Archive for August, 2007
« Previous EntriesAmerican Cancer Society and the Uninsured
Thursday, August 30th, 2007 Recently a letter writer told me I was both a bad citizen and a poor Christian because I had said we need to “fix the health care system in the United States.”
I thought it was obvious things aren’t working so well with the uninsured growing by two million a year. Now I read the [...]
Mother Teresa’s Doubts
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007Mother Teresa expressed profound doubt about the existence of God throughout her adult life according to a new collection of her letters. This revelation is a source of shock and curiosity for some, and proof of the falsehood of religious faith for others. It’s the cover story in TIME this week.
Apparently Mother Teresa wrestled with [...]
Do You Have A Life List?
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007Do you have a life list? Earl, of television’s My Name is Earl, has a list. So does Ellen DeGeneres and Beyonce, and apparently millions of others as well. According to an article in the NY Times this morning, life lists are becoming the tool busy people are using to give order to their [...]
What is Your Spiritual Type?
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007What is your “spiritual type?” A survey on explorefaith.org offers the opportunity to compare how you experience the Holy with several types. The site also offers resources for deeper examination based on the interests and practices you identify. The website is a gentle offering of tools, ideas and practices that can lead to helpful answers [...]
Out Of Body–We are More Than We Can Understand
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007“Don’t believe everything you hear and only half of what you see.” Those lyrics from a country song in another era ring true to the the out of body experiments reported yesterday.
Scientists successfully induced out of body experiences in which people responded to touch one part of the body as if it were applied to [...]
Uninsured Children
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007Every 47 seconds a child is born in the United States uninsured, according to the Children’s Defense Fund. At this moment nine million children are not covered by Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Most live in families with two working parents. It’s a national disgrace that 11.6% of all children in the [...]
Global Warming and Health
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007Tennessee and Alabama are in the grips of one of the longest droughts in memory and now it’s coupled with triple digit heat. At the same time, floods are disrupting life in many areas of the world including the United Kingdom, India and Bangledesh. A tornado touched down in Brooklyn yesterday causing one incredulous resident [...]
Reporting on HIV/AIDS
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007Christine Gorman who writes the Global Health Report is back from a visit to South Africa and writing about HIV/AIDs in that country. Her report on grandmothers is particularly interesting to me because I’ve seen what grandmothers have done in spontaneous care-giving for children orphaned by this disease. It’s quite remarkable. The grandmothers of Africa [...]
CARE and Food Aid
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007CARE’s announcement today that it will halt using U.S. food aid in its programs overseas is a courageous, controversial step but a step in the right direction. The issue is controversial because CARE, and some other nonprofits, say the food aid undermines local production and undercuts the market price for locally produced food. But the [...]
Gates And United Methodists Followup
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007It came as no surprise that a conversation between United Methodist leaders and staff of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would find common ground. But the sense of shared commitment to the claim that every life has value that pervades the Gates Foundation philosophy struck some of us as a strong complement to the [...]
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