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Christianity Today

  • WWE News: Updates on the Returns of Alberto Del Rio and Christian
    Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:08:35 -0800
    I apparently live in a bizzaro world of some sort. Or else I've come to stark realization about how much I actually like certain wrestlers. On Twitter yesterday, I was lamenting the fact that I actually miss Alberto Del Rio. For me to miss Del Rio, something much be wrong with the world. But things are what they are and I miss the Mexican Aristocrat's work in the ring. It also occurred to me ...
  • Christian Life too much for Yellowjackets in district opener
    Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:49:10 -0800
    Mt. Hermon fell to Christian Life 76-36 on Friday night in both teams? District 7-1A opener in Baton Rouge. The game also marked the Yellowjackets? first game in a Class 1A district after moving up from Class B last season.

Christian news from Ekklesia

  • Kenyan Mennonites make history by writing it
    Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:53:05 +0000
    !-- google_ad_section_start --div class=field field-type-text field-field-teaserdiv class=field-itemsdiv class=field-item oddpA book book chronicling the Kenya Mennonite Church?s 50-year history has been put together in Africa and will be published next year./p/div/div/divdiv class=field field-type-text field-field-bodydiv class=field-itemsdiv class=field-item oddpNine Kenyan delegates and three editors gathered together at the Mennonite Guest House in Nairobi the last week in January. Their task: to proof the manuscript of a history of the Kenya Mennonite Church (KMC), a Mennonite World Conference member church - emwrites Debbi DiGennaro./em/ppThe idea for this book, chronicling KMC?s 50-year history, was birthed in 2003 at the Mennonite World Conference summit in Zimbabwe, in a discussion between Kenyan Bishop Dominic Opondo and David W. Shenk, author and EMM global consultant./pp?This is the account of the acts of the Holy Spirit in calling forth and forming the Mennonite Church in Kenya,? wrote Francis Ojwang, primary researcher and author of the book, in the foreword. ?Just as ancient Israel and the early church made a very high priority of writing their history of the acts of God among them, so also the KMC needed to record their journey with Jesus Christ.?/ppThe nine delegates were bishops, pastors, and leaders, each representing dioceses of KMC. They spent three full days pouring over the nearly 200-page manuscript. They read each section aloud and then discussed whether the story it portrayed was accurate ? moving on only after reaching consensus, in the African way. There were stories to amend, adjectives to tweak, and because of the different ethnicities involved, misspelled vernacular words and place names to correct./ppDuring the reading, David Shunkur, a Maasai pastor from Olepolos, read a section of the manuscript that described his own congregation?s story. Shenk, who served as a consulting editor, said, ?It was a moving scene to see Shunkur proofing a paragraph about history he had made himself years before. The delegates showed an enormous amount of ownership in the process.?/ppThe book will be published by Uzima Publishing House, the Anglican publishing house in Kenya, early in 2013./pp[Ekk/3]/p/div/div/div!-- google_ad_section_end --
  • Welfare politics and changing the power landscape
    Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:02:50 +0000
    !-- google_ad_section_start --div class=field field-type-text field-field-teaserdiv class=field-itemsdiv class=field-item oddpThe coalition can force its welfare changes through using procedural measures, minor concessions and ?financial privilege? to do so. But the long-term political fall-out from all of this could be immense, says Simon Barrow. The warfare over welfare has shown just how powerful citizens? action and web-based crowd sourcing can be./p/div/div/divdiv class=field field-type-text field-field-bodydiv class=field-itemsdiv class=field-item oddpWhen the government?s Welfare Reform Bill first went through the House of Commons last year, signalling a massive overhaul of the benefit system and around £18 billion worth of cuts affecting some of the least well-off in Britain, there were ? remarkably ? few ruffles at Westminster./ppBut in January 2012 the balloon went up. That was largely due to a small group of disabled and sick people who were determined not to be ignored by politicians and the mainstream media. They took to the Internet and launched one of the most successful social media awareness campaigns we ever seen./ppThe ?Spartacus report? and campaign (a href=http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/responsiblereformDLA title=http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/responsiblereformDLAhttp://www.ekklesia.co.uk/responsiblereformDLA/a) started off using the Freedom of Information Act to reveal a huge level of concern and opposition to the coalition?s plan to take 500,000 people off Disability Living Allowance, replace it with a new payment, cut costs by 20 per cent, and introduce a vague and untested assessment regime. Up to 98 per cent of expert respondents disagreed with key aspects of what was being proposed. As did Conservative Mayor of London Boris Johnson, it transpired. /ppSuddenly, three million people started talking about this on Twitter. Thousands began lobbying. Churches and bishops questioned the arbitrary and unfair nature of a one-size-fits all, top-slicing benefit cap. The Institute for Fiscal Studies raised issues about the government?s sums. And charities called for a legislative pause and review of the Bill as a whole, given serious concerns about its impact on disabled youngsters, cancer sufferers, the terminally ill, those in housing need, carers and children in low income or unwaged families. /ppAs a result, the coalition lost an unprecedented seven Welfare Reform Bill amendment votes in the House of Lords, where crossbenchers and independents exerted their power and knowledge to question what was being done to the most vulnerable in society. /pp?If we are going to rob the poor to pay the rich, then we enter into a different form of morality,? said Lord Patel, responding to arguments that slashing welfare payments was justified by the need for deficit reduction. /ppActor and comedian Francesca Martinez, who lives with cerebral palsy, went further. By trying to reform welfare without putting human need and suffering first, government was proving ?morally disabled?, she declared./ppThe coalition can and will force its changes through. It is using procedural measures, minor concessions and ?financial privilege? to do so. But the long-term political fall-out from all of this could be immense. Legal challenges are being investigated. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is being invoked. Lords reform will also become more of a minefield./ppIt is ironic that an unelected revising chamber has proved more sensitive to democratic procedure and the need to listen to ordinary people than the elected one. That does not justify the current set up. But it sends out a strong warning about simply cloning the second chamber on the first. The warfare over welfare has also shown just how powerful citizens? action and web-based crowd sourcing can be. Politics 2.0, anyone?/pp/ppstrongSimon Barrow/strong is co-director of Ekklesia. This article is adapted from his regular column in Third Way, the Christian magazine of social and cultural comment. a href=http://www.thirdwaymagazine.co.uk/ title=http://www.thirdwaymagazine.co.uk/http://www.thirdwaymagazine.co.uk//a/p/div/div/div!-- google_ad_section_end --
  • We need a system that puts human wellbeing first
    Wed, 08 Feb 2012 07:53:47 +0000
    !-- google_ad_section_start --div class=field field-type-text field-field-teaserdiv class=field-itemsdiv class=field-item oddpThe competitive nature of the top-down, corporate capitalist system means we can never truly be all in this together, says Jonathan Bartley. All we do is sacrifice the most vulnerable for the sake of maintaining an unjust order. Economic alternatives are essential, and go well beyond statism./p/div/div/divdiv class=field field-type-text field-field-bodydiv class=field-itemsdiv class=field-item oddpEd Miliband has accepted David Camerons cuts. Ken Livingstone shares Boris Johnsons commitment to business. And according to one-time wannabe Scottish leader Tom Harris, Labour want you to get rich. Todays party owes little to Methodism, let alone Marx. But if Labour has lost its soul, the Tories never had one and the Lib Dems sold theirs a long time ago./ppAll three embrace a materialistic commitment to modern capitalism ? they just differ in how it might be made a little nicer. It is the Green party that now embodies the natural political expression of the more progressive traditions found in dissenting movements such as Quakerism and radical Catholicism./ppMany are asking what the point of Labour is, particularly as the time is ripe for an economic vision that refuses to bow at the altar of growth ? one that sees people as fully human, not competitive economic units. The charge of naivety that once held back such a perspective rings rather hollow today. It is the free-market narrative that is now discredited. Relentless and largely illusory growth based on credit was unsustainable. Inflation driven by rising commodity prices following the depletion of scarce resources has made a monkey out of monetarism. And this in addition to the huge human, social and environmental cost, seen in rising inequality and pollution. Responsible capitalism is an oxymoron akin to well-mannered war/ppAn appeal to give up the pursuit of wealth isnt an automatic vote-winner. But the alternative to the pursuit of riches is pursuit of a richer vision: neither austerity nor excessive wealth, but rather sufficiency plus, where needs are met, and then some, while a fuller understating of human welfare is championed./ppHaving less can be more. Too much choice is not liberating. There is something to be said for rhythms of life, for patience and delayed gratification, where everything isnt available instantaneously. Seasons are enjoyed because they arent there all year round. Fifty-hour weeks come at the expense of family and friends. Thats if we have a job at all./ppAs well as robbing us of our lives, the system pits us against one another in an endless quest for more, which fuels greater inequality, dissatisfaction and unfulfilment ? for both the winners and the losers. We feel left behind our neighbours and other countries if we dont better ourselves economically. We have forgotten who the economy is for./ppThe alternative is not state socialism. There has always been trade, exchange and barter. But modern capitalism is a relatively late arrival. There are alternative economic models, from mutuals, industrial provident societies and credit unions to small businesses and trading ventures that operate with counter-cultural values. Right now there are more members of co-operatives in the UK (which, the Co-op group points out, have outperformed the British economy by over 21 per cent since the start of the credit crunch) than there are shareholders./ppThe great leaders of the next few years will not be those who career down another blind alley on the coat tails of outdated and damaging economic models. They will be those who can manage a transition economy, through inevitable de-growth, on to a more sustainable footing. They will need to foster a wartime spirit, perhaps, but where the common enemy is not the financial crisis. If we see it in those terms, the competitive nature of the system means we can never truly be all in this together. All we do is sacrifice the most vulnerable for the sake of the system. The real foe is capitalism. One way or another well wake up to the fact./pp/ppstrongJonathan Bartley/strong is co-director of Ekklesia, and the Green candidate for Lambeth and Southwark in the forthcoming Greater London Authority elections. This article is adapted from one that appeared on Guardian Comment-is-Free, with acknowledgments. a href=http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jonathan-bartley title=http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jonathan-bartleyhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jonathan-bartley/a/p/div/div/div!-- google_ad_section_end --
  • C of E General Synod hears of climate change chaos in Bangladesh
    Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:29:42 +0000
    !-- google_ad_section_start --div class=field field-type-text field-field-teaserdiv class=field-itemsdiv class=field-item oddpThe director of the Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh has addressed a meeting at the General Synod of the Church of England, its governing body./p/div/div/divdiv class=field field-type-text field-field-bodydiv class=field-itemsdiv class=field-item oddpThe director of the Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh has addressed a meeting at the General Synod of the Church of England, its governing body./ppThe meeting, at which the Archbishop of Canterbury and other bishops were present, took place on Tuesday 7 February 2012. /ppMr Joyanta Adhikari, director of the Commission, warned of an impending climate catastrophe affecting Bangladesh and the need for urgent action and solidarity./ppHe told the Anglican gathering that 17 million people faced losing their homes if the predicted 1.5 metre rise in sea levels took place by 2050./ppThe 60-year-old father-of-two explained how his country was already suffering the devastating impact of climate change./ppAll parts of Bangladesh are feeling the effects, he declared. In the south, rising sea level has led to the intrusion of salt water destroying rice paddy fields which are our main source of food./ppIn the north there is drought because of unpredictable and reduced rainfall and the middle of the country suffers from river erosion making river banks, where many people live, unstable and dangerous, said Mr Adhikari. /ppWe already have a large number of climate refugees who have been forced out of their homes and most of them have to live by the side of the road or in shanty towns, he continued. /ppPeople have been forced to move to cities like Dhaka in search of work and in a country of only 147,000 square km and a population of 142 million this leads to social problems, said director of the Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh./ppHe went on:?Experts are forecasting that if the world doesn?t change course we will see a rise of 1.5 metres by 2050. If that happens,16 per cent of our land will be under water and 17 million people, 15 per cent of the population, will be left homeless. That is the scale of the catastrophe we are facing./ppIn Bangladesh Christians make up only 0.3 per cent of the 142 million population./ppMr Adhikari said support from Christian Aid and other agencies allows Christians through the CCBD to serve fellow Bangladeshis./ppChristians are a microscopic minority, he explained. We don?t normally suffer persecution but significant events in the west and the USA can cause us problems. The CCBD works for all people and is an opportunity for us as Christians to not just help fellow believers but serve the rest of Bangladesh./ppOne way the charity is helping the country adapt to climate change is developing a salt-water tolerant variety of rice paddy. /ppOther tactics include floating gardens of water hyacinths heaped together, covered with soil and used to grow vegetables. /ppThe CCBD also works to raise houses above sea level, supply energy efficient cooking stoves and improve infrastructure such as submerged water pipes contaminated with seawater./ppMr Adhikari concluded: This world has enough for our need, but not our greed. We are all God?s creation and we have to live responsibly to ensure God?s world is not destroyed. We cannot solve the problem of climate change alone, we need the help of people in other countries to reduce pollution./p/div/div/div!-- google_ad_section_end --
  • Youth longing for peace in the Arab world
    Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:18:03 +0000
    !-- google_ad_section_start --div class=field field-type-text field-field-teaserdiv class=field-itemsdiv class=field-item oddpThe key role of young people in recent Arab transformations was a recurrent theme for a recent World Council of Churches Christian-Muslim consultation./p/div/div/divdiv class=field field-type-text field-field-bodydiv class=field-itemsdiv class=field-item oddpThe key role played by young people during the transformations in the Arab world throughout the past year was a recurrent theme for the recent World Council of Churches (WCC) Christian-Muslim consultation on ?Christian Presence and Witness in the Arab World?./ppThe consultation was organised by the WCC programmes for Churches in the Middle East and Inter-religious Dialogue and Cooperation in collaboration with the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) in Antelias, Lebanon./ppThe consultation took place from 24 to 28 January 2012 and brought together a number of religious leaders, scholars and young activists./ppThe participants passion and longing for political and religious freedom, human dignity and rights, and social and economic justice for all people of the Arab world marked the event./ppThe importance of equal citizenship for all was reiterated frequently. The politics and relationships between the values of citizenship and its links to religious institutions were debated./ppShort but vivid sketches highlighted recent events, problems and signs of hope in a wide range of countries. It was acknowledged that in some parts of the Arab world, Christians and Muslims were afraid of the uncertainties that the future might bring./ppHowever, it was also noted that the people of God must not deal in the currency of fear. It was important that the religions themselves were willing to become part of the process of transformation./ppAs one participant put it, ?We need religious leaders who are willing to play a prophetic role, and to be people of vision and wisdom.?/ppA number of specific proposals and suggestions were put forward in the final communiqué of the meeting./ppThis consultation was in one of a series of meetings being held in preparation of a major international ecumenical gathering on the Christian presence in the Middle East. This meeting is being planned by the WCC in partnership with the MECC, and is due to take place in December 2012. /pp[Ekk/3]/p/div/div/div!-- google_ad_section_end --

BBC News

  • News Corp profits swing to growth
    Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:37:13 GMT
    Media giant News Corporation sees its net profits rise 65% in the three months to the end of December 2011 compared to 2010.
  • Mali 0-1 Ivory Coast
    Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:36:14 GMT
    Ivory Coast beat Mali 1-0 in Libreville to reach Sunday's Nations Cup final, where they will face Zambia.
  • Groupon reports unexpected loss
    Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:32:08 GMT
    In its first set of results as a public company, Groupon reports an unexpected loss of $42.7m (£27.0m), when a small profit had been expected.
  • Cisco sees profits rise over 43%
    Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:32:06 GMT
    US technology giant Cisco says rising quarterly sales show that its cost-cutting plans are bearing fruit.