Revelation 2:5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
Important Takeaways:
- U.S. Church Attendance Still Lower Than Pre-Pandemic
- In the four years before the pandemic, 2016 through 2019, an average of 34% of U.S. adults said they had attended church, synagogue, mosque or temple in the past seven days. From 2020 to the present, the average has been 30%, including a 31% reading in a May 1-24 survey.
- The recent church attendance levels are about 10 percentage points lower than what Gallup measured in 2012 and most prior years.
- It is not clear if the pandemic is the cause of the reduced attendance or if the decline is a continuation of trends that were already in motion.
- Bottom Line – Americans have been less likely to attend religious services over the past three years, and at this point, it does not appear that church attendance will revert to pre-pandemic levels. These recent trends have added to the longer-term decline in religious participation that Gallup has documented over the past two decades.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 6:4 “And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.”
Important Takeaways:
- France: A ‘Field of Ruins’
- France, once again, is on the verge of chaos.
- The subject of the discontent is the adoption of a law reforming the pension system in a minimal way: the legal retirement age in France has been set at 62 since 2010; the law raises it two years, to 64.
- Neither members of the government nor economists on television dare to speak the truth: The French pension system is collapsing. The reform just adopted will not be enough to save it; just allow it to survive a bit longer.
- The system has been bankrupt for years, but its bankruptcy is growing more costly.
- The French pension system is not the only system collapsing. The country is facing a much larger crisis.
- The French health insurance system, also based on mandatory contributions deducted from salaries, also is in terrible shape.
- Food prices in 2022, meanwhile, increased 14.5%.
- The center-left and center-right parties are dead. Neither the Rebellious France Party nor the National Rally Party would be able gather enough votes to constitute an alternative majority. The political situation is blocked.
- “A modest reform based on an implacable demographic observation has tipped France into an existential crisis in which everything is wavering… A much deeper malaise is rising to the surface. That of a country haunted by its decline”. — Vincent Trémollet de Villers, Le Figaro, March 23, 2023.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 18:23:’For the merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.’
Important Takeaways:
- U.S. Manufacturing Declined in December at Fastest Rate Since Pandemic Began
- The S&P Global U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell at the fastest rate since May 2020 in December, a continuing sign that the manufacturing sector is on the decline, S&P Global reported Tuesday.
- The U.S. Manufacturing PMI posted a 46.2 in December, down from 47.7 in November and solidly below 50, which signals that the sector is contracting, according to S&P Global. Production levels contracted in back-to-back months, with new sales plummeting at the end of December at the fastest pace since 2007, as companies cited weakening demand amid “economic uncertainty” and inflation weighing on customers.
Read the original article by clicking here.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday that a recent decline in COVID-19 cases may be stalling, a development she described as concerning while urging that restrictions to fight the virus remain in place.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky told reporters the CDC was watching the concerning data closely.
The White House on Friday also urged companies to join efforts to help fight the pandemic by requiring mask wearing by employees and educating customers.
Andy Slavitt, a senior adviser on the White House’s COVID-19 response team, listed a number of companies that were taking measures to help with the pandemic fight and urged more to join.
Ford and the Gap were producing and donating millions of masks, he said, while Best Buy, Target and Dollar General were giving workers paid time off to get vaccines.
The White House is working on a broad campaign to educate Americans about the vaccine as it seeks to bring the pandemic that has killed more than 500,000 people in the United States under control.
President Joe Biden on Thursday noted concerns that later this spring supply of the vaccines would outstrip demand because of vaccine hesitancy.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Carl O’Donnell and Lisa Lambert; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
A new study from the Associated Press shows that abortions in the United States have decreased in nearly every state since 2010.
The AP report shows that abortions decreased about 12 percent.
The information came from the health departments of 45 states that compile statistic on abortions on a regular basis. The states that do not track abortion stats are California, Maryland, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Wyoming.
Americans United For Life President Charmaine Yoest praised the survey’s results.
“There’s an entire generation of women who saw a sonogram as their first baby picture,” she said. “There’s an increased awareness of the humanity of the baby before it is born.”
The survey showed increases in two states that are taking steps to make abortion more restrictive: Louisiana and Michigan. The increases in the states appear to be coming from women who travel from other states to avoid abortion restrictions in those states.
One Michigan company that owns a chain of abortion clinics advertises to women in Indiana and Ohio to come to their clinics, mentioning in one ad that it’s “less than 60 miles from Toledo.”
The largest decrease in abortions came in Hawaii, which fell from 3,064 in 2010 to 2,147 in 2014.
