Americans gave $291 billion to charity in 2010, more than 1/3 to religious groups
U.S. donations to charity rose to $291 billion last year, but it was still more than 6 percent below a 2007 record as the nation struggles to recover from its worst recession in decades. Americans gave nearly 4 percent more in 2010 compared to 2009, the Giving USA Foundation and the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University said, perking up after the recession sparked the biggest giving slump in four decades.
Religious groups accounted for the largest single recipient class by far, receiving more than one third of total donations, according to the study released on Monday.
Revised estimates by the study, which started in 1956, showed that during the financial crisis giving fell more than $10 billion in 2008 to $299.8 billion and then dropped more than 6 percent in 2009 to $280.3 billion.
Patrick Rooney, executive director of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, said that giving in 2010 grew by 2.1 percent after adjusting for inflation. “But the sobering reality is that many nonprofits are still hurting, and if giving continues to grow at that rate, it will take five to six more years just to return to the level of giving we saw before the Great Recession,” he said.
More than a third of donations go to religious groups, while education accounts for 14 percent, giving to foundations makes up 11 percent, human services receives 9 percent, health picks up 8 percent and public society groups 8 percent. Arts and culture groups got 5 percent of the total, along with international affairs, which includes relief, development and public policy initiatives. Environmental and animal groups picked up 2 percent, and another 2 percent went to individuals, most often in the form of medications. Donations that cannot be attributed to any one particular sector make up the last 1 percent.
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U.S. Catholic bishops approve slight shifts in clerical sexual abuse policy
U.S. Roman Catholic bishops on Thursday approved slight revisions to their policy governing child sex abuse, saying the church would not tolerate offending priests. But critics said children were still vulnerable. After minimal debate, the bishops passed revisions to its decade-old Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, which for the first time listed child pornography as equivalent to sexual abuse and cited the need to protect mentally disabled people from abuse.
The bishops voted 187 in favor of the revised charter, with five opposed and four bishops abstaining. A two-thirds vote was needed for approval.
“We are not going to put the priest offenders first,” Bishop Blase Cupich of Spokane, Washington, told reporters after the vote. “We learned the hard way the advice we got from psychology that people could be rehabilitated was bad advice … they re-offended. You cannot take that risk,” said Cupich, who headed the bishops’ committee on the topic.
Victims’ groups have argued the church’s response to the sexual abuse crisis has been inadequate, since some offending priests have been reassigned to unsuspecting parishes, or received “treatment” and put back into ministry. “The bishops had a choice between being complacent or being vigilant. They chose to be complacent,” said Barbara Dorris of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “We fear that the charter, as it stands, with no consequences for failure to observe it or to in any way protect children, is dangerous,” she said. “The kids are no safer than they were yesterday.”
Critics of the church’s response say U.S. church officials are given a free hand to discipline offending clergy, yet some ignored reporting requirements and covered up crimes.
The charter, which was previously revised in 2005, was created under pressure after a rash of clergy abuse cases were uncovered in the Boston diocese. Abuse discoveries subsequently spread across the United States and then around the world. Additions to the sex abuse charter approved on Thursday align American church policy with Vatican dictates and statements by Pope Benedict urging healing and no tolerance for offenders.
Read the full story by Elaine Porterfield here. See also Catholic bishops defend policy on sex abuse
Why does anyone allow the Catholic church to police themselves?
They should use RICO laws to investigate the entire institution. This is organized crime, where the crime is child rape. Thousands of priests raped thousands of children in the US alone, and bishops clearly, willfully hid them. They moved them to rape again. This has been proven over and over and over again.
Want proof? See what they found in Philadelphia http://bit.ly/jyfXni
It is a consistent, institutional practice. It’s organized crime, and should be investigated.
Pity the pandering U.S. candidate
Politicians pandering for votes on conservative family values issues may want to think again.
A survey of 3,000 Americans by the Public Religion Research Institute found 42 percent said the terms “pro-choice” and “pro-life” both described them well, illustrating the complexity of the abortion issue in the minds of many.
“The terms ‘pro-choice’ and ‘pro-life’ does not reflect the complexity of Americans’ views on abortion,” said Robert Jones, head of the institute.
Seven in 10 Americans say the term pro-choice describes them somewhat or very well, and nearly two-thirds say the term pro-life correctly describes them.
The survey also noted a “de-coupling” of views on the legality of abortion and of same-sex relationships among those born after 1980.
“Millennials (people aged 18 to 29 who came of age at the turn of the millennium) look about like their parents do on the legal right to an abortion. But on the issue of same-sex marriage they look significantly more supportive,” Jones said.
Overall, 56 percent of Americans support the legality of abortion – roughly the same level of support as in the past decade.
U.S evangelical predicting May 21 doomsday to watch it on TV
The U.S. evangelical Christian broadcaster predicting that Judgment Day will come on Saturday says he expects to stay close to a TV or radio to monitor the unfolding apocalypse. Harold Camping, 89, previously made a failed prediction that Jesus Christ would return to Earth in 1994.
The head of the Christian radio network Family Stations Inc says that he is sure an earthquake will shake the Earth on May 21, sweeping true believers to heaven and leaving others behind to be engulfed in the world’s destruction over a few months.
“We know without any shadow of a doubt it is going to happen,” Camping told Reuters. His Family Radio has 66 U.S. stations and broadcasts in more than 30 languages through international affiliates. His supporters have posted about 2,200 billboards around the United States about the coming apocalypse, and dozens of followers have driven across the country to spread the news.
Camping, a civil engineer who once ran his own construction business, plans to spend May 21 with his wife in Alameda, in northern California, and watch the doomsday unfold. “I’ll probably try to be very near a TV or a radio or something,” he said. “I’ll be interested in what’s happening on the other side of the world as this begins.”
Like his last prediction, Camping’s doomsday date is based on his reading of the Bible and a timeline dating back to ancient events including the Biblical flood survived by Noah.
Read the full story by Gabrielle Saveri here.
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Report says U.S. Catholic sex abuse “historical”, critics see coverup
A church-sponsored study on Wednesday blamed poorly trained priests and a deviant society for the Roman Catholic Church’s sex abuse crisis, but victims dismissed it as a whitewash of an institutional coverup. The largest study ever done on youth sexual abuse by U.S. Catholic clergy concluded that priests were no more likely to abuse than anyone else, gay priests were not more likely than straight priests to abuse, and the priestly vow of celibacy was not directly to blame.
The study, conducted by researchers at John Jay College in New York and covering the past 50 years, also found clergy abuse cases have dropped since the 1980s.
“There’s no single cause of the sexual abuse crisis … and the problem is largely historical,” study researcher Karen Terry told reporters at a Washington news conference. “It is consistent with patterns of increased deviance in society during that time” in the 1960s and 1970s, she said, adding that rates of abuse within the Church were comparable to that of organizations like schools and clubs.
Priests unprepared for a life of celibacy turned mentoring relationships into abusive ones, she said. Poor reporting of clergy abuse cases to civil authorities and a pattern of transferring of abusive priests to other parishes by some bishops have cast a cloud over the Church.
A group that represents victims of clergy abuse said bishops continue to cover up crimes, and that shame leaves many more victims of abuse silent. “Predictably and conveniently, the bishops have funded a report that tells them precisely what they want to hear: it was all unforeseeable, long ago, wasn’t that bad and wasn’t their fault,” said David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
Read the full story here. The full text of the report is on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) here.
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Timeline: Life and Death of Osama bin Laden
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in a firefight with U.S. forces in Pakistan and his body was recovered, President Barack Obama announced on Monday.
Here is a timeline of major events in bin Laden’s life.
1957 – Osama bin Mohammad bin Awad bin Laden born in Riyadh, one of more than 50 children of millionaire businessman. There are conflicting accounts of his precise date of birth.
1976 – Studies management and economics at university in Jeddah.
Dec 26, 1979 – Soviet Union invades Afghanistan. From 1984, bin Laden is involved in Peshawar-based Services Office to support Arab volunteers arriving to fight Soviet forces.
1986 – Bin Laden moves to Peshawar, begins importing arms and forms his own small brigade of volunteer fighters.
1988 – Al Qaeda (The Base) is established as a magnet for radical Muslims seeking a more fundamentalist brand of government in their home countries and joined in common hatred of the United States, Israel and U.S.-allied Muslim governments.
U.S. House panel probes Muslim radicalization, critics see witch hunt
The U.S. House of Representatives will investigate radicalization in the American-Muslim community, sparking outrage that the probe is a witch hunt akin to the 1950s anti-Communist campaign. With al Qaeda and its affiliates openly trying to recruit Americans and Muslims inside the United States for attacks, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King called congressional hearings on the subject “absolutely essential”.
“I am facing reality, my critics are not,” King said on MSNBC. “Al Qaeda is changing its tactics, they realize that it’s very difficult to attack from the outside, they’re recruiting from within.”
King, who will lead a hearing on Thursday, has questioned the cooperation by Muslim Americans with U.S. law enforcement authorities and accused mosques of being a breeding ground for radicalization.
Critics say the hearings smack of the effort in the 1950s by Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy, who presided over congressional hearings to expose and ostracize Communists and their sympathizers in the United States. Muslim and civil rights advocates have condemned King’s assertions, countering that Muslims in the United States are being unfairly targeted and pointing to tips they have provided to authorities in the past.
“This hearing does not represent the mainstream view,” said imam Shamsi Ali, who organized a protest against the probe in New York where he works closely with the police department on community relations. “I don’t see any reason for that perception about Muslims not cooperating,” he said, noting a Muslim vendor alerted authorities to the failed Times Square car bombing in 2010. That incident, coupled with an alleged bomb plot uncovered last month involving a 20-year-old Saudi student studying in Texas, are among several plots that have boosted concerns by U.S. officials that al Qaeda and its affiliates are determined to strike inside the United States any way they can.
Read the full story here. Here’s a Reuters video about the hearings:
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Plato thousands of years ago gave humanity some good advice for harmonious societies delete text purported to be from Gods which informs evil action.
Everyone of us base our lives on less than perfect text. To target one without the other is rather hypocritical.
It should be about all text which vilifies other Religious or Secular not persons.
The fact is Muslims are already radicalized the reason being from the Islamic texts Quran foundation chapter “THE COW” onwards vilification of and justification of ‘grevious harm’ against other is the main theme.
This is why terrorists are good boys and girls coming from good Muslim families. It is that simple.
The radical Muslim clerics are not triggering anything they are simply providing the opportunity. The trigger has already been created by the basic Islamic text which forms all Muslims.
The fact all Muslims do not act on it is irrelevant for as we see enough Muslims do from generation to generation to perpetuate the terror against other.
If you read the Quran – only Chapter “THE COW” which sets up the framework by which the Islamic text will be challenged, vilifies the perpetrators sets them as less and then informs the remedy ‘grevious harm’ with the ultimate authority God authorizing all within, given this is an old recipe for genocide against other and the terror we clearly are experiencing would it not be rational to be rightfully concerned?
Also more importantly as we are all formed by textual constructs such as the Islamic text, there may just exist evil text informing evil action and we should seek it out be it secular or religious so we can change the future for humanity?
Change the text forming our new citizen’s change the outcomes otherwise more of the same.
This means not just looking at Islamic text but other texts within our communities which are used to form new citizens and accept the fact finally ‘Freedom of Religion’ has been a curse on society because we are not able to easily challenge Religious text which generates real evil against other without being erroneously labeled and censured.
Bless me iPhone for I have sinned — an app for Catholic confession
An iPhone app aimed at helping Catholics through confession and encouraging lapsed followers back to the faith has been sanctioned by the Catholic Church in the United States.
Confession: A Roman Catholic app, thought to be the first to be approved by a church authority, walks Catholics through the sacrament and contains what the company behind the program describes as a “personalized examination of conscience for each user”.
“Our desire is to invite Catholics to engage in their faith through digital technology,” said Patrick Leinen of the three-man company Little iApps, based in South Bend, Indiana. “Taking to heart Pope Benedict XVI’s message from last years’ World Communications Address, our goal with this project is to offer a digital application that is truly ‘new media at the service of the word.”
The app is not designed to replace going to confession but to help Catholics through the act, which generally involves admitting sins to a priest in a confessional booth. Catholics still must go to a priest for absolution.
Read the full story by David Sheppard here.
For more on religion and smart phones, see Faith and smart phones commune in religion apps.
Egypt’s Islamists well placed for any post-Mubarak phase
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest Islamist movements and Egypt’s largest opposition group, is well placed to play a prominent role as President Hosni Mubarak’s rule teeters on the brink of collapse.
The movement is active in the protest movement massing in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities on Tuesday in an attempt to persuade Mubarak that after 30 years it is time to go.
But decades of severe repression have taught the Brotherhood to move cautiously, and the movement is anxious to preserve the impression that the protesters are part of a broad-based movement of which the Islamists are just one part.
Ironically, if the Brotherhood does emerge with unprecedented power, some of the credit will be Mubarak’s. Like many other Arab autocrats friendly with the United States and Europe, Mubarak has deliberately given the Islamist movement space, though on a tight leash, so that he could pose as the only plausible bastion against an Islamist government.
Although the government calls the Brotherhood a banned organization, it has let the movement open offices, make statements and field candidates in parliamentary elections.
The U.S. and European governments fell into the trap set by Mubarak and have refused to make contact directly with the Brotherhood, for fear of angering the Egyptian government.
Imam Khomeini (RA): the people of Egypt will be rebellion.
U.S. legal win could help Islamic finance counter sharia concerns
A U.S. court decision to dismiss a case alleging that AIG’s (AIG.N) sharia-compliant businesses promoted religious doctrine looks likely to boost confidence in the industry and lift sales of Islamic products in the longer term.
A Michigan district court rejected on Friday a claim filed by U.S. Marine veteran Kevin Murray in 2009 that the U.S. government violated the constitution by allowing funds from insurer American International Group’s $40 billion bailout to be used to fund its Islamic insurance businesses.
Lawyers say the case is significant for the industry in the United States, which has struggled with a backlash against Islam, and is looking for support from the courts and government to promote Islamic finance as a legitimate business.
Islamic finance has been plagued by criticism in the U.S. that it is a means of funneling funds to terrorists or a plot by Muslims to spread a system of Islamic principles known as sharia has plagued the industry in the U.S.
“The case helps the industry by putting the fringe element that is fearful of sharia in its place,” said Isam Salah, partner at King & Spalding in New York. “But I expect we’ll see more of these kinds of cases as we see a multi-pronged effort to combat all things Islamic in the U.S.”
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