Christian Ethics Today

EthixBytes

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.
 

 “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a  mystery, and today is a gift; that’s why  they call it the present.”
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1967)  

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