Blair urges Catholic Church homosexuality rethink

AFP

Wed Apr 8, 6:42 am ET
LONDON (AFP) – Former premier Tony Blair said the Catholic Church needed to rethink its attitude towards homosexuality, as it is out of step with ordinary church-goers', in an interview published Wednesday.
Blair, who converted to Catholicism after leaving office in June 2007, cited a "huge generational difference" as the key to Pope Benedict XVI's opposition to homosexuality.
A poll of the congregation at a Catholic Church on a Sunday would reveal how liberal those in attendance were, he claimed.
"We need an attitude of mind where rethinking and the concept of evolving attitudes becomes part of the discipline with which you approach your religious faith," Blair told Attitude magazine, a publication targeted at gay people.
During Blair's premiership, Britain enacted legislation introducing civil partnerships, giving gay and lesbian couples legal recognition of their relationships, allowing them the same rights in areas like work, pensions and inheritance as heterosexual couples.
Asked about the pope's comments on homosexuality -- he has in the past suggested that it is as much of a threat to the survival of humanity as climate change -- Blair replied that "there is a huge generational difference here."
"And there?s probably that same fear amongst religious leaders that if you concede ground on an issue like this, because attitudes and thinking evolve over time, where does that end?
"You?d start having to rethink many, many things."
He added that if a Catholic congregation at a church on a Sunday were to be polled, "you'd be surprised at how liberal-minded people were."
"I think on some of these issues, if you went and asked the congregation, I think you?d find that their faith is not to be found in those types of entrenched attitudes," Blair said.
Blair formally remained a member of the Church of England while prime minister from 1997 to 2007, but attended Catholic services with his family in that time.
He once admitted to the BBC that he toned down religious talk while in office for fear of being considered a "nutter" and his spokesman Alastair Campbell once stated: "We don't do God."
Since leaving office, he has founded the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which aims to combat religious extremism and promote understanding between the world's religions.
He is also Yale University's Howland Distinguised Fellow specialising in faith and globalisation.

Johan says: Catholic churches need to rethink of what is generally accepted by ordinary church goers according to blair, to accommodate homosexuals...sign of the times ..western civilizations coming to an end.

Black and Jewish

AP

By KATHY MATHESON, Associated Press Writer Kathy Matheson, Associated Press Writer – Wed Apr 8, 12:07 pm ET

PHILADELPHIA – The jubilation in Temple Beth'El's packed sanctuary overflowed into the aisles, with members dancing, clapping and singing as they welcomed their first Torah from Israel.
A new sacred scroll — the holiest object in Judaism — is cause for celebration in any synagogue. But for this congregation, it meant much more. It signified a tentative step toward the mainstream of American Jewish life.
"We have been unable to sleep and to eat," said Debra Bowen, who is the rabbi. "We have Torah fever!"
Temple Beth'El is a predominantly African-American synagogue formed more than 50 years ago by the daughter of a Baptist preacher at a time when many blacks were rejecting Christianity as a slave religion. The same motivation led many African-Americans to move toward Islam.
The founder of Temple Beth'El, Louise Dailey, studied with a rabbi, but was not ordained by a recognized branch of Judaism. The synagogue has a kosher kitchen and a mikvah, or ritual bath, but Dailey also adopted some traditions that are alien to the ancient faith. Congregants called her "Mother Dailey," and she ordained Bowen, her daughter, before she died.
Yet, recently, Bowen has been reaching out to the broader Jewish community, holding joint services with other congregations and speaking to service groups such as Hadassah. Her timing is good. American Jews have been showing a new willingness to build ties to African-American Jews.
Rabbi Capers Funnye, cousin of first lady Michelle Obama, has just started receiving invitations to speak to white congregations. He is chief rabbi of Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in Chicago, one of the largest black synagogues in the country.
The San Francisco-based group Be'chol Lashon, which means "In Every Tongue," has been working to persuade Jews to break through the racial divisions that have alienated African-American, African and other ethnic minority Jews from the larger community.
Estimates of the number of American Jews and the makeup of the community vary. But Be'chol Lashon says that about 600,000 of the 6 million or so U.S. Jews identify themselves as nonwhite or from non-European countries.
The question of who can be considered a Jew is a subject of intense debate, since individual streams of Judaism have different ways of deciding the question under Jewish law. But in the case of most African-American Jews, the issue is even more complicated, since many did not follow any generally accepted religious law when they joined the faith.
"What makes somebody Jewish is not the congregation you belong to, but whether you were converted appropriately," said Jeffrey Gurock, a professor at Yeshiva University, an Orthodox school in New York.
Still, Bowen has had some success in her outreach. The fruit of her work could be seen at the recent Sunday service dedicating the Torah. Funnye read a prayer at the event. In the audience was Gloria Gelman, a white Jew from the liberal Reform branch, who had heard Bowen's presentation to Hadassah. She is encouraging the synagogue to start its own Hadassah group.
Dan Ross, a 21-year-old University of Pennsylvania student, is a white Jew who is writing his senior thesis on Beth'El and has brought many other Jewish students to visit. At the Torah commemoration, he said, "It really hits you how significant it is that they have it."
Lewis Gordon, director of Temple University's Center for Afro-Jewish studies, has also been a frequent visitor at other services. "These are people who are proud of being African-American and are absolutely proud of being Jews," Gordon said.
The ceremony was a mix of Hebrew readings and shouts of "Hallelujah!" — a worship style typical of African-American churches. The booming music came from what Christians would call a "praise band" — with electric guitars, drums and keyboard. There was a dress code — another unusual tradition for Jews — of blue, silver or white clothing. Bowen's garb was far from typical for a rabbi. She wore an elaborate, flowing white gown — like a wedding dress — with matching white shawl and a yarmulke.
The Torah was acquired by Rabbi Emmanuel "Manny" Vinas, who leads a Spanish-Jewish synagogue in Yonkers, N.Y. Vinas noted that many suppliers had been reluctant to sell a Torah to Temple Beth'El because of its history, and he expected strictly traditional Jews would criticize him for brokering the purchase.
"I saw the service that was held for the Torah," Vinas said. "You see those people crying and so deeply moved ... . That's a congregation that's going to honor and uphold the Torah."
The synagogue in the city's West Oak Lane neighborhood grew from a prayer group in the living room of Dailey's North Philadelphia home. She was working as a maid in a Jewish home and felt drawn to their religious rituals, such as not working on the Sabbath and covering mirrors during mourning. When she died in 2001, she had a Jewish funeral and was buried in a Jewish cemetery.
Bowen, 63, said the synagogue had lived "quietly" for decades in order to worship without distraction, scrutiny and questions of whether the congregation was truly Jewish.
But now she said, "doors are opening."
"The greater Jewish community," she said, "has been amazingly welcoming."

Biden Warns Israel Not to Attack Iran

from Newsmax:Biden Warns Israel Not to Attack IranWednesday, April 8, 2009 1:15 PMby: Rick Pedraza

Vice President Joe Biden issued a high-level warning to the Israeli government, saying it would be "ill-advised" to carry out a military strike against Iranian nuclear sites.Biden said during an interview Tuesday with CNN that the level of his concern is no different than it was a year ago.

Despite reports that Israel may be gearing up for a unilateral strike, Biden stressed that an attack on Iran is unlikely."I don't believe Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu would do that,” Biden told CNN. “I thinkhe would be ill-advised to do that."But many U.S. officials believe Israel is serious, noting that Netanyahu said several times during his election campaign that he would not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran.“And this implies everything necessary to carry this out," Netanyahu told the Los Angeles Times before his election.

Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, head of U.S. forces in the Middle East, told senators last month that the Israeli government may be "so threatened by the prospect of an Iranian nuclear weapon that it would take preemptive military action to derail or delay it.”Netanyahu has reiterated in recent days that the Iranian nuclear issue is high on the conservative new Israeli government agenda. The newly installed Israeli leader argues it should be a top priority for the White House, tpp, the Jerusalem Post reports.According to Netanyahu, President Obama has two pressing concerns: “fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons.”

During an interview last week with The Atlantic, Netanyahu said “Western civilization” will have failed if Iran is allowed to develop nuclear weapons."You don't want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs,” Netanyahu said, underscoring the concern he has for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and Iran.“When the wide-eyed believer gets hold of the reins of power and the weapons of mass death, then the entire world should start worrying. That is what is happening in Iran."

Biden, who became the highest-ranking official to caution Israel against a striking Iran, also says criticism over the administration’s handling of foreign policy from former Vice President Dick Cheney is “dead wrong."In an interview with CNN last month, Cheney said Americans are more vulnerable to a terrorist attack on U.S. soil because Obama has dismantled former President George W. Bush's anti-terror policies.

Biden guarantees that the U.S. is safer today and its interests more secure than it has been at any time during the past eight years.He said the Bush administration left the country “in a weaker posture than we’ve been any time since World War II: less regarded in the world, stretched more thinly than we have ever been in the past, two wars under way, virtually no respect in entire parts of the world.”

© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Obama reassures Arabs, nudges Israel on peace

Wed Apr 8, 2009 1:52am EDT

By Arshad Mohammed - Analysis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama reassured Arabs with his unambiguous support for a Palestinian state this week and he nudged Israel's conservative government, which has carefully avoided committing itself to that goal.

Visiting Turkey, Obama twice in two days said he backed a two-state solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict despite the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shied away from the phrase.

Netanyahu's far-right foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has gone further, saying the peace process is at a "dead end" and that Israel is not bound by the U.S.-backed 2007 Annapolis declaration in which the two sides agreed to pursue "the goal of two states."

"By saying what he said in Turkey, I think it sent a clear signal about the two-state solution. It's non-negotiable. It has now become a pillar of U.S. policy," said Ghaith al-Omari, advocacy director for the American Task Force on Palestine.

"Netanyahu has been dancing around the issue, apparently because of domestic politics, but he will have to take a position before he comes here and meets Obama," al-Omari, a former adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, added, saying the prime minister is expected in Washington in May.

Having pledged to make Arab-Israeli peace a priority and having named former U.S. Senator George Mitchell as his special envoy two days after taking office, Obama now hopes to coax a skeptical Netanyahu into talks with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu has been vague about renewing talks over thorny territorial issues, saying his priority was to focus on the creation of development zones and ways to ease roadblocks and checkpoints that inhibit travel and trade in the West Bank.

The U.S. strategy may be to try to maneuver Netanyahu into expressing support, directly or indirectly, for a pursuing two-state solution.

"Without that, it's very hard to move this forward," said a diplomat familiar with the Obama administration's thinking.

JEWISH SETTLEMENTS KEY INDICATOR

Daniel Levy, a former Israeli official now at the New America Foundation think tank in Washington, said that Obama's reference to the U.S.-hosted Annapolis conference was also a form of "push back" against the new Israeli government.

However, analysts said it was far too early to gauge how hard Obama might be willing to push Netanyahu to make the compromises necessary to secure any peace agreement.

For now, the new U.S. and Israeli governments are still taking one another's measure.
Analysts said Mitchell's trip to the Middle East next week, his first since Netanyahu took office, would be a chance for the Obama administration to gauge his interest in peace and his willingness to resume negotiations.

Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators failed in their bid to reach a peace deal by the end of 2008 and their talks have been stalled since Israel's land and air invasion of Gaza in December to counter rocket attacks on the Jewish state.

Johan says: I dont think the power that be will allow it to happen but if he can pull it off then he would have achieved what many other US presidents have failed in their life times.

Libya's Gaddafi says fears Obama assassination

Tue Apr 7, 2009 3:18pm Yahoo News

SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi Tuesday called Barack Obama a "flicker of hope in the middle of the imperialist darkness," but said he feared the president could be assassinated.

Gaddafi, known for his controversial statements, did not say who might want to kill Obama but gave the examples of the assassinations of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, as well as black rights leader Martin Luther King.

"I fear that they could liquidate this young man or force him to submit to their imperialist policies," Gaddafi told a university gathering of his supporters in Sirte, without specifying who might put Obama under pressure.

"Obama is a flicker of hope in the middle of the imperialist darkness," the Libyan leader said, adding: "There is a fear that they would liquidate him as they liquidated Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln."

Gaddafi, who is the African Union chairman, had offered to work with Obama to sustain security, stability and prosperity in Africa and elsewhere.

Gaddafi praised Obama for breaking with what he said was the previous American foreign policy that dictated to the rest of the world what to do to serve U.S. interests.

"He (Obama) speaks logically. Arrogance no longer exists in the American approach which was previously based on dictating to the rest of the world in order to meet its own conditions," Gaddafi said in the remarks carried by state media.

Gaddafi, who took power in 1969 in a military coup in his oil- and gas-rich North African state, was shunned for decades by the West, which accused him of supporting terrorism.

His ties with Western countries have improved since Libya announced in 2003 it was scrapping weapons of mass destruction programs and agreed to pay compensation for families of victims of bombings of U.S. and French airliners.
(Writing by Lamine Ghanmi)

Johan says: He had his own experiences of almost being obliterated by the US govt to back his opinion. The US right wing radicals are already unhappy with Obama's speech in Turkey's parliament.

Muslims believe U.S. goal to weaken Islam: poll

Tue Apr 24, 2007 2:29pm EDT

By Michelle Nichols
NEW YORK (Reuters) - More than 70 percent of Egyptians, Pakistanis, Indonesians and Moroccans believe the United States is trying to weaken and divide the Islamic world, a poll released on Tuesday showed.

The survey by WorldPublicOpinion.org also showed more than 40 percent thought that was the primary goal of the U.S.-led war on terrorism, while only 12 percent believed Washington's aim was to protect the United States from attack.

"While U.S. leaders may frame the conflict as a war on terrorism, people in the Islamic world clearly perceive the U.S. as being at war with Islam," Steven Kull, editor at the Washington-based group, said in a statement.

The face-to-face survey, of between 1,000 and 1,200 people in each country from December to February, also found about 30 percent approved of attacks on U.S. military in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Gulf.

But 60 percent said suicide bombings were never justified and 67 percent believed Islam was opposed to attacks against civilians.

"Attitudes toward al Qaeda are complex. On average, only three in ten view Osama bin Laden positively. Many respondents express mixed feelings about bin Laden and his followers and many others decline to answer," WorldPublicOpinion.org said.

More than half believed al Qaeda's goals included achieving a strict application of Sharia law in every Islamic country, with more than 70 percent agreeing with that aim.

More than 50 percent believed the militant Islamist group was pushing the United States to remove its bases and military forces from all Islamic countries and 63 percent agreed with that goal.

But the poll found uncertainty about whether al Qaeda was responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001. Some 20 percent believed the U.S. government was behind the attacks.

"On average less than one in four believes al Qaeda was responsible for September 11th attacks. Pakistanis are the most skeptical -- only 3 percent think al Qaeda did it," said WorldPublicOpinion.org.

"There is no consensus about who is responsible for the attacks on New York and Washington; the most common answer is 'don't know'."

More than half those surveyed believed the United States was trying to spread Christianity in the Middle East, while nearly 60 percent thought one of Washington's goals was to maintain control over the oil resources of the Middle East.

Johan says: If there is no wind , the trees will not shake.

Vermont legalizes gay marriage with veto override

Yahoo. News - AP
By DAVE GRAM, Associated Press Writer Dave Gram, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 19 mins ago

MONTPELIER, Vt. – Vermont, which invented civil unions, on Tuesday became a pioneer again as the first state to legalize gay marriage through a legislature's vote, suggesting growing popular acceptance of the idea.

The House barely achieved the votes necessary to override Gov. Jim Douglas' veto of a bill that will allow gays and lesbians to marry beginning September 1. Four states now have same-sex marriage laws and other states soon could follow suit.

Bills to allow same-sex marriage are currently before lawmakers in New Hampshire, Maine, New York and New Jersey. The three other states that currently allow same-sex marriage — Connecticut, Massachusetts and Iowa — each moved to do so through the courts, not legislatures.

"For a popularly elected legislature to make this decision is a much more democratic process" because lawmakers have to answer to the voters every other November, said Eric Davis, a retired Middlebury College political science professor.

Johan says: A good example of democratic process at work. The end of western civilizations is near.