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22 Apr 2012 - Third Sunday of Easter, Cycle B

FOR FOLKS WHO only go green on St. Patrick’s Day, it should be noted that today is Earth Day. People around the world are pleading the case for Mother Earth once more. Many Christians remain skeptical about a show of support for a world which is surely passing. Does the planet matter so much, because the Kingdom is coming and we’re on our way out of here anyway? Pope Benedict XVI, not a granola-munching liberal, updated the pop-justice bumper sticker in 2010 by declaring: “If You Want Peace, Protect Creation.” Calling governments, corporations, and individuals to account, the pope asked: “Can we remain indifferent before the problems associated with such realities as climate change, desertification, the deterioration and loss of productivity in vast agricultural areas, the pollution of rivers and aquifers, the loss of biodiversity, the increase of natural catastrophes, and the deforestation of equatorial and tropical regions?” In saying that Benedict added his voice to that of Pope Paul VI, who pointed out that by exploiting nature we create wide-ranging social problems which concern the entire human family. Pope John Paul II noted decades ago that “world peace is threatened” by a lack of due respect for nature. It seems the church insists on getting its hands dirty in the politics of ecology, no matter how much some may resist it. The material world does matter. Religion might seem like a purely spiritual realm properly concerned with prayer and ritual and inward things, but Christianity can never beg off on corporeal realities. Luke’s gospel deliberately makes the case that Christians are not Gnostics, who blow off the grim material world in favor of a higher spiritual plain. Honestly, Jesus the Ghost would have made more sense, been received more readily, and made a tidier religious doctrine to loft into the future. The body of Christ was tortured, torn upon the cross, and died. Best to leave it in the tomb and move on! Evangelists like Luke won’t take the easy way out. Easter begins as the women go out to anoint the body. Yes, Jesus has been dead for days, but what happens to his body still matters. Next, the pair traveling to Emmaus encounter Jesus. He might have appeared as a beam of light or a voice from heaven but he prefers to be a traveling companion and dinner guest, breaking bread with them. Finally, as these two recount the event to the astonished disciples, Jesus appears again and insists he is no ghost. He demands to be touched and he asks for food. Jesus won’t be a vision from heaven or remain God’s Great Idea up in the sky. Jesus insists we wash feet, anoint the sick, feed the hungry, and keep our fingers close to the world’s wounds. Related scripture links Great speeches in Acts: Peter—2:14-40; 3:12-26; 10:34-43; Stephen—7:2-53; Paul—13:16-41; 17:22-31; 20:17-35; 22:1-21; 24:10-21; 26:2-23 Response to Peter’s preaching: Acts 2:41 Touch: John 20:24-29; 1 John 1:1-3 The Christian call to testify: Acts 10:39-43 Catechism links Proclamation: CCC 1-3; 74; 429 Joy: CCC 301; 736; 1829; 1832 Peace: CCC 736; 1829; 1832; 2305; 2317

Authors Alice Camille

earth earthday green ecology care for god's creation Creation protection body of christ

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The nation’s “shepherd” passes his first 100 days

03 May 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In John's gospel Jesus describes the qualities of a good shepherd. President Barack Obama will face an assessment of his shepherding skills as he marked his first 100 days in office yesterday, Wednesday. Obama inherited a troubled economy, two wars, and a host of other domestic and international challenges. In his first 100 days Obama signed several executive orders, got a huge economic stimulus bill through Congress, and outlined a plan for troop reduction in Iraq. A recent poll put his job approval rating at 68 percent, the highest among recent presidents. Yet Obama has not been without his share of controversies and criticism, including his decision to allow federal funds to be used by international clinics for abortions and abortion counseling, and the release of "torture memos" that show a systematic program of harsh interrogation methods, including torture, under the Bush administration. The administration is also instituting a regulatory regimen for the financial sector and preparing for perhaps the biggest domestic policy battle in nearly 20 years: a healthcare overhaul. Although the White House initially downplayed the 100-day benchmark, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says that the administration is "playing along," with Obama scheduled to take part in a town-hall-style event in St. Louis and a primetime news conference from the East Room of the White House. "It's an arbitrary demarcation of time created by some conglomeration of reporters and historians," said Dan Pfeiffer, Obama's deputy communications director. "Any suggestion we could do more than make a down payment on the change the president promised in 100 days is unrealistic." Presidential historian Fred I. Greenstein, concurs, "Look back in time," Greenstein said, "and you don't find an enormous amount of foreshadowing in those first 100 days." Source: Articles posted on cnn.com and washingtonpost.com and by Peter Nicholas and Christi Parsons for the Los Angeles Times

barack obama robert gibbs fred i greenstein dan pfeiffer 100 days

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More Americans switching cornerstones

03 May 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

While today’s psalm speaks of how the “stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone,” when it comes to their faith Americans tend not to completely reject cornerstones but simply drift from one to another. According to the results of a survey released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, researchers found that almost three-quarters of Catholics and Protestants who have become unaffiliated with a religion said they had “just gradually drifted away” from their faith. The same number of Catholics and half of Protestants currently unassociated with a faith said that over time they stopped believing in their religion’s teachings. Pew Forum senior fellow John C. Green said that result surprised researchers, who had expected policy disputes or disillusionment over internal scandals--such as the clergy sex-abuse crisis in the Catholic Church--to play more of a role in people’s decision to leave a faith. Among former Catholics who became Protestants, one in five cited the sex-abuse scandal as one of several reasons why they had left the church. But only a small percentage--2 to 3 percent--cited it as the lone reason. “It suggests that what leads people to leave their faith is that, somehow for some reason, it isn’t meeting their needs . . . . Religion becomes less plausible to the person,” Green said. Researchers interviewed non-Christians but focused their analysis on Christians, which provided them with large enough groups to permit close scrutiny, said Pew research fellow Gregory A. Smith. Researchers discovered that the “churn” between denominations among the faithful and formerly faithful was 56 percent. They also found that up to one-third of people who have left their childhood faith have jumped around among three or more other faiths. At the same time, the large and growing number of people who report having no religious affiliation are surprisingly open to religion, researchers said. Contrary to the popular perception that many have embraced secularism, a significant percentage appeared simply to have put their religiosity on pause, having worshiped as part of at least one faith already, and about 3 in 10 said they have not yet found the right religion. “We tend to think that when people leave [religion] they leave,” said Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University. “But a lot of these unaffiliated are unaffiliated for now.” Source: An article by Jacqueline Salmon for the Washington Post.

religion united states stephen prothero gregory a smith john c green surveys pew forum on religion public life

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Energy debate heats up

05 Jul 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday’s readings the Lord sends Ezekiel to speak to a rebellious people, “whether they heed or resist” that word. The Obama administration’s quest for a comprehensive energy and climate change legislation, which gained approval in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday, will likely face stiff resistance in the Senate. The bill passed by the House would require large companies, including utilities and manufacturers, to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases associated with global warming 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 through a “cap-and-trade” program that allows pollution permits to be bought and sold. Other features of the bill included controlling carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels and limiting other greenhouse gases; allowing companies to meet emission-limiting targets by investing in offset projects such as tree planting and forest protection; and establishing standards that will require new buildings to be 50 percent more efficient by 2016. Consumers would be protected from rising energy costs through rebates and credits to low-income households. The bill was loaded with hundreds of pages of special-interest favors in order to secure the necessary votes, critics said, and environmentalists lamented that its greenhouse-gas reduction targets had been whittled down. But key sponsor Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California) defended the bill. “We worked hard to craft compromises that addressed the legitimate concerns of industry without undermining the environmental integrity of the legislation,” Waxman said. Although watered down from the original version, it was still the first time either house of Congress passed a bill imposing a limit on the emissions blamed for the warming of the planet. Articles by Jeff Mason for Reuters, John M. Broder for the New York Times, and the Associated Press

barack obama house of representatives climate change energy legislation greenhouse gases henry waxman

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Putting bombs away

12 Jul 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In the vision of the psalmist this Sunday, "Justice and peace shall kiss." While President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev didn't kiss this week, they did sign a preliminary agreement to reduce the world's two largest nuclear stockpiles by as much as one third. Two days of meetings resulted in the signing of other important documents as well, including a deal to let U.S. troops cross Russia en route to Afghanistan. The two leaders agreed their countries would work closely together to study new missile security threats the United States says are at the core of its rationale for planning new missile defenses in Europe, and they called for renewed efforts to develop greater commercial and economic ties. "I can't think of a summit that was so comprehensive in what we are trying to do as a government," said Michael McFaul, special assistant to the president and senior director for Russian and Eurasian affairs. "There is an emphasis on style, on tone," however, rather than action in Obama's efforts thus far to build a new relationship with Russia, said Sam Greene, deputy director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, a U.S.-based political research institute. "But that is also important. If this process is going to keep up momentum, it needs to be clear to politicians in both capitals that the presidents are putting a lot of their own political capital into the process." "Even a symbolic detente is not bad," said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the Moscow foreign policy review Russia in Global Affairs. "The style has changed utterly by comparison with last autumn" when tensions between the United States and Russia soared to levels not seen since Ronald Reagan entered the White House in the early 1980s, he said. Source: Articles by Christopher Boian for Agence France Presse and Michael A. Fletcher and Philip P. Pan for the Washington Post

barack obama russia in global affairs fyodor lukyanov carnegie moscow center sam greene michael mcfaul europe arms control missiles nuclear weapons united states dmitry medvedev afghanistan russia ronald reagan

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Plant geneticist brought bread to the world

20 Sep 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

We join the psalmist's refrain this Sunday in declaring that "the Lord upholds my life." Those who feared world famine in the 1960s are praising scientist and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Norman Borlaug, who died Saturday at the age of 95. Borlaug is known as the father of the "green revolution" that led to a doubling of world food production between 1960 and 1990. Experts credit the green revolution with averting global famine during the second half of the 20th-century and saving perhaps 1 billion lives. "More than any other single person of this age, he has helped provide bread for a hungry world," the Nobel committee said in honoring him in 1970. "Norman E. Borlaug saved more lives than any man in human history," said Josette Sheeran, executive director of the U.N. World Food Program. "His heart was as big as his brilliant mind, but it was his passion and compassion that moved the world." Borlaug began his green revolution in Mexico, where he dramatically increased wheat production after World War II. Over the next several decades he started programs in six countries in Latin America, eight in the Middle East, and two in Asia. In 1986 Borlaug established the World Food Prize, a $250,000 award given each year to a person whose work improves the world's food supply. His work, however, was not without detractors. He was criticized in recent decades for promoting practices that use fertilizer and pesticides and focusing on a few high-yield crops that benefit large landowners. Borlaug responded that increased crop production was only a vehicle for his real interest, which was to improve people's lives. In his address accepting the Nobel Prize in 1970, Borlaug said: "We must recognize the fact that adequate food is only the first requisite for life. For a decent and humane life we must also provide an opportunity for good education, remunerative employment, comfortable housing, good clothing, and effective and compassionate medical care." Source: Articles by Joe Holley and J. Y. Smith for the Washington Post and Matt Curry and Betsy Blaney for Associated Press

food norman borlaug nobel peace prize green revolution josette sheeran world food prize

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Climactic moment on climate change?

13 Dec 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

"What then should we do?" was the question on the minds of John the Baptist's listeners we learn in this Sunday's gospel. It is also the question at the forefront of the debate over global warming. Political leaders and scientists gathered in Copenhagen this week for an international climate summit some dub the world's "last chance" to control warming. At the same time the conference was getting underway the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Monday that greenhouse gases are endangering people's health and must be regulated. The move puts pressure on Congress to act on stalled climate legislation. The ruling paves the way for regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles, power plants, factories, refineries, and other major sources. Industry groups quickly criticized the decision, saying that the regulation of carbon dioxide would be legally and technically complex and would impose huge costs across the economy. EPA administrator Lisa Jackson said that the finding was driven by the weight of scientific evidence that the planet was warming and that human activity was largely responsible. Jackson waded into the current dispute over leaked e-mail messages from a British climate research group that have stirred doubts among some people about the integrity of climate science. "We know that skeptics have and will continue to try to sow doubts about the science," she said. "It's no wonder that many people are confused. But raising doubts--even in the face of overwhelming evidence--is a tactic that has been used by defenders of the status quo for years." Worldwide the vast majority of increased greenhouse-gas emissions is expected to come from developing countries such as China and India. But those countries have made it clear that their willingness to reduce growth in emissions will depend on what wealthier countries do first. That puts a spotlight on the U.S. in Copenhagen, observers said, and the EPA announcement was timed to boost the Obama administration's case that the U.S. is indeed taking action to combat global warming even though Congress has yet to act. In conjunction with the Copenhagen summit churches around the world this Sunday will ring their bells as part of what is being called "Hopenhagen," a call to action and prayer in response to climate change. Source: Articles by John M. Broder for the New York Times, Dina Cappiello and H. Josef Herbert for the Associated Press, Jeffrey Ball and Charles Forelle for the Wall Street Journal, and Ecumenical News International

china carbob dioxide emissions climate science lisa jackson summit copenhagen greenhouse gases climate change india global warming environmental protection agency hopenhagen

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Great news for the Great Lakes?

07 Mar 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Natural fertilizers used by gardeners such as the one mentioned in this Sunday's gospel were surely more environmentally friendly than modern chemical compounds utilized in everything from agriculture to embalming. Recent initiatives to clean up the Great Lakes and encourage "green burials" are hopeful steps toward restoring lost ecological balance. The Obama administration has developed a five-year blueprint for the Great Lakes, an extensive ecosystem plagued by toxic contamination, shrinking wildlife habitats, and invasive species. The plan envisions spending more than $2.2 billion for long-awaited repairs after a century of damage to the lakes, which hold 20 percent of the world's freshwater. Among the goals is a "zero-tolerance policy" toward future invasions by foreign species, including the Asian carp, a ravenous fish that has overrun parts of the Mississippi River system and is threatening to enter Lake Michigan. Others include cleaning up the region's most heavily polluted sites, restoring wetlands and other crucial habitats, and improving water quality in shallow areas where runoff from cities and farms has led to unsightly algae blooms and beach closings. In other good news for the environment, people in the funeral industry say more Christians are embracing the idea of burial in cemeteries that strive to contain their own carbon footprint. At Maryrest, which is run by the Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, only certain types of caskets, embalming, and grave markers are permitted in the new eco-section, the goal being to limit environmental damage. Nationwide, dozens of cemeteries advertise green practices as a way of countering modern burial practices that many now see as ecologically unsustainable. Church officials said they expect baby boomers to increasingly opt for it. "The church is trying to be green," said Andrew Schafer, executive director of Catholic cemeteries for the Newark Archdiocese. "Being a boomer myself, we grew up going to recycling centers on weekends, we learned in grammar school about protecting the environment, and Earth Day came about as we were kids. We are a generation of people who have been constantly exposed to protecting the world and the environment. . . . As this group ages, I think they will seriously consider this." "This is the way it was 100 years ago," said Robert Prout, a funeral director in Verona, New Jersey, who promotes green burial techniques at funeral directors' conferences around the country. "This is the way it was for thousands of years." The term "green burial" can include cremations, when ashes are poured into a hole in the ground or buried in a biodegradable urn. About 30 percent of Americans are cremated, a figure that has risen in recent decades. Concerns over the release of carbon dioxide and mercury into the air have somewhat damaged the green image that cremation held among many environmentalists, but high-tech air-filtration systems for crematories are expected to become more common. Source: Articles by Jeff Diamant for Religion News Service and the Associated Press

great lakes fertilizer chemicals green burials newark andrew schafer robert prout cremation

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Lifting the veil on religious bigotry

07 Mar 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

"The Lord secures justice and the rights of all the oppressed," the psalmist informs us this Sunday. The Oregon legislature last week took a step in the same direction by giving their final approval to end a longstanding ban on teachers wearing head scarves or other religious dress. The ban had been enacted in 1923 during a time of anti-Catholic bigotry to keep Catholic nuns from teaching in public schools. Supporters of the legislation called ending the prohibition a historic step toward religious freedom and nondiscrimination in a state that has performed poorly in those arenas in the past. Christian teachers have long been allowed to wear crosses in Oregon public schools, but head scarves and turbans have not been permitted. Opponents of the change, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, say they want the legislature to slow down and think harder about the ramifications. They say the rights of students, particularly impressionable elementary pupils, to be free from religious indoctrination at school should be front and center. Steven Green, director of Willamette University's Center for Law, Religion, and Democracy, said that in his 20-year career studying and litigating freedom of religion cases, he has never seen a lawsuit prompted by a teacher's dress alone, apart from words and conduct. Proponents hailed Wednesday's vote as a victory for Muslim women and others who have been kept from teaching in Oregon by a faith that compels them to cover their heads. More than a dozen Oregonians wearing head scarves and turbans watched as lawmakers from both parties approved the bill, with four Republicans and four Democrats opposed. Afterward Muslim and Sikh leaders predicted more young people from their faith communities would enter teaching, knowing they would not have to choose between honoring their beliefs and teaching in public schools. "This is the way it's supposed to be," said Bahadur Singh, a member of the Sikh Temple of Salem. The bill now heads to Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who is expected to sign it. Source: Articles by Betsy Hammond for the Oregonian and UPI.com

discrimination freedom of religion steven green public schools head scarves religious garb oregon religious freedom Muslims sikhs

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Russians reel from terrorist attacks

04 Apr 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Saint Paul encourages us in the reading from 1 Corinthians to celebrate the feast "not with the old yeast" of malice and wickedness "but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." The old yeast appears to be alive and well, however, evidenced Monday by a suicide bombing in Moscow's subway system that killed 39 people and injured scores of commuters during rush hour. A Chechen militant claimed responsibility Wednesday for the deadly subway bombings as well as two new suicide bomb attacks that occurred Wednesday. The new attacks targeted police officers in Dagestan, a volatile southern province east of Chechnya, and left at least 12 people dead. Doku Umarov, who leads Islamic militants in Chechnya and other regions in Russia's North Caucasus, said that Monday's twin suicide attacks were an act of revenge for the killing of civilians by Russian security forces. He blamed ordinary Russians for turning a blind eye to the civilian deaths in the Caucasus and warned that more attacks on Russian cities were coming. Police and security services are a frequent target because they represent the Kremlin--the militants' ideological enemy--but also because of their heavy-handed tactics. Police have been accused of involvement in many killings, kidnappings, and beatings in the North Caucasus, angering residents and swelling the ranks of Islamic militants. A report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies said 916 people died in the North Caucasus in 2009 in violence related to the clashes, up from 586 in 2008. Another monitoring group, the Caucasian Knot, reported the region suffered 172 terrorist attacks last year. Many said the Kremlin can no longer ignore the social and economic problems of its southern fringe. "The question is whether there will be accomplishments with social development to give people an alternative to blowing themselves up," said Sam Greene, a political analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center. Source: Articles by Agence France Presse and Arsen Mollayev, Lynn Berry, and David Nowak for the Associated Press

terrorism north caucasu suicide bomb chechnya dagestan chechens moscow subway sam greene russia doku umarov

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