Suicide spreads when people feel authorised to opt for it and when they have lost the will to remain alive. The second part is less important than the first part.

Most people wish they were dead at some time or other in their lives. It is the culture of authorisation that translates a possibly temporary indifference to life into a decisive and final action which can be a key factor in the spread of suicide.
The more people hear of suicides, the more suicides will follow.

And the emotive, non-judgmental, godless culture that has emerged in recent years rules out the use of taboo as a social influence on society generally.

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[DEBORAH] POTTER: More than two million Americans are now imprisoned, four times as many as 30 years ago. The major reason: Mandatory sentencing for non-violent crimes and drug charges.

But the war on drugs, declared in the 1980s, has not had the effect its backers predicted. Arkansas Circuit Judge Wendell Griffin has seen the results.

JUDGE WENDELL GRIFFEN (Arkansas Circuit Court): Drug use has not declined. All it has done has produced an explosion on our prison population. The whole mandatory sentencing guideline mantra was sort of like the Kool-Aid that we should never have drunk.

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Among the more or less predictable reactions from legal adversaries to the Supreme Court’s finding that ministers may not bring employment discrimination suits against their churches, there is a pious sentiment to be found here and there ”” an appeal to an even higher law.

Even those who agreed with the unanimous court ”” and who have argued all along that the First Amendment provides an exception that lets churches, synagogues and other religious institutions hire and fire ministers and other religious leaders without government interference ”” can be heard cautioning the churches not to abuse that right.

Writing on the Web site of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, which had filed a brief urging the court to affirm the ministerial exception, Don Byrd, a blogger who teaches at a Christian university, said, “This particular case though can be a difficult one to think about for those of us who stand firmly against employment discrimination.”

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[Sara] Ritchey provides some useful historical background that outlines the early medieval shift to an all-celibate clergy. But I was struck by her naive ignorance of the recent history of the Catholic Church. The existence of Priests’ wives should, she tells us, provide the occasion on which “a real conversation about the continuation of priestly celibacy might begin.”

Might begin?…

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The priest’s nuclear family was also seen as a risk to the stability of the church. His children represented a threat to laypersons, who feared that their endowments might be absorbed into the hands of the priest’s offspring to create a rival clerical dynasty. A celibate priest would thus ensure donations from the neighboring landed aristocracy. Furthermore, the priest’s wife was often accused, along with her children, of draining the church’s resources with her extravagance and frivolity. Pope Leo IX attempted to remedy this problem in the 11th century by decreeing that the wives and children of priests must serve in his residence at the Lateran Palace in Rome.

Given this history, I caution the clerical wife to be on guard as she enters her role as a sacerdotal attaché. Her position is an anomalous one and, as the Vatican has repeatedly insisted, one that will not receive permanent welcome in the church. That said, for the time being, it will be prudent for the Vatican to honor the dignity of the wives and children of its freshly ordained married priests. And here, I suggest, a real conversation about the continuation of priestly celibacy might begin.

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The Right Reverend Claude Berkley’s Enthronement Service as the new Lord Bishop of Trinidad and Tobago, takes place…[today], at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in downtown Port-of-Spain.

Drums and bells have been chosen to replace the traditional trumpet fanfare at the Service. While it is reported in the Anglican Outlook that there is expected to be musical input from the place of his birth 54 years ago with the presence of the Signal Hill Alumni Choir of Tobago. The Trinity All-Generations Steel Orchestra (TAGS) will also play at the service and the St Agnes Dancers are to perform. Michele Dowrich of San Fernando is the musical director.

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Thus, on Jan. 22, Mount Calvary Church in Baltimore will enter the U.S. ordinariate — the first Episcopal congregation that voted to take that step. The Rev. Jason Catania, its priest, expects to complete his own journey this summer.

At that point, he will do something that once seemed unthinkable.

Catania will kneel at his parish altar, as a Catholic priest, and recite one of Anglicanism’s most famous texts — the “Prayer of Humble Access” from the 1662 edition of “The Book of Common Prayer.”

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Standard & Poor’s downgraded the credit ratings of France, Italy and seven other European countries on Friday, a move that may have more symbolic than fundamental financial impact but served as a reminder that Europe’s economic woes were far from over.

Another memory jog came Friday from Greece, the original source of Europe’s debt troubles. Talks hit a snag between the new Greek government and the banks and other private investors that Athens hopes will agree to take losses on their debt so that Greece can avoid a default.

Together, those developments underscore that even as Europe’s debt turmoil enters its third year, no clear solutions are yet in sight ”” despite recent signs that a new lending program by the European Central Bank might be easing financial market pressures.

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O God, who by the leadings of thy providence didst bring wise men from far to give homage to Jesus, born to be King of all: Help us, who by various ways are led to Christ, humbly and thankfully to adore him with our gifts, and as our costliest treasure to present before him ourselves for his honour and service, now and always.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

–Hebrews 4:12-13

Dear Friends:

The promotion and protection of marriage””the union of one man and one woman as husband and wife””is a matter of the common good and serves the wellbeing of the couple, of children, of civil society and all people.The meaning and value of marriage precedes and transcends any particular society, government, or religious community.It is a universal good and the foundational institution of all societies.It is bound up with the nature of the human person as male and female, and with the essential task of bearing and nurturing children.

As religious leaders across a wide variety of faith communities, we join together to affirm that marriage in its true definition must be protected for its own sake and for the good of society. We also recognize the grave consequences of altering this definition. One of these consequences””the interference with the religious freedom of those who continue to affirm the true definition of “marriage”””warrants special attention within our faith communities and throughout society as a whole.For this reason, we come together with one voice in this letter.

Read it carefully and read it all.

A coalition of nearly 40 religious leaders has published an open letter that seeks to recast the battle against same-sex marriage as a fight on behalf of religious freedom.

The religious leaders, predominantly from conservative Christian churches and Orthodox Judaism, say their concern is not that legalizing gay marriage will force their ministers to perform same-sex weddings; they say they doubt that will happen.

Rather, they wrote Thursday (Jan. 12), allowing same-sex couples to marry would wind up “forcing or pressuring both individuals and religious organizations””throughout their operations, well beyond religious ceremonies””to treat same-sex sexual conduct as the moral equivalent of marital sexual conduct.”

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Have you heard about the quarterback who won the Heisman trophy and led his University of Florida Gators to a national championship? The multisport athlete, Florida’s USA Today Football Player of the Year as a high-schooler? The son of a pastor who always put his faith before football, even while playing in the National Football League?

Of course we’re talking about Danny Wuerffel, who has served as a powerful role model for a certain Denver Broncos quarterback currently making news.

Mr. Wuerffel and Tim Tebow didn’t know each other well growing up 13 years apart, but Mr. Tebow’s parents made it a point to introduce the two more than a decade ago, while Mr. Wuerffel was still playing at Florida.

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The Primate of Uganda, Archbishop Henry Orombi has announced that he will step down from office at year’s end, retiring after nine years as Archbishop of Kampala and leader of the second largest province of the Anglican Communion.

In an address to a meeting of the Ugandan House of Bishops on 7 January 2012, Archbishop Orombi issued a call for the election of a new archbishop to be held at the June bishops’ meeting.

In a statement given to The Church of England Newspaper by the Church of Uganda, Archbishop Orombi said he was leaving office a year before his mandatory retirement at age 65 in order to focus on mission and evangelism.

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In his second meeting as chairman of the Federal Reserve in May 2006, Ben Bernanke heard a Fed governor warn about the nation’s mortgage market. But Mr. Bernanke described the cooling of the housing boom as a “healthy thing.”

“So far we are seeing, at worst, an orderly decline in the housing market,” he said.

Mr. Bernanke’s words were contained in 1,197 pages of transcripts released Thursday of closed-door Fed meetings from that year. The transcripts paint the most detailed picture yet of how top officials at the central bank didn’t anticipate the storm about to hit the U.S. economy and the global financial system.

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R.J. Williams, host and founder of Young Hollywood…is betting most of his personal savings and free time that two things will make him a next-generation media titan: hard work and YouTube.

That bet goes both ways. Beginning this month, YouTube is gambling $100 million that by seeding professional production firms such as Young Hollywood — whose slate of YouTube-only programming premieres Monday — it will draw more eyeballs for longer viewing sessions.

Williams calls the online video giant’s move a “game-changer” and argues that the growing number of stars who sit on his white sofa — Cruz came to see Williams straight from Jay Leno’s Tonight Show couch — spotlights the emerging clout of Web-only shows.

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The book of Jonah says that the thing that makes us the most angry with God, more angry than droughts and famines, male pattern baldness and cellulite, is God’s mercy. That is what really enrages Jonah, and if we are completely honest, it’s what enrages us too.

–Garret Keizer, The Enigma of Anger: Essays on a Sometimes Deadly Sin (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004 Paperback), p.279

Further tributes have been paid to the Revd Dr John Stott, the Evangelical leader who died in July last year ”” among them one from the woman who knew him best….

Frances Whitehead became John Stott’s secretary in 1956, after he had been Rector of All Souls’, Langham Place, in London, for six years. In a collection of essays to be published on 9 February by the Langham Partnership, she writes: “So many tributes from all over the world have been paid to John Stott. I have asked myself what could I say that has not already been said, by way of thanks to God for John’s life, and what it has meant to me and so many others?
“Let me simply express my gratitude for John himself, his godly example, and his faithful preaching through which the light of Christ first dawned on me.

“Because I worked alongside him as his secretary for 55 years, perhaps I more than anybody can testify to the fact that, in his case, familiarity, far from breeding contempt, bred the very opposite ”” a deep respect, and one which inspired belief in God.

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Enraged Chinese shoppers pelted Apple Inc’s flagship Beijing store with eggs and shoving matches broke out with police on Friday when customers were told the store would not begin sales of the iPhone 4S as scheduled.

Apple said later after the fracas at its store in Beijing’s trendy Sanlitun district that it would halt all retail sales of the latest iPhone in China for the time being, but said the phones would be available online, through its partner China Unicom or at official Apple resellers.

Sales at Apple’s other store in Beijing and three in Shanghai went more smoothly, with stocks quickly selling out.

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While working for the Social Security administration, I helped an elderly woman””who was no longer married””fill out her claim form.

Reading off a question, I asked; “How did your marriage end?”

“Just fine,” she said, grinning a little too broadly. “He died.”

–Willis Bird, February 2012 Reader’s Digest, page 86

We have clearly fallen on the evil times prophesied by the Apostle; for nowadays teachers are sought after who preach not God but a creature And men are more zealous for what they themselves desire, than for what the sound faith teaches. So far have their itching ears stirred them to listen to what they desire, that for the moment that preaching alone rules among their crowd of doctors which estranges the Only-begotten God from the power and nature of God the Father, and makes Him in our faith either a God of the second order, or not a God at all; in either case a damning profession of impiety, whether one profess two Gods by making different grades of divinity; or else deny divinity altogether to Him Who drew His nature by birth from God. Such doctrines please those whose ears are estranged from the hearing of the truth and turned to fables, while the hearing of this our sound faith is not endured, and is driven bodily into exile with its preachers.

But though many may heap up teachers according to their desires, and banish sound doctrine, yet from the company of the Saints the preaching of truth can never be exiled. From our exile we shall speak by these our writings, and the Word of God which cannot be bound will run unhindered, warning us of this time which the Apostle prophesied. For when men shew themselves impatient of the true message, and heap up teachers according to their own human desires, we can no longer doubt about the times, but know that while the preachers of sound doctrine are banished truth is banished too. We do not complain of the times: we rejoice rather, that iniquity has revealed itself in this our exile, when, unable to endure the truth, it banishes the preachers of sound doctrine, that it may heap up for itself teachers after its own desires. We glory in our exile, and rejoice in the Lord that in our person the Apostle’s prophecy should be fulfilled.

–Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity, X

O Lord our God, who didst raise up thy servant Hilary to be a champion of the catholic faith: Keep us steadfast in that true faith which we professed at our baptism, that we may rejoice in having thee for our Father, and may abide in thy Son, in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit; thou who livest and reignest for ever and ever.

O Lord Jesus Christ, who didst sit lowly in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions: Give unto thy servants that humility of heart, and willingness to learn, without which no man or woman can find wisdom; to the glory of thy holy Name.

When the steward of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first; and when men have drunk freely, then the poor wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him. After this he went down to Caper’na-um, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples; and there they stayed for a few days.

–John 2:9-12

The study published by the Children’s Society following interviews with 30,000 under-16s claims those who have deeply negative feelings about their lives are at higher risk of bullying, depression and eating disorders.

It says those who suffer instability, moving from one family member to another, are twice as likely to be unhappy although household structure itself was not as important as having loving relationships with relatives.

Children who worry that they do not have the right clothes to “fit in” with classmates are three times as likely to be unhappy with the way they look, with the problem affecting girls more than boys.

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But who has abandoned the Episcopal Church? I would argue that the real abandoners of the Episcopal Church more rightly include those who have kept the miters and want to keep the property but have ditched all semblance of doctrine.

Of course, the Episcopal Church always had a certain latitude regarding faith and morals (good taste, not so much), but sadly it has become in many ways a post-Christian institution. This was most recently and outlandishly manifested in the first sermon given by the Rt. Rev. Marianne Budde in her capacity as spiritual leader of Episcopalians in the nation’s capitol. The bishop took as her text a poem by New Age poet David Whyte and referred to “Jesus and all of the great spiritual masters before and after him.”

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(Please note that observant blog readers may recall we have been covering this for a while, as for example in the Newsweek Cover Story there–KSH).

For the last 10 years, [Jaiya] Ma, 34, has lived with Jon Hanauer. But five years ago, she met Ian Ferguson at a dance class and fell in love.

Now, all three live together with Eamon, her son with Ferguson, at their home in Topanga, Calif.

Hanauer, 49, urged Ma to find a new lover after their relationship stalled and she fell hard for furniture designer Ferguson, who is 44. A year later, she was pregnant with his child.

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This was the lead story on Nightline last night–check it out.

The final movement of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony is a slow rumination on mortality, with quiet sections played by strings alone.

During the New York Philharmonic’s performance Tuesday night, it was interrupted by an iPhone.

The jarring ringtone””the device’s “Marimba” sound, which simulates the mallet instrument””intruded in the middle of the movement, emanating from the first row at Avery Fisher Hall.

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(“US election race baffles the punters” is the title SMH gives it)….

Assuming no imminent foreign policy crisis, the election will depend on two things: whether undecided voters blame the congressional Republicans more than the President for the state of the economy, and how many potential supporters the candidates can motivate to vote….

Voting for a president is also voting for a certain image of America, which explains the jubilation felt by so many when a young African-American with a radical past broke through conventional assumptions. Rekindling that excitement is difficult for Obama, but no one has claimed Romney is a charismatic candidate.

He will, however, be seen as safe, prepared for the job, and able to re-energise American business. Expect a Republican campaign that promises a more aggressive and dominant United States, and remember that American campaigns do not revolve around policy details in the way to which …[Australians] are accustomed.

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