Remember the images from the 1980’s of the starving people of Ethiopia, and how those images mobilized a global response? The failed harvests and inadequate food distribution channels still exist in that country. The good news is that we do not expect a repeat of the wide-spread crisis of the 80’s. The bad news is that a state of near starvation has become the new “normal” for Ethiopians.
According to projections released yesterday by the US Census bureau, the racial makeup and age distribution of America’s population is about to undergo some important
Where is the $25 billion in aid promised for Africa? And where is the acknowledgment that climate change will have the most adverse effect on those least able to adapt?
A new coalition of voices within the American Christian community is beginning to lobby in concert for a change in US environmental policy. The newest voices that are joining to the call for this change are coming from the traditionally politically conservative evangelical wing.
The CNS reports on calls by Roman Catholic bishops that the Church must respond to expected continued rise in the price of basic food commodities. Without the Church advocating for long term changes in public policy, it’s feared that more and more people around the world will be pushed into a state of chronic hunger.
While HIV/AIDS is thought of as the world’s greatest public health challenge, there are other significant diseases that are are taking a similar toll. Today is World Malaria Day and a number of organizations around the world have taken advantage of the attention being paid to their work to call for new initiatives in the prevention of Malaria.
In 2006, the Diocese of Washington asked the General Convention to include Thurgood Marshall in the Episcopal Church’s book of Lesser Feasts and Fasts. The request was referred to a church commission, but those who support Marshall’s cause can hold a Eucharist in his honor next month, perhaps on May 17, the anniversary of his victory in Brown. v. Board of Education.
As a result of ethanol subsidies and mandates, what we ourselves throw away in order to produce fuel in this fashion could be 50% greater than the value of the fuel itself. We could have more food for the Haitians, more fuel for us, if we were simply to use our existing resources more wisely. We have adopted this policy not because we want to drive our cars, but because our elected officials perceive a greater reward from generating a windfall for American farmers.
News about the effects of sky-rocketing food prices is starting to break through to the foreground of public policy discussions. While to this point most of the conversation has focused on the cause or causes of the increase, there are people starting to suggest ways that society needs to respond.
An article in the Baltimore Sun this morning reports on clergy in a number of denominations and religions who are beginning to refuse to solemnize weddings between men and women as a form of protest against what the clergy perceive as discrimination by the state in not allowing legal forms of same-gender blessings to be recognized.