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GC Imposes Spiritual Formation Globally

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GC Imposes Spiritual Formation Globally

GC Imposes Spiritual Formation Globally

The month of 9-11-01, as the entire world was focused on the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, the Adventist Structure implemented Spiritual Formation for all of its ministry around the world in all 13 world regions.

A Stunning Picture of Spiritual Direction From a Structure Theology Professor

‘Trust ye not in a friend [companion, fellow, associate, neighbor], put ye not confidence in aguide [familiar, confidant], keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.
“For the son dishonoreth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, and thedaughter in law against her mother in law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.
“Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hearme.”
Micah 7: 5-7.
Jesus quoted Micah 7:6 in Matthew 10: 35, 36 embedding it in the gospel.

Derek J. Morris, Professor, Advocates Jesuit Spiritual Formation

A few years ago, Derek J. Morris, then Professor of Homiletics and Pastoral Theology at Southern College of Seventh-day Adventists, (more recently a pastor in California) gave a talk and produced a paper calling for Spiritual Formation in Adventism. Its title is “Spiritual Formation in Ministry.

”In this talk and paper, calling for Spiritual Formation in ministry, you have a stunning revelation of the inner working of Spiritual Directors.

“I would like to explore with you this morning the process of spiritual direction and its relevance as a dynamic for spiritual formation in ministry.” –Derek Morris, Spiritual Formation in Ministry. (emphasis mine)

Morris Credits Jesuits With Preserving Spiritual Direction

Derek writes, “For much of the Christian era the practice of spiritual direction was confined to Catholicism, particularly monasticism and the Society of Jesus [the Jesuits]. In recent years, there has been a revival of interest in spiritual direction as a resource for spiritual formation among both Catholics and Protestants. A leading Protestant advocate of spiritual formation is Tilden Edwards, director of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Washington, D.C. [CC note: Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries is promoting the Shalem Institute as the leading place for studying to become a Spiritual Director. Shalem is staffed with Roman Catholic nuns who are experts in the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola,founder of the Jesuits, with Episcopal priests, psychiatrists, etc.] As I began my own prayer search for a spiritual friend, I came across the significant work by Tilden Edwards, Spiritual Friend: Reclaiming the Gift of Spiritual Direction. I [Derek Morris] strongly recommendthis book as a valuable resource….

“In the final chapter of this book, Edwards refers to a spiritual direction training program at theShalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Washington, D. C.” –Morris, p. 7.

Morris Explains About RC Spiritual Direction Programs

At this point Morris refers the reader to his footnote where he explains more: “The ShalemInstitute for Spiritual Formation began its experiment with long-term group spiritual direction in the fall of 1973. Its spiritual direction -training program commenced in the fall of 1978. Another such program began at the same time at Wainwright House in Rye, New York under the Guild for Spiritual Direction. The two most intensive Roman Catholic training programs offering graduate degrees in spiritual direction are run by the Jesuits of Weston, MA, and by the Dusquesne Institute of Formative Spirituality in Pittsburgh,PA. The only non-Roman Catholic graduate program in spiritual direction is offered by the Center for Christian Spirituality at the General Theological Seminary (Episcopal) in New York.”–Derek Morris, footnote, page 7

Obviously, Morris is quite comfortable with Jesuitism, Jesuit Spiritual Formation and Spiritualdirectorship, and is an enthusiastic advocate of implementing this Jesuit training within Adventism.

Morris anxious, Afraid; Finds Comfort In Assuring Himself That God is Leading Him Into Spiritual Direction

Morris continues, “I called Shalem and shared with Dr. Gerald May that I was a pastor, interested in the process of spiritual direction.” –Morris Spiritual Formation in Ministry, 8. Dr.May sent him a list of names of graduates and enrollees in Shalem’s program.

Morris relates how he was “embarrassed, anxious, afraid. This whole experience was a journey into the unknown. However, I found comfort in the counsel of Elizabeth O’Conner, reiterated by Dr. May. I prayed, ‘O Lord, I know that you are leading in thisprocess. Please give me thecourage to follow you.” –Morris, p. 8.

Morris Plunges Ahead, Overriding the Spirit’s Powerful Warnings

Notice how the Spirit was warning Morris about the course he was taking, but he plunged ahead, insisting that the Lord was leading Him. What lord was this, leading him into Jesuit Spiritual Formation and Jesuit Spiritual Direction?

High Level of Resistance From Conscience

Morris tells how he was “experiencing a high level of resistance. I was to learn later that suchresistance is common…” (p.8). The resistance is the voice of conscience warning you not to do this. Therefore, Morris just overrode the resistance. He tells of how he had “twenty days of resistance” but then he ‘called Louise Young. I shared with her my spiritual journey and my desire to explore the process of spiritual direction.” (p. 8).

Jesuit Experts Explain How to Overcome “Resistance”

Morris tells of how Barry and Connolly, two Jesuits, in their book, The Practice of Spiritual Direction, spend an entire chapter dealing with the phenomenon of ‘resistance.” (Morris, p. 8).Therefore, Morris would have us go to the Jesuits to find out how to overcome the Holy Spirit’svoice of warning us about Jesuit Spiritual Direction

Jesuits: “The Practice of Spiritual direction;” “Finding God in All things: A Companion to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius

William A. Berry, S.J., one of the Jesuit authors of the Practice of Spiritual Direction, has also written a Companion to the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola, called Finding God in All Things: A Companion to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria,1991)

Foster Recommends Jesuit Barry

From the titles of the books by those Jesuits, it is clear that they are in the vanguard of the Jesuit order in producing materials for the implementation of Spiritual Formation and Spiritual Directorship. Foster comments on the Companion to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius: “This book of reflections on spiritual teachings of Ignatius Loyola is an excellent treatment by a noted Jesuit spiritual director and retreat leader.” Foster and Griffin, p. 299. (emphasis mine)

Finally, after much “resistance” and fear, Barry Young became Morris’ Spiritual Director. Morris describes the ‘tremendous freedom” once he took the plunge to reveal his hidden self.

Spiritual Director, Father Confessor

Basically, the Spiritual Director functions as a kind of Father confessor. Morris quotes Elizabeth O’Conner describing the process: “It is an open relationship where your fear, feelings of rebellion, critical attitudes, misgivings, etc., are confessed… Your Spiritual director is one to whom you want to reveal your hidden self.” (Elizabeth O’Conner, Call to Commitment(New York: Harper and Row, 1963), p. 201. (emphasis mine)

Whereas traditionally in Roman Catholicism, in the confessional the priest is supposedly not supposed to see the person confessing, in the new confessional of Jesuit Spiritual Formation and Jesuit Spiritual direction, there is a face-to-face contact on a regular basis at regular times(p.11) a la Jesuit Spiritual Directorship.

Morris Receives Article by Jesuit On Spiritual Direction, Written For Roman Catholic Orders

In this first session with Barry, his Spiritual Director, Morris says, “I shared very openly about my personal history and my family relationships… Barry also shared with me an article by William J. Connolly, entitles ‘Noticing Key Interior Facts in the early Stages of Spiritual Direction.’ [William J. Connolly, ‘Noticing Key Facts in the Early Stages of Spiritual Direction,’Review for Religious 35 (1976): 112-121.]

William J. Connolly is a Jesuit. This article was published in Review for Religious. “Religious” isa Roman Catholic Term for its adherents who belong to a Roman Catholic Order orcongregation, or who are a monk, friar, or nun.

In other words, the education material generated by the Jesuit Connolly for other JesuitsFranciscans, Benedictines, Dominicans, monks, friars, and nuns regarding the practice of“spiritual direction” is now eagerly devoured by Morris and, by his example and advocacy,recommended to his hearers.

70% of Morris’ Spiritual Director’s Directees are Involved in Ministry

In another note Morris states, “Barry Young generally meets with directees on a monthly basis.It is interesting to note that approximately 70% of his directees are involved in someform of ministry.” Thus, Spiritual Directors are first targeting the ministries of the Protestant Churches, training them in Jesuit practice, forming them in the image of the Roman hierarchy. Even the Mennonites are deeply into spiritual formation. Their syllabus has the Jesuits William A. Berry & William J. Connolly’s The Practice of Spiritual Direction in their NC School for Christian Spiritual Formation as one of its readings.

Spiritual Directors International

“Ignatius was, in modern parlance, a good listener.” –Joseph A. Munitiz, S.J. and Philip Endean, S.J. preface and introductory notes to Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Personal Writings (London: Penguin, 1996), cited in McDonough and Bianchi, 111.

Spiritual Directors International – A Global Network of Confesso

Spiritual Directors international is spanning the globe with an organized network of confession-hearing Spiritual Directors. “Spiritual directors International began in 1989, in a gathering of spiritual directors of the Christian faith at Mercy Center in Burlingame, California, USA.” –Spiritual Directors International website, “Purpose and History of Spiritual Directors International.”

Mercy Center, run by nuns, not only hosted the founding of Spiritual directors International,but hosts conferences such as a conference March 4-7, 2005, attended by the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association, the San Francisco Zen Center, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), led by Friar Thomas Hand, and celebrated its 20th anniversary at the Sisters of Mercy of Burlingame. (Project MUSE website.)

Secretary of Spiritual Directors International is a Jesuit

A Jesuit, James Keegan, S.J., Mdiv ’06, serves as the secretary of the group out of Gloucester, MA. Cathleen Murtha, DW, is the President. Spiritual Directors international is all organized, from world regions down to state levels.

Dominican, Benedictine, Franciscan Nuns Coordinate the Spiritual Director

Just the first few pages of listings (out of many, many pages) for just the states of Illinois,Indiana, South Dakota, and Michigan reveals that the coordinators on the state level are Dominican and Franciscan, Benedictine and other orders of nuns, with OSF (Order of SaintFrancis), OP (Order of Preachers-Dominicans), I.H.M. (Immaculate Heart of Mary). And OSB(Order of St. Benedict-the Benedictines) appended to the coordinator’s name. Some of as PHJC, andMPS, SNJM, and DASD. Some of the designations of the Sisters are not even listed in the Catholic Encyclopedia, such as PHJC, andMPS, SNJM, and DASD.


Thus, nuns, Jesuits, and others are directing the global work of Spiritual Directors.

Rome’s Intelligence System

The confessional is the greatest information-gathering system in the world. This is why Rome’s intelligence is the best that there is on the face of the planet. This is why, during the Reagan administration, the United States exchanged an ambassador with the Vatican, and the Vatican sent a Papal nuncio to the United States. Now this papal intelligence is flooded with the inner sanctum from the heart of what once was Protestantism.

Spiritual Directors International is a global organization, organizing the global work according to world fields, of the global confessional network of Spiritual directors. Thus, the Jesuits now have a global network of confessionals in all denominations from the Mennonites to the Adventists, from the Presbyterians to the Buddhists. Spiritual Directors International was founded at the Sisters of Mercy in Burlingame, California. Sisters of Mercy was founded when Mary Baptist Russell and her group of eight women landed in San Francisco in 1854. Their organization, Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, is the organization that has fostered Spiritual Directors International, which has broken down the world into regions and state organizations to organize the global network of nuns coordinating Spiritual Directors confessionals.

Thus, Rome has access now to inside information in all churches and religions through the confessional of Spiritual Directors.

Waldenses: Christ’s Altar is My Confessional

The Waldenses rejoiced that Christ was their confessional: “Many were undeceived in regard tothe claims of Rome. They saw how vain is the mediation of men or angels in behalf of the sinner. As the true light dawned upon their minds, they exclaimed with rejoicing: “Christ is my priest; His blood is my sacrifice; His altar is my confessional.” They cast themselves wholly upon the merits of Jesus, repeating the words, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him.” Hebrews 11:6. “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12.” GC 74.

It is absolutely astounding to hear this Structure professor of theology describe his experience in finding a Father confessor type of Spiritual Director. I feel very sorry that he did not take hisheart to the Lord in secret prayer, and that instead he opened it to a human being in a new confessional-spiritual directorship, and is now advocating this terrible departure from Protestantism to others across the board in ministry.

“I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me. A forward heart shall departfrom me: I will not know a wicked person.” Psalms 101: 3,4.

The Phenomenon of a State of Imagined Euphoria in Transgression

Notice what happened to Eve when she crossed the border against the resistance of conscience and moved into the domain of rebellion against God. She imagined she was entering a plane of higher existence, and experienced a rush of a state of euphoria. Then she became an evangelist for sin and rebellion:
“When she “saw that the tree was good for food, and it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree tobe desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat.” It was grateful to the taste, and as she ate, she seemed to feel a vivifying power, and imagined herself entering upon a higher state of existence. Without a fear, she plucked and ate. And now, having transgressed, she became the agent of Satan in working the ruin of her husband. In a state of strange, unnatural excitement, with her hands filled with the forbidden fruit, she sought his presence, and related all that had occurred.” PP 55, 56.

Are we not to take all of our inner heart to the Lord alone in secret prayer that none but the Lord is to hear? Are we not to hold to the Word of the Lord in faith?

Submitting to Jesuit-trained Men

This is not just one personal departure, but Derek has become a leader in training the ministry to submit the soul to man, and Jesuit-trained men at that, rather than to God. He has become a change agent, seeking to convert the rest of the church structure to this hallmark of Roman Catholicism. Spiritual Directorship is the hallmark of Roman Catholicism as opposed to true Protestantism.

None But the Prayer-Hearing Go

“In secret devotion our prayers are to reach the ears of none but the prayer-hearing God.No curious ear is to receive the burden of such petitions.” MB 84.

The Secret Place

“When thou prayest, enter into thy closet.” Have a place for secret prayer. Jesus had select places of communion with God, and so should we. We need often to retire to some spot, however humble, where we can be alone with God.

No Man Needed to Act as Mediator

“Pray to thy Father which is in secret.” In the name of Jesus, we may come into God’s presence with the confidence of a child. No man is needed to act as a mediator. Through Jesus wemay open our hearts to God as to one who knows and loves us.”

Serious Prayer

It is now that we need to revive the practice of secret prayer to our heavenly Father. Greatmen of God have taken prayer seriously, and made prayer one of the most important functions of their lives. Luther prayed three hours a day at the height of the Reformation crisis. Wesley said that he did not think much of a man who did not spend five or six hours in prayer a day.Oliver Cromwell prayed for hours on end. George Washington prayed for long periods of time. Jesus prayed all night.

Serious Prayer

“In the secret place of prayer, where no eye but God’s can see, no ear but His can hear, we may pour out our most hidden desires and longings to the Father of infinite pity, and in the hush and silence of the soul that voice which never fails to answer the cry of human need will speak to our hearts.” MB 84.

What the Lord Says About Confessing the Secret Things of the heart to Man

“He who kneels before fallen men, and open in confession the secret thoughts and imaginations of his heart, is debasing his manhood and degrading every noble instinct of his soul. In unfolding the sins of life to a priest, --an erring, sinful mortal, and too often corrupted with wine and licentiousness, --his standard of character is lowered, and he is defiled in consequence. His thought of God is degraded to the likeness of fallen humanity, for the priest stands as a representative of God. This degrading confession of man to man is the secret spring from which has flowed much of the evil that is defiling the world and fitting it for the final destruction. Yet, to him who loves self-indulgence, it is more pleasing to confess to a fellow mortal than to open the soul to God. It is more palatable to human nature to do penance than to renounce sin; it is easier to mortify the flesh by sackcloth, nettles, and galling chains than to crucify fleshly lusts. Heavy is the yoke which the carnal heart is willing to bear rather than bow to the yoke of Christ.” GC 567, 568.

Morris Recommends That New Pastors Find a Spiritual Director To Guide Them

In concluding his paper, Derek Morris recommends that the young theology student, wholeaves the seminary for his first parish, should get a Spiritual Director as soon as he arrives athis parish: “In the years that followed I discovered experientially what Roy Oswald had concluded from his research of 102 Seminary graduates some years before: Crossing the boundary for Seminary to parish is never easy. Moreover, the need for personal spiritual formation is ongoing. However, the process of spiritual direction is a tremendous resource. Henotes that ‘Those who had the good fortune of finding a spiritual father/mother/friend as they begun in the parish found the going somewhat easier.’ [Oswald. P. 18.]” –Derek Morris,Spiritual Formation in Ministry, pp. 11, 12. And that is the point of Morris’ entire paper fromthe first to the last paragraph, that Seminary students need to find a Spiritual Director and tobe under the direction of a Spiritual Director when they begin their work as a pastor in the field.

The Structure International Board of Ministerial And Theological Education Imposes Spiritual Formation

The Adventist world church created the International Board of Ministerial and Theological Education (IBMTE) in September 2001, designed to provide overall guidance and standards tothe professional training of pastors, evangelists, theologians, teachers, chaplains andother denominational employees involved in ministerial and religious formation, orspiritual formation, in each of the church’s 13 regions around the world.” -ANN [Adventist News Network] Feature: Church, Congregations Increase Focus on ‘SpiritualFormation,’ Feb, 3, 2004, http://www.adventist.org/

Now, by order of the GC IMBTE Jesuit spiritual formation and spiritual directors compromise allof the Structure ministerial cadre. Students in the colleges are now taking Spiritual Formation classes, Spiritual Formation groups have been formed in the churches, and a completely new class of ministers called Spiritual Directors has been established.

The Rejection of Christ’s Testimony Regarding Rome Is Now Breathing Spirit Into the Image of the Beast.

The rejection of the vision of Christ Himself given in the book of Revelation, the book of Daniel,and the Great Controversy, with reference to the terrible danger of Rome and the Jesuits, has completely compromised the Structure to the place where the Jesuits, by pen and Spiritual Directors, are now educating the full spectrum of the Structure ministry, from pastors to evangelists, theologians, teachers, chaplains, and all other employees involved in spiritual formation, the students in training, and the people in the pew, with the most fundamental Jesuit training-spiritual formation.

Ignatian Spirituality

The Jesuits have a name for it -Ignatian Spirituality. Spiritual Directors now are imposing the very ‘spirituality,” Ignatius Spirituality, possessed by Ignatius de Loyola himself, upon all of Protestantism, including the Structure of Adventism, and even non-Christian religions such as Buddhism.

The prophecy of GC 564, 565, of Rome’s plan to wage “a fierce and determined conflict toregain control of the world, to re-establish persecution, and to undo all that Protestantismhas done,” is now most strikingly being fulfilled.

Forming All of Protestantism, Including the Structure, in the Image of the Jesuit Order

The result of this training will be to form the entire Structure of Adventism, as well as the structures of the other Protestant churches, from Methodism, the Southern Baptists, Episcopalians and Salvation Army, to even the Mennonites, in the image of the Jesuit order. There is no more effective way than this formation of the image of the Jesuit Order could take place than to institute the very training of Jesuit Order in all the Protestant Churches.

The Jesuits ran the Inquisition (GC 235). The Jesuits ran the Nazi SS, which was formed in the image of the Jesuit Order, through Heinrich Himmler, whom Hitler said was ‘our Ignatius deLoyola,” and Himmler’s uncle in the SS, who was a Jesuit.

A Chilling Observation

It is impossible to know how many pastors are following Derek Morris’ example and advice andis now under the personal direction of the Jesuit-trained Spiritual Directors, who are co-ordinated by Spiritual Directors International; run by Jesuits [a Jesuit is the secretary of Spiritual Directors International], and Dominican, Franciscan, Benedictine and other priests and nuns. The thought that the Order that ran the Inquisition and Nazi SS has now been givenan open door to form and run the Structure ministry is a chilling one indeed.

This major and critical development of implementing the most fundamental Jesuit training inall of Protestantism, and even Buddhism, is a fundamental component of the erection of the image of the beast, foretold in Revelation 13. This is the breathing into the image of the spirit of Jesuitism. The ultimate end result will be the imposition of the Mark of the Beast, and finally the universal death decree.

The Way of Truth

The way of truth is the way of Scripture itself, the way of true Protestantism. It is the way offaith in following the Master in true discipleship, being taught by the Master Himself, with no human mediator between the soul and Christ. The way of truth is the way of meeting the conditions of discipleship, coming to Christ, hating father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children,and even one’s own life, or we cannot be His disciple. Luke 14:26. The way of truth is the way of putting our trust in Christ alone, and not in any confidant or guide or friend. Micah 7: 5-7. For those who forsake all for Christ, He has promised a hundred fold more, with persecutions,and with the promise of eternal life with Him forever and ever. Please, my friends, be very vigilant and watch for these things that are overtaking Protestantism. The Holy Spirit will continue to guide you and family into all truth, and remember, Jesus Christ said, “I am the way the truth and the way, no man cometh unto the Father except by me. John 14:6.
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Obama Mocks Republican 'Armageddon' Rhetoric on Healthcare bill - CNN

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Obama Mocks Republican 'Armageddon' Rhetoric on Healthcare bill - CNN

researchris2 March 29, 2010 http://researchris.blogspot.com
http://freedomwatchnews.blogspot.com
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Judges Skeptical of Detainee Case against Rumsfeld

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Judges Skeptical of Detainee Case against Rumsfeld
By Pete Yost, Associated Press

Washington (AP) - A panel of judges has expressed doubts that former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and three former military officers can be sued for allegedly allowing torture in U.S. military prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In arguments Thursday in a federal appeals court, two of the three judges seemed skeptical that Rumsfeld and three U.S. military officials could face damage claims for exercising command responsibility over subordinates accused of torturing prisoners. Nine prisoners have filed suit.

Judge David Sentelle says lawyers for the detainees are going against two centuries of Supreme Court jurisprudence by seeking money for non-U.S. citizens held in a foreign country.

An attorney for the prisoners, Cecillia Wang, says Rumsfeld and the officers shouldn't be allowed to escape accountability.

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Banks Repossess 1 Million Homes in 2010

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Banks Repossess 1 Million Homes in 2010
By Janna Herron, Associated Press
foreclosure

In this Jan. 10 2011 photo, a man walks past the office of Girouard Properties, which specializes in residential re-sale of single family homes and condominiums/townhomes, in San Mateo, Calif. Lenders are poised to take back more homes this year than any other since the foreclosure crisis started in 2006, says industry tracker RealtyTrac Inc. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

New York (AP) - The bleakest year in foreclosure crisis has only just begun.

Lenders are poised to take back more homes this year than any other since the U.S. housing meltdown began in 2006. About 5 million borrowers are at least two months behind on their mortgages and more will miss payments as they struggle with job losses and loans worth more than their home's value, industry analysts forecast.

"2011 is going to be the peak," said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at foreclosure tracker RealtyTrac Inc. The firm predicts 1.2 million homes will be repossessed this year by lenders.

The outlook comes after banks repossessed more than 1 million homes in 2010, RealtyTrac said Thursday. That marked the highest annual tally of properties lost to foreclosure on records dating back to 2005.

One in 45 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing last year, or a record high of 2.9 million homes. That's up 1.67 percent from 2009.

For December, 257,747 U.S. homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice. That was the lowest monthly total in 30 months. The number of notices fell 1.8 percent from November and 26.3 percent from December 2009, RealtyTrac said.

The pace slowed in the final two months of 2010 as banks reviewed their foreclosure processes after allegations surfaced in September that evictions were handled improperly. Under increased scrutiny by the government, lenders temporarily halted taking actions against borrowers severely behind on their payments.

However, most banks have since resumed their eviction processes, and the first quarter will likely show a rebound in foreclosure activity, Sharga said.

Foreclosures are expected to remain elevated through the year as homeowners contend with stubbornly high unemployment, tougher credit standards for refinancing and falling home values. Sharga said he expects prices to dip another 5 percent nationally before finally bottoming out. The decline will push more borrowers underwater on their mortgages. Already, about one in five homeowners with a mortgage owe more than their home is worth.

The pain likely will be the most acute in states that have already been hit hard. That includes former housing boom states Nevada, Arizona, Florida and California, along with states that are suffering most from the economic downturn, including Michigan and Illinois.

Nevada posted the highest foreclosure rate in 2010 for the fourth straight year, despite a 5 percent decline in activity from the year before. One in every 11 households received a foreclosure filing last year in the state. In December, foreclosure activity increased 18 percent from November with a 71 percent spike in bank repossessions.

Arizona and California also showed sharp December increases in the number of homes banks took back, at 52 percent and 47 percent, respectively. Arizona, along with Florida, finished the year at No. 2 and No. 3 for the highest foreclosure rates.

One in every 17 Arizona households got a foreclosure filing last year, while one in 18 received a notice in Florida.

California, Utah, Georgia, Michigan, Idaho, Illinois and Colorado rounded out the top ten states with the highest foreclosure rates.

More than half of the country's foreclosure activity came out of five states in 2010: California, Florida, Arizona, Illinois and Michigan. Together, these states recorded almost 1.5 million households receiving a filing, despite year-over-year decreases in California, Florida and Arizona.

RealtyTrac tracks notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions and home repossessions - warnings that can lead up to a home eventually being lost to foreclosure.

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Supreme Court to Consider Appeal in Child Porn Case That Predates Federal Child Porn Law

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Supreme Court to Consider Appeal in Child Porn Case That Predates Federal Child Porn Law
By Mark Sherman, Associated Press
Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Washington (AP) - In retrospect, Gary Peel's first mistake on the road to his conviction on child pornography charges was the affair he began in 1974 with his sister-in-law. She was 16 at the time.

It probably also was not a good idea to take nude pictures of her. Or keep them for three decades. And it certainly was not advisable to try to use the pictures to blackmail his ex-wife, the woman's sister, into redoing their divorce settlement. Especially because his ex-wife had gone to federal authorities, who recorded the blackmail attempt on tape.

The photos led to Peel's conviction for possession of child pornography, a conviction that Peel, once a successful lawyer, now is asking the Supreme Court to overturn. The justices are meeting Friday to consider accepting new appeals, including Peel's.

"This is a child pornography case that does not involve a child," Peel's lawyers told the court in their brief. They are claiming violations of the First Amendment and of the Constitution's bar against ex post facto convictions for violating laws that were not in place when an alleged crime occurred.

In the first place, they argue, the age of consent in Illinois was 16 in 1974, which they say means Peel's affair did not violate state law.

There also was no federal child pornography statute at the time. It was enacted in 1978 and, after being amended, now applies to sexual depictions of children younger than 18.

The Justice Department is urging the court to reject the appeal. Peel "is being punished for his possession of child pornography in 2006," acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal said in a court filing. In addition, the government disputes that the affair between Peel and the woman was legal at the time.

The court does not even need to consider any of those issues now, Katyal said, because the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago has ordered the trial judge to redo Peel's prison sentence and throw out a bankruptcy fraud or obstruction of justice conviction that went along with the child pornography charge. Peel had been sentenced to 12 years in prison.

The 7th Circuit upheld the child pornography conviction, dismissing questions about whether prosecutors proved that Peel recalled in 2006 that the woman in the photographs was 16 at the time they were taken.

"He had known her since she was in fourth grade," Judge Richard Posner said in describing a series of contacts between them, "and years later had represented her in her divorce proceeding."

Peel, now in his mid-60s, was a prominent lawyer in Illinois' Madison County, northeast of St. Louis. He and Deborah Peel divorced in 2003 and, beset by financial difficulties, Peel filed for bankruptcy in 2005. A short while later, he approached his ex-wife, acknowledging the long-ago affair and telling her about the photographs.

Peel intimated he might make them public if his ex-wife did not let him out of his financial obligations to her. He eventually showed her the originals at a meeting that was being recorded by federal agents and included this exchange:

"So you resort to blackmailing me?" she said.

Peel replied, "There's nothing left. I'm down to no kids, no grandkids, no money."

Before he got into legal trouble, Peel scored several prominent courtroom victories. In a 1983 case, he won a $3 million judgment for Mary Bacon, a horse jockey who sued a local race track over injuries.

In 1990, Peel won a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Facing sanctions for advertising himself as a certified civil trial specialist, Peel lost a state Supreme Court ruling that his advertising claim was misleading because it made him seem more qualified than other lawyers who do the same type of work.

But by a 5-4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states may not ban potentially misleading information if the information also may be presented in a way that is not deceptive. Peel did not argue the case in Washington.

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Catholic Doctor Explains Native American Prayer He Delivered at Arizona Memorial

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Catholic Doctor Explains Native American Prayer He Delivered at Arizona Memorial
Carlos Gonzales

Dr. Carlos Gonzales delivering a Native American blessing at Wednesday's memorial service at the University of Arizona.

(CNSNews.com) - Wednesday night’s memorial service for the shooting victims in Tucson did not open with a prayer from a Jewish rabbi, a Protestant minister or a Catholic priest--it began with a Native American “blessing” that left many puzzled about what it meant and why it was performed.


The prayer, which did not use the word "God" and did not make the traditional request for God’s comfort for the bereaved that many might have expected, did mention the Creator and called for "honoring" the Seven Directions, including “Father Sky” and "Mother Earth”--and remembering our "fellow creatures" who "crawl on the earth” and “slither on the earth.”


The blessing was presented by Dr. Carlos Gonzales, an associate professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.


“I was asked by the university to give a traditional Native American blessing,” Gonzales told CNSNews.com late Thursday. “This is the type of blessing that we give at memorial services to open up a ceremony. A medicine man will do a variation of it to open up a pow-wow. It’s basically a recognition of the powers of the seven directions and how they influence human beings--and how each direction has a certain characteristic; that when you pray to that direction, you ask for the inspiration that comes from that direction.”

The eight-minute oration Gonzales prayed Wednesday night before a crowd of more than 14,000 at the University of Arizona’s McKale Memorial Center may have sounded strange to many Americans.

Holding an eagle feather, the physician and professor began by introducing himself--at length.

“On my mother’s side I am Mexican, a child of the descendents of a pioneer family from Mejico, that came in the 1800s. On my father’s side, I’m Yaqui, refugees from Mexico that escaped the genocide of the Pascua Yaqui in the 1800s. For myself, I am fifth generation in the valley of Tucson.”
Gonzales then gave honor to the various directions of the compass: “Let’s begin by honoring the eastern door, from where we get visions and guidance. May each of us get the vision and guidance to proceed in a good way,” Gonzales prayed.
He also asked for strength from “Father Sky,” which he called the “masculine energy,” and “Mother Earth,” the “feminine energy.”
“O Creator, may the two energies, the masculine energy and the feminine energy, come together in our center where the Creator exists. For each of us has a piece of the Creator. Please, you have given each of us a gift. May we use these gifts to help our fellow human beings,” he prayed.
Gonzales' prayer also mentioned ancestors and said "let us not forget our fellow creatures," including “those that stand,” “those that blow in the wind,” “those that are tall and stately,” “those that crawl on the earth,” and “those that slither on the earth” and “those that live under the Earth,” as well as two those who swim in water and fly in the sky.
In an interview Thursday with CNSNews.com, Gonzales explained the meaning behind what he was doing in the blessing.
“The seven directions are basically the cardinal directions, Father Sky, which is up above us, and Mother Earth, which is down below us, and the seventh direction, which is the center, where the Creator exists,” he told CNSNews.com.

“It’s basically a way of acknowledging God’s Creation, and it’s a way of acknowledging by honoring those cardinal directions and what they have to say to us,” he added. “For example, the east is where the sun comes up in the morning, and as the sun comes up, it lights the path of the world, therefore the East is seen as having the power to guide us and to give us vision and to help us through as we walk on this earth.”

It would be a mistake, however, to call the Native American beliefs he was expressing a religion, Gonzales said.
“It’s not truly a religion, it’s more of a way of appreciating spirituality,” Gonzales told CNSNews.com. “I’m Yaqui and Yaquis have been Roman Catholics since 1650. We were one of the first tribes in Mexico to actually peacefully absorb Catholicism; however we have always practiced Catholicism in our own unique manner, incorporating traditional beliefs, and so I grew up as a Roman Catholic with a Yaqui variation.”
“In reality, I’m Catholic, but the spirituality I’ve come across with traditional healers is one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen, and it’s a way of approaching people and it’s an additional way of healing that has actually helped me to be a better family doc.”

None of the victims of the Tucson massacre were known to be Yaqui.  Moreover, no rabbi, Catholic priest or Protestant minister, the known religions of the victims, was included in the memorial program.

Gonzales said the idea for a Native American blessing came from University of Arizona President Robert Shelton.

“President Shelton has a Native American advisor here at the university to deal with American Indian health policies in Arizona, and he asked her if someone could come and do a traditional blessing,” Gonzales told CNSNews.com. “She’s heard me do these blessings before in other places, and so she recommended my name.”

The invitation to pray came late Tuesday, and he accepted. “The way we believe, and the traditional way, is that if somebody asks, you cannot refuse, so I accepted.”

Gonzales repeated that he is not a shaman or medicine man, and had to obtain permission from tribal elders to do what he did
“I’m just a regular MD. I teach family medicine here at the College of Medicine, but what’s happened is that in my path towards getting a better appreciation of healing and healing knowledge, I’ve actually interacted with medicine men to see how they approach people who are ill and unwell. So I’ve learned a lot of their philosophy of healing and their philosophy of life,” he said.

Gonzales, meanwhile, said the “Creator” he mentioned in the prayer is “whoever your particular denomination deems to be the important entity.”

“For Native Americans, it’s the Creator of the Universe,” Gonzales said. “In Christian denominations, it would be God.”

A Different Reality


Dr. Angela Tarango, a religious studies scholar at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, explained that Gonzales’ prayer may have sounded strange to the uninitiated, but was actually very much in keeping with traditional Indian blessings.


“In traditional native religion, there is a sense that the world needs to be balanced,” she told CNSNews.com. “It needs to be in sync with everything. And when something terrible happens, it needs to be rebalanced properly.”


Tarango also defended Gonzales' lengthy autobiographical introduction by saying that traditional Native American culture demanded it.


“You have to do that in native culture. When you come in, you don’t just come in, not saying who you are. You have to say where you come from. Outsiders who work with native people understand this. They have to say, ‘I am so and so, and I am from so and so people.’ It’s a sense of what peoples you are from.


There is no question, she said, that Native American spirituality is different. In it, one opens spiritual “doors” to go through to different “realities” in the natural world.


“In the native view of the world there is no heaven and no hell. So when you die, you go on to be with your ancestors in the next world, which is a lot like the world that you leave, but it’s a lot nicer, and you’re there with the spirits of your ancestors. That’s what he’s saying, that in some sense that the ancestors greeted the spirits of these people that passed away and have taken them into the spirit world,” she added.


Gonzales, meanwhile, said his invocation was simply a way “to bring positive energy into a gathering of that type.”


“I wasn’t trying to give a lecture to anybody,” he said. “It was a prayer. It was simply a prayer.”

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In Wake of Arizona Attack, Slew of Death Wishes Were Tweeted Against Sarah Palin

Amplify’d from www.cnsnews.com

In Wake of Arizona Attack, Slew of Death Wishes Were Tweeted Against Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin signs copies of her book, "America By Heart," in Little Rock, Ark., on Nov. 30, 2010. (AP File Photo/Brian Chilson)

(CNSNews.com) – The Jan. 8 attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and the subsequent media focus on former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's (R) opposition to Giffords's reelection in 2010 sparked a slew of death wishes against the prominent Republican on the social networking site Twitter.

Approximately 50 anti-Palin tweets were compiled in a YouTube video published Jan. 10. Most were made on Jan. 8, the day of the shooting.

The compilation leads off with one user asking on Jan. 9, “When will the crosshairs fall over a Palin? Don’t any liberals own guns and forget to take their meds? C’mon already.” The “crosshairs” was a  reference to Palin’s electoral map that featured crosshair bullseyes over districts the former governor thought conservatives could win.

Another user wrote on Jan. 8,  “I hope Sarah Palin dies an ugly death and takes her moronic hate with her.”

Another wrote, “My hatred for Sarah Palin continues to grow. I think this woman should be assassinated.”

Many of the tweets, as twitter messages are called, included so-called hashtags, phrases proceeded by the pound sign, calling Palin offensive epithets.

Some tweets also included death wishes again other prominent conservative or Republican figures, including Fox News commentator Glenn Beck and what appeared to be a reference to former President George W. Bush.

“People like Palin and Beck should be the ones getting shot at,” one tweet from Jan. 8 read. “Sadly it’s never warmongers like Palin and Bush that get shot,” another stated the same day.

One tweet complained that mass murders do not ever happen at Palin’s public events: “Ugh. All the wrong people get shot. Why doesn’t this kind of thing happen at a Sarah Palin event?”

Other tweets called for Palin to kill herself:

“All we’re asking is for Palin to say she shouldn’t have used crosshairs and violent rhetoric and [that] she won’t do it again and to shoot herself,” one user said Jan. 10.

“Listen. I don’t want much from Sarah Palin. I just want her to admit partial fault, then shoot herself in the face. Is that wrong,” another said on Jan. 8

CNSNews.com verified each tweet using Twitter’s advanced search function.

The full video can be found here

Read more at www.cnsnews.com