to take some time to resolve.

He said: "I think we probably are looking at a long period of very active diplomacy and looking for solutions to this since there is no sign of a change in the Russian position on this. William Hague said the crisis was the biggest in Europe in the 21st century

"It's impossible to be optimistic at the moment. We're not in any position to be optimistic about the security situation and what is happening in the Crimea."

The crisis has had a huge knock-on effect on global stock markets, with Moscow's stock exchange plunging as much as 10% on Monday morning.

Russia's central bank raised its rate to 7% from 5.5% as the ruble hit an historic low against the dollar and the euro.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov discussed Ukraine by telephone with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on Monday, and claimed they had "broadly coinciding points of view" on the situation there, according to a ministry statement.

Speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva later, Mr Lavrov said Russian troops were necessary in Ukraine "until the normalisation of the political situation" and dismissed threats of sanctions and boycotts.

He added: "We call for a responsible approach, to put aside geopolitical calculations, and above all to put the interests of the Ukrainian people first."

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said: "China has always upheld the principles of diplomacy and the fundamental norms of international relations.

"At the same time we also take into consideration the history and the current complexities of the Ukrainian issue."

 

As the tense stand-off continues, the other seven nations of the G8 urged Moscow to hold talks with Kiev.

"We, the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States and the President of the European Council and President of the European Commission, join together today to condemn the Russian Federation's clear violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine," they said in a statement.

"We have decided for the time being to suspend our participation in activities associated with the preparation of the scheduled G8 Summit in Sochi in June."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who is in Kiev for talks on the crisis, said Russia has taken operational control of Crimea.

He described Russia's intervention in Ukraine as the biggest crisis in Europe in the 21st century.


Rear Admiral Berezovsky announces his defection before TV cameras

At a news conference with Mr Yatseniuk, Mr Hague said: "If this situation cannot resolve itself, if Russia cannot be persuaded to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, there will have to be other consequences and other costs."

Mr Hague added: "The UK is not discussion military action, our concentration is on diplomatic and economic pressure."

Prime Minister David Cameron will later chair a meeting of the National Security Council on the "British and international response to the grave situation in Ukraine", where he will press for a European summit on the crisis.

European foreign ministers are holding an emergency meeting on Ukraine in Brussels to table a joint response to the military incursion.

Mr Yatseniuk heads a pro-Western government that took power in the former Soviet republic when its Moscow-backed president, Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted last week.

US Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Kiev on Tuesday to show "strong support for Ukrainian sovereignty".

Meanwhile, Ukraine launched a treason case against its new navy chief after he switched allegiance to the pro-Russian Crimea region.

Rear Admiral Denis Berezovsky was appointed head of Ukraine's navy on Saturday.

But a day later he appeared before cameras, alongside the pro-Russian prime minister of Crimea's regional parliament, saying he had ordered Ukrainian naval forces there to disregard orders from "self-proclaimed" authorities in Kiev.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday won parliament's authorisation to use force in Ukraine.


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Is it time for another one of those "RED LINES"?




 Photo (Courtesy) http://www.newsmax.com/

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Pope Francis's Message to Pentecostal and Charismatic Conference in Texas



Mesajul papei Francisc pentru Conferinta penticostalà si carismaticà in Texas



INTREITA SOLIE INGEREASC

Published on Mar 3, 2014


No description available.
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POPE TO COPELAND: CATHOLICS AND CHARISMATICS MUST SPIRITUALLY UNITE






Amy Spreeman

Published on Feb 24, 2014

We are galloping toward a one-world melding of religions, and the ramifications are staggering. Pope Francis has now sent a video message to Word of Faith father Kenneth Copeland, urging a reconciliation between Catholics and Charismatics.

(Our Story Here: http://bit.ly/1h72CV8)

"The Catholic and Charismatic Renewal is the hope of the Church," exclaims Anglican Episcopal Bishop Tony Palmer, before a group of cheering followers at the Kenneth Copeland Ministries. Palmer said those words are from the Vatican. Before playing the video message from Pope Francis to Kenneth Copeland, Palmer told the crowd, "When my wife saw that she could be Catholic, and Charismatic, and Evangelical, and Pentecostal, and it was absolutely accepted in the Catholic Church, she said that she would like to reconnect her roots with the Catholic culture. So she did."

The crowd cheered, as he continued, "Brothers and sisters, Luther's protest is over. Is yours?"

Even Kenneth Copeland finds this development incredible: Said Copeland, "Heaven is thrilled over this...You know what is so thrilling to me? When we went into the ministry 47 years ago, this was impossible."

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What Wall Street is watching in Ukraine crisis



Adam Shell, USA TODAY 1:39 p.m. EST March 3, 2014

Wall Street has a new worry: the escalating conflict between the Ukraine and Russia. Here are five things investors are watching.



(Photo: Richard Drew, AP)


Story Highlights
Wall Street is watching to see if political crisis turns into economic one
Key question is if hostilities result in full-fledged war
European economy at risk due to close proximity to hot spot

Geopolitical risk, saber rattling and war talk are not new to Wall Street.

The stock market survived the Cold War, European conflicts in Kosovo and Georgia, recent U.S. wars in the Middle East, and current political upheaval in places like Syria and Egypt.

The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index, if you recall, closed at yet another all-time high Friday, and the world hasn't been a terribly friendly place at times during the march higher.

History also shows that market shocks caused by war, terrorism and other fear-rattling events tend to be short-lived.

U.S. STOCKS: How markets are doing

FUNDS: Investments to watch in Ukraine crisis

5 WAYS: Ukraine unrest affects global economy

In 14 shocks dating back to the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the median one-day decline has been 2.4%. And the shocks, which also include the Sept. 11 terror attacks and the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, lasted just eight days, with total losses of 7.4%, data from S&P Capital IQ show. The market recouped its losses 14 days later.

So what's Wall Street watching now as the conflict in Ukraine heats up after Russia's military move into Crimea, the southern Russian-speaking part of the Ukraine.

Here are five things to watch:

1. Will political crisis bleed into economic crisis?

While Russia's troop movements into Crimea are unnerving and cause an initial knee-jerk reaction to sell risky assets, the ultimate question is whether the impact causes major economic headwinds in Europe, the U.S. and the rest of the globe.

Strict trade sanctions on the Russians, for example, could cause Russia to pull back on all energy exports to Europe, which could cause harm to Europe's economy, which could then spread to the U.S.

But for now, Wall Street doesn't view the conflict as a major economic event, despite a 2% jump in oil prices and stock market weakness around the globe.

"It appears that the markets -- at least for now -- are recognizing that problems in Ukraine provide significantly greater geopolitical risk than economic and market risk to the U.S. at this time," says John Stoltzfus, a market strategist at Oppenheimer.

2. Will hostilities morph into actual war?

"Stating the obvious, the key is fighting," says Andy Busch, a market strategist and editor of The Busch Update. "So far, there hasn't been much if any. I don't think the Ukraine has the money to fight a war at this point despite Russian troops on their soil. I expect the standoff to remain with a tense 'war of nerves' between Moscow and Kiev, keeping the markets in a 'risk-off' mode."

3. Will talk of Cold War redux spook investors?

The underlying fear in the Russia v. Ukraine faceoff is that it will somehow morph into a USA v. Russia-style return to a new Cold War. But that's probably an overblown risk, Tobias Levkovich, chief U.S. equity strategist at Citigroup, told clients in a report.

"A return to the Russian / U.S. Cold War days seems to be too pessimistic of a perspective," Levkovich wrote.

4. Will shock take toll on risk-taking. Markets hate uncertainty. And a conflict that involves Russia and is occurring in a key economic part of the globe like Europe could cool risk-taking until tensions ease, says Craig Johnson, a techncial market analyst at Piper Jaffray.

Investors may be unwilling to pay up for stocks, which could cause stock valuations to come in a bit, putting downward pressure on stocks prices.

"A further escalation of the present crisis could lead to an excuse for investors to take some money off the table," says Johnson.

5. Will Europe's economy take lethal hit?

The eurozone is emerging from recession and can't afford an economic shock. But economic sanctions against Russia to force it to withdraw from Crimea could hurt Europe.

Says Busch: "This has the potential to spill over into trade sanctions and Russia pulling back on all energy exports to Europe. Therefore, the end-game is how bad will this hurt Europe?"





A pro-Russian man wearing the Russian national flag on Monday walks past General Staff Headquarters of the Ukrainian Navy as unidentified gunmen stand outside in Sevastopol, Ukraine.(Photo: Andrew Lubimov, AP)


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Ukraine Mobilizes For War, Calls Up Reserves



Reuters | by Natalia Zinets and Alissa de Carbonnel

Posted: 03/02/2014 5:58 am EST Updated: 03/03/2014 12:59 am EST
















By Natalia Zinets and Alissa de Carbonnel

KIEV/BALACLAVA, Ukraine, March 2 (Reuters) - Ukraine mobilised for war on Sunday and Washington threatened to isolate Russia economically after President Vladimir Putin declared he had the right to invade his neighbour in Moscow's biggest confrontation with the West since the Cold War.

"This is not a threat: this is actually the declaration of war to my country," Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said in English. Yatseniuk heads a pro-Western government that took power in the former Soviet republic when its Moscow-backed president, Viktor Yanukovich, was ousted last week.

Putin secured permission from his parliament on Saturday to use military force to protect Russian citizens in Ukraine and told U.S. President Barack Obama he had the right to defend Russian interests and nationals, spurning Western pleas not to intervene.

Financial markets reacted to the escalating tensions when trading opened in Asia on Monday, with oil and wheat futures jumping and stock indexes falling.

Russian forces have already bloodlessly seized Crimea, an isolated Black Sea peninsula whereMoscow has a naval base.

On Sunday, they surrounded several small Ukrainian military outposts there and demanded the Ukrainian troops disarm. Some refused, leading to standoffs, although no shots were fired.


As Western countries considered how to respond to the crisis, the United States said it was focused on economic, diplomatic and political measures, and made clear it was not seriously considering military action.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Kiev on Tuesday to show "strong support for Ukrainian sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and the right of the Ukrainian people to determine their own future, without outside interference or provocation", the State Department said in a statement.

The Group of Seven major industrialized nations, condemning the Russian intrusion into Ukraine, suspended preparations for the G8 summit that includes Russia and had been scheduled to take place in June in Sochi, site of the recent Winter Olympics.

Finance ministers from the G7 said they were ready to offer "strong financial backing" to Ukraine, provided the new government in Kiev agreed to pursue economic reforms sought by the International Monetary Fund.

Analysts said U.S. economic sanctions would likely have little impact on Russia unless they were paired with strong measures by major European nations, which have deeper trade ties with Moscowand are dependent on Russian gas.

But EU officials said the European Union was unlikely to match the United States in threatening sanctions against Russia when its foreign ministers meet to discuss Ukraine on Monday, instead pushing for mediation between Moscow and Kiev.

Wheat futures spiked more than 4 percent on Monday on fears of disruption to shipments from one of the world's key exporting regions. Oil rose as much as 2 percent, while U.S. stocks futures fell 1 percent.

MORE DEMONSTRATIONS IN EASTERN UKRAINE

With Russian forces in control of majority ethnic Russian Crimea, the focus is shifting to eastern swaths of Ukraine, where most ethnic Ukrainians speak Russian as a native language.

Those areas saw more demonstrations on Sunday after violent protests on Saturday, and pro-Moscowactivists hoisted flags for a second day at government buildings and called for Russia to defend them.

Russia has staged war games with 150,000 troops along the land border, but they have so far not crossed. Kiev said Russia had sent hundreds of its citizens across the border to stage the protests.

Ukraine's security council ordered the general staff to immediately put all armed forces on highest alert. But Kiev's small and under-equipped military is seen as no match for Russia's superpower might.

The Defence Ministry was ordered to stage a call-up of reserves, meaning theoretically all men up to 40 in a country with universal male conscription, although Ukraine would struggle to find extra guns or uniforms for many of them.

Kerry condemned Russia for what he called an "incredible act of aggression" and brandished the threat of economic sanctions.

"You just don't, in the 21st century, behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on a completely trumped-up pretext," Kerry told the CBS programme "Face the Nation".

He said Moscow still had a "right set of choices" to defuse the crisis. Otherwise, G8 countries and other nations were prepared to "to go to the hilt to isolate Russia".

"They are prepared to isolate Russia economically. The rouble is already going down. Russia has major economic challenges," he said. Kerry mentioned visa bans, asset freezes and trade isolation as possible steps.

Obama held calls with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski. The leaders expressed "grave concern" over Russia's action and stressed that "dialogue between Ukraine and Russia should start immediately, with international facilitation as appropriate", the White House said.

Ukraine's envoy to the United Nations said Kiev would ask for international military support if Russiaexpanded its military action in his country.

At Kiev's Independence Square, where anti-Yanukovich protesters had camped out for months, thousands demonstrated against Russian military action. Speakers delivered rousing orations and placards read: "Putin, hands off Ukraine!"

"If there is a need to protect the nation, we will go and defend the nation," said Oleh, an advertising executive cooking over an open fire at the square where he has been camped for three months. "If Putin wants to take Ukraine for himself, he will fail. We want to live freely and we will live freely."

The new government announced it had fired the head of the navy and launched a treason case against him for surrendering Ukraine's naval headquarters to Russian forces in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, where Moscow has a major naval base.

REACTION FROM THE WEST

Obama spoke to Putin for 90 minutes by telephone on Saturday after the Russian leader declared he had the right to intervene and quickly secured unanimous approval from his parliament.

The Kremlin said Putin told Obama that Russian speakers were under threat from Ukraine's new leaders, who took over after Yanukovich fled huge protests against his repression and rejection of a trade deal with the European Union.

Putin reiterated that stance in a telephone call with Merkel on Sunday, the Kremlin said, adding he and Merkel agreed that Russia and Germany would continue consultations to seek the "normalisation" of the situation.

But in a sign of concern among Russian liberals, members of Putin's own human rights council urged him on Sunday not to invade Ukraine, saying threats faced by Russians there were not severe enough to justify sending in troops.

Ukraine, which says it has no intention of threatening Russian speakers, has appealed for help to NATO, as well as to Britain and the United States as co-signatories with Russia to a 1994 accord guaranteeing Ukraine's security.

After an emergency meeting of NATO ambassadors in Brussels, the alliance called on Russia to bring its forces back to bases and refrain from interfering in Ukraine.

Despite expressing "grave concern", NATO did not agree on any significant measures to apply pressure on Russia, with the West struggling to come up with a forthright response that does not risk pushing the region closer to military conflict.

"We urge both parties to immediately seek a peaceful solution through bilateral dialogue, with international facilitation ... and through the dispatch of international observers under the auspices of the United Nations Security Council or the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe," NATO said in a statement.

So far, the Western response has been largely symbolic. Some countries recalled ambassadors. Britain said its ministers would stay away from the Paralympics, which begin in Sochi on Friday.

"Right now, I think we are focused on political, diplomatic and economic options," a senior U.S. official told reporters.

"Frankly our goal is to uphold the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, not to have a military escalation," he said.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged world leaders on Sunday to work to calm the crisis and defended Russia's membership of the G8, saying it enabled the West to talk directly withMoscow.

RUSSIANS IN CRIMEA

Ukraine's military is ill-matched against its neighbour. Britain's International Institute of Strategic Studies estimates Kiev has fewer than 130,000 troops under arms, with planes barely ready to fly and few spare parts for a single submarine.

Russia, by contrast, has spent billions under Putin to upgrade and modernise the capabilities of forces that were dilapidated after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Moscow's special units are now seen as equal to the best in the world.

In Crimea, Ukraine's tiny contingent made no attempt to oppose the Russians, who bore no insignia on their uniforms but drove vehicles with Russian plates and seized government buildings, airports and other locations in the past three days.

Kiev said its troops were encircled in at least three places and pulled its coast guard vessels out of Crimean ports. Ukraine said its naval fleet's 10 ships were still in Sevastopol and remained loyal to Kiev.

Scores of Russian troops were camped outside a base of Ukrainian troops at Perevalnoye, on a road from Crimea's capital, Simferopol, towards the coast.

A representative of the base commander said troops on both sides had reached agreement so no blood would be shed.

"We are ready to protect the grounds and our military equipment," Valery Boiko told Reuters television. "We hope for a compromise to be reached, a decision, and as the commander has said, there will be no war."

Igor Mamchev, a Ukrainian navy colonel at another small base outside Simferopol, said a truckload of Russian troops had arrived at his checkpoint and told his forces to lay down their arms.

"I replied that, as I am a member of the armed forces of Ukraine, under orders of the Ukrainian navy, there could be no discussion of disarmament. In case of any attempt to enter the military base, we will use all means, up to lethal force," Mamchev told Ukraine's Channel 5 TV.

A unit of Ukrainian marines was also holed up in a base in the Crimean port of Feodosia, where they refused to disarm.

Elsewhere on the occupied peninsula, the Russian troops assumed a lower profile on Sunday after thepro-Moscow Crimean leader said overnight the situation was now "normalised".

Putin's justification citing the need to protect Russian citizens was the same as he used to launch a 2008 invasion of Georgia, where Russian forces seized two breakaway regions.

In Russia, state-controlled media portray Yanukovich's removal as a coup by dangerous extremists funded by the West and there has been little sign of dissent.

(Additional reporting by Peter Graff, Sabina Zawadzki, Pavel Polityuk, Timothy Heritage and Stephen Grey in Kiev, Lina Kushch in Donetsk, Peter Apps and Guy Faulconbridge in London, Will Dunham, Arshad Mohammed and Matt Spetalnick in Washington, Lou Charbonneau at the United Nations, and Justyna Pawlak and Luke Baker in Brussels; Writing by Peter Graff, Paul Taylor, Frances Kerry and Peter Cooney; Editing by Alex Richardson and Paul Tait)

By Natalia Zinets and Alissa de Carbonnel

KIEV/BALACLAVA, Ukraine, March 2 (Reuters) - Ukraine mobilised for war on Sunday and Washington threatened to isolate Russia economically after President Vladimir Putin declared he had the right to invade his neighbour in Moscow's biggest confrontation with the West since the Cold War.

"This is not a threat: this is actually the declaration of war to my country," Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said in English. Yatseniuk heads a pro-Western government that took power in the former Soviet republic when its Moscow-backed president, Viktor Yanukovich, was ousted last week.

Putin secured permission from his parliament on Saturday to use military force to protect Russian citizens in Ukraine and told U.S. President Barack Obama he had the right to defend Russian interests and nationals, spurning Western pleas not to intervene.

Financial markets reacted to the escalating tensions when trading opened in Asia on Monday, with oil and wheat futures jumping and stock indexes falling.

Russian forces have already bloodlessly seized Crimea, an isolated Black Sea peninsula whereMoscow has a naval base.

On Sunday, they surrounded several small Ukrainian military outposts there and demanded the Ukrainian troops disarm. Some refused, leading to standoffs, although no shots were fired.

As Western countries considered how to respond to the crisis, the United States said it was focused on economic, diplomatic and political measures, and made clear it was not seriously considering military action.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Kiev on Tuesday to show "strong support for Ukrainian sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and the right of the Ukrainian people to determine their own future, without outside interference or provocation", the State Department said in a statement.

The Group of Seven major industrialized nations, condemning the Russian intrusion into Ukraine, suspended preparations for the G8 summit that includes Russia and had been scheduled to take place in June in Sochi, site of the recent Winter Olympics.

Finance ministers from the G7 said they were ready to offer "strong financial backing" to Ukraine, provided the new government in Kiev agreed to pursue economic reforms sought by the International Monetary Fund.

Analysts said U.S. economic sanctions would likely have little impact on Russia unless they were paired with strong measures by major European nations, which have deeper trade ties with Moscowand are dependent on Russian gas.

But EU officials said the European Union was unlikely to match the United States in threatening sanctions against Russia when its foreign ministers meet to discuss Ukraine on Monday, instead pushing for mediation between Moscow and Kiev.

Wheat futures spiked more than 4 percent on Monday on fears of disruption to shipments from one of the world's key exporting regions. Oil rose as much as 2 percent, while U.S. stocks futures fell 1 percent.

MORE DEMONSTRATIONS IN EASTERN UKRAINE

With Russian forces in control of majority ethnic Russian Crimea, the focus is shifting to eastern swaths of Ukraine, where most ethnic Ukrainians speak Russian as a native language.

Those areas saw more demonstrations on Sunday after violent protests on Saturday, and pro-Moscowactivists hoisted flags for a second day at government buildings and called for Russia to defend them.

Russia has staged war games with 150,000 troops along the land border, but they have so far not crossed. Kiev said Russia had sent hundreds of its citizens across the border to stage the protests.

Ukraine's security council ordered the general staff to immediately put all armed forces on highest alert. But Kiev's small and under-equipped military is seen as no match for Russia's superpower might.

The Defence Ministry was ordered to stage a call-up of reserves, meaning theoretically all men up to 40 in a country with universal male conscription, although Ukraine would struggle to find extra guns or uniforms for many of them.

Kerry condemned Russia for what he called an "incredible act of aggression" and brandished the threat of economic sanctions.

"You just don't, in the 21st century, behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on a completely trumped-up pretext," Kerry told the CBS programme "Face the Nation".

He said Moscow still had a "right set of choices" to defuse the crisis. Otherwise, G8 countries and other nations were prepared to "to go to the hilt to isolate Russia".

"They are prepared to isolate Russia economically. The rouble is already going down. Russia has major economic challenges," he said. Kerry mentioned visa bans, asset freezes and trade isolation as possible steps.

Obama held calls with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski. The leaders expressed "grave concern" over Russia's action and stressed that "dialogue between Ukraine and Russia should start immediately, with international facilitation as appropriate", the White House said.

Ukraine's envoy to the United Nations said Kiev would ask for international military support if Russiaexpanded its military action in his country.

At Kiev's Independence Square, where anti-Yanukovich protesters had camped out for months, thousands demonstrated against Russian military action. Speakers delivered rousing orations and placards read: "Putin, hands off Ukraine!"

"If there is a need to protect the nation, we will go and defend the nation," said Oleh, an advertising executive cooking over an open fire at the square where he has been camped for three months. "If Putin wants to take Ukraine for himself, he will fail. We want to live freely and we will live freely."

The new government announced it had fired the head of the navy and launched a treason case against him for surrendering Ukraine's naval headquarters to Russian forces in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, where Moscow has a major naval base.

REACTION FROM THE WEST

Obama spoke to Putin for 90 minutes by telephone on Saturday after the Russian leader declared he had the right to intervene and quickly secured unanimous approval from his parliament.

The Kremlin said Putin told Obama that Russian speakers were under threat from Ukraine's new leaders, who took over after Yanukovich fled huge protests against his repression and rejection of a trade deal with the European Union.

Putin reiterated that stance in a telephone call with Merkel on Sunday, the Kremlin said, adding he and Merkel agreed that Russia and Germany would continue consultations to seek the "normalisation" of the situation.

But in a sign of concern among Russian liberals, members of Putin's own human rights council urged him on Sunday not to invade Ukraine, saying threats faced by Russians there were not severe enough to justify sending in troops.

Ukraine, which says it has no intention of threatening Russian speakers, has appealed for help to NATO, as well as to Britain and the United States as co-signatories with Russia to a 1994 accord guaranteeing Ukraine's security.

After an emergency meeting of NATO ambassadors in Brussels, the alliance called on Russia to bring its forces back to bases and refrain from interfering in Ukraine.

Despite expressing "grave concern", NATO did not agree on any significant measures to apply pressure on Russia, with the West struggling to come up with a forthright response that does not risk pushing the region closer to military conflict.

"We urge both parties to immediately seek a peaceful solution through bilateral dialogue, with international facilitation ... and through the dispatch of international observers under the auspices of the United Nations Security Council or the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe," NATO said in a statement.

So far, the Western response has been largely symbolic. Some countries recalled ambassadors. Britain said its ministers would stay away from the Paralympics, which begin in Sochi on Friday.

"Right now, I think we are focused on political, diplomatic and economic options," a senior U.S. official told reporters.

"Frankly our goal is to uphold the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, not to have a military escalation," he said.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged world leaders on Sunday to work to calm the crisis and defended Russia's membership of the G8, saying it enabled the West to talk directly withMoscow.

RUSSIANS IN CRIMEA

Ukraine's military is ill-matched against its neighbour. Britain's International Institute of Strategic Studies estimates Kiev has fewer than 130,000 troops under arms, with planes barely ready to fly and few spare parts for a single submarine.

Russia, by contrast, has spent billions under Putin to upgrade and modernise the capabilities of forces that were dilapidated after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Moscow's special units are now seen as equal to the best in the world.

In Crimea, Ukraine's tiny contingent made no attempt to oppose the Russians, who bore no insignia on their uniforms but drove vehicles with Russian plates and seized government buildings, airports and other locations in the past three days.

Kiev said its troops were encircled in at least three places and pulled its coast guard vessels out of Crimean ports. Ukraine said its naval fleet's 10 ships were still in Sevastopol and remained loyal to Kiev.

Scores of Russian troops were camped outside a base of Ukrainian troops at Perevalnoye, on a road from Crimea's capital, Simferopol, towards the coast.

A representative of the base commander said troops on both sides had reached agreement so no blood would be shed.

"We are ready to protect the grounds and our military equipment," Valery Boiko told Reuters television. "We hope for a compromise to be reached, a decision, and as the commander has said, there will be no war."

Igor Mamchev, a Ukrainian navy colonel at another small base outside Simferopol, said a truckload of Russian troops had arrived at his checkpoint and told his forces to lay down their arms.

"I replied that, as I am a member of the armed forces of Ukraine, under orders of the Ukrainian navy, there could be no discussion of disarmament. In case of any attempt to enter the military base, we will use all means, up to lethal force," Mamchev told Ukraine's Channel 5 TV.

A unit of Ukrainian marines was also holed up in a base in the Crimean port of Feodosia, where they refused to disarm.

Elsewhere on the occupied peninsula, the Russian troops assumed a lower profile on Sunday after thepro-Moscow Crimean leader said overnight the situation was now "normalised".

Putin's justification citing the need to protect Russian citizens was the same as he used to launch a 2008 invasion of Georgia, where Russian forces seized two breakaway regions.

In Russia, state-controlled media portray Yanukovich's removal as a coup by dangerous extremists funded by the West and there has been little sign of dissent.

(Additional reporting by Peter Graff, Sabina Zawadzki, Pavel Polityuk, Timothy Heritage and Stephen Grey in Kiev, Lina Kushch in Donetsk, Peter Apps and Guy Faulconbridge in London, Will Dunham, Arshad Mohammed and Matt Spetalnick in Washington, Lou Charbonneau at the United Nations, and Justyna Pawlak and Luke Baker in Brussels; Writing by Peter Graff, Paul Taylor, Frances Kerry and Peter Cooney; Editing by Alex Richardson and Paul Tait)


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Is the Religious Right responsible for America’s fading allegiance to religion?



Posted: Wed, 26 Feb 2014 13:26 by Terry Sanderson





Terry Sanderson on the Religious Right's baneful attempts to desecularize the United States with a raft of "religious freedom" bills.

There seems to be something of a disconnect in America between the rising number of people who profess to have no religion and the state legislatures that are falling over themselves to enact legislation that is little short of theocratic.

Research is repeatedly showing a sharp rise in the number of Americans who have no religion - the "nones" as they are known to academics who study the changing dynamics of religion.

Many evangelical Christians have been comforting themselves with the idea that even though these "nones" don't associate themselves with a particular church, they are still Christians at heart who worship in their own way.

But David Voas, a sociologist at Essex University, begs to differ. He has found from his own research that the "fuzzy faithful" – those who claim to believe in some kind of unidentified higher power and perhaps go to church at Christmas – are really drifting towards complete indifference to religion and all its trappings.

In his 2008 paper The Rise and Fall of Fuzzy Fidelity in Europe, Professor Voas concluded that those who sometimes define themselves as "spiritual but not religious" are actually more likely to be entirely indifferent to religion – a state of affairs that he says is much more dangerous for the future of religion than outright scepticism.

If the same pattern is repeating in America – and it seems to be – then the hope among evangelicals that the "nones" are really just non-practising, but faithful, Christians is little more than wishful thinking.

But despite this rapid secularisation of American culture, there are bills being brought forward in state legislatures that give mighty privilege to religious believers.

So-called "religious freedom" bills have been proposed in several states, but so far have only succeeded in completing the legislative process in Arizona. And even there the Governor still hasn't signed it into law. [Note: Since this blog was originally published, the Governor of Arizona has vetoed the bill].

But there are other battles over supposed "religious freedom" (which usually translates into religious privilege or the right to discriminate against gay people). The Catholic Church and its acolytes are fighting hard to destroy President Obama's flagship Affordable Healthcare legislation because they object to having to supply contraceptives.

Obama gave them an opt out that would relieve them of that duty, then he gave another one, but still they are not satisfied and continue to attack the Affordable Care Act in the courts. At present, a ruling on the matter is awaited from the Supreme Court.

And this is the problem with religious accommodation. Once one concession is made, another demand quickly follows. Religious hierarchies will never stop until they have complete control.

In Arizona the new law seeks to make it legal for businesses and individuals to deny services to gay people if doing so would offend their religious conscience. There could be all kinds of unintended consequences from this legislation (as well as it likely being unconstitutional).

So why is it happening? Why this sudden surge of bills seeking to give religion special privileges in American society? To get religion back into schools, to control what books can be read in colleges (if they are deemed anti-religious) and to promote creationism over evolution in schools?

The answer is that the Republican Party – fused as it now is with the Religious Right – is seeking revenge for the success of gay marriage campaigns around the nation.

As it realises it has lost the war against gay marriage, the Religious Right seeks compensation in the form of "religious freedom" bills, the ultimate aim of which is to make sure gay marriage becomes impractical, despite being legalised.

By putting more and more barriers up against gay people achieving equal rights before the law, the Religious Right and its Republican representation in politics now seeks to make life almost impossible for gay couples in some parts of the country.

But this may end up being a case of making the same mistake twice.

During the last election campaign, the Republicans/Religious Right came to realise that the tide of history had turned against their opposition to gay marriage, and they pragmatically toned down the poisonous anti-gay rhetoric that had been so prominent on their previous electoral platform.

After being trounced again at the ballot box by Obama, they have regrouped and their new plan is to derail gay marriage wherever and however they can with these supposed "religious freedom" bills. But hiding behind the high-falutin' claims of "protecting the liberty of believers to practice their faith" lies rank bigotry.

If they imagine this is going to revive their fortunes they are sadly mistaken. Much of America was repelled by their vile homophobia last time, and it is unlikely it will be impressed with it this time.

The fanatic evangelicals with their hysterical televangelists and lying propagandists are turning off young people, not just from Republicanism, but from religion in general.

The "nones" are growing, but the Religious Right does not seem yet to have made the connection between that trend and their hate-mongering. They have made religion toxic and Americans are fleeing it in their thousands.

Terry Sanderson is the President of the National Secular Society. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the NSS.


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The “Wall of Separation”



There is much public confusion today over the phrase, “wall of separation,” in terms of describing the official relationship between church and state in the United States of America. Many conservative Christians, intent upon denying that the concept has any relevance in the founding of America (so as to argue that America was founded as a Christian nation), claim or infer that Thomas Jefferson coined the term a decade after the enactment of the First Amendment.

In reality, however, the use of the precise phrase dates back to Roger Williams (illustration), the first Baptist in America, in the early 17th century. Williams used the phrase in 1644 (“Mr. Cotton’s Letter Lately Printed, Examined and Answered”) to describe the Baptist belief that church and state should be kept separate. A strong advocate of freedom of conscience, Williams’ insisted that the state should not intrude into the free exercise of religion, and that religion should be disestablished from government.

Why did Roger Williams want to build a “wall of separation” between church and state? From the fifth century through the Reformation, church and state ruled together, and the marriage consistently produced wars, destruction, killings, and intense persecutions of those who did not embrace state religion. Yet there was more. Williams realized, as had the first generation of Baptists before him (the Baptist faith emerged in 1609 in Amsterdam, Holland), that state religion – even in the guise of Christianity – was false religion. True religion, according to Baptists, was voluntary and came from a free conscience, as taught by Christ. State operated or approved religion, therefore, was the enemy of genuine faith.

Persecuted for his beliefs (and nearly to the point of death) by the Puritan (Congregational) state church of New England, Williams purchased land from Native Americans and founded Providence Plantations (now the city of Providence, Rhode Island) in 1636, and eight years later was instrumental in the establishment of the colony of Rhode Island.

Providence, initially, and then Rhode Island, were founded on the principles of freedom of conscience, full religious liberty, and separation of church and state. The rise and advocacy of these principles was a radical development in the history of colonial America, and Williams and his fellow Baptists in particular were considered, by other Christians, to be liberals, heretics, and infidels.




The generations of Baptists in America who followed Roger Williams continued fighting for the separation of church and state. Christian government officials in both the northern and southern colonies persecuted the heretical sect. Baptists, who refused to pay taxes to the state church and refused to baptize their infants (as the law required), were beaten, whipped, jailed, stoned, shot, waterboarded, and had their lands confiscated. In some cases, church state officials accused Baptist parents of child abuse for not baptizing their infants into the state religion, and in punishment took their children away from them.

The persecution of Baptists was not isolated. Between 1768 and 1776, roughly one-half of all Virginia Baptist preachers served time in jail for preaching in public, refusing to pay taxes, or otherwise defying the theocratic Anglican government in Virginia. In the painting above, Virginia Baptist minister David Barrow is being waterboarded in 1778 by Virginia’s church-state officials, for his heretical views.

In the 1770s, as America rebelled against Great Britain, most colonies were yet ruled by church states. Even as colonial governments and politicians proclaimed political freedom from England, they denied religious freedom to Baptists.

Yet, Baptist patriots proved valuable in the fight against Great Britain, and soon Baptists in Virginia were able to acquire new, powerful allies in the fight to separate church and state. Among their allies were Virginians James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. Virginia Baptists, most visibly represented by the popular evangelist John Leland, worked alongside the efforts of Madison and Jefferson to secure Jefferson’s 1786 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which separated church and state in colonial Virginia and secured religious liberty for citizens.

Five years later, in 1791, American Baptists’ nearly two centuries-old campaign for church state separation was finally realized in the enactment of the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution. Stating that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” the United States became the world’s first secular nation by enacting the Baptist vision of a “wall of separation” between church and state. As Baptists had long advocated, the First Amendment forbade government from interfering with religious expression (free exercise clause) and forbade the government from establishing or incorporating religion into government (establishment clause).

By 1833, thanks to the still tireless efforts of Baptists, the last vestiges of church state union at the state level were finally eradicated (Massachusetts was the last state to do so).

While Baptists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries – no longer persecuted by church state officials – rejoiced in living in a secular nation that had separated church and state, many conservative Christians (of former official state churches) remained opposed to America’s secular government, and insisted that God would punish America.

Most Christians of the founding era of America understood that the primary Founding Fathers (with one exception) were not Christian in the traditional sense of the word. In the larger context, few Americans (about 10%) attended church in the 1780s, and the primary Founding Fathers were no exception. Indeed, most of the primary Founding Fathers were deists (that is, they philosophically embraced a concept of a distant deity or supreme being, but rejected the divinity of Christ and the Bible).

If one enlarges the definition of “Founding Fathers” to include dozens or even several hundred prominent men who played various roles in the establishment of the American nation, the number of Christians (measured by affiliation) increases, as most were representatives of or leaders within theocratic colonies/states.

That the founding fathers resisted intense pressure by church state leaders to include references to God and Christianity in the U. S. Constitution, and then enacted separation of church and state in the First Amendment, did not sit well with many Christians who once had been the recipient of special government privileges. (Modern attempts, by conservative Christians in America, to reconstruct the primary Founding Fathers as evangelical Christians would have baffled conservative Christians of the late 18th century.)

Thomas Jefferson, by virtue of his prominent role in paving the way for the enactment of separation of church and state in the First Amendment (modeled after Jefferson’s 1786 aforementioned Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom), came to be especially despised by many conservative Christians of the early 19th century.

While Baptists greatly appreciated Jefferson (who in 1802 wrote a now-famous letter of response to praise from and a petition of Danbury Baptists of Connecticut, voicing the Baptist “wall of separation” metaphor to describe the First Amendment’s separation of church and state), many other Christians considered the president a heretic, infidel, and even an atheist.

Today, many conservative Christians place their faith in the myth that America was founded as a Christian nation, arguing that since the words “wall of separation” of church and state are not mentioned in the U. S. Constitution, the concept does not exist.

American Christians living in the 1780s and 1790s would have considered this argument to be ludicrous. They, living witnesses to the founding of America, well understood that America was established as a secular democracy with the separation of church and state (although not all appreciated this state of affairs).


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Saturday, March 01, 2014

Babylon's Fall - Pastor Patrick Herbert



2014 - Babylons Fall - Herbert



Michael Walston

Published on Feb 28, 2014


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P.S.

Pastor Patrick Herbert (of Norcross-Tucker, [GA] Free SDA Church)
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Canadian Protestant Sundays - University of Toronto

Lord's Day observance 


When Canada was acquired by Great Britain in 1763, English laws prohibiting work and entertainment on Sunday came into effect in the new colony. In 1845 the province of Canada passed its own law forbidding anyone in Upper Canada "to do or exercise any worldly labour, business or work of one's ordinary calling", except for certain works of necessity or charity. At Confederation, when the BNA Act created our two-tier legislative constitution (federal and provincial), Sunday closing laws came (or seemed to come) under provincial jurisdiction.

A quiet Sunday was the social custom in Protestant Canada (Roman Catholics were mellower about it). If water had to be drawn or potatoes peeled for Sunday dinner, many made sure to do it on Saturday evening. Laundry was not hung out to dry on Sundays. "Even the irreligious usually went to church on Sunday; the religious went more than once" (Grant, The Church in the Canadian Era, p. 10), and "a great many Canadians spent the rest of the sabbath reading religious books or periodicals." As an illustration of the Victorian Sunday, consider the following illustration, "Toronto: Sunday preaching in the park," published in 1879. "Canadian Illustrated News, Vol. 19, No. 21, Page 329. Reproduced from Library and Archives Canada's website Images in the News: Canadian Illustrated News."





With the growth of cities, commercial pressures for the relaxation of Lord's Day observance increased. Hamilton began running its streetcars on Sunday in 1874, which outraged the Protestant churches, and the Evangelical Alliance protested sharply. Principal Caven of Knox led an unsuccessful protest in 1888 against running streetcars in Toronto. The Lord's Day Alliance was founded in 1888 to uphold what it called "the English Sunday." John Grant notes that sabbatarianism was moving from the agenda of personal morality and church discipline to the agenda of social reform because of an increasing sense that society could improve moral inclinations by controlling the environment (Profusion of Spires, 1988, p. 189). Lord's day observance was "the most conspicuous behavioural pattern by which the province [of Ontario] symbolized its recognition of God's dominion over it."

Presbyterians were the most passionate against the desecration of the Lord's Day, and among Presbyterians the leader was J.G. (John George) Shearer, a Knox College graduate of 1888. Described by the Dictionary of Canadian Biography as "one of the most tireless moral reformers Canada has ever had," he left the pastorate in 1900 to become the first dominion general secretary of the LDA. In 1907 he would be a founder of the influential Moral and Social Reform Council of Canada, later called the Social Service Council of Canada.

In 1903, in hearing an appeal of a decision about the Sunday operations of the Hamilton Street Railway, the Privy Council in England struck down all Canadian provincial Sunday closing laws, on the grounds that these constituted criminal legislation, which by the BNA Act belonged exclusively to the federal government. In response, Shearer spearheaded a campaign joined not only by the Protestant churches but also by the Roman Catholic hierarchy and the labour movement to persuade the federal government to enact Lord's Day legislation. It was considered a huge victory against powerful commercial interests when the federal Lord's Day Act was passed in 1906. It prohibited sport, entertainment, and almost all commerce on Sundays, although it permitted provincial governments to make exceptions.
A PDF-format history of Sunday laws in Canada is available online from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. Published sources include Law Reform Commission of Canada, Sunday Observance (Ottawa: Ministry of Supply and Services Canada, 1976); Susan Swift, Sunday Shopping: A Legislative and Judicial History, Legislative Research Service, Current Issue Paper no. 119 (Toronto: Ministry of Government Services, 1991). See also M. Valverde, The Age of Light, Soap and Water (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1991).

Sentiment began turning against Lord's Day legislation in the 1960s. In that decade Parliament passed amendments to the Lord's Day Act to permit cultural and recreational activities, agricultural and trade shows, scientific exhibitions, and horse racing. In 1985 the Supreme Court of Canada, in R. v. Big M Drug Mart Ltd., voided the Lord's Day Act as an infringement of the freedom of religion section of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms of 1982. The following year, however, it upheld the provincial Retail Business Hours Act of the province of Ontario in R. v. Edwards Books and Art, on the grounds that this had a purely secular intention. However, in 1992 the Ontario government repealed the section of this act dealing with Sundays, and most other provinces have also done the same with similar laws.

Protestant worship after 1867 in Canada

Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian Sunday worship felt rather the same, except for the Anglican ritualists noted below. There were morning and evening services, with youth group meetings and Sunday school too. In large churches the minister typically made himself available by the font in the afternoon for baptisms. The focus of the service was the sermon, which in a church of any importance ran typically close to an hour, though some churches had two-hour or three-hour sermons. Theologically the content of the sermon fell somewhere on a spectrum from conservative evangelical to liberal evangelical. In Toronto, the great preaching street was Bloor Street, where you could be guaranteed of a great sermon whether you entered Bloor Street Presbyterian, Trinity Methodist (pictured here), Walmer Road Baptist, or St. Paul's Anglican. Hymn-singing was becoming popular, and denominations were beginning to publish hymn-books which replaced congregational collections. Many of the same hymns were enjoyed in the different denominations. "Thou" and "thee" were used to address God. The King James Version of the Bible was commonly used until the Revised Version made its appearance in 1881. There were small differences in appearance. Anglican clergy wore surplices and Presbyterian clergy Geneva gowns, for example; Methodist churches were commonly built in "auditory" style and Anglican churches in gothic revival, and Baptist churches had baptismal tanks for immersing adults (and young adults). And Anglicans had their prayer book. The old distinctives, such as Methodist itineracy, and the once familiar differentiations, such as Methodist revivalism and Anglican anti-revivalism, were no longer common. "Methodism moved towards the centre of the religious structure, where it met the Anglicans, who for a number of reasons had left their old establishment position" (William Westfall, Two Worlds, 1989, p. 53).
See Keith Clifford, "The contribution of Alexander Macmillan to Canadian hymnody," in William Klempa, ed., The Burning Bush and a Few Acres of Snow.

As the twentieth century progressed, services became shorter, and there was some modest effort at Canadianizing and updating worship, as is seen in Document 37. after about 1960, most evening services disappeared. Modernizing hymns appeared in the 1960s, and gospel songs and praise music moved into many mainstream Protestant churches in the 1980s. A catholic style of liturgy displaced low-church Protestantism as the mainstream Anglican worship after 1960, and the Liturgical Movement (discussed below) influenced many congregations. (Pictured here: University Hill United Church, near the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. The Lord's table has taken a central position, and the congregation sits around it. Dress is informal, and numbers on this occasion are rather thin.)

Anglican ritual controversies

The party quarrels of churchmanship in Canada began in the 1830s and reached a peak in the 1870s. These began as issues about the authority of bishops and the acceptability of ecumenical collaboration, but by the 1860s they were beginning to centre on ritual. The "evangelical party," which came to be called "the low church," thought that ceremonial innovation was illegal (that is, a violation of statute law in England, and a violation of canon law in the Church of England in Canada), whereas ritual advocates argued that it symbolized the importance of tradition, the grace of the sacraments, and the authority of the Church. Examples of ceremonial innovation are given in Document 36, from the provincial synod of 1867 which condemned these points of ritual (virtually all of which are very common in Anglicanism today).


The Liturgical Movement


Canadian Anglicans were much influenced by the Liturgical Movement after the Anglican Congress in Minneapolis in 1954. This movement, which began in the Roman Catholic church, sought an ecumenical style of worship, centred on the Eucharist, inspired by what was passed for the rediscovery of a common liturgical tradition in the early Church. Its premises are laid out in the "Preface" to the Book of Alternative Services (1985), Document 39. In the United Church several liturgical leaders, notably David Newman of Emmanuel College, advocated its use, as is seen in A Sunday Liturgy, briefly excerpted in Document 38.




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