Requests by Muslims to pray at work have led to clashes with employers who say they cannot accommodate the strictly scheduled prayers.

The conflicts raise questions about religious rights on the job. Muslims say they are being discriminated against and are taking their complaints to the courts and the federal government. Employers say the time out for prayer can burden other workers and disrupt operations.

Disputes boiled over at two JBS Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in September during the holy month of Ramadan.

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Last week I came across a battered copy of a little book that was used in almost every primary school between 1933 and the late-1960s….Those of us who daily sang those hymns and prayed those prayers were shaped by their attitudes and values. They reflected what we might call the Protestant affirmation of ordinary life. All occupations are vocations under God and the purpose and satisfaction of work is not to heap up material possessions for ourselves, but to contribute towards the common good.

The present crisis in financial markets suggests that this has not been the orientation of some, if not all of us, in more recent years. Not just bankers. We have all helped ourselves to the fruits of their activities and shut our eyes to the risks. Some of the politicians who now decry the money-men are the same politicians that previously lauded their boldness and creativity. Some of the clergy who denounce them were quite happy to accept the better stipends they made possible. If we are to learn from our mistakes we need to turn from moralising to morality.

Despite the turbulence and the risks, it’s hard to see any alternative system with the same capacity as capitalism to lift the world’s poor out of poverty – which is surely what any social ethic demands. However, this crisis has revealed that we have all become less motivated by that concern for common good commended in that book of Prayers and Hymns.

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Canadians shunned the polls during their general election with the lowest voter turnout on record, even as a global financial crisis threatened to plunge the nation’s economy into recession.

Some 59.1 percent of eligible Canadian voters went to the polls Tuesday, breaking the previous record low turnout of just under 61 percent in 2004, according to preliminary results from Elections Canada released on Wednesday.

“There was either general apathy toward the candidates or a degree of voter fatigue as this was the third Canadian election since 2004,” said Antonia Maioni, director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.

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Hyperactive, overbearing and unpredictable. Such was the damning verdict many European neighbors had unofficially rendered about President Nicolas Sarkozy as France took over the presidency of the European Union in July.

But three months later, the very characteristics that made British and German officials cringe have proved effective, even essential, in forging a swift European response to two major crises: the Georgia-Russia war and the ongoing global financial turmoil.

As one grudgingly admiring German diplomat put it, speaking anonymously because of the delicacy of the subject, “In a time of crisis, hyperactive becomes energetic, overbearing becomes dogged, and unpredictable becomes pragmatic.”

Sarkozy, Europe’s longtime enfant terrible, is on a roll – even if partly by accident.

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So much to hear. So little time. You can spend your entire life devouring music, both new and old, and barely scratch the surface of all there is to discover. NPR reviewer and author Tom Moon is trying to make it a little easier for music fans with his new book: 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die: A Listener’s Life List. After four years or exhaustive research, Tom put together an impressive tome ”” nearly 900 pages of artists, LPs and songs, as well as a detailed explanation of how each of them wound up on the list.

Listen to it all from NPR.

Since the 1980s, Americans have consumed more than they produced””and they have made up the difference by borrowing.

Two decades of easy money and innovative financial products meant that virtually anyone could borrow any amount of money for any purpose. If we wanted a bigger house, a better TV or a faster car, and we didn’t actually have the money to pay for it, no problem. We put it on a credit card, took out a massive mortgage and financed our fantasies. As the fantasies grew, so did household debt, from $680 billion in 1974 to $14 trillion today. The total has doubled in just the past seven years. The average household owns 13 credit cards, and 40 percent of them carry a balance, up from 6 percent in 1970.

But the average American’s behavior was virtue itself compared with the government’s. Every city, every county and every state has wanted to preserve its many and proliferating operations and yet not raise taxes. How to square this circle? By borrowing, using ever more elaborate financial instruments. Revenue bonds were backed up by the prospect of future income from taxes or lotteries. “A growing trend is to securitize future federal funding for highways, housing and other items,” says Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute. The effect on the projects, he points out, is to make them more expensive, since they incur interest payments. Because they “insulate the taxpayer from the cost”””all that needs to be paid now is the interest””they also tend to produce cost overruns.

Local pols aren’t the only problem. Under Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve obstinately refused to inflict any pain.

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U.S. Catholic voters are split on the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage between those who attend church at least twice a month and those who attend church less often, according to a survey released Tuesday (Oct. 14) by the Knights of Columbus.

The survey found that both Catholics (73 percent) and non-Catholics (71 percent) agreed that America needs a “moral makeover.” Non-practicing Catholics — defined as those who attend church less than twice a month — were more likely to support abortion rights and same-sex marriage than the American population at large.

“Catholics should not be viewed as undifferentiated,” said Carl Anderson, head of the Knights of Columbus. He said labeling Catholics as a monolithic voting block ignores the disparity between practicing Catholics, who lean more conservative, and non-practicing Catholics, who tend to be more liberal.

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Consumer spending was softer in nearly all Districts. Retail sales were reported to have weakened or declined in Philadelphia, Cleveland, Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Kansas City; Dallas and San Francisco cited weak or sluggish sales; and Boston and New York indicated that sales were mixed and moderately below plan sales, respectively. Several Districts noted a reduction in discretionary spending by consumers and lower sales on big-ticket items. Several also reported increased activity at discount stores as consumers became more price conscious and shifted purchases toward less-expensive brands. Retailers cited these recent sales trends and concerns about credit availability as reasons for a weaker economic outlook, including a slow holiday season. Most Districts reporting on light vehicle sales saw declines, with several Districts pointing to reduced credit availability as a limiting factor for automobile sales.

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More alarming is British banks’ remaining exposure to asset-backed securities and the monoline insurance companies which may well require further write-downs, further eroding the banks’ capital. RBS had 19.5 billion pounds of such assets on its balance sheet at the end of June. A warning of the write-downs in the offing came Wednesday from Belgian bank KBC which took a 1.2-billion euros hit on nine billion euros in collateralized debt obligations after some were downgraded by Moody’s.

While the scale of U.K. rescue package — with 37 billion euros in capital set aside and another 13 billion euros earmarked if necessary — is hardly small, the amount of capital the world’s banks still have to raise to resume normal lending remains huge. The capital raised so far — around $420 billion before this week’s state-backed rescue packages in the U.S. and Europe, according to Independent Strategy — compares with the estimated losses of at least $1.3 trillion from the credit crisis.

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In its proposal, the task force notes that “the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan is in steep decline.” Charts included in the document reveal that average Sunday attendance has declined by 22% since 2000. During the same time period “pledge and plate revenues” for all congregations combined has decreased by approximately $2 million, when adjusted for inflation.

The proposal also notes that since 1995, the annual diocesan budget has been dependent on a draw from the “appreciated value and investment income” of the EMF. In 2007 that draw amounted to 36% of the revenue in the budget. Tithes and offerings from congregations amounted to only 57% of the budget that same year.

The task force reported that the diocesan budget has been “cut substantially” over the past several years, including a reduction in staff. It said it concurs with its predecessor body (the EMF Task Force I) that “further budget cuts would cripple diocesan operations irrevocably.”

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Five years after the consecration of an openly gay bishop, conservatives who have left the Episcopal Church have organized into a cohesive movement, creating a de facto, if small, separate Anglican church in the United States.

This month, the Diocese of Pittsburgh became the second diocese, after San Joaquin, Calif., late last year, to decide to leave the 2.2 million-member national Episcopal church. The dioceses of Quincy, Ill., and Fort Worth will vote next month. Those moves followed 15 Virginia parishes — including the large and well-known Truro Church and The Falls Church — that over the past two years have left their diocese because they view it as too liberal.

The conservatives have been bolstered by the breakaway churches’ legal victories in Virginia. Yesterday, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy Bellows ruled Truro Church could retain ownership of land sought by the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.

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In April, on the eve of the Pennsylvania primary, voters in this Philadelphia suburb were finding plenty of fault with both Barack Obama and John McCain. Many were preparing to — and soon did — vote for Hillary Clinton, helping her to a decisive victory in this state.

This week, those voters are part of a mass movement to Obama, driven by much greater familiarity with the Illinois senator’s views and by a pronounced distaste for McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin.

The striking shift in Montgomery County, often a bellwether, makes McCain’s task of recapturing Pennsylvania from the Democrats look almost like Mission Impossible.

Robert Stutz, a recently retired hospital administrator, was, like many of his neighbors, skeptical of both the eventual nominees when they were on the primary ballot, “so I was mostly listening to Hillary at that point.” But he’s been impressed with Obama’s health-care plan and says that McCain virtually disqualified himself with his vice presidential choice. “I can’t imagine putting Sarah Palin in a position to be president of the United States,” he said.

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American troops acting on a tip killed the No. 2 leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, a Moroccan, in a raid on one of the terror group’s command centers in the north, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

The Oct. 5 death of the man known as Abu Qaswarah was a major blow to the terror network as American commanders have warned it remains a significant threat. The military statement described him as a charismatic leader who trained in Afghanistan and managed to rally al-Qaida followers in Iraq despite U.S. and Iraqi security gains.

The insurgent leader, also known as Abu Sara, became the senior al-Qaida in Iraq emir of northern Iraq in June 2007 and had “historic ties to AQI founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and senior al-Qaida leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” the military said.

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Greenspan and Rubin maintained then, as now, that Born was on the wrong track. Greenspan, who left the Fed job in 2006 after an unprecedented three terms, also insists that regulating derivatives would not have averted the present crisis. Yesterday on Capitol Hill, a Senate committee opened hearings specifically on the role of financial derivatives in exacerbating the current crisis. Another hearing on the issue takes place in the House today.

The economic brain trust not only won the argument, it cut off the larger debate. After Born quit in 1999, no one wanted to go where she had already gone, and once the Bush administration arrived in 2001, the push was for less regulation, not more. Voluntary oversight became the favored approach, and even those were accepted grudgingly by Wall Street, if at all.

In private meetings and public speeches, Greenspan also argued a free-market view. Self-regulation, he asserted, would work better than the heavy hand of government: Investors had a natural desire to avoid self-destruction, and that served as the logical and best limit to excessive risk. Besides, derivatives had become a huge U.S. business, and burdensome rules would drive the market overseas.

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Do take a look.

Check all the links with the yellow “new” next to them here.

Every Province had a year over year decline.

Update from the elves:
After the 2006 ASA data came out, we created an Excel spreadsheet tracking certain key trends in ASA. You can find it here.

We’re all set to add 2007 data when it’s available. 2007 data is available now in TEC’s diocese and parish charts, only. If past years’ experience is any guide, the actual parochial data reports with hard numbers for each diocese will be available in late November, early December. We’ll keep an eye out for the new data.

At Jogye Temple, normally an island of Buddhist serenity, plainclothes officers have staked out the exits, waiting to grab any fugitives who venture out. Camped out on the temple grounds are the leaders of fierce anti-government protests who have been charged with instigating violence. They have come to the temple seeking political sanctuary, not spiritual uplift. One top government official has branded them “Satans.”

As a gong echoes through the neighborhood of office towers in central Seoul, afternoon worshipers arriving at the temple – home to the largest Buddhist order in South Korea – walk below a canopy of 6,200 lotus-shaped lanterns. The lanterns are arranged by color to spell the English word “OUT” – a highly unusual rebuke to President Lee Myung Bak from the country’s once-docile and normally apolitical Buddhists.

“Religious peace in our country is being threatened by those who dream of turning it into a medieval Christian kingdom through a church elder-president,” said Park Jeong Kyu, a spokesman for the Jogye Order.

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Listen to it all-featured is Saint George’s, Belfast.

Shortly after the doors opened on the 27th Great American Beer Festival, a crowd congregated at the booth offering that and other pours from The Lost Abbey of San Marcos, California, where the tap handle is a Celtic cross and the legacy of beer-brewing monks endures.

Standing under a banner promising “Inspired beers for Saints and Sinners Alike,” proprietor and former altar boy Tomme Arthur had a confession: He’s using God to sell some beer.

“It’s the oldest story ever told ”” the struggle between good and evil,” said Arthur, 35, a product of Catholic schools in his native San Diego. “There is a battle being waged between those who make good beer and those who make evil beer.”

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This is really fascinating–watch it all. Make sure to get the setting of the scene fixed in your mind before you start; I did better when I did that the second time through.

The Lambeth Conference is a gathering of bishops from the entire Anglican Communion which met for the first time in 1888. It meets every ten years to discuss issues of common concern in the mission of the church today. In the words of the Archbishop of Canterbury: “The chief aims of our time together are, first, that we become more confident in our Anglican identity, by deepening our awareness of how we are responsible to and for each other; and second, that we grow in energy and in enthusiasm for our task of leading the work of mission in our church.”

The conference gives bishops a chance not only to get to know each other personally, but also to share stories from different parts of the world and the cultural contexts they come from. This year’s conference was attended by 670 bishops out of approximately 800 bishops in the Anglican Communion. Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda did not attend.

One of the issues that came up among others was homosexuality, especially the blessing of same sex marriages and ordination of openly gays and lesbians. Lambeth’s position was that homosexuality is a sensitive pastoral and divisive issue that has to be handled with care. Lambeth discussed this issue in a very responsible manner by emphasising the importance of the family bond in the Communion whereby members of one family do not have to agree on all issues but still remain a family. Contrary to the forecast by the media that the Anglican Communion was about to break up, the 670- bishops present expressed their allegiance to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Communion. It was also made clear and agreed upon, after long discussion in small groups where all the bishops were able to make an input, that the ordination of gays and lesbians and blessings of same sex marriages was to stop forthwith and the discussion about these matters was to continue.

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Bishop Geralyn Wolf of the Diocese of Rhode Island has inhibited the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding for publicly professing her adherence to the Muslim faith.

The notice states that the diocesan “Standing Committee has determined that Dr. Redding abandoned the Communion of the Episcopal Church by formal admission into a religious body not in communion with the Episcopal Church. The bishop has affirmed that determination.”

The inhibition prevents Redding from “exercising the gifts and spiritual authority conferred on her by ordination and from public ministry” and is in force until March 31, 2009. In accordance with Episcopal canons, unless Redding “reclaims” her Christian faith, said Wolf in an interview, the inhibition will automatically lead to a deposition, ending Redding’s priesthood.

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There are times in every woman’s life where her body wants either what her heart can’t handle or her brain knows better.

You know the drill — you want a man, but not a relationship. Or, more to the point, you want some loving, but don’t want the strings attached.

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The actions are “not what we ever wanted to do”, Mr Paulson conceded, “but today, there is a lack of confidence in our financial system ”“ a lack of confidence that must be conquered because it poses an enormous threat to our economy.”

In recent weeks, governments around the world have had to respond to the financial crisis with extraordinary measures and dizzying speed. The financial system came close to calamity in the days after the Bush administration, arguing that markets should be allowed to work difficulties through without government help, let the investment bank Lehman Brothers fail last month. Before a week was out, however, the US government had to take over the world’s largest insurance giant, AIG, and promise to guarantee all the money in the $3 trillion money market industry. Last month, it became the country’s largest mortgage lender when it took over the tottering mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a rescue bid that could cost taxpayers $200bn.

Almost without any thought, the actions usher in a new and unpredictable era in American capitalism.

“It wasn’t just the right move, it was the only move,” Ken Rogoff, Harvard University economist, said of yesterday’s cash injection. “Thank goodness they didn’t dally for another week to finally figure it out.”

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Similarly, euro three-month Libor, which was down 7.37bp at 5.225 per cent on Tuesday remains high.

“The fact that the boldest banking guarantee in history was not worth more . . . raised some eyebrows,” said Christoph Rieger, analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort.

Dollar three-month Libor is reacting better, down 11.75bp at 4.635 per cent, which was accompanied by a 15bp rise in the yield on three-month Treasury bills to 0.4 per cent.

This leaves the so-called Ted spread, which measures the difference between interbank lending rates and risk-free government lending rates, at a hefty 420bp. “These developments suggest that the market is reducing the odds of imminent financial Armageddon, but that significant year-end funding issues remain,” said TJ Marta, strategist at RBC Capital Markets.

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The Church of England Evangelical Council issued this statement after their meeting on October 10th.

CEEC deplores the recent deposition of Bishop Bob Duncan and expresses full support for him and sends warm greetings and prayers to him, the Diocese of Pittsburgh and their new home in the province of the Southern Cone.

We endorse the following two statements from six diocesan bishops of the Church of England and Anglican Mainstream.

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David M. Abromowitz faults the Bush administration’s dismantling of federal regulation. Daniel J. Mitchell says both Republicans and Democrats over several decades contributed to the crisis.

Read it all. It isn’t a bad discussion but it is not as good as the earlier list posted from the Independent , and, once again the SEC doesn’t get mentioned–KSH.

Go here, click “enter site here” and then find podcasts along the top to the right and click on that to find the sermon from September 28, 2008.

A California ballot initiative could make same-sex marriage illegal yet again; Proposition 8 asks voters to amend the state constitution so that marriage is defined solely as a union between one man and one woman.

After trailing in the polls, the measure is now surging, partly due to support from beyond the state’s borders.

“Prop. 8 could have profound effects nationwide,” says professor John Matsusaka, who heads a University of Southern California institute that studies ballot initiatives. “California is a trendsetter. If you look at the things that have come through the ballot proposition process through the past 30 years ”” tax limits, term limits, medical marijuana ”” there’s been a host of issues that started in California and other states adopted once they started going forward.”

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Apologetics has largely lost its place in mainline seminary curricula. But the task of apologetics””making Christian belief intelligible””remains inescapable. If it isn’t done well, it will be done badly.
The postmodern claim that all truth is relative to a context or tradition has created a new situation for apologetics. All that postmodern apologists need to do is show that their opponents also stand in a particular tradition that has its own unverifiable presuppositions. Science, for example, rests on presuppositions like this one: “The world is governed by natural forces and everything can be explained if we understand these natural forces.” This is a philosophical presupposition that is not falsifiable and therefore not subject to scientific inquiry.

Postmodern apologists can be divided into two schools, the humble and the bold. The humble apologists simply want to argue that the Christian way of life is the most desirable way of life, on the basis of the kinds of people that the belief system fosters. If a belief system creates a cantankerous neighbor or a militaristic extremist, then few people would want to embrace that individual’s belief system. As Origen argued in an earlier age, Christianity must be true because it creates the best people. Justin Martyr pointed out that Christians promoted peace in the empire and paid their taxes, didn’t commit adultery or kill or abandon their children. Humble apologetics is often an argument about ethics, with lots of examples.

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