DENVER - Negative opinions about Islam are on the rise, Mormons are viewed as Christian but different and Pope Benedict XVI trails his predecessor in popularity, a poll of Americans released Tuesday said.
The survey of 3,000 adults from Aug. 1-18 was conducted for the Pew Research Center and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
The number of Americans who say Islam has little or nothing in common with their own religion has spiked to 70 percent in the past two years from 59 percent, the poll found.
Another significant shift has taken place: In 2005, 36 percent of the public said Islam is more likely than other faiths to encourage violence among its believers. That number has risen to 45 percent.
Fifty-three percent of Americans viewed Mormonism positively, while 27 percent viewed Mormons unfavorably.
A slim majority - 52 percent - said Mormonism is a Christian religion. Yet among non-Mormon believers, more than six in ten said Mormonism and their own religion are very different.
The poll also found that Pope Benedict XVI has high approval ratings with the public two years into his papacy: 73 percent with an opinion view him favorably. Those numbers lag behind ...   more »

Accuses Caterpillar of helping to destroy Palestinian property
Israel Defense Forces bulldozer
The United Methodist Church's official lobby office is urging church agencies and members to divest their holdings in Caterpillar Inc. because the company sells bulldozers to Israel.
United Methodist General Board of Church and Society sponsored the resolution, accusing Caterpillar of facilitating Israel's destruction of Palestinian property.
Caterpillar, along with Israel, was the target of a lawsuit by the family of Rachel Corrie after the activist was crushed by a bulldozer in 2003 while attempting to block the destruction of a Palestinian home used to facilitate arms smuggling.
The resolution will go before the United Methodist General Conference in April 2008.
The 7.9 million member church's pension agency reportedly has $5 million in Caterpillar stock out of $15 billion in assets.
Other mainline churches, including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Church of England, recently have rejected similar measures.
However, WND reported earlier when the Presbyterian Church hosted a three-day meeting to justify to denomination leaders its decision to divest from Israel, presenting what one church elder described as a panel of "full-time, paid, anti-Israel propagandists."
The denomination's General Assembly had voted 431-62 to divest from the Jewish ...   more »

When Jerome Corsi and I first began reporting on the quiet conspiracy to integrate the U.S. politically, socially and economically with Mexico and Canada, we were castigated, ridiculed, marginalized ands demeaned by elected officials, our colleagues in the press and some radio talk-show hosts.
We were making it all up, they said.
Congress has never considered any such action, they scolded.
Show us the legislation, they demanded.
Not one responsible official in Washington sees any such threat, they claimed.
This is black-helicopter stuff, they scoffed.
Recently, all seven of the 11 candidates who showed up for the Republican presidential debate organized by "values voters" in Florida acknowledged this European Union-style movement and pledged to halt it should any of them be elected.
(Column continues below)
Recently, Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., introduced a resolution expressing the sense of Congress that the U.S. "should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System or enter into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada." Already it has 27 cosponsors from both sides of the aisle.
Even President George W. Bush, seen as one of the architects of this plan for integration of the three North American ...   more »

Bush administration pushing for ratification in next 3 weeks 
WASHINGTON – For the second time in three years, the Bush administration is putting on a major effort for Senate ratification of the United Nations' Law of the Sea Treaty, a wide-ranging measure critics say will grant the U.N. control of 70 percent of the planet under its oceans.
With Democrats in nearly unanimous agreement with the treaty and the Bush administration behind it, it will be up to a handful of determined Republican senators to derail it from getting a two-thirds vote in the upper house.
The treaty is currently under review by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and could be approved by the entire Senate in the next three weeks, before popular opposition has a chance to grow.
This is not the first time LOST has come up, of course. International negotiators drafted it in 1982 in an attempt to establish a comprehensive legal regime for international management of the seas and their resources. President Ronald Reagan, however, refused to sign LOST because he realized that the treaty doesn't serve U.S. interests.
In 1994, however, President Clinton signed a revised version of the treaty and forwarded it to the ...   more »