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1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
Palestinians reject Netanyahu’s direct talks proposal-Israeli premier said he’d meet Abbas in Paris instead of backing French-led multilateral talks planned for next month-By Raoul Wootliff May 24, 2016, 1:36 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah dismissed Tuesday an Israeli proposal for direct negotiations instead of a French multilateral peace initiative.“Time is short,” Hamdallah said. “[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is trying to buy time… but this time he will not escape the international community.”Hamdallah made the comments as he met French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who has held talks in Israel and the Palestinian territories this week to push Paris’s peace initiative.The June 3 Paris summit has been welcomed by the Palestinians, who suspended a planned UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements to focus on the French efforts. Israel, however, has consistently argued that peace can only be achieved through direct negotiations between the two sides, rather than in international forums.During a Monday meeting with Valls, Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that the international conference was being used by the Palestinian leadership as a way to avoid direct talks with Israel.“The Palestinian Authority does not see the French initiative as an inducer for negotiations, but as a way to avoid them,” he said.Instead, Netanyahu said, he would be willing to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “in Paris or wherever,” and hold face-to-face negotiations without international mediation. “Every difficult issue will be on the table,” he said.Valls said he would welcome direct negotiations and would speak to French President Francois Hollande about the proposal.During his visit to the region, Valls met with senior Israeli and Palestinian officials in an effort to bolster support for the conference. He arrived in Israel on Sunday and is set to return to France Tuesday afternoon.Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has welcomed the summit, which will host a meeting of foreign ministers from 20 countries including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, without the Israelis and Palestinians present.According to the plan, another conference would then be held in the autumn, this time with the Israelis and Palestinians in attendance. The goal would be to eventually restart negotiations that would lead to a Palestinian state.Negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians have been at a standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014.AFP contributed to this report.
Christians in England, Wales now outnumbered by people of no religion-Churches steadily losing members, study finds, as number of unaffiliated citizens grows-By Daniel Douek May 24, 2016, 4:42 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The number of people in England and Wales who self-identify as having no religion now outnumbers adherents of Christianity after nearly doubling between 2011 and 2014, according to a new analysis, The Guardian reported Tuesday.The analysis is meant to refresh the current research on the subject, which was suffering from outdated statistics. It represents data from British Social Attitudes surveys compiled between 1983 and 2014.While those who define themselves as Christians, regardless of their denomination, comprised 43.8 percent of the population as of 2014, those who identify themselves as having no religion, concisely referred to as “nones,” made up 48.5 percent, almost doubling in size since the last figures were presented in 2011, when they made up 25 percent of the population.The analysis was published by Stephen Bullivant, senior lecturer in theology and ethics at St Mary’s Catholic University in Twickenham, southwest London, who compiled and analyzed data on the subject collected by British Social Attitudes surveys over 30 years.“The main driver is people who were brought up with some religion now saying they have no religion,” Bullivant told The Guardian.“What we’re seeing is an acceleration in the numbers of people not only not practicing their faith on a regular basis, but not even ticking the box. The reason for that is the big question in the sociology of religion.”Bullivant’s report centered on England and Wales, and did not present data on Northern Ireland or Scotland.Northern Ireland stands in stark contrast to England and Wales, with only seven percent of the population belonging to religions that aren’t Christian or claiming to belong to no religion.However, in April a Scottish Social Attitudes survey found that secularism was on the rise in Scotland as well, albeit not as rapidly as in England and Wales. According to the survey, over half of the Scottish people, 52 percent of the population, is not religious, compared to 40 percent in 1999.In February 2016 the Church of England announced it expected church attendance to fall continually for the next 30 years, underlining concerns about rising indifference to organized religion within the younger generations.Bullivant’s report also demonstrates that Catholic and Anglican churches are losing members much faster than they’re able to attract them.For every person recruited to the Anglican church, 12 are lost, according to the report. In the ranks of the Catholic church the situation is nearly as bad, with ten people opting out of Catholicism for every one recruited.Bullivant demonstrated in his report that the conversion efforts made by churches in England succeed in drawing in believers from other denominations, but not nonbelievers.“There’s a kind of denominational musical chairs,” Bullivant told The Guardian. “No one is making serious inroads into the non-Christian population.”Bullivant said, “Churches need to take this kind of data very seriously,” expressing hope that his research act as a catalyst for further research on the matter.In a response to a request for comment by The Guardian, a spokesperson for the Church of England said: “The increase in those identifying as ‘no faith’ reflects a growing plurality in society rather than any increase in secularism or humanism. We do not have an increasingly secular society as much as a more agnostic one.”“In a global context, adherence to religion is growing rather than decreasing. Christianity remains the world’s largest religion with over 2 billion adherents. In the UK the latest census found the overwhelming majority of people to have a faith.”The Catholic church did not respond to a request for comment.
BDS backer, critics of Israel among Democrats drafting party platform-Philosopher Cornel West, president of the Arab American Institute James Zogby, and Rep. Keith Ellison named to committee, day after Sanders urges focus on Palestinian rightsBy Ron Kampeas May 24, 2016, 1:35 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Democratic Party platform drafting committee is top heavy with veterans of political battles over Israel — some friendly, some critical, and including at least one major backer of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.The Democratic National Committee named the committee on Monday, a day after reports emerged that Bernie Sanders, an Independent senator from Vermont running for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, wants the platform to elevate the issue of Palestinian rights.The names signal that the robust debate on Israel that has rattled the party’s relationship with the mainstream pro-Israel community over the past two years will continue through the party convention in Philadelphia in July.Sanders, the first Jewish candidate to win major party nominating contests, named five of the committee’s members, while Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and front-runner in the party’s presidential primaries, named six. The remaining four were named by the DNC’s chairwoman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., among the most prominent Jewish leaders in the party.Three of the Sanders backers on the committee — Cornel West, a philosopher and social activist; James Zogby, the president of the Arab American Institute, and Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to Congress — are known in part for their criticisms of Israel.West is a prominent BDS backer and Zogby has spoken forcefully against attempts to marginalize the movement. Ellison has called for greater consideration of Palestinian rights, but also has close ties to his home state Jewish community and says Israel’s security must be taken into account.The standout appointment is West, a fiery speaker who has called the Gaza Strip “the ‘hood on steroids” and, in 2014, wrote that the crimes of Hamas “pale in the face of the US-supported Israeli slaughters of innocent civilians.”Zogby and Ellison are longtime insiders who have taken leadership roles in the party, so their inclusion is not extraordinary.Among the six Clinton backers is Wendy Sherman, the former deputy secretary of state who was a lead negotiator in the Iran nuclear talks. Sherman, who has spoken lovingly of her involvement in Jewish life in suburban Maryland, was wounded by the tough criticisms of the deal from Israel’s government and centrist pro-Israel organizations.Another Clinton appointee is Neera Tanden, the president of the Center for American Progress who in recent years has taken a lead role in trying to establish a dialogue between Israel’s government and the American progressive community.Wasserman Schultz’s picks include Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., who will be the committee’s chairman. Cummings is close to his state’s Jewish community and for years has run a program sending a dozen or so black high-schoolers from the Baltimore area to Israel.Another of her picks is former Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., who is also close to the pro-Israel community. Berman shepherded through far-reaching Iran sanctions in 2010 when he was chairman of the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., also a Wasserman Schultz pick, has been critical of Israel in her career, joining 59 House members, including Ellison, in a letter after the 2009 Gaza War urging the Obama administration to pressure Israel to allow increased humanitarian relief into the strip. She also joined Ellison in speaking against a resolution condemning the 2009 UN report on the war, which was reviled by Israel’s government and the mainstream pro-Israel community.Wasserman Schultz also named Bonnie Schaefer, the former CEO of Claire’s the mall jewelery chain, and a philanthropist who is involved with the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Weizmann Institute of Science.The drafting committee presents the document to the full platform committee, which votes on it during the convention. Usually there are few objections. In 2012, however, the drafting committee omitted from the draft platform recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. New language including the recognition was passed during the meeting of the full committee, but not without objections and boos.All four of the Congress members on the drafting committee – Cummings, Lee, Ellison and Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., a Clinton appointee – are endorsed by the political action committee affiliated with J Street, the liberal Middle East policy group.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah dismissed Tuesday an Israeli proposal for direct negotiations instead of a French multilateral peace initiative.“Time is short,” Hamdallah said. “[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is trying to buy time… but this time he will not escape the international community.”Hamdallah made the comments as he met French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who has held talks in Israel and the Palestinian territories this week to push Paris’s peace initiative.The June 3 Paris summit has been welcomed by the Palestinians, who suspended a planned UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements to focus on the French efforts. Israel, however, has consistently argued that peace can only be achieved through direct negotiations between the two sides, rather than in international forums.During a Monday meeting with Valls, Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that the international conference was being used by the Palestinian leadership as a way to avoid direct talks with Israel.“The Palestinian Authority does not see the French initiative as an inducer for negotiations, but as a way to avoid them,” he said.Instead, Netanyahu said, he would be willing to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “in Paris or wherever,” and hold face-to-face negotiations without international mediation. “Every difficult issue will be on the table,” he said.Valls said he would welcome direct negotiations and would speak to French President Francois Hollande about the proposal.During his visit to the region, Valls met with senior Israeli and Palestinian officials in an effort to bolster support for the conference. He arrived in Israel on Sunday and is set to return to France Tuesday afternoon.Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has welcomed the summit, which will host a meeting of foreign ministers from 20 countries including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, without the Israelis and Palestinians present.According to the plan, another conference would then be held in the autumn, this time with the Israelis and Palestinians in attendance. The goal would be to eventually restart negotiations that would lead to a Palestinian state.Negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians have been at a standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014.AFP contributed to this report.
Christians in England, Wales now outnumbered by people of no religion-Churches steadily losing members, study finds, as number of unaffiliated citizens grows-By Daniel Douek May 24, 2016, 4:42 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The number of people in England and Wales who self-identify as having no religion now outnumbers adherents of Christianity after nearly doubling between 2011 and 2014, according to a new analysis, The Guardian reported Tuesday.The analysis is meant to refresh the current research on the subject, which was suffering from outdated statistics. It represents data from British Social Attitudes surveys compiled between 1983 and 2014.While those who define themselves as Christians, regardless of their denomination, comprised 43.8 percent of the population as of 2014, those who identify themselves as having no religion, concisely referred to as “nones,” made up 48.5 percent, almost doubling in size since the last figures were presented in 2011, when they made up 25 percent of the population.The analysis was published by Stephen Bullivant, senior lecturer in theology and ethics at St Mary’s Catholic University in Twickenham, southwest London, who compiled and analyzed data on the subject collected by British Social Attitudes surveys over 30 years.“The main driver is people who were brought up with some religion now saying they have no religion,” Bullivant told The Guardian.“What we’re seeing is an acceleration in the numbers of people not only not practicing their faith on a regular basis, but not even ticking the box. The reason for that is the big question in the sociology of religion.”Bullivant’s report centered on England and Wales, and did not present data on Northern Ireland or Scotland.Northern Ireland stands in stark contrast to England and Wales, with only seven percent of the population belonging to religions that aren’t Christian or claiming to belong to no religion.However, in April a Scottish Social Attitudes survey found that secularism was on the rise in Scotland as well, albeit not as rapidly as in England and Wales. According to the survey, over half of the Scottish people, 52 percent of the population, is not religious, compared to 40 percent in 1999.In February 2016 the Church of England announced it expected church attendance to fall continually for the next 30 years, underlining concerns about rising indifference to organized religion within the younger generations.Bullivant’s report also demonstrates that Catholic and Anglican churches are losing members much faster than they’re able to attract them.For every person recruited to the Anglican church, 12 are lost, according to the report. In the ranks of the Catholic church the situation is nearly as bad, with ten people opting out of Catholicism for every one recruited.Bullivant demonstrated in his report that the conversion efforts made by churches in England succeed in drawing in believers from other denominations, but not nonbelievers.“There’s a kind of denominational musical chairs,” Bullivant told The Guardian. “No one is making serious inroads into the non-Christian population.”Bullivant said, “Churches need to take this kind of data very seriously,” expressing hope that his research act as a catalyst for further research on the matter.In a response to a request for comment by The Guardian, a spokesperson for the Church of England said: “The increase in those identifying as ‘no faith’ reflects a growing plurality in society rather than any increase in secularism or humanism. We do not have an increasingly secular society as much as a more agnostic one.”“In a global context, adherence to religion is growing rather than decreasing. Christianity remains the world’s largest religion with over 2 billion adherents. In the UK the latest census found the overwhelming majority of people to have a faith.”The Catholic church did not respond to a request for comment.
BDS backer, critics of Israel among Democrats drafting party platform-Philosopher Cornel West, president of the Arab American Institute James Zogby, and Rep. Keith Ellison named to committee, day after Sanders urges focus on Palestinian rightsBy Ron Kampeas May 24, 2016, 1:35 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Democratic Party platform drafting committee is top heavy with veterans of political battles over Israel — some friendly, some critical, and including at least one major backer of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.The Democratic National Committee named the committee on Monday, a day after reports emerged that Bernie Sanders, an Independent senator from Vermont running for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, wants the platform to elevate the issue of Palestinian rights.The names signal that the robust debate on Israel that has rattled the party’s relationship with the mainstream pro-Israel community over the past two years will continue through the party convention in Philadelphia in July.Sanders, the first Jewish candidate to win major party nominating contests, named five of the committee’s members, while Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and front-runner in the party’s presidential primaries, named six. The remaining four were named by the DNC’s chairwoman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., among the most prominent Jewish leaders in the party.Three of the Sanders backers on the committee — Cornel West, a philosopher and social activist; James Zogby, the president of the Arab American Institute, and Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to Congress — are known in part for their criticisms of Israel.West is a prominent BDS backer and Zogby has spoken forcefully against attempts to marginalize the movement. Ellison has called for greater consideration of Palestinian rights, but also has close ties to his home state Jewish community and says Israel’s security must be taken into account.The standout appointment is West, a fiery speaker who has called the Gaza Strip “the ‘hood on steroids” and, in 2014, wrote that the crimes of Hamas “pale in the face of the US-supported Israeli slaughters of innocent civilians.”Zogby and Ellison are longtime insiders who have taken leadership roles in the party, so their inclusion is not extraordinary.Among the six Clinton backers is Wendy Sherman, the former deputy secretary of state who was a lead negotiator in the Iran nuclear talks. Sherman, who has spoken lovingly of her involvement in Jewish life in suburban Maryland, was wounded by the tough criticisms of the deal from Israel’s government and centrist pro-Israel organizations.Another Clinton appointee is Neera Tanden, the president of the Center for American Progress who in recent years has taken a lead role in trying to establish a dialogue between Israel’s government and the American progressive community.Wasserman Schultz’s picks include Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., who will be the committee’s chairman. Cummings is close to his state’s Jewish community and for years has run a program sending a dozen or so black high-schoolers from the Baltimore area to Israel.Another of her picks is former Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., who is also close to the pro-Israel community. Berman shepherded through far-reaching Iran sanctions in 2010 when he was chairman of the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., also a Wasserman Schultz pick, has been critical of Israel in her career, joining 59 House members, including Ellison, in a letter after the 2009 Gaza War urging the Obama administration to pressure Israel to allow increased humanitarian relief into the strip. She also joined Ellison in speaking against a resolution condemning the 2009 UN report on the war, which was reviled by Israel’s government and the mainstream pro-Israel community.Wasserman Schultz also named Bonnie Schaefer, the former CEO of Claire’s the mall jewelery chain, and a philanthropist who is involved with the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Weizmann Institute of Science.The drafting committee presents the document to the full platform committee, which votes on it during the convention. Usually there are few objections. In 2012, however, the drafting committee omitted from the draft platform recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. New language including the recognition was passed during the meeting of the full committee, but not without objections and boos.All four of the Congress members on the drafting committee – Cummings, Lee, Ellison and Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., a Clinton appointee – are endorsed by the political action committee affiliated with J Street, the liberal Middle East policy group.
