With support from Africa Action, I sent Sen. Ben Cardin (MD) a note about Senate Bill 2166, a bill concerned with canceling Africa’s odious and crippling debt. Here’s his response:
Dear Mr. Brown:
Thank you for contacting me regarding your support for providing debt relief to poor, developing nations that have borrowed from the United States , other creditor governments, and international financial institutions.
I share your concern for highly indebted countries that are in desperate economic straits and unable to repay loans and honor other financial obligations. These nations must often commit large portions of their national budgets to servicing debt at the expense of human development and social programs. Senator Robert Casey, Jr. (D-PA) introduced S. 2166, the Jubilee Act, on October 16, 2007. The bill would cancel debt of eligible developing countries and would establish a framework for creditor transparency and responsible lending. The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, of which I am a member.
While many countries have already paid off the principle debt , they continue to pay heavy interest. I share your belief that debt relief for impoverished nations will provide resources for desperately needed development initiatives and human services. Without the burden of debt, countries can better focus their efforts toward economic develo pment and poverty reduction .
Again, thank you for sharing your views. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of further assistance to you on this or any other matter.
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It is nice that a staffer or intern responded so thoroughly. As a US Senator, Cardin has his pick of quality employees to have his back. He is the consummate politician.
Hagel said it best, it is about ‘…ownership of property, and the purpsuit of power through class strugle…’! Poverty could have been eliminated in the world thousands of years ago.
I have also concluded that the problem facing Americans in healthcare, housing, transportation, energy, education, the cost of food et al …, can be reduced to a single common denominator, and that common denominator is greed.
Truly too many humans, even religious fones, refuse to be their brothers keepers!
E-double,
I am concerned about what will happen to those individuals whose faith will eventually be destroyed, if there aren’t enough sagacious and spirit-filled ministers around who will do what Reverend Brown has already begun doing at Pleasant Hope.
The canon has been taught for years as the unadulterated word of God even among post-modern Christians. Many biblical scholars (and ministers) have known for a long-time that it is not. For example, there were over 200 Gospels written, however, only 4 of them were selected. Relevlation and other books barely made it into the canon, poetical/wisdom books were just that and some other tomes that likely should have been included were not included. And some texts lack manuscript support, and others were added and some changed or deleted!
The impact that is about to be felt in Christendom, as more and more of the truth about the canon will be brought to the light, I suspect will be devastating not only to those in Christendom but to historical critics of Christendom as well. A prudent minister will approach this matter in a sensitive manner, for he will be treading on sacred ground.
There is an upside to all of this, and it is that many individuals who have stalled in religion will begin to move forward again and begin to seek after all of what is actual or authentic! There is, I believe, that which is actual and I suspect that science is winning the race toward revealing what is and what is not actual, remember Copernicus and Galileo? And how about endocrinology, understanding the human genome and epigenetics?
Many Christians will have a hard time reconciling what they have been taught with respect to homosexual orientation and intersex people very soon. Bborrowing from John the 9th chapter, who did sin that this man or woman was born blind (or may I add with birth defects, intersex, mongoloid, mute or black for that matter? There are many other long-held beliefs that are about to be debunked given a Christian over reliance on untested and unproven and unknown sources!.
One of my favorites is Paul’s belief concerning where he would be in the next stage of the divine evolutionary cycle, as he wrote in his epistle to the Thessalonians. Paul was clearly under the impression that he would be present, not among the sleeping, when Christ appeared in the heavens. Where is he? Or perhaps I misunderstood his words, that ‘we’ shall not prevent those who are asleep…, and we shall be caught up…!
The Holy Spirit (paracletos) it was promised, would be sent in order to lead us into all the truth – instead, Christians relied too much on the canon and tradition. And those Christians, similar to the Jews that are often portrayed as being stuck in the Law, are stuck within their own Law. I suspect that the truth has been trying to bring us forward for 2 millennia now! Should the canon be tossed? No, however, it should have been considered in its proper context!