Harry Farley, Religious Affairs Journalist - BBC (U.K.)
Stephan:
And here, further to the preceding article we see the Anglican Church castrating its future. Amazing to see this in the second decade of the 21st century for any faith looking to grow in the years to come.
The Anglican Church Bishops haved decided not to conduct same-sex marriages
Church of England bishops have refused to back a change in teaching to allow priests to marry same-sex couples, sources have told BBC News.
They met on Tuesday to finalise their recommendations after five years of consultation and debate on the Church’s position on sexuality.
Their proposal will be debated at the Church’s equivalent of a parliament – the General Synod – next month.
BBC News spoke to several bishops present at the meeting who said the Church’s teaching that Holy Matrimony is only between one man and one woman would not change and would not be put to a vote.
But the Church confirmed “prayers of dedication, thanksgiving or for God’s blessing” on same-sex couples will be offered following a civil marriage or partnership.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in England and Wales since 2013. But when the law changed, the Church did not change its teaching.
In 2017, the Church of England began an extended consultation period called “Living in Love and Faith”.
As I have been telling you for years to survive Arizona and California, particularly, but all seven states that depend on the Colorado River, are going to have to change their ways about how they deal with water for their populations to survive. It has started, as this report describes.
Arizona water storage facility Credit: Arizona Water Banking Authority
Underground storage may be a key for Western states navigating water shortages and extreme weather.
Aquifers under the ground have served as a reliable source of water for years. During rainy years, the aquifers would fill up naturally, helping areas get by in the dry years.
But growing demand for water coupled with climate change has resulted in shortages as states pump out water from aquifers faster than they can be replenished.
The fallout can also lead to damaged vegetation and wildlife as streams run dry and damage to aqueducts and flood control structures from sinking land.
Municipalities and researchers across the country are working on ways to more efficiently replenish emptied-out aquifers.
By overpumping aquifers “you’ve created space. There’s space under the ground that used to be filled with water,” explained Michael Kiparsky, water program director at the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.
“And what we can do with these groundwater recharge projects is take advantage of […]
The United States spends more on its military-corporate complex than the next seven nations of the world combined, and unlike any other nation on earth we have been in a state of constant war somewhere in the world essentially for half a century. From the corporate point of view this has been profit heaven. They make a bomb, a bullet, or a missile, for a total cost of billions of dollars, and they only get used once. Then the government buys another one. The one thing the trillions of dollars America has spent on the military-corporate complex that doesn't get enough money is the funding to pay the men and women who serve in the military, to a point that low rank enlisted often don't have enough money to buy food for their families. I argued about this when I was Special Assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations in the 1970s, and since then it has only gotten worse. Why is this happening? Obviously, because the people who serve in the military only represent cost, they produce no profit, and everything in the United States is run on the priority of producing profit.
Food service specialists assigned to the 429th Brigade Support Battalion, 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. Credit: Flickr
By any standard, the money the United States government pours into its military is simply overwhelming. Take the $858-billion defense spending authorization that President Biden signed into law last month. Not only did that bill pass in an otherwise riven Senate by a bipartisan majority of 83-11, but this year’s budget increase of 4.3% is the second highest in inflation-adjusted terms since World War II. Indeed, the Pentagon has been granted more money than the next 10 largest cabinet agencies combined. And that doesn’t even take into account funding for homeland security or the growing costs of caring for the veterans of this country’s post-9/11 wars. That legislation also includes the largest pay raise in 20 years for active-duty and reserve forces and an expansion of a supplemental “basic needs allowance” to support military families with incomes near the poverty line.
Jessica Corbett, Staff Writer - Raw Story / Common Dreams
Stephan:
And here we see another assault on poor people involving food. One more example of the sheer nastiness of Republicans, who care nothing for the wellbeing of the people they are sworn to serve but, in fact, utterly disdain. I also see this as a component of The Great Schism Trend. The social outcome data of the states controlled by Republicans is degrading dramatically, and it is becoming less and less attractive to live in a Red state. The healthcare in those states is declining, as is elder care and child care, and the integrity of education.
A farmer stands in a field Credit:Shutterstock
Republicans in the Iowa House introduced legislation this month that would impose a slew of fresh restrictions on the kinds of food people can purchase using SNAP benefits, sparking outrage among local groups who say the measure would exacerbate hunger in the GOP-dominated state.
The Des Moines Area Religious Council (DMARC), an interfaith group that operates the largest food pantry network in Iowa, noted in a statement earlier this week that if the bill passes, “Iowans could no longer use their SNAP benefits to purchase meat, nuts, and seeds; flour, butter, cooking oil, soup, canned fruits, and vegetables; frozen prepared foods, snack foods, herbs, spices—not even salt or pepper.”
“This is a punitive policy that will do nothing to improve the health and nutrition of Iowans, but rather be a detriment,” the group said.
The Iowa Hunger Coalition (IHC) also condemned the bill, voicing opposition to its proposed food restrictions as well as new asset limits that would make it more difficult for families […]
I think this is a very important, accurate, and fact-based report, and I urge you to read it. This is why the rich are funding millions of dollars of dark money into the evil machinations of the Republican Party, and why it has become a malicious anti-democratic cult.
Couple toasting champagne, serenaded by pianist
Why are America’s plutocrats funding efforts to weaken our democracy and replace it with plutocracy and oligarchy? Is it just about money? Or is there something much deeper that most Americans rarely even consider?
An extraordinary investigative report from documented.net tells how morbidly rich families, their companies, and their personal foundations are funding efforts to limit or restrict democracy across the United States.
In an article co-published with The Guardian, they noted:
“The advocacy arm of the Heritage Foundation, the powerful conservative think tank based in Washington, spent more than $5m on lobbying in 2021 as it worked to block federal voting rights legislation and advance an ambitious plan to spread its far-right agenda calling for aggressive voter suppression measures in battleground states.”
Their efforts have had substantial success, as you can read in Documented’s article.
This effort, of course, is not unique to the one think tank they called out. From Donald Trump all the way down to the lowest Republican county official, efforts to make it […]
