From here:
More than a dozen Canadians have told the Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office in Toronto within the past year that they were blocked from entering the United States after their records of mental illness were shared with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
That could be a problem for Katharine’s lapdog.
inspiration: LSP
From here:
Nine eleven: By the numbers
Number of years since the attacks: 10
Number of Muslim hijackers: 19
Number of airplanes hijacked: 4
Number of intended targets: 4
Number of targets struck: 3
Number of murder victims: 2,977
Estimated financial cost of the attacks: $3.3 trillion (source)
Number of apologies from Muslims, Muslim countries, or Muslim organizations for the attacks: Zero
One more.
Number of apologies by Christian leaders to Muslims for anti-Muslim bigotry: too many to count.
From here:
The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina filed a lawsuit challenging a specialty license plate that supports the pro-life stance on abortion. State lawmakers authorized the “Choose Life” plate, although a pro-choice plate was voted down.
ACLU legal director Katy Parker says the state cannot allow only one side of the argument to be heard. “This would be discrimination regardless of which side was being supported by the state,” said Parker. The ACLU claims the State is engaging in unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.
The ACLU has a point. To balance things, there should be a pro-abortion plate that reads “Choose Death”.
Stephen Harper had the temerity to suggest that, for Canada, “the major threat is still Islamicism.”
In an exclusive interview with CBC News, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the biggest security threat to Canada a decade after 9/11 is Islamic terrorism.
Leading the NDP foreign affairs critic to ruminate on the true cause of terrorism:
“The 10th anniversary of 9/11 should be a time for reflection on how we can build a more inclusive society to end extremism,” NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar told The Globe Wednesday morning. “Let’s all guard against knee-jerk demonizing and overheated rhetoric.”
Leading me to ruminate on how Canadian society could possibly be more inclusive than it already is.
I know! Include more terrorists: that should reduce extremism.
From here:
The mayor of New York City has disallowed clergy from praying at an event commemorating the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, sparking indignation from leaders who have pointed to the pivotal role religious groups played in the heroic response to the tragedy.
When King Darius decreed that no-one was permitted to pray to god or man, Daniel did this:
When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where *he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. Daniel 6:10
Now that King Bloomberg has done something similar, perhaps clergy should take their cue from Daniel: go to the event and pray with megaphones.
From here:
Washington, D.C. – Interfaith worship services have doubled in the decade since the 11 September attacks, according to a new study released Sept. 7, even as more than seven in 10 U.S. congregations do not associate with other faiths.
The survey by an interfaith group of researchers found that about 14 percent of U.S. congregations surveyed in 2010 engaged in a joint religious celebration with another faith tradition, up from 6.8 percent in 2000, Religion News Service reports.
[….]
The study implies that the more liberal a congregation, the greater likelihood for interfaith activity. Approximately half of Unitarian Universalist congregations held interfaith worship services, and three in four participated in interfaith community service. By contrast, among more conservative Southern Baptist churches, only 10 percent participated in interfaith community service, and five percent in interfaith worship.
The study shows most of the 11,077 congregations surveyed reported no interfaith activity, a finding that troubled the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of Washington-based Interfaith Alliance. “The reality in our nation now is we have a major problem with Islamophobia, and that fear is being fed by people in large enough numbers that we need probably ten times as many people involved in interfaith discussions and actions,” Gaddy said.
As the tenth anniversary of the murder of 3,000 innocent people by crazed Islamists approaches, apparently, the major problem facing the US is Islamophobia. That must be why every month since September 11, 2001, another murderous Islamist plot has been thwarted and new mayhem is being planned to mark the anniversary: I don’t know about you, but I am appalled by this blatant Islamophobia.
If only Rev. C. Welton Gaddy had invited those over-enthusiastic flying Muslims to an Interfaith worship service ten years ago, they could have let off some of their boyish energy in dialogue and holy listening.
From here:
A weekend of religious-themed observances at Washington National Cathedral marking the tenth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks will include a Buddhist nun and an Imam, but not an evangelical Christian, leading the head of the Southern Baptist Convention to ask President Obama to reconsider attending the event.
“A Call to Compassion” will include an interfaith prayer vigil on Sept. 11. It will feature the dean of the Cathedral, the Bishop of Washington, a rabbi, Buddhist nun and incarnate lama, a Hindu priest, the president of the Islamic Society of North America and a Muslim musician.
However, Southern Baptists, representing the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, were not invited to participate – and neither were leaders from any evangelical Christian organization.
[….]
Richard Weinberg, the Cathedral’s director of communications, confirmed that Southern Baptists were not extended an invitation to participate.
“The goal was to have interfaith representation,” he told Fox News Radio. “The Cathedral itself is an Episcopal church and it stands to reason that our own clergy serve as Christian representatives.”
Perhaps the point Richard Weinberg is missing is that, from the perspective of evangelicals, Episcopal clergy don’t serve as Christian representatives.
From here:
The Ven. Dr. Michael Thompson will serve as the Anglican Church of Canada’s next General Secretary, beginning Nov. 1, 2011.
The Ven. Dr. Michael Thompson, rector of St. Jude’s Anglican Church in Oakville, Ont., will serve as the Anglican Church of Canada’s next General Secretary, starting Nov. 1. Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate, announced Mr. Thompson’s appointment to Church House staff on Sept. 6.
[….]
“I am confident, friends, that Michael is the person for this position at this time,” wrote the Primate in an email to COGS members.
I’m confident of the same thing. He appeared at St. Hilda’s one Sunday morning just before we voted to separate from the Diocese of Niagara. He was a likeable fellow who confided that he rather admired the certainty of our faith – a certainty which he couldn’t share. What more fitting person to hold the post of Secretary General than one whose uncertainty of what he believes matches that of his employer.
