Everyone deserves a birth and a death filled with grace. Death isn’t exactly the most comfortable dinner table topic. It is very intimate and personal. Facing the reality of death means confronting the possibility of suffering, pain, isolation and fear.Centura Health — a ministry of the Roman Catholic and Seventh-day Adventist churches — is facing a direct court challenge to our long-standing mission of extending the healing ministry of Christ in the Colorado End-Of-Life Options Act. This dialogue around death and suffering directly intersects with two even more uncomfortable topics — religion and politics.Most churches and faith traditions — Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity — have common formal positions and/or basic teachings about this legal, cultural, and spiritual issue. Every human life is sacred. All humans deserve dignity and respect. There is a divine law that transcends human law.Our ministries throughout Colorado and … [Read more...] about GUEST COLUMN: Court case challenging ministry’s mission
Opinion
Calls for Kavanaugh Impeachment are impeached: Darcy cartoon
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Last week, President Donald Trump announced his administration would justifiably pursue a ban of flavored e-cigarettes. What also should be stopped is the proverbial political vaping by Trump and some Democrats. Namely, Trump continuously blowing smoke about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and some Democratic candidates calling for the impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh following a sexual assault allegation, in a New York Times story and book, that has been impeached as uncorroborated hearsay. Saturday, The New Times ran a story, it latter had to correct, reporting allegations that Kavanaugh, while a student at Yale, exposed himself to a female classmate. The story was written by reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly as a quasi excerpt from their new book on Kavanaugh - “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation”The NYT editors later had to run a correction noting that the story failed to note that the supposed target of … [Read more...] about Calls for Kavanaugh Impeachment are impeached: Darcy cartoon
How to stop maddening third party spoilers
Jill Stein has been consigned to history, but she must never be forgotten. As a presidential candidate of the Green Party in 2016, she had an outsized influence on the arc of world events, thanks to her unintended role in saddling America with a dangerously unmoored man-child who has spent the past month obsessed with storm cleanup in Alabama. And we should always remember Ralph Nader — not for a lifetime of superb advocacy, but for his vanity campaign of 2000, when he burdened us with someone who, until recently, was the most incompetent president of this century. The long-term benefits: a global economic meltdown and a pointless war that we are still fighting. Astute foresight, Ralph.Nader and Stein didn’t want this to happen, and voters are bound to seek alternatives when the major-party nominees are as beloved to them as flesh-eating bacteria. But the math is undeniable: They both siphoned away enough votes to tip the presidential elections. And it could happen again in … [Read more...] about How to stop maddening third party spoilers
Holding Center: Could President Trump actually win again?
With the presidential election fast aproaching, a flush of polls hoping to predict its outcome has arrived. Most tilt in favor of President Donald Trump’s Democratic rivals, as was the case with one reported by Fox News that placed him behind candidates Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris. While many Democrats find these predictions reassuring, the stats are reminiscent of those published leading up to the 2016 election, one of which gave former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton a 99% chance of securing the presidency. Today, the number might better represent our pre-Trump naiveté, but it should also remind us to be realistic about the odds. It is true that Trump does not have the same standing as he did coming into the 2016 election, campaigning as an underdog with the benefit of a somewhat unprecedented candidacy. For better or for worse, the American people have witnessed the reality of a term under Trump, and many are soured on the … [Read more...] about Holding Center: Could President Trump actually win again?
USC must formalize its special interest tagging process
The echoes of the college admissions scandal continue to rock USC, and a new development has arisen with the trial of Robert Zangrillo. It was well revealed that Zangrillo, along with making a $200,000 payment to Rick Singer, the main defendant in the Varsity Blues case, made a payment of $50,000 to a USC official’s account. On Sept. 3, Bloomberg reported that Zangrillo’s defense attorneys believe they’ve uncovered evidence of a “university-wide program linking big donations and promises of future gifts with decisions on who gets in.” Zangrillo and his lawyers alleged that USC used a “special interest” tag to single out students who the University knew would bring in large donations. While USC has denied that this process has any impact on admission, it begs the greater question of the lack of formal processes surrounding special interest tagging and tracking of these candidates throughout the admission process. Zangrillo and his … [Read more...] about USC must formalize its special interest tagging process