Ed Stoddard

In Fort Worth, Texas, employees at the massive Cabela's -- a retailer that caters to the hunting, fishing and outdoor crowd -- said this Black Friday seemed quiet compared to last year's.

Early shoppers browsed for guns, fishing rods and camping gear beneath row upon row of stuffed animal heads. New York-listed Cabela's claims to be the world's foremost outfitter for hunting and fishing gear and specials included a pink (for the ladies) Ruger .22 rifle with a 10-round magazine at $259.99, a $30 savings. Various handguns were going for as much as a $120 off.

Business appeared brisk, though there were no long lines at the cash registers and store employees said Black Friday last year was busier. Several shoppers said they were loosening their wallets and buying more this year. Almost all of them said they were using cash or debit cards.

Shawn Scott, 48, has his own company training corporate jet pilots. He said his business had picked up this year after faltering during the depths of the recession. He still has an office in Fort Worth, but his family had moved to a remote part of Colorado and he was stocking up on ammunition that he said was hard to get in smaller towns these days.

"We are in a remote area and so we are stocking up," he said, noting that he was uncertain about the economy and so it was good to be prepared. "We're not survivalists but self-suffiency is important, given the distribution system in the United States today," he said.

Several shoppers came from other parts of north Texas and as far away as Oklahoma City -- 190 miles (300 kilometers) to the north. Walter Overtown, a 59-year-old who said he was in the aquaculture business, came from the town of Bowie in north Texas, about 100 miles (160 km) away. He said he was buying more this year "because my stocks are up." He had a big gun case in his shopping cart.

One middle-aged woman who just gave her name as "Mary" was browsing for sweaters and said she was "buying about the same but I wasn't hurt by the recession. My husband didn't lose his job and he even got a raise."

Amber Pletcher, 29, and her husband Brad, have their own business contracting out to a major tire company and came from Ardmore in Oklahoma, two hours' drive north, with their preacher's teenage daughter. They had also been to outlet stores in the Fort Worth area from midnight and were completing their Christmas shopping. "I think I'm shopping more this year because we are blessed," Amber said as she pushed a shopping cart filling up with outdoor clothing and outdoor-themed toys.

Debbie Braudaway, a 47-year-old school administrator, said she and her husband probably would buy no more or less this year as they both had steady jobs and incomes. She was disappointed that they had not found the knife their son wanted and so they planned to go to another store.

(Photo: A customer enquires about a weapon in the firearms section of a Cabela's store on the shopping day dubbed "Black Friday" in Fort Worth. Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi)

A new row has flared in the Catholic ranks of the U.S. abortion wars, this one involving a member of America's most famous Catholic political family and a bishop.  Congressman Patrick Kennedy, the son of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, has claimed that Rhode Island Bishop Thomas Tobin has slapped a communion ban on him for his support for abortion rights.

(PHOTO: Patrick Kennedy speaks at funeral of his father, Senator Edward Kennedy, 29 Aug 2009/Brian Snyder)

"The bishop instructed me not to take communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me communion,” the Rhode Island Democrat was quoted as saying this week in the Providence Journal.

On the pages of the same paper the bishop fired back, asserting that it was a "request," not an instruction.  “If he took it as an instruction, so be it, but it was really a request,”  the bishop was quoted as saying.

The request was apparently made back in 2007 but the trigger for the most recent twist in the saga seems to have been Kennedy's comments to CNSNews.com in October that the Catholic Church was fanning "the flames of dissent and discord" by insisting that healthcare reform legislation include explicit bans on funding for abortion.

Such a provision was included in the House version of the bill that narrowly passed but not in the one under consideration in the Senate. The stakes could hardly be higher as an overhaul of America's healthcare system is President Barack Obama's top domestic agenda.

(Photo: Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry at the Charles Street AME Church in Boston, 4 April 2004/Jim Bourg)

The whole issue has highlighted divisions in the U.S. Democratic Party, which has regained control of Congress and expanded its majorities there in the last two election cycles by widening its tent to include moderates and conservatives. Some of these new Democrats oppose abortion rights, making them an awkward fit in a party that has long supported them.

This also seems to be a never-ending dilemma for the U.S. Catholic Church and one which haunted John Kerry when he ran for president in 2004 -- should it distribute communion or not to public figures who support abortion rights, given the Church's teaching that abortion is the taking of innocent life and therefore a grave evil.

Holy Communion is a sacrament of the Catholic Church and denying it to a Catholic is a rare and serious step. Even the U.S. bishops are divided over whether to do this. Those who favor denial say the Church has to take a public stand against politicians who ignore its teachings. Those opposed to it say denial involves them in political fights that have no place at Mass.

We asked back in August if Teddy Kennedy should have a Catholic funeral. Many who did not think he deserved one based their view on his support for abortion rights. Many who thought he deserved such a ceremony pointed to his advancement of causes championed by Catholic social thinking.

This leads to a question about the consistency of views in the U.S. Catholic Church leadership. The Church opposes abortion and therefore liberal politicians who support abortion rights risk being refused communion. The Church supports a healthcare overhaul that would make the system more equitable. So does a conservative Catholic politician who opposes this reform risk being denied communion for ignoring the Catholic social teaching that justifies it?

(Photo: Anti-abortion protesters outside St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, 16 June 2004/Jeff Christensen)

How about support for capital punishment, which the Vatican says is unjustified in almost all possible cases, or for war? In the build-up to the Iraq war, Pope John Paul was so opposed to the plan that he sent a personal envoy to Washington to argue against it. Did bishops threaten any measures against Catholic politicians who energetically supported that war despite Vatican opposition?

Years ago in Britain, the Church of England used to be called "the Tory party at prayer."  Does this apparent difference in treatment of liberal and conservative Catholics risk making the U.S. Church into one section of  "the Republican Party at prayer?"

Follow FaithWorld on Twitter at RTRFaithWorld

An interesting fact has emerged on the U.S. drought front that will be of interest to readers of this blog.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, as of last week about 78 percent of the country was "drought free" -- the largest percentage since the monitor began tracking such trends over a decade ago.

"This is the most drought free that the country has been in the last 10 years," said Brian Fuchs, a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.

This state of affairs is partly explained by the emerging El Nino pattern and as always with weather and farming, the blessings have been mixed.

Recent good rains have heralded the end of a scorching drought in Texas which reached historic levels in some parched counties.

But drenching rains in the Midwest grain belt resulted in the slowest harvest in 30 years.

The entire grain belt is essentially shaded in white on the Drought Monitor's map -- which means it has no drought or even unusually dry conditions.

The shades of red that denoted the vast swathe of Texas that was in exceptional and extreme drought conditions has shrunk drastically and most of the state is now shaded white. Most of California remains dry or in drought, though it is not extreme in any part of that state, which is America's top agricultural producer.

(PICTURE: Farmer Steve Pierce takes a break while harvesting soybeans outside Marengo, Illinois, November 4, 2009. U.S. farmers have struggled this fall with persistent rains that have set the harvest several weeks REUTERS/Julie Ingwersen)

A new poll by the Pew Research Center and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life suggests that concern about federal funding for abortion is very low on the list of factors driving opposition to President Barack Obama's effort to overhaul America's healthcare system.

The results of the poll, released on Thursday, show that just 3 percent of healthcare opponents cited abortion funding as their main reason for opposing congressional healthcare proposals.

The biggest reasons, cited by 27 percent of respondents to an open-ended question about their opposition, were that the overhaul would be too expensive and lead to higher deficits and taxes. Another 27 percent said they did not want government involvement in healthcare.

The nationwide poll of more than 1,000 Americans was conducted from Nov. 12 to 15.

The poll's publication comes as the U.S. Senate prepares to begin debate on its version of a healthcare bill that does not include language approved earlier this month by the House that would strengthen the existing prohibition on using federal funds for abortion.

Many analysts say the abortion issue -- which has been fanned by conservative evangelicals associated with the Republican Party and Catholic clergy whose flock lean to the Democratic Party -- threatens to unravel Obama's top domestic priority.

But the Pew poll highlights its apparently minor role in stirring opposition to the healthcare push which aims, among other things, to expand coverage to tens of millions of Americans who lack health insurance.

Has this hornet's nest been opened by a vocal but very small minority of the U.S. public, which would appear to have more pressing concerns when it comes to healthcare?

Photo credit: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (Anti-abortion activist wears mirrored sunglasses and a piece of tape over his mouth in Washington, June 1, 2009)

A new poll by the Pew Research Center and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life shows a modest rise in concern among Americans about the threat of Islamic militancy following the deadly shootings in Fort Hood, Texas, earlier this month. Here is a link to the survey.

The nationwide survey, conducted among over 1,000 Americans, found 52 percent were "very concerned" about the possible rise of Islamic extremism in the United States compared to 46 percent in April of 2007.

It also found that 49 percent were very concerned about the "rise of Islamic extremism around the world" compared to 48 percent in April of 2007.

The survey was conducted Nov. 12-15, a week after 13 people were killed in a shooting at the Fort Hood Army post. Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim born in the United States to immigrant parents, has been charged with  murder in the case. U.S. intelligence agencies have said he tried to contact Islamists with suspected al Qaeda ties.

(Photo: Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the the suspect in  the mass shooting at the U.S. Army post in Fort Hood, Texas. REUTERS/Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences/Handout)

Remember the Christian Coalition of America?

Under the political operative Ralph Reed in the 1990s it was an electoral force to be reckoned with as it mobilized millions of conservative Christians to vote for mostly Republican Party candidates and causes.

It has since lost influence and political ground to other "religious right" groups such as the Family Research Council. But it remains a sizeable grassroots organization and is still unflinchingly conservative.

So it will no doubt surprise some to see that this week it has joined with the National Wildlife Federation -- whose 4 million members and supporters includes 420,000 sportsmen and women -- to run an ad urging the U.S. Senate to pass legislation that among other things addresses the pressing problem of climate change.

"Defending the status quo is no longer an option. We need swift action
to ensure America is the world leader in clean energy technology.
We can put Americans to work making and installing the clean,
renewable energy technologies that reduce our dependency on
foreign oil and address climate change.
Senators should work together to move forward with a clean energy plan for America," says the ad, which ran this week in Politico.

It comes as the U.S. Senate considers a bill to curb the greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming.

Other U.S. Christian groups and prominent evangelicals such as Florida mega-pastor Joel Hunter have urged action on climate change -- a top priority of President Barack Obama -- on the grounds that the poor will bear the brunt of warming temperatures. They also see a biblical responsibility to care for God's creations.

(PHOTO: Vanishing Arctic Sea ice is one of the most visible signs of global warming. REUTERS/NASA/Handout)

But influential conservative Christians such as Richard land of the Southern Baptist Convention have spent the past months assailing the cap and trade provisions of the bill as a massive tax hike. In many religious right circles the climate change issue is seen as downright hysterical or an attempt by leftists to cripple the U.S. economy.

But even the most hard-line conservative Christians are no longer united on this issue.

Lindsey Graham, a conservative Republican Senator from South Carolina, broke ranks with his party and recently outlined a compromise to limit carbon emissions in a New York Times op-ed piece he co-wrote with Democratic Senator John Kerry.

That won him praise from national hunting groups and local ones in his home state, which has a robust shooting and fishing culture woven into its rural fabric.

We have recently blogged and written on U.S. hunters and anglers -- many of whom are evangelical Christian, conservative and Republican -- urging action on climate change, not least because of its threat to the game they pursue.

Roberta Combs, the president of the Christian Coalition, told me in a telephone interview that her group joined forces with the NWF on this issue because it saw a biblical need to look after God's creation. But she said it also wants America to pursue alternative energy policies to reduce its independence on foreign oil including expanding its use of nuclear power -- a stance sure to make many greens see red.

"We don’t agree with environmental groups on everything but if we can find things we agree on this will be a better bill…I’m real proud of Senator Graham. He’s a man of lots of wisdom,” she said.

Republicans are mostly skeptical of any move to "cap and trade" U.S. carbon emissions that result from burning coal and oil, decrying it as a massive job-killing tax by forcing the use of more expensive wind and solar power.

But a big chunk of their base seems to be parting company with them on this issue though climate change skepticism still runs deep in the U.S. heartland.

According to a Pew Research Center poll released on Thursday, 36 percent of Americans say global warming is a result of human activity, down from 47 percent in April 2008.

Delaware's Catholic Diocese of Wilmington Inc filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, court documents showed on Sunday, in the face of more than 140 claims filed by people who said they were victims of sexual abuse by the diocese's priests.

The diocese became the seventh in the United States to seek bankruptcy protection and its filing came one day before the scheduled start of a civil trial against a defrocked priest.

"This is a painful decision, one that I had hoped and prayed I would never have to make," Wilmington Bishop W. Francis Malooly said in a statement on the diocese website. "However ... I believe we have no other choice and that filing for Chapter 11 offers the best opportunity, given finite resources, to provide the fairest possible treatment of all victims of sexual abuse by priests of our diocese."

You can see the whole story by my colleague Tom Hals here.

The archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, became the first to file for Chapter 11 in 2004, followed by the diocese of San Diego; Tucson, Arizona; Spokane, Washington; Davenport, Iowa; and Fairbanks, Alaska.

(PHOTO: The cross atop the San Diego Diocesan Pastoral Center, headquarters for the Roman Catholic Church, in San Diego, California, February 28, 2007. The Catholic Diocese of San Diego filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after failing to settle more than 150 sex abuse lawsuits. REUTERS/Fred Greaves (UNITED STATES)

When people think of hunting and fishing politicians in America -- at least prominent ones -- two things spring to mind: 1. Republican and 2. Climate change skeptic. Former President George W. Bush, his vice president Dick Cheney and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin all fall into both categories.

But the hunting and fishing crowd -- widely seen as reliably Republican because of that's party's successful portrayal of itself as the defender of God and guns -- has also started to take note of climate change. After all, hunters and anglers are in the outdoors in pursuit of wildlife season after season, year after year.

But what may concern some Republican strategists is that many of them also accept the science of climate change, which overwhelmingly points to fossil fuel emissions as the main cause driving global warming.

This may help explain why Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina broke ranks with his party to outline a compromise to limit carbon emissions in a Sunday New York Times opinion piece he co-wrote with Democratic Senator John Kerry. Hunters and anglers in the U.S. South are widely seen as part of the Republican base and his call for action was saluted on Wednesday during a teleconference call hosted by the South Carolina Wildlife Federation (SCWF) and involved other outdoor groups.

"I have observed things in my life time that suggest that significant impacts have already been felt here in our state," said Clinch Heyward, the 60-year-old chairman of the SCWF.

He noted that in a life time of duck hunting he had noticed a decline in the state's duck population while Virginia, where one of his sons now lives, had more and more ducks.

"I was deer hunting last weekend and here it is October and it is 90 degrees (about 32 Celsius)," he said in his thick southern accent.

The SCWF said in a statement that: "Sportsmen are calling for passage of comprehensive climate and energy legislation".

Such legislation is currently being considered in the U.S. Senate and is one of President Barack Obama's top domestic priorities.

 The shooting and fishing crowd is not always seen as a natural ally of the bunny and tree-hugging crowd. Do you see at least some of them uniting on this issue? And what might the political implications for the Republican Party be?

(PHOTO: A young hunter takes aim at the Cabela's store in Fort Worth, Texas June 26, 2008. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi (UNITED STATES)

Natural gas is regarded as a relatively clean source of energy but there is mounting evidence that it has a dirty side.

My colleague Jon Hurdle has reported on Wyoming water woes that have been linked to the booming gas industry. You can see his stories here and here.

In August U.S. government scientists reported that they had for the first time found chemical contaminants in drinking water wells near natural gas drilling operations, fueling concern that a gas-extraction technique is endangering the health of people who live close to drilling rigs.

The Environmental Protection Agency found chemicals that researchers say may cause illnesses including cancer, kidney failure, anemia and fertility problems in water from 11 of 39 wells tested around the Wyoming town of Pavillion in March and May this year.

On Monday, I reported that high concentrations of harmful compounds have been found in the air in a north Texas town that is in the heart of the region's gas industry, according to a report released by an environmental consultancy.

The study by Wolf Eagle Environmental Engineers and Consultants found high concentrations of carcinogenic and neurotoxin compounds in the atmosphere at seven locations around the rural town of DISH, which is about 50 miles northwest of Dallas.

Carcinogens are linked to cancers while neurotoxins are toxins that act on nerve cells.

The report said the levels of several of the substances exceeded those that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) uses as benchmarks or triggers that could prompt it to investigate or take action. This does not mean that these levels are an immediate hazard but the town's mayor Calvin Tillman told me that he would like to see the several compressor stations in the area shut down until people are reassured that they are not emitting toxins.

DISH is on the Barnett Shale, a large geological formation in north Texas that contains vast amounts of natural gas.

What do you think? Is natural gas a viable option in the quest for an energy source cleaner than coal, which emits about twice as much carbon dioxide? Or must the industry first clean up its own act?

(Photo: A worker at EnCana's Frenchie Draw gas-drilling rig in central Wyoming guides sections of steel pipe into an 11,000-foot well on September 19, 2009. REUTERS/Jon Hurdle)

The U.S. "Religious Left" -- which has been active at the grassroots level to support President Barack Obama's drive for health care reform -- has now launched a campaign in support his other major domestic initiative: climate change legislation.

Faithful America, a coalition of progressive evangelical, Catholic, mainline Protestant and Jewish groups, unveiled a video on Thursday urging viewers to "TELL CONGRESS: STOP CLIMATE CHANGE AND ITS EFFECTS." The campaign is called Day Six.

You can see the video below:

A climate bill aimed at reducing America's emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming is being crafted in the U.S. Senate. The House of Representatives earlier this year passed its own version.

The Day Six campaign also asks people to sign an online petition that urges senators to : "... support a climate bill that addresses the root causes of climate change and makes needed investments in vulnerable communities already experiencing its devastating effects."

The organizers say that: "'Day Six' is a reference to the creation story in Genesis, when God made human beings stewards of creation."

Many left-leaning and liberal groups of faith see a biblical imperative to curb the effects of climate change because poor and developing regions like Africa are seen bearing the brunt of its consequences. 

One the other side, the religious right -- a loose network of conservative Christians that is a key Republican Party base -- has been at the forefront of conservative efforts to rally public opposition to climate change legislation aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming.

 Conservative Christian radio stations have spent the summer saying its "cap and trade" provisions are the biggest tax increase in U.S. history.

Which side do you think will have its prayers answered?

(PHOTO: A buffalo skull is pictured in Lake Naivasha, Kenya, the only fresh water ecosystem in the eastern Rift Valley, June 4, 2009, which is drying up due to drought and other factors/ REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya ).