Greg Carey: Rob Bell Comes Out for Marriage Equality

Recently I wrote concerning Rob Bell, the enormously popular preacher and author. I encouraged Bell to reach out to his sisters and brothers in mainline Christianity, many of whom are buying his books and other products and who have shared some of his theological sensibilities for a very long time.

This Sunday Rob Bell spoke at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral and openly endorsed marriage equality. Grace Cathedral is the Episcopal Cathedral of the Diocese of California, and I thank Julie Harris, Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications, for alerting me to his message (audio here). Bell was speaking to the Cathedral's Grace Forum in an appearance presented in partnership with his publisher, HarperCollins.

In response to a question regarding same-sex marriage, Bell said, "I am for marriage. I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it's a man and woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man. I think the ship has sailed and I think the church needs -- I think this is the world we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are."

Bell went on to say that while it used to be fair to equate evangelicals with social conservatism, that assumption no longer holds true. More pointedly, he said, "I think we are witnessing the death of a particular subculture that doesn't work. I think there is a very narrow, politically intertwined, culturally ghettoized, Evangelical subculture that was told "we're gonna change the thing" and they haven't. And they actually have turned away lots of people. And i think that when you're in a part of a subculture that is dying, you make a lot more noise because it's very painful. You sort of die or you adapt. And if you adapt, it means you have to come face to face with some of the ways we've talked about God, which don't actually shape people into more loving, compassionate people. And we have supported policies and ways of viewing the world that are actually destructive. And we've done it in the name of God and we need to repent."

When the Very Rev. Jane Shaw attempted to get Bell to take a firm position as to whether Christians "know" the truth in some ultimate sense, Bell veered in a different direction. "I would say that the powerful, revolutionary thing about Jesus' message is that he says, 'What do you do with the people that aren't like you? What do you do with the Other? What do you do with the person that's hardest to love?' . . . That's the measure of a good religion, is - you can love the people who are just like you; that's kind of easy. So what Jesus does is takes the question and talks about fruit. He's interested in what you actually produce. And that's a different discussion. How do we love the people in the world that are least like us?"

To my knowledge, Bell's interview marks the first time that he has openly supported marriage equality and perhaps the first time he has definitely separated himself from politically conservative evangelicalism.

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Follow Greg Carey on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Greg_Carey

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-carey/rob-bell-comes-gay-marriage_b_2898394.html

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2 Ohio teen football players found guilty of rape

Trent Mays, 17, enters court for the fourth day of his and co-defendent defendant 16-year-old Ma'lik Richmond 's trial on rape charges in juvenile court on Saturday, March 16, 2013 in Steubenville, Ohio. Mays and Richmond are accused of raping a 16-year-old West Virginia girl in August, 2012.

Keith Srakocic, Pool, Associated Press

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio ? Two members of the high school football team that is the pride of Steubenville were found guilty Sunday of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl in a case that bitterly divided the Rust Belt city and led to accusations of a cover-up to protect the community's athletes.

Steubenville High School students Trent Mays and Ma'Lik Richmond were sentence to at least a year in juvenile jail, capping a case that came to light via a barrage of morning-after text messages, social media posts and online photos and video. Mays was sentenced to an additional year in jail on a charge of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material, to be served after his rape sentence is completed.

The two teens broke down in tears after the verdict was read and later apologized to the victim and to the community. Both were emotional as they spoke, and Richmond struggled at times to talk through his sobs.

Mays, 17, and Richmond, 16, were charged with digitally penetrating the West Virginia girl, first in the back seat of a moving car after an alcohol-fueled party on Aug. 11, and then in the basement of a house. They were ordered to avoid contact with the victim until they're 21.

The case roiled the community amid allegations that more students should have been charged and led to questions about the influence of the local football team, a source of a pride in a community of 18,000 that suffered massive job losses with the collapse of the steel industry. Their arms linked, protesters stood outside the courthouse Sunday morning awaiting the verdict, some wearing masks.

The trial opened last week as a contest between prosecutors determined to show the girl was so drunk she couldn't have been a willing participant that night, and defense attorneys soliciting testimony from witnesses that would indicate that the girl, though drunk, knew what she was doing.

The teenage girl testified Saturday that she could not recall what happened the night of the attack but remembered waking up naked in a strange house after drinking at a party. The girl said she recalled drinking, leaving the party holding hands with Mays and throwing up later. When she woke up, she said she discovered her phone, earrings, shoes, and underwear were missing, she testified.

"It was really scary," she said. "I honestly did not know what to think because I could not remember anything."

The girl said she believed she was assaulted when she later read text messages among friends and saw a photo of herself taken that night, along with a video that made fun of her and the alleged attack. She said she suspected she had been drugged because she couldn't explain being as intoxicated as defense witnesses have said she was.

"They treated her like a toy," said special prosecutor Marianne Hemmeter.

Evidence introduced at the trial included graphic text messages sent by numerous students after the night of the party, including by the accuser, containing provocative descriptions of sex acts and obscene language. Lawyers noted during the trial how texts have seemed to replace talking on the phone for contemporary teens. A computer forensic expert called by the state documented tens of thousands of texts found on 17 phones seized during the investigation.

The girl herself recalled being in a car later with Mays and Richmond and asking them what happened.

"They kept telling me I was a hassle and they took care of me," she testified. "I thought I could trust him (Mays) until I saw the pictures and video."

In questioning her account, defense attorneys went after her character and credibility. Two former friends of the girl testified that the accuser had a history of drinking heavily and was known to lie.

Source: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765624830/2-Ohio-teen-football-players-found-guilty-of-rape.html

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Berlusconi clashes with "stupid" protesters as tensions rise

ROME (Reuters) - Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, facing trial on tax fraud and sex charges, abused protesters who whistled and jeered as he entered parliament on Saturday to vote in an election for speaker of the Senate.

"You should be ashamed, you're poor, stupid fools," he said loudly as he made his way into the Senate.

Wearing sunglasses after spending all week in hospital for eye problems, Berlusconi arrived for the final phase of the multi-round vote which is being closely watched as a pointer to the balance of power in parliament.

A few dozen protesters whistled and called out "Buffone! Buffone! (Clown)" as he made his entrance.

The 76-year-old media billionaire faces pressure over his legal problems with two trials this month as well as a separate investigation over accusations of political bribery in 2006.

On Saturday, judges granted a request to delay a hearing in his appeal against a four-year sentence for tax fraud connected with his Mediaset broadcasting empire because of the vote. The hearing will now go ahead next Saturday.

Berlusconi is also facing a separate trial in which he is charged with paying for sex with former nightclub dancer Karima el Mahroug, better known under her stage name "Ruby" when she was still a minor.

A verdict in that trial may come as early as March 25.

(Reporting By James Mackenzie; Editing by Stephen Powell)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/berlusconi-clashes-stupid-protesters-tensions-rise-180640528.html

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Palestinians' despair grows as Obama not to ask Israel to halt settlement

RAMALLAH, March 17 (Xinhua) -- One Palestinian official said Sunday that they are more despaired after U.S. President Barack Obama said that he would not present a new Mideast peace initiative or request Israel to halt settlement activities in the Palestinian territories.

Wassel Abu Yousef, an official in Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told Xinhua on Sunday that "everyone should notice that the vows and stances of President Obama concerning Israeli settlement, which is the most pressing issue concerning the future of the conflict, had gone in vain."

In an interview aired on the Israeli Chanel II Television, Obama ruled out that he would ask Israel to freeze settlement construction in the Israeli settlement, adding "We had overcome the situation of preconditions." He also ruled out presenting a new initiative to push forward the stalled peace talks.

However, Obama, who will arrive in Israel on Wednesday and will hold separate meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, said that Israel needed to ask herself if its settlements in the West Bank made it difficult or easy for the Palestinian moderates to get back to the negotiations table.

"It is obvious that the U.S. is not serious or interested to pressure on Israel to halt settlement. It also puts other regional issues on the top of its priority, at the expense of the Palestinian cause, something that obliged us not to count too much on this visit," said Abu Yousef.

The PLO official stressed that the Palestinian position concerning the resumption of the peace talks "is clear and firm," adding "We refuse to resume any peace negotiations with Israel before Israel halts settlement, in which the international community admitted that it is illegal."

Meanwhile, Abdul Hadi Hantash, the Palestinian expert in settlement affairs in the West Bank, told Xinhua that "When Obama' s limousine drives through the road that links between Jerusalem and Ramallah; he should open his eyes and look from the window and see how settlement had significantly grew."

"Israeli settlement occupied around 65 percent of the West Bank territory and turns its towns and cities into small isolated cantons without any geographical connection. Israeli settlement completely undermines the principle of the two-state solution that the United States is adopting," said Hantash.

Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and around east Jerusalem was the main reason for halting the peace negotiations in October 2010. The Palestinian side halted the talks in protest of the expansion of settlement, just four weeks after Washington sponsored it.

The Palestinians said that the ongoing settlement activities on their lands are the main reason for the stalemate in the Middle East peace process. When Obama arrived in Ramallah on Thursday to meet with President Mahmoud Abbas, he would clearly notice and see how bigger Israeli settlement became.

On the adjacent Israeli settlements to the city, which can be clearly seen from the office of President Abbas, is Beit Aeil. Several weeks ago, Israeli government decided to expand it with 90 more housing units, which outraged the Palestinian leaders.

Beit Aeil is one of 144 Israeli settlements built in the West Bank and around east Jerusalem, the part of the city that was occupied by Israel since 1967. More than half a million settlers live there.

In 2009, when Obama visited Egypt and addressed his historic speech to the Muslims and Arabs from Cairo University, he called for a new start, and he reiterated that his country doesn't recognize the legitimacy of settlement and that it's time to completely halt settlement, a request rejected by Israel.

In response to the expansion of the settlement and the freeze of the peace process, the Palestinian leadership threatened of going for other diplomatic and popular actions, such as upgrading the Palestinian representation in the United Nations and intensifies the peaceful popular resistance against Israel.

An official Palestinian source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that the Palestinian leadership expects that Obama would exert pressure on the Palestinians not to join various UN organizations, mainly the legal ones in The Hague, in order to block any attempt to sue Israel.

Ahmed Rafqi Awad, the political science professor at Beir Zeit University in the West Bank, told Xinhua that the U.S. negligence of expanding Israeli settlement is a clear message to the Palestinians that they must live with Israeli settlements.

"Obama visits here and closes his eye before the increasing settlement in the West Bank. He doesn't want to seriously discuss it with Israel as if he wants to tell the Palestinians, 'You should accept the occupation of your lands and forget about all your legitimate rights,'" said Awad.

Source: http://english.sina.com/world/2013/0317/572288.html

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Heat win 21st straight, beat Bucks 107-94

Miami Heat's Chris Bosh drives against Milwaukee Bucks' Ersan Ilyasova, left, in the first half of an NBA basketball game Friday, March 15, 2013, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

Miami Heat's Chris Bosh drives against Milwaukee Bucks' Ersan Ilyasova, left, in the first half of an NBA basketball game Friday, March 15, 2013, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

Miami Heat's LeBron James dunks against the Milwaukee Bucks in the first half of an NBA basketball game Friday, March 15, 2013, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade reacts after hitting the floor during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday, March, 15 2013, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

Miami Heat's Dwayne Wade lies on the court during the first half against the Milwaukee Bucks in an NBA basketball game Friday, March 15, 2013, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

MILWAUKEE (AP) ? The Miami Heat had just watched the Super Bowl when Shane Battier delivered a speech that left quite the impression.

Whatever he said that night in Toronto, the Heat sure took off from there.

They haven't come down yet.

LeBron James and Chris Bosh each scored 28 points, and the Heat made it 21 straight wins, beating the Milwaukee Bucks 107-94 on Friday night.

Only three other teams have won 20 in a row in one season, and the Heat now trail just the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers (33) and the 2007-08 Houston Rockets (22) after moving ahead of the 1970-71 Bucks.

The Heat haven't lost since they fell at Indiana on Feb. 1, and they return Sunday to the place where this streak started two days later, back when they were a mediocre road team barely on top of the Eastern Conference standings.

"I think the biggest thing for our team was watching the Super Bowl and getting away from basketball in a sense and just enjoying each other," Dwyane Wade said. "We got the famous speech from Shane Battier and we've been rolling ever since."

What did Battier say?

"You had to be there," Bosh said. "It was after watching the Super Bowl. It was a good game, we had a great time. I guess the main focus was that you're going to miss me when I'm gone."

Bosh laughed.

"It was not so much about him," he continued. "He tied in everything. He tied in life to the Super Bowl. It was just everything. It was a good time."

It's been nothing but good times for the Heat ever since, although there was a scary moment for them in this game.

That was when Wade walked to the locker room with what the team said was a neck strain after crashing to the court in the early going. The Heat overcame that and led by as much as 17 in the third quarter, then withstood a push by the Bucks to keep the streak going.

Bosh hit from all angles and was 12 of 16 in the game, nailing two 3-pointers. He even converted a four-point play that made it 67-53 about five minutes into the third quarter.

James was his usual dominant self, and Wade finished with 20 points as the Heat avenged a loss at Milwaukee in late December. There's a chance these two teams could meet in the first round of the playoffs, and Milwaukee's Brandon Jennings basically said bring it on.

"I still don't take anything back about playing Miami in the first round," he said afterward as he kept his eyes on North Carolina State's ACC tournament game. "I still think we match up well against them. We just had an off night tonight."

Ersan Ilyasova led Milwaukee with 26 points and a season-high 17 rebounds. Jennings scored 21 but was 6 of 15 from the field, and the Bucks shot just over 37 percent. Monta Ellis struggled, finishing with seven points after scoring 26 in the previous game at Washington, and the Bucks dropped their third straight.

Larry Sanders got ejected for the second straight game with 2:44 left after he was called for a foul against James and picked up two technicals.

Despite all those issues, the Bucks cut the lead to 85-79 with 8:53 remaining when J.J. Redick nailed a 3 and Ilyasova hit a free throw after Battier got called for a loose ball foul. Battier then answered with a 3 and Bosh hit a runner to get the lead back up to 11 after Ilyasova's 3-pointer rimmed out.

The Heat got a major scare when Wade crashed to the court after Sanders blocked his layup.

He took a shot to the head from Sanders' hip on the follow through and landed hard. Wade stayed down as play went the other way and was tended to for about two minutes underneath the basket after the game was stopped with 7:17 left in the first period.

Wade walked to the locker room and came back out early in the second. He re-entered the game with 7:45 left in the half and quickly hit two free throws and a layup.

Wade said he was examined for a concussion and never lost consciousness, although his hands went numb for a while because he smacked them when he hit the floor. They were still sore after the game.

James scored 17 in the first half, Bosh added 13 points and the Heat shot just under 54 percent on the way to a 51-42 halftime lead.

James threw down a hard dunk off a spin move late in the first quarter and drove for a one-handed reverse jam along the baseline early in the second. He also nailed several turnaround jumpers even though Marquis Daniels was all over him.

Notes: Sanders blamed his ejection on frustration and seemed to infer that the Heat get preferential treatment from the referees. "I can imagine it's hard for a referee to ref a Miami Heat game," he said. Coach Jim Boylan said he would talk to Sanders about toning down his emotions so he doesn't hurt the team. ... Milwaukee did not attempt a free throw in the first half for the second straight game but wound up hitting 19 of 21 in the second half.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-16-Heat-Bucks/id-5091ece6c92749f4a96d4922750bcfd5

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Children of divorced parents more likely to start smoking

Friday, March 15, 2013

Both daughters and sons from divorced families are significantly more likely to initiate smoking in comparison to their peers from intact families, shows a new analysis of 19,000 Americans.

This University of Toronto study, published online this month in the journal Public Health, shows that men who experienced parental divorce before they turned 18 had 48-per-cent higher odds of ever smoking 100 or more cigarettes than men whose parents did not divorce. Women from divorced families were also at risk, with 39-per-cent higher odds of smoking in comparison to women from intact families.

"Finding this link between parental divorce and smoking is very disturbing," says lead author Esme Fuller-Thomson, Sandra Rotman Chair at University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. "We had anticipated that the association between parental divorce and smoking would have been explained by one or more of three plausible factors, such as lower levels of education or adult income among the children of divorce; adult mental health issues, such as depression or anxiety among the children of divorce, or other co-occurring early childhood traumas, such as parental addictions or childhood physical, sexual or emotional abuse.

"Each of these characteristics has been shown in other studies to be linked with smoking initiation. However, even when we took all these factors into account, a strong and significant association between parental divorce and smoking remained."

In the study entitled "The Gender-Specific Association Between Childhood Adversities and Smoking in Adulthood: Findings from a Population Based Study," investigators examined a representative sample of 7,850 men and 11,506 women aged 18 and over, drawn from the Center for Disease Control's 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey. A total of 1,551 sons and 2,382 daughters had experienced their parents' divorce before the age of 18. A total of 4,316 men and 5,072 women reported that they had smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their life.

From this study, researchers cannot determine why parental divorce is linked to smoking initiation. However, co-author Joanne Filippelli, a University of Toronto doctoral student, suggests it is possible that "children upset by their parents' divorce may use smoking as a coping mechanism to regulate emotions and stress. Some research suggests this calming effect may be particularly attractive to those who have suffered early adversities."

Recent master's of social work graduate and co-author Candace Lue-Crisostomo said that this study shows adults from divorced families are more likely to smoke but it's not known exactly when or why they began smoking. "These findings need to be replicated in longitudinal studies before causality can be established. If the parental divorce-smoking link is shown to be causal in future studies, then smoking prevention programs targeted at children whose parents are going through a divorce might prove helpful."

Cigarette smoking is one of the leading preventable causes of chronic illness and premature death. The estimated economic burden of smoking exceeded $193 billion annually in the U.S.

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University of Toronto: http://www.utoronto.ca

Thanks to University of Toronto for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127325/Children_of_divorced_parents_more_likely_to_start_smoking

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EU delays action on pesticides ban

15 March 2013 Last updated at 09:23 ET By Mark Kinver Environment reporter, BBC News

EU nations have been unable to reach agreement on proposals to ban the use of three pesticides that have been linked to the decline of bees.

The European Commission had called for a two-year EU-wide moratorium, but a number of nations opposed the plans.

A recent report by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) concluded that the pesticides posed a "high acute risk" to pollinators, including honeybees.

The commission is expected to redraft its proposals ahead of another vote.

Member states were unable to reach a qualified majority in order for the proposals to be adopted.

The news of the stalemate has angered groups that had been campaigning in favour of the ban.

Legal advice

Avaaz condemned the UK's and Germany's decision to abstain, saying the governments had "caved in to the industry lobby".

"Today's vote flies in the face of science and public opinion and maintains the disastrous chemical armageddon on bees, which are critical for the future of our food," said Avaaz senior campaigner Iain Keith.

In a YouGov poll commissioned by the campaign network, 71% of almost 2,000 people questioned in the UK supported the commission's proposals to impose the moratorium on the insecticides.

Avaaz said that it, along with other groups, would be taking legal advice as to whether the outcome of the vote could in challenged in the courts.

The chemicals in question - imidacloprid, thiamethoxam and clothianindin - belong to a class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids.

The insecticides work by affecting the central nervous system of insects, causing paralysis and death.

"There is certainly fairly convincing evidence that they pose a significant threat to bees," ecologist Prof David Goulson from the University of Stirling told the BBC's Farming Today programme.

"Essentially, the problem is because [the chemicals] travel to all parts of the plant, the chemicals get into the pollen and nectar, then pollinators, such as bumblebees, consume them," he explained.

"The amounts they consume is quite small because the concentrations in pollen and nectar are very low, but then they are very toxic chemicals."

A report published by EFSA scientists in January identified a number of risks posed by the three insecticides.

It assessed the possible threats to the pollinators from exposure to residues in pollen and nectar, dust and guttation fluid (some plants exude sap in the form of droplets).

However, it added that in some cases it was "unable to finalise the assessments due to shortcomings in the available data".

'Open mind'

A number of EU countries, including Italy, had imposed a ban on the use of the chemicals at a national level but others, including the UK, were against the commission's calls for a two-year EU-wide ban.

Speaking in the House of Lords on Wednesday, UK Environment Minister Lord de Mauley said the government was approaching the issue with an "open mind".

"We are, indeed, doing further analysis on fieldwork we have had carried out specifically to address this issue because it is vital that what we do is proportionate and based on the science," he told peers.

"As to whether there is an effect on the honey harvest, it is difficult to say because we do not have categoric evidence that there is an unacceptable level of harm to bees."

Friends of the Earth's head of campaigns Andrew Pendleton said that there was "more than enough evidence that these chemicals are linked to bee decline to place immediate restrictions on their use".

"This is a cop-out by a significant number of European governments, including the UK - it means yet more dither and delay while our bee populations plummet," he added.

Following the vote, it was said that EU Health Commissioner Tonio Borg would "consider the next step".

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21793365#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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