EthixBytes

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Ethixbytes

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
The Once-Ler, from Dr. Seuss’s ecochildren classic, The Lorax. “When I feed the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why so many people are poor they call me a communist.”
Dom Helder Camara, late archbishop of the diocese of Recifie, Brazil. “We are not just borrowing the earth from our children; we are consuming it, devouring it, and destroying it.”
Rt. Rev. James Jones, Anglican Bishop of Liverpool, England.

“I asked [Sen. Kennedy], ‘Where does this rabid concern about poverty come from?’ And he looked at me like I was from Mars. And he said, ‘Have you never read the New Testament?’”
Tom Oliphant, who covered the late Ted Kennedy’s career for four decades for the Boston Globe.

“The U.S. Census Bureau reports that poverty in the U.S. in 2009 has climbed to 39.8 million persons, 13.2% or Americans, up from 12.5% in 2007.”
CNN News.

“After a news report raised questions, evangelist Franklin Graham decided to give up his pay as head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. In 2008, his two salaries, two retirement packages and other payments totaled $1.2 million ($669,000 from BGEA, where 55 employees were laid off in February)—he will continue to draw his salary and benefits from Samaritan’s Purse—$535,000 in 2009.”
McClatchy News (10/11/09).

“They’ve just proven that Jefferson and Madison got it right. It’s a reminder of the difference between religion that’s state-sponsored and religion that is vital, voluntary and robust.”
First Amendment scholar Charles C. Haynes, on the outpouring of religious speech among Georgia football fans in the bleachers after a high school ended a tradition of Christian banners on the field, fearing a lawsuit (NY Times, 10/27/09).

“One in 10 U.S. churches employs a woman as senior pastor, double the percentage from a decade ago. Most (58%) work in mainline Protestant churches.”
Barna Group Survey (2009).

“I will not accept health care help from Washington!”
Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, where 1,526,180 children are uninsured (the highest of any state) and 4,214,860 adults 19-64 are uninsured (2nd highest of any state).

“Their behavior was despicable. What they did was wicked (and) when the church does it, you feel God did it.”
Bible teacher/minister Anne Graham Lotz, speaking to believers who have been hurt by the church, who herself left church for a year because of how parishioners treated her and her husband (RNS, 10/09).

“If you saw a woman struck by a car, would you call an ambulance right away? Or would you first ask for her papers to make sure she was not an illegal immigrant?”
Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne.

“We’ll rest when all 50 states allow and respect the right of law-abiding citizens to defend themselves from criminal attack.”
NRA spokesman about Tennessee’s new law permitting legal handgun owners to take their weapons onto sports fields.

“Guns do not protect the person carrying them from an assault, but in fact raised the risk by four times or more.”
University of Pennsylvania researcher Charles Branas in a study published in the American Journal of Health.

“The Pentagon has acknowledged paying a contractor $1.5 million to monitor journalists’ reporting on the war in Afghanistan . . . to profile journalists and rate their reports as ‘positive,’ ‘negative,’ or ‘neutral’ and then recommend ways to make coverage more positive.”
Stars and Stripes quoted on the DMN editorial page.

“When in the past I’ve raised the ethical implications of these land appropriations [West Bank], Israelis have dismissed me, saying, ‘Hey, you Americans did it to the Indians.”
Walter Rogers, CNN Bureau Chief in Jerusalem.

“The top ten most peaceful countries in the world: 1. New Zealand; 2. Denmark; 3. Norway; 4. Iceland; 5. Austria; 6. Sweden; 7. Japan; 8. Canada; 9-10. Finland & Slovenia (tied). The U.S. is ranked 83rd out of 144; Iraq is 144 th “.
Global Peace Index.