"In a survey in February by the National Association of Home Builders, builders and architects predicted that more than 60 percent of custom houses would have dual master bedrooms by 2015, according to Gopal Ahluwalia, staff vice president of research at the builders association. Some builders say more than a quarter of their new projects already do."
At its recent annual meeting the National Association of Evangelicals affirmed two documents:
1) The NAE board endorsed "An Evangelical Declaration Against Torture: Protecting Human Rights in An Age of Terror." The 18-page document, which was produced by Evangelicals for Human Rights and can be viewed at www.evangelicalsforhumanrights.org, states: "From a Christian perspective, every human life is sacred. Recognition of this transcendent moral dignity is non-negotiable for us as evangelical Christians in every area of life, including our assessment of public policies. We write this declaration to affirm our support for detainee human rights and opposition to any resort to torture."
2) The board also reaffirmed its support for the landmark "For the Health of the Nation" document unanimously adopted in 2003, commending its “principles of Christian political engagement to our entire community for action."
These principles include: (1) We work to protect religious freedom and liberty of conscience; (2) We work to nurture family life and protect children; (3) We work to protect the sanctity of human life and to safeguard its nature; (4) We seek justice and compassion for the poor and vulnerable; (5) We work to protect human rights; (6) We seek peace and work to restrain violence; (7) We labor to protect God's creation.An excerpt from the Phildelphia Daily News Op-Ed section by Tony Campolo, talking about Red-Letter Christians:
"Since being evangelical is usually synonymous with being Republican in the popular mind, and since calling ourselves "progressive" might be taken as a value judgment of those who do not join us, we decided not to call ourselves "progressive evangelicals." We knew we needed to come up with a new name. We decided to call ourselves "Red-Letter Christians."
By calling ourselves Red-Letter Christians, we are alluding to the fact that in several versions of the Bible, the words of Jesus are printed in red. In adopting this name we are saying that we are committed to living out the things that He said.
Of course, what is read in those red-lettered verses is radical, to say the least. If you don't believe me, read what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).
In those red letters you will find him calling us away from the consumerist values that dominate the American consciousness. He calls us to be merciful, which has strong implications for how we think about capital punishment. And when Jesus told us to love our enemies, he probably meant we shouldn't kill them. Most important, if we take Jesus seriously, we will realize that He makes meeting the needs of the poor a primary responsibility for His followers."
To be fair here is a somewhat hostile rebuttal to Red Letter Christians.
Finally... Christy and I both had (RED) shirts from Gap. Christian Science Monitor wrote a story about them.
(RED), launched by rock star Bono and Bobby Shriver last year, has drawn praise for raising $25 million for AIDS medications in Africa, as well as some reservations about marketing costs and a lack of transparency. Such tensions are not uncommon within the rapidly growing business of cause-related marketing, which puts a corporation's advertising dollars behind a nonprofit's cause.
"We hijacked marketing budgets that would normally have gone for good products, but now they're going for good products that will also bring money into Africa," says Tamsin Smith, president of (RED). "There are 10 miles of Gap windows in the United States. And for many weeks [those displays] were talking about AIDS in Africa."
(RED) says no dollar figure can really be placed on raising awareness about the 5,500 people dying of AIDS each day in Africa. It also rejects the $100 million figure as too high by tens of millions of dollars.
Though Gap is not as explicit [with how much money it actually donates], its commitment to the cause is undeniable: It has signed on for about five years, sent factory work to Africa, and devoted prime advertising, store space, and employee training to it. "The amount of real estate that Gap has given to this campaign – it's truly tremendous," says Mr. Feldman. [this might be better than any actual money they donate to the Global Fund]
Save a Darfur Refugee for only $28.20! Find out how here!
Don't forget about Save Darfur Coalition
That's probably enough to bore you with today! Thanks for reading!
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