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LGBT

New Jersey Archbishop Urges Same-Sex Marriage Supporters To Refrain From Taking Communion

By Tara Culp-Ressler on Sep 26, 2012 at 4:15 pm

Archbishop John Myers

In the latest example of the Catholic Church hierarchy digging in their heels against marriage equality, a Newark Archbishop recently sent a pastoral letter to implore over 1 million Catholics in his New Jersey parish to stop supporting same-sex marriage. In fact, Archbishop John Myers even went so far as to suggest that any Catholics who support same-sex marriage, regardless of their own sexual orientation, should refrain from taking communion at Catholic mass because they are “unable to assent to or live the Church’s teaching in these matters.”

James Salt, the executive director of the progressive Catholics United group, pointed out that Catholic leaders like Myers simply alienate their parishioners with their anti-equality sentiment when they choose to focus on culture war politics rather than on issues of economic justice:

SALT: We live in a time when Catholics are walking away from the faith in record numbers. Archbishop Myers’ tone-deaf pastoral letter on marriage might explain why. When so many families live paycheck to paycheck, pew-sitting Catholics like myself want our faith known for its service to the poor, not for the far-right politics of the bishops.

A world in which Catholics who do not support LGBT rights are considered unwelcome at mass could result in a lot of empty pews, just as Salt suggests. The Public Religion Research Institute reports that nearly three-fourths of Catholics support either same-sex marriage or civil unions; in fact, Catholics are more supportive of legal recognition for same-sex couples than any other religious group in the country. And studies reveal that the Catholic Church’s unwelcoming attitude toward the LGBT community has directly contributed to former adherents’ decision to leave the church.

Furthermore, Holy Communion is certainly not intended to be wielded by Catholic leaders as a political tool. When a lesbian woman was denied communion at her mother’s funeral simply because of her sexual orientation, a wide range of religious voices protested the injustice and a high-ranking archdiocese official apologized for the “lack of pastoral sensitivity.” The Catholic priest in question was eventually placed on administrative leave. Myers’ suggestion that Catholics who support fundamental human rights for LGBT individuals are too sinful to take part in communion is a similar manipulation of the religious ritual.

But Myers is hardly the first Archbishop to use his position of authority to persuade lay Catholics to reject LGBT rights. A Nebraska Archbishop is currently working to repeal the sexual orientation nondiscrimination protections in Omaha, a Minnesota Archbishop wrote to his parishioners last month in an attempt to convince them to support a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, and a recent letter from a Washington State Bishop encouraged Catholics to overturn his state’s marriage equality law. And Salvatore Cordileone, a key player in the passage of Proposition 8 in California — who does not believe any Catholic in a gay or lesbian relationship should be allowed to take communion — has just been appointed by the Pope as the next Archbishop of San Francisco.

Climate Progress

Hey Politicians, Keep Your Hands Off The Environmental Protection Agency

By Climate Guest Blogger on Sep 26, 2012 at 4:00 pm

by Ronnie Citron-Fink

The year I graduated high school and drove a beat-up orange Datsun over the George Washington Bridge to discover a brave new world — college — was the same year the image above was shot.

Across the country, images like this one became the environmental story that was sure to define our future. In this toxic soup of pollution that ranged from horrific air quality mirrored in the scene above, to chemically polluted waterways, some of which were sickeningly catching on fire; environmental consciousness was born.

In a collective, bipartisan roar that transcended politics (as it hit home for everyone — legislators and their constituents), it was concluded that our environment was dying a rapidly polluted death.

Don’t Go Backwards

I was reminded of this scene when I learned it was Pollution Protection Week. This week highlights the efforts of the EPA, its partners, and the public in making pollution prevention a cornerstone of sustainability. This realization became America’s official policy in 1990 with the Federal Pollution Prevention Act’s declaration that, “Pollution should be prevented or reduced at its source, whenever possible.”

Let’s go back and take a closer look…

What Has the EPA Done for Us?

The EPA was established on December 2, 1970. Since is inception, the EPA has been working to protect the health and well-being of Americans. But government agencies often bear the brunt of political bashing. Sometimes warranted. Sometimes not. Either way, at this point in time, when there are so many important regulations on the chopping block and a presidential election looming, it’s valuable to revisit why we must protect the EPA.

The Facts:

Read more

Justice

Islamophobic Incidents Hit Ten Year High

By Guest Blogger on Sep 26, 2012 at 4:00 pm

Our guest blogger is Jack Jenkins, Writer and Researcher with the Faith team at the Center for American Progress.

The days during this year’s celebration of Ramadan—a holy month for Muslims which began July 20 and ended at sundown on August 18—saw one of the largest spikes in Islamophobic incidents in the United States in a decade. The incidents, which continue to occur, are widespread and often violent, and although some of the perpetrators have been apprehended and charged, most have not been caught. Many cases are still under investigation.

The Center for American Progress has produced an infographic about the ongoing issue, seen below.

Since the September 11 terrorist attacks more than 11 years ago, Muslim Americans – who continuously denounce the violent actions of foreign extremists – and their houses of worship have been subject to threats, vandalism, violence, and even arson. The recent rise in violent targeted crimes against Muslim Americans represents a threat to all Americans and violates core principles on which our nation was founded: religious freedom, the right to worship freely and according to one’s conscience, and tolerance.

Economy

After Nearly A Decade Of Declines, Manufacturing Jobs Begin Rebound

By Travis Waldron on Sep 26, 2012 at 3:45 pm

After nearly a decade of steep declines, American manufacturing jobs have begun to rebound since the beginning of the Obama administration, as the slide that occurred under President George W. Bush and during the Great Recession has largely been reversed.

Manufacturing slumped in the first year of the Obama administration as the nation dealt with the effects of the recession, but since then, manufacturing has posted job gains in all but three months since February 2010, as Bloomberg Government reports:

The BGOV Barometer shows U.S. factory positions have grown since early 2010, arresting a slide that began toward the end of the 1990s. It’s the best showing since the era of Bill Clinton, the only president in the last 30 years to leave office with more factory jobs than when he began.

“The gain in manufacturing jobs is certainly helpful, it is one way to show we’re moving forward,” said Terry Madonna, a political science professor and director of the Franklin & Marshall College poll in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. “President Obama has to create a psychology all over the country that things are getting better. This is a piece explaining that idea.”

Obama took over at a time when manufacturing was at one of its lowest historical points, and the decline continued through the early part of his term thanks to the recession. The rebound, however, began with manufacturing production, which turned around in the wake of the stimulus package passed in the opening months of Obama’s term, and jobs began to follow. The automobile industry has also shown sustained job growth, making manufacturing one of the most positive sectors in the nation’s economic recovery.

NEWS FLASH

CHART: Attacks On Muslim-Americans | Muslim-Americans have faced an uptick of attacks on their schools, homes and places of worship this year. As CAP’s Jack Jenkins notes today, “The days during and immediately following Ramadan this year — which began July 20 and ended at sundown on August 18 — saw one of the worst spikes in anti-Muslim incidents in more than a decade.” Jenkins charts attacks on Muslim Americans, which includes the following graphic of where the attacks took place:

Alyssa

Why Iran’s Oscar Boycott Isn’t Really About ‘Innocence of Muslims’

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Sep 26, 2012 at 3:34 pm

Word comes from the New York Times that, a year after Iran won its first Academy Award for Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation, Iran will boycott the Academy Awards in protest of “Innocence of Muslims,” a crude film about the prophet Muhammad that may not even exist as a feature film:

The boycott appears straightforward: Mohammad Hosseini, Iran’s culture minister, on Tuesday confirmed that his country would not submit a film for consideration at next year’s Oscars in protest of “Innocence of Muslims,” the anti-Islam YouTube video that has sparked deadly riots. He specifically cited the “failure” of Oscar organizers to take an official position on the incendiary “film.”

But Iran’s move left Hollywood scratching its head. Iran, which won the Academy Award for best foreign language film earlier this year, was seriously going to boycott moviedom’s biggest prize because the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hadn’t denounced a crude YouTube video made by a former gas station owner? (The academy had no comment.)

It’s hard to know what Iran thinks it will accomplish with this move. Is it to shame an industry that, by all accounts, is deeply embarrassed by the incident? It’s not as if Paramount, which built the old JAG set Innocence of Muslims was shot on, needs Iran’s boycot to think more carefully about where its sets end up and what that means for their brand. It’s not as if the actors involved in the movie, one of whom has already sued over the deceptive use of her image and work, aren’t horrified by how their performances were dubbed and distorted to produce a crude project that didn’t resemble what they’d signed on for. It’s not as if the highest authorities in the United States haven’t condemned the man who made it for his provocations, while still defending his right to free speech. And if Iran thinks it’s going to challenge the American focus on free speech, muzzling itself and its own filmmakers seems like a poor way of making that argument, one that perhaps overestimates Iran’s influence on the Academy and American consumers.

But this actually strikes me as a move that’s aimed more internally than externally. Farhadi and the members of his crew who accompanied him to the Academy Awards, wore neckties, which were banned as a symbol of Western decadence after the Iranian Revolution, to the ceremony. He used his acceptance speech to draw a rather careful distinction between the Iranian people and their government, saying that he knew Iranians would celebrate his win “because at the time when talk of war, intimidation and aggression is exchanged between politicians, the name of their country Iran is spoken here through her glorious culture. A rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics. I proudly offer this award to the people of my country. A people who respect all cultures and civilizations and despise hostility and resentment.” Iran may not have been particularly eager to have another director take the stage again, perhaps emboldened by Farhadi’s reception.
Read more

Election

6 Conservatives Who Think The Media Is Fixing The Polls For Obama

By Aviva Shen on Sep 26, 2012 at 3:24 pm

With six weeks until Election Day, new polling from Quinnipiac, the New York Times and CBS News shows President Obama leading in crucial swing states including Ohio, Florida and Iowa. As Obama’s lead grows, so does the number of conservatives who claim polls in general are biased and cannot be trusted. Similar to their dismissal of fact-checkers who flagged lies in Romney’s ads and Paul Ryan’s convention speech, conservatives are now claiming the media outlets that conduct the polls are attempting to discourage Republicans from voting by falsely tipping the polls toward Democrats.

Helping this narrative along is a new website, Unskewed Polls, which claims, after liberal media bias is removed, Romney is in fact beating Obama by a wide margin in every poll. Business Insider unpacked how the website is manipulating data to come up with a Romney victory.

Nicknamed “poll sample truthers” by Dave Weigel, the skeptics are falling over each other to explain how the numbers are lying:

Erick Erickson
Erickson, Editor-in-Chief of RedState.com and CNN political contributor, accuses the media of a “confirmation bias” that makes them conform their data to what they want: “The polls are confirming what the press thinks and that they have a larger than 2008 Democratic turnout is of no consequence to them.”

John McLaughlin
The Republican pollster explains the poll conspiracy: “The Democrats want to convince [these anti-Obama voters] falsely that Romney will lose to discourage them from voting. So they lobby the pollsters to weight their surveys to emulate the 2008 Democrat-heavy models. They are lobbying them now to affect early voting. IVR [Interactive Voice Response] polls are heavily weighted. You can weight to whatever result you want.”

Hugh Hewitt
Radio host Hugh Hewitt thinks the CBS/Quinnipiac/NYT poll is “junk”, choosing instead to focus on Rasmussen and Gallup’s daily polls, which have Obama leading by a smaller margin. These polls, he says, amounts to “lots of evidence this morning that their campaign is in terrific shape.”
Read more

NEWS FLASH

Nebraska Archbishop Urges Priests To Help Repeal Nondiscrimination Protections | A social conservative group known as the Heritage Coalition is trying to repeal the sexual orientation nondiscrimination protections passed in Omaha, Nebraska earlier this year, just as it did in Lincoln. Omaha Archbishop George Lucas is joining the effort, urging all the priests in his diocese to speak on behalf of the repeal effort and recruit their parishioners to do the same. This is a blatant attempt to enable anti-gay discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations discrimination, and the Catholic Church is unabashedly leading the charge. (HT: AKSARBENT.)

NEWS FLASH

World Leaders Strike Deal To Reduce Price of Contraception | Coinciding with World Contraception Day, former President Bill Clinton announced on Wednesday a new agreement that will reduce the price of long-acting birth control for millions of women worldwide. The trade deal, announced jointly with the Clinton Foundation and several world leaders at the UN, will cut the price of Bayer-manufactured progestrogen implants by half or more in exchange for a six-year purchasing commitment. Clinton described the arrangement as “a very big deal, and it will play itself out over and over again in the lives of citizens who will be safe, who will have healthier families and who will live longer lives.” — Nate Niemann

By Guest Blogger on Sep 26, 2012 at 3:00 pm

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