Iowa District Ministerial Studies and Credentials – Next Meeting

Hello dear friends:

If you are a minister-in-training registered with the Iowa District of the Church of the Nazarene, please keep Saturday, May 19, 2007 penciled-in on your calendar for your annual meeting with the Ministerial Studies and Ministerial Credentials Boards in Des Moines. Further details will appear here as the day comes closer. Meanwhile, don’t hesitate to drop by here with questions or comments any time. Anything you write here posts to my email as well, so you can be sure I’ll see it.

With respect and goodwill,
Monte (Secretary, Iowa District Board of Ministerial Credentials)

1/3 of China religious?

A quote from the BBC (click the title to see the story):

Survey finds 300m China believers

A poll of 4,500 people by Shanghai university professors found 31.4% of people above the age of 16 considered themselves as religious. This suggests 300 million people nationwide could be religious, compared to the official figure of 100 million. … The survey found that Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, Christianity and Islam are the country’s five major religions – China considers Catholicism as separate to Christianity, which covers Protestantism.

Jews plead for rights of Palestinians

Fascinating and hopeful new outspokenness is developing among some UK Jews about Israeli-Palestinian relations. Consider this excerpt of an interview by Amy Goodman of the ever-excellent DemocracyNow! (and by all means, if this subject intrigues you, click on the title and read the entire interview at DN’s site):

Independent Jewish Voices: New British Group Speaks Out on Israeli Policies in Occupied Territories

This week in Britain, a group of prominent British Jews launched an organization to counterbalance what they perceive as uncritical support of Israel by major Jewish institutions in the UK. … The IJV Declaration states that “those who claim to speak on behalf of Jews in Britain and other countries consistently put support for the policies of an occupying power above the human rights of an occupied people.” … members urge …

A President on criticizing the President

“The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole.

“Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile.

“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.”

– Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States (in office 1901-1909)

(quoted by Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson in a speech on August 30, 2006)

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