Russian Orthodox Church Suspends Relations With Swedish Lutherans Over Gay Marriages

MosNews

The Moscow Patriarchate has suspended relations with the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Sweden after it decided to establish an official ceremony to bless homosexual couples, the Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday.

“We have received with great disappointment and grief the news that not only does the Lutheran Church of Sweden not oppose so-called homosexual marriages, but has even ruled to establish an official blessing ceremony,” the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church said in a statement at a session in Moscow.
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Christ is Born! Glory Him! – 2005

The Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
Orthodox Nativity Hymns

Thy Nativity, O Christ our God, hath shined the light of knowledge upon the world; for thereby they that worshipped the stars were instructed by a star to worship Thee, the Sun of Righteousness, and to know Thee, the Dayspring from on high. O Lord, glory be to Thee.

Today, the Virgin bears Him who is transcendent, and the earth presents the cave to Him who is beyond reach. Angels, along with shepherds glorify Him. The Magi make their way to Him by a star. For a new child has been born for us, the God before all ages.

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Home for Christmas — Susette Kelo’s story

Wall Street Journal MELANIE KIRKPATRICK Saturday, December 24, 2005

Home for Christmas
Susette Kelo’s story: from humble abode to eminent domain.

NEW LONDON, Conn.–It’s the week before Christmas, and as my train from Manhattan nears this old New England seaport, I can’t help but hum a few bars of that seasonal favorite, “There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays.”

I’m here to meet with New London’s most famous resident since Nathan Hale, the schoolteacher-spy who was hanged by the British in 1776. Susette Kelo’s life isn’t in jeopardy, but her home is–and her fight to keep it has taken her all the way to the Supreme Court, making her a national celebrity along the way and igniting a nationwide movement to protect private property rights. If June’s ruling in Kelo v. City of New London is carried out, this could be Ms. Kelo’s last Christmas in the home she loves.

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Sweet Charity: The American people are extraordinarily generous

Wall Street Opinion Journal Saturday, December 24, 2005

Americans are “stingy.” This was the accusation hurled at the U.S. almost exactly one year ago today by Jan England, United Nations Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs, immediately after the Asian tsunami disaster.

Even by U.N. standards, it was a particularly absurd anti-American slur–although it no doubt expresses the view of many foreign elites, who have come to believe that government is the only true source of goodness and charity. In the weeks and months that followed the tsunami, American citizens dug deep into their wallets, donating some $1.78 billion to the relief effort in Asia–dwarfing the contributions of other developed nations. Since October Americans have also contributed $78 million to assist the casualties of the Pakistan earthquake.

And lest there be any doubt that the Good Samaritan ethic is alive and well in America, consider the latest totals of charitable giving to help the New Orleans victims of Hurricane Katrina. The Center for Philanthropy at Indiana University announced last week that the total value of private donations in response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has reached $3.12 billion, thus “setting what is believed to be a record for a single disaster and recovery effort.” This tsunami of aid dollars was donated in just three and a half months.

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1st Amendment ‘doesn’t create church-state wall of separation’

WorldNetDaily.com December 20, 2005

Court whacks civil-liberties group, OKs Ten Commandments display

A U.S. appeals court today upheld the decision of a lower court in allowing the inclusion of the Ten Commandments in a courthouse display, hammering the American Civil Liberties Union and declaring, “The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state.”

Attorneys from the American Center for Law and Justice successfully argued the case on behalf of Mercer County, Ky., and a display of historical documents placed in the county courthouse. The panel voted 3-0 to reject the ACLU’s contention the display violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.

The county display the ACLU sued over included the Ten Commandments, the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Magna Carta, the Star Spangled Banner, the national motto, the preamble to the Kentucky Constitution, the Bill of Rights to the U. S. Constitution and a picture of Lady Justice.

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New American Envoy Predicts Big Change in Cuba After Castro

Human Events Online Jim Burns December 19, 2005

America’s newest top diplomat to Cuba is predicting that the Communist nation will change from its current system even if dictator Fidel Castro stays in power for many more years.

Michael Parmly, head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, told Reuters news service he could not be specific as to what kind of change will occur on the island or when or how it will happen.

Parmly cited his experience as an American diplomat in Romania where he witnessed the ouster of Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in the early 1990s as proof that people will rise up and topple Communist regimes. Ceausescu was later executed by the new Romanian government.

But in Cuba, Parmly envisions “revolt spreading like wildfire in the streets.”

“You cannot predict these things, but you do try to prepare for them when you are pretty sure they are coming, and I am pretty sure it is coming,” Parmly said.

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Don’t stifle Christianity by political correctness, says Carey

London Times A Correspondent December 19, 2005

THE public expression of the Christian faith and other religions is being undermined by political correctness, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, says.

“I think there is a view around that practising Christianity and all the symbols that go with it embarrasses people of other faiths and of course that’s nonsense,” he told GMTV’s Sunday Programme.

“We can’t keep faith out of politics or out of public life. It’s part of our own identity.

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That Christmas calendar crunch, Part I

Terry Mattingly

In the beginning, there were humble Nativity pageants for the kids and Christmas choir extravaganzas for the grown-ups.

As the decades passed, some big Protestant churches began hiring orchestras and buying advertisements, creating a music-ministries arms race that pitted the Baptists against the Pentecostals and the Presbyterians against the Methodists. Some prosperous churches even began moving these performances on stage or outdoors, adding elaborate sets, costumes and lights.

But the leaders of these churches agreed on one thing — big Christmas events were supposed to be held on the Sunday before Christmas. Most of the faithful stayed home to fill their roles in the big shows in their churches and then hit the road.

“Going to church on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day was something the Catholics did and all the people in those other churches that followed the church calendar,” said John Witvliet, director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship at Calvin College.

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The Holy Capitalists

New York Times DAVID BROOKS

What explains success? What forces drive some nations and individuals to move forward and grow rich while others stagnate? These happen to be the most important questions in the social sciences today.

In the scholarly arena, you see an array of academic gladiators wielding big books and offering theories.

Over here are the material determinists. Jared Diamond, with his million-selling “Guns, Germs, and Steel,” says the West grew rich not because of any innate superiority, but because Europeans happened to have the right kinds of plants. Felipe Fernández-Armesto, with his tome, “Civilizations,” argues that success is determined by climate and geography.

Over there are the cultural determinists. Thomas Sowell argues that ethnic groups develop their own skills and values and thrive or suffer as they compete, conquer and migrate. In his great opus, “The Wealth and Poverty of Nations,” David Landes shows how cultural mores shaped European empires and the Industrial Revolution.
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Missourian: Real Science OR the Analysis of Dean’s Report

Real Science OR the Analysis of Dean’s Report

The article cited by Dean in support of his thesis refers to a group called “Clear the Air.”
You will find their website here: http://www.cleartheair.org/dirtypower/ A quick review of the Clear the Air website shows that the article cited by Dean is truly a conduit for the viewpoint of the group.

Clear the Air offers a report called “Dirty Air, Dirty Power’ for public consumption. This report contains repeated UNQUALIFIED ASSERTIONS of numbers of deaths “caused by power plant pollution.” Clear the Air also posts their source document called “Power Plant Emissions, Particulate Matter Related Health Damages and the Benefits of Alternative Emission Reduction Scenarios. You can find that report here:
http://www.cleartheair.org/dirtypower/docs/abt_powerplant_whitepaper.pdf.
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