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Archbishop on British PM: Big Society Policy is "Aspirational Waffle"

by QR Blog Editor 06-25-2012

The Observer newspaper in the UK published extracts from Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams' new book:

"The archbishop of Canterbury has denounced David Cameron's "big society", saying that it comes across as aspirational waffle that was "designed to conceal a deeply damaging withdrawal of the state from its responsibilities to the most vulnerable".
 
The outspoken attack on the prime minister's flagship policy by Rowan Williams – his strongest to date – is contained in a new book, Faith in the Public Square, that is being prepared for publication ahead of his retirement.
 
Passages from the book, obtained by the Observer, reflect the archbishop's deep frustration not just with the policies of Cameron's government and those of its Labour predecessors, but also with what he sees as the west's rampant materialism and unquestioning pursuit of economic growth. Williams also laments spiralling military expenditure, writing that "the adventure in Iraq and its cost in any number of ways seems to beggar the imagination."
 
Read more here

Religious Violence In Nigeria Continues: 52 Dead In Latest Attacks

by QR Blog Editor 06-18-2012

Agence France-Presse report on the lastest incidents of Christian-Muslim fighting in Nigeria:

"The streets of Nigeria's Kaduna city were mostly empty Monday a day after suicide blasts on three churches carried out by Boko Haram Islamists and subsequent rioting killed at least 52 people.

Banks and offices were shut while rescuers combed through streets looking for the bodies of those killed by armed Christian mobs that targeted Muslims after the blasts at churches in Kaduna city and the nearby city of Zaria.
 
Boko Haram, responsible for more than 1,000 deaths since July 2009, said the church blasts "were reprisals for the many atrocities Christians perpetrated against Muslims," in an email from purported group spokesman Abul Qaqa."
 
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Robert Redford: Quit Funding Dirty Energy!

by QR Blog Editor 06-18-2012

Writing for The Huffington Post, actor and environmental activist Robert Redford argues:

"Every year, around the world, almost one trillion dollars of subsidies is handed out to help the fossil fuel industry. Who came up with the crazy idea that the fossil fuel industry deserves our hard-earned money, no less in economic times of such harsh human consequence? We fire teachers, police and firemen in drastic budget cuts and yet, the fossil fuel industry can laugh all the way to the bank on our dime? Something doesn't add up here.

We should not be subsidizing the destruction of our planet. Fossil fuels are literally cooking our planet, polluting our air and draining our wallets. Why should we continue to reward companies to do that?"
 
Read the full piece here

Affordable Care Act: What Could Happen?

by QR Blog Editor 06-18-2012

CNN examines some of the possible outcomes of the Supreme Court's imminent decision on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act:

"The election-year rulings will not only guide how every American receives medical care but will also establish precedent-setting boundaries for how government regulation can affect a range of social areas. Your health and your finances could be on the line.

The outcome's possibilities are myriad: a narrow or sweeping decision? A road map to congressional authority in coming decades? Which bloc of justices, which legal argument will win the day?"
 
Read more here

Vargas: Journalist and Immigration Rights Activist

by QR Blog Editor 06-14-2012

A year after publically admitting his status as an undocumented immigrant, journalist Jose Antonio Vargas writes for Time Magazine:

"There are an estimated 11.5 million people like me in this country, human beings with stories as varied as America itself, yet lacking a legal claim to exist here. It’s an issue that touches people of all ethnicities and backgrounds: Latinos and Asians, blacks and whites. (And, yes, undocumented immigrants come from all sorts of countries like Israel, Nigeria and Germany.) It’s an issue that goes beyond election-year politics and transcends the limitations of our broken immigration system and the policies being written to address them."

Read more and follow Time's coverage here

Meritocracy Has Failed

by QR Blog Editor 06-14-2012

Salon's Editor-at-Large, Joan Walsh writes:

"Thanks to OWS and the work of writers like Stiglitz, 2012 was supposed to be the year America rediscovered and tackled economic inequality. Time magazine closed 2011 by naming OWS its top story of the year, a pretty big honor for a movement that only revved up in the year’s final quarter. But that’s how much its “We are the 99 percent” framing seemed to change the political debate."

Read her full article here

Senate Seeks Greater Respect for Human Rights in Russia

by QR Blog Editor 06-14-2012

The Hill reports:

"A Senate panel on Tuesday will move human-rights legislation that lawmakers of both parties say is critical to gaining their support for establishing normal trade ties with Russia.

The Senate Foreign Affairs Committee will vote on the so-called Magnitsky bill, named after a whistleblowing Russian lawyer who died in police custody, along with a number of other bills and ambassador nominations. The news comes after Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on Tuesday announced his intention to pair the human-rights bill with the trade legislation, which must clear his committee.
 
The Magnitsky legislation targets human-rights violators in Russia with financial and travel sanctions. The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the bill last week.
 
Without it, several lawmakers say, they cannot support establishing normal permanent trade relations with Russia, which would put U.S. companies at a disadvantage when Russia joins the World Trade Organization this summer. The Obama administration's top trade negotiator has called for a clean vote on the trade issue."
 
Read more here

The Atlantic: Give Us Your Geniuses

by QR Blog Editor 06-13-2012

From The Atlantic, a plea for an immigration policy that encourages the movement of high-skilled foreign nationals to the United States:

In this age of extreme polarization, it seems unlikely that there would be an issue where the benefits were so large and the correct course of action so clear that it would unite liberals and conservatives, allowing Democratic and Republican congressmen to pause in their struggle and rocket it through Congress. But it is not wishful thinking. There exists such a policy. The United States must admit many more high-skilled immigrants.

Read the full article here

God's Economy?

by QR Blog Editor 06-13-2012

Paul Froese offers some interesting insights for Religion & Politics:

Perhaps it is the fervent individualism of American Christianity which makes free market capitalism seem like a Divine mandate. Because evangelicals assert that you alone are responsible for your eternal salvation, it makes sense that the individual is also responsible for his or her economic salvation without government assistance, especially if God is the only assistance you really need.

 
Read the full article here
 

 

Can Technology Bring about World Peace?

by QR Blog Editor 06-13-2012

A fascinating essay on 'geo-economics' for The Atlantic by Ayesha and Parag Khanna:

Still, technology is playing a great role in not just the events of geopolitical history but its course. If military power is inherently competitive -- the stronger your army and the weaker your neighbor's, the more powerful you become -- then economic power is more cooperative. After all, much of America's power today is economic, but that power would decrease if China's economy collapses. Technological power is also cooperative in this way, perhaps even more so.

Read more here

 

Teens Struggle to Find Summer Jobs

by QR Blog Editor 06-13-2012

A record number of teens will be able to find work this summer, The Associated Press reports:

Once a rite of passage to adulthood, summer jobs for teens are disappearing.

Fewer than three in 10 American teenagers now hold jobs such as running cash registers, mowing lawns or busing restaurant tables from June to August. The decline has been particularly sharp since 2000, with employment for 16-to-19-year olds falling to the lowest level since World War II.
 
And teen employment may never return to pre-recession levels, suggests a projection by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Doubting God

by QR Blog Editor 06-13-2012

On the CNN Belief Blog, Dan Merica reports:

The percentage of Americans 30 and younger who harbor some doubts about God’s existence appears to be growing quickly, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. While most young Americans, 68%, told Pew they never doubt God’s existence, that’s a 15-point drop in just five years.
 
In 2007, 83% of American millennials said they never doubted God’s existence.
 
More young people are expressing doubts about God now than at any time since Pew started asking the question a decade ago. Thirty-one percent disagreed with the statement “I never doubt the existence of God,” double the number who disagreed with it in 2007.
 
Read more about the report here

Creflo Dollar: Police Release Daughter's 911 Tapes Reporting Assault by Father

by QR Blog Editor 06-13-2012

According to CNN:

ATLANTA, Ga. – With a calm voice and collected manner about her, a 15-year-old girl called Fayette County 911 to report that her father assaulted her. The call led police to the suburban Atlanta home of megachurch pastor Creflo Dollar and ultimately resulted in a night behind bars on Friday.

The audio from the phone call was released Tuesday.

“I just got into an altercation with my father. He punched me and threatened to choke me,” the girl told a 911 dispatcher. “Um, this is not the first time that this has happened. I feel threatened by being in this house. Um… I don’t know, I don’t know what can be done. But I’m scared, I’m shaking.“

Dollar publicly denied punching or choking his teenage daughter during Sunday service at World Changers International Church, but in the police report, he admitted emotions ran high very early Friday morning and he attempted to “restrain” his daughter when she became “disrespectful.”

In the 911 tapes, the teen explained to the dispatcher that her father attacked her because of grades and a dispute about a party that she wanted to attend.

Read more HERE.

Iran Releases Christian Pastor, Two Others Remain Imprisoned

by QR Blog Editor 06-13-2012

BosNewsLife.com reports:

TEHRAN, IRAN — Iran has released Pastor Mehdi “Petros” Foroutan who served about one year in prison following a police crackdown on his and other house churches,  a spokesman told BosNewsLife late Tuesday.

Jason DeMars, who helped the 27-year-old pastor with advocacy, explained that Forouton was released on June 10. He added that the pastor "In total served about one year in prison for 'crimes against national security' because of his Christian faith."

At least two other Christian clergymen — Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani and another Christian leader, Behnam Irani — remain imprisoned. Nadarkhani faces the death penalty for refusing to abandon his Christian  faith and return to Islam. He remains in Lakan Prison in the city of Rasht where he is still awaiting an official response from the local court about his future, DeMars said. Irani is held in Ghezal Hezar prison in Karaj city, despite his poor health.  Prison officials reportedly refuse to allow him to visit a doctor.

Read more HERE.

 

 

 

 

Deadly Earthquake Hits Afghanistan

by QR Blog Editor 06-11-2012

From The Associated Press:

"As many as 100 people are feared dead in an earthquake and landslide that buried more than 20 houses in northern Afghanistan on Monday, officials said.

Rescuers have so far pulled two women's bodies from the rubble of the landslide in Baghlan province, said provincial Gov. Abdul Majid. The U.N. confirmed one other death and said houses were destroyed across five districts.
 
A massive landslide of mud and rocks buried houses so deep in the remote mountain village of Sayi Hazara that rescuers gave up trying to use shovels to dig through the buried buildings, said Jawed Basharat, a spokesman for the provincial police chief who was part of a team that examined the village after the slide. There were no visible signs of the buildings underneath."
 
Read more on this story here

US, Pakistan Fail to Agree on Afghanistan Supply Routes

by QR Blog Editor 06-11-2012

Carlo Munoz reports for The Hill:

"American negotiators working with Pakistan to reopen critical supply routes into Afghanistan have been called back to the United States, casting further doubt on whether the lines will ever be reopened to U.S. and coalition forces. Defense Department spokesman George Little told reporters on Monday that several members of the U.S. negotiation team had already left Islamabad, with the remaining members scheduled to depart the country within days."

Read the full story here

The Atlantic: The Geography of Abortion

by QR Blog Editor 06-11-2012

Richard Florida examines how geography impacts abortion in the United States, and what it tells us: 

"Few issues divide Americans more severely than abortion. Even accounting for changes in the nation's political climate over time, polling numbers consistently show a close to even split in the percent of the population who identify as pro-life or pro-choice. And given the variation in abortion laws across the 50 states, that divide has a definite geographic dimension as well."

Read the full story here

What good is oil when there's nothing to eat?

by QR Blog Editor 06-11-2012

For Salon, Fred Pearce writes:

Saudi Arabians have grown colossally rich on the country’s oil reserves. They have grown used to the idea that petrodollars can buy them anything. But Saudis are waking up to the fact that all their wealth will count for nothing if they have nothing to eat. And — despite the conference tables heaving with French, Persian, American and Arab cuisine — that is a growing threat. “If we want our grandchildren to live as we are, we need to change now, or we will be like an African country in 50 years, asking for aid,” Adil Bushnak, a former member of the Saudi Supreme Economic Council, told me during a conference session I was chairing

Learn more here

Tutu: To live sustainably, we need to talk

by QR Blog Editor 06-11-2012

Writing for The Huffington Post, Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, a Nobel Peace Laureate and Chair of The Elders writes on why inter-generational dislogue is so important in tackling the big issues of the day:

For the sake of our planet, a conversation that needs to be heard is the one between generations, between elders and young people around the world -- and those who are in between.

I leave you with this Kenyan proverb a young activist from Dubai sent us: "The world was not given to you by your parents; it was lent to you by your children."
 
The words are beautiful. Their global nature, in our digital age, is inspiring.
 
Read Archbishop Tutu's full article here

Jonathan Merritt on the changing political culture among young Christians

by QR Blog Editor 06-08-2012

Author Jonathan Merritt sets our the seven reasons why Christians should "change their political tune":

Aristotle is credited with saying, "Change in all things is sweet." And perhaps no change of late is as sweet as that among young Christians in the public square. While the last several decades of Christian engagement have often been marked by partisan tactics and a polemical tone, a new generation is changing its political tune. These individuals aren't leaving the public square altogether, but they are looking for less divisive and less partisan ways to engage. They want to follow Jesus without fighting the culture wars.

Read the full list here