December 1, 2008
(Ventura, California) - Tens of millions of Americans have already suffered substantial financial losses in the wake of the sub-prime mortgage crisis and subsequent financial challenges. A new survey from The Barna Group shows that more than 150 million adults said they have been affected by the economic turbulence, and most of them expect it to take several years before the nation fully recovers. Americans are now passing on their financial pain to churches and other non-profit organizations by cutting back substantially on their giving during the fourth quarter of 2008. Those reductions - occurring during the most important quarter of the year for donor-driven organizations - will cripple thousands of smaller and less stable donor-supported organizations.
Many People Hit Hard
Two out of every three families - 68% - have been noticeably affected by the financial setbacks in America. Nearly one out of every four (22%) said they have been impacted in a major way, almost four out of ten have been affected only somewhat and about one out of every twelve (8%) say they have not been affected too much.
Interestingly, the people least affected have been those under 30 years of age - perhaps because relatively few of them have substantial retirement funds - as well as Asian households and those who describe themselves as mostly conservative on social and political issues.
Overall, more than one-quarter of adults (28%) said they had lost at least 20% of the value of their retirement and 401K accounts. The same share of the public (28%) said they had lost 20% or more of the value of the stocks and bonds that they owned.
Born again adults were slightly less likely than were others to have sustained such substantial financial losses in recent months. While 30% of the born again public has lost 20% or more of its retirement portfolio value, the same was true for 37% of non-born again adults. Similarly, just 31% of the born again segment had lost 20% or more of the value of their stocks and bonds compared to 36% among the non-born again Christians.
No Quick Fix Expected
On average, Americans believe it will take about three years before the economy fully recovers. Only one out of four adults (24%) said the economy would completely recover within a year; 30% said it would take two or three years; and 32% said it would take more than three years. A small proportion (2%) said they do not believe the economy will ever completely recover.
The most pessimistic people are Asians, upscale adults, and sociopolitical liberals. The study also showed that people who voted for Barack Obama are significantly more likely to expect a prolonged period of recovery than are people who voted for John McCain.
Cutbacks in Church Giving
During the past three months, one of the ways that adults have adjusted to their financial hardships has been by reducing their charitable giving. In total, one out of every five households (20%) has decreased its giving to churches or other religious centers.
Church cutbacks have been most common among downscale households (30%) and those families which are struggling with serious financial debt (43%). Not surprisingly, 31% of those who have lost 20% or more of their retirement fund value have sliced their church donations, as have 29% of the people who have lost 20% or more of the value in their stock portfolio.
The degree of reduction in giving is significant for churches. Among people who have decreased giving to churches and religious centers, 19% dropped their giving by as much as 20%, 5% decreased their generosity by 21% to 49%, 17% reduced their giving by half, and 11% sliced their provision by more than half. In addition, 22% said they had stopped their giving altogether.
The most widespread reduction in amount of money given to religious centers was detected among people under 25 (47% who had been affected by the downturn reduced their gifts by more than half of what they usually gave); upscale households (48%); Hispanics (43%); non-born again Christians (40%); and sociopolitical moderates (39%).
How Churches Are Responding
The Barna study revealed that many churches have attempted to help their congregants understand and responsibly address the current financial challenges. Among those who attend a Christian church, the survey found that one-third (35%) said their church had offered a special talk about the financial situation and ways to respond to it. Such a presentation was more commonly cited by those who attend a Protestant church (38%) than by those who attend a Catholic church (27%).
A similar proportion (37%) said their church had offered specific opportunities for personal financial counseling. This response was more frequently cited by those who attend a Protestant church (39%) than by those who attend a Catholic church (28%).
Providing special prayer support for those who were struggling financially was noted by 73% of church-goers. Once again, this response was more likely to be identified by Protestants (78%) than by Catholics (64%).
About half of Christian church attenders (52%) said that their church had increased the amount of material assistance made available to congregants during the past three months, such as food, clothing and other basic needs. In this case, there was no difference in the responses of those attending a Catholic church and those going to a Protestant congregation.
Reductions in Giving to Non-Profits
The million-plus organizations recognized by the government as non-profit agencies have reason to worry about the economic climate, too. Nearly one-third of all adults (31%) said they have already reduced the amount of money they are donating to non-profit entities.
Cutbacks in gifts to non-profits are especially common among the one-quarter of the population who are immersed in serious financial debt (49%). It is also a common response among adults who are feeling stressed out (39%), African Americans (36%), downscale households (36%), and registered Democrats (36%)
Among those who are decreasing their giving to non-profits, 53% are simultaneously decreasing their generosity to churches or other religious centers, as well.
Other Responses to Financial Suffering
Americans have responded to the nation’s economic woes in other ways besides reducing their generosity. So far, 5% have moved to less expensive housing. This has been especially common among people with serious financial debt (14%), people under age 25 (13%), and downscale adults (11%).
Potentially Devastating Impacts
George Barna, whose company conducted the survey, commented that the economic woes hitting families will be felt in a major way by churches and non-profits by the end of the year. Most non-profits and churches count on the fourth quarter of the year to produce at least one-third of their annual income. Deficit spending is common during the first three quarters, with the expectation that holiday giving will enable the organization to meet its budget projections. This year is likely to be very different. The giving patterns we’re witnessing suggest that churches, alone, will receive some $3 billion to $5 billion dollars less than expected during this fourth quarter. The average church can expect to see its revenues dip about 4% to 6% lower than would have been expected without the economic turmoil. We anticipate that other non-profit organizations will be hit even harder.
Barna encouraged church leaders to embrace a new mindset for their financial projections. With a large share of congregants expecting the nation’s economic woes to drag on for several years, it would be wise for churches and non-profits to reconfigure their financial models and plan to spend more cautiously over the coming two or three quarters, he explained. Even if a congregation continues to grow numerically, this is not a good time to use dated financial projections and models. People’s attitudes about generosity have been altered, as shown by their immediate donation behavior. We anticipate that a greater percentage of church-goers will decrease both their giving levels and frequency over the next year or so. This is a time for church leaders to demonstrate restraint and wisdom in their financial decisions.

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Anyway here are the links to the lists
Top 10 Scariest Movies Ever - Everybody loves a good scary movie. The next time you are in the mood for a freight, just check out my list and take your pick. I watch a lot of movies and even though there have been some great new additions to the horror genre recently (the Saw series among others), youll notice that my list is dominated with all the classics. I tried hard to fit in some of the more modern efforts but I couldnt not include any of those in my top 10. The Silence Of The Lambs is the youngest of the lot and it was released 17 years ago. So come on horror directors/writers, get the finger out.

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(1) Follow the link to the 2Dogs web site submissions page . This link will take you to PAGE 1 of the submissions pages (there are 4 PAGES TOTAL with a total of 81 dogs and one cat)

(2) Click on the image of your candidate. That will open a pop-up window and take you to the Click and Pledge site. This new page will show you all the animals you can vote for. Be patient -- the page will take some time to load.

(3) To read each animals story, move your cursor over the 'More Info' link.

(4) Determine how many votes you want to cast for your candidate. ($1.00 buys 1 vote). Enter the numerical amount of votes in the Enter Quantity box. For example, entering 20 will give 20 votes to that candidate and cost you $20.00.

(5) Click on the Add to Cart button. You will see a Loading Please Wait message. Be patient. It takes some time to load. In the meantime, have your credit or debit card ready.

(6) Under Your Selections at the top of the page, check to make sure your candidate and the number of votes is correct.

(7) If you make a boo-boo (like I did) you can go to the top of the page where it registers the number of selections, and change it. Again, this takes time, especially if youre on dial-up.

(8) When you are done casting your votes for the companion(s) of your choice, click on the Go To Checkout button. Again, up pops a Loading Please Wait message. Please be patient!

(9) At the checkout, make sure the number of votes is correct for your candidate. Submit your votes by clicking Pay Now.

(10) Enter your information and then click Process Payment.

(11) Print out your receipt for your records.



Vote tallies will be posted daily to our Blog as well as the 2 Dogs Daily email.

Please direct questions to calendar@2dogs2000miles.org

Remember, there are three pages of pictures on the 2Dogs web site, so if you dont see your dog (or cat!), on the first page, click on page 2 or page 3.

Even if you have a particular companion youre voting for, we hope you will take time to read each story. All these animals deserve our respect and admiration for their brave struggles, and we can learn a lesson from each of them.

Please Note: Because Click and Pledge limits the number of characters for any one photo description, your stories have had to be edited. I think Luke did a great job of editing each story. Luke and I discussed this and, if we get enough requests, I will be happy to post all the complete stories with photos of each contestant to the blog after voting is underway. If youre interested in seeing all the complete stories with pictures on the blog, please email me at sturmie@bellsouth.net . If I get enough requests, I will post all the stories in their entirety.

Please dont forget to tell your friends and family to vote! The 13 dogs (or cat) with the most votes will each be given a month of his/her own on the calendar. Remember, there will be one winner for each month AND one ultimate winner for the cover. But ALL photos will be included in the calendar, so no one loses.

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Would you like having your bad credit records cleaned in no time? if you are one of several people facing difficulties managing your debts, then a debt consolidation program could be the best option in order to get your finance in a healthy state. However, question like what is the best debt consolidation provider? or which program is more suitable for you remain.
First of all, by consolidating all your debt you get a fresh start, meaning that putting all your debt in a larger one and paying just one monthly payment will, for sure, help ordering your finance and giving you some extra cash that at time probably you do not have, now it is important point out the ways you can get this accomplished, and determine which one is better in your specific situation.
As mentioned before, getting a loan is the way to get your bad credit cleaned, it could sound odd that by getting a loan you will resolve others loans debt and that lenders will be willing to give you another larger loan, but as matter of fact there are debt consolidation loan providers willing to work with you, if you have very bad credit, then a collateral should be needed, in these cases you can borrow against the equity in your home, this is the cheapest way to go because of precisely the collateral, while there is a risk involved, there is the benefit of cheaper interest rate too.
The other way for bad credit debt consolidation is with the help of counseling services, the idea behind these ones is that by contact your creditors they will get reduced the amount you owe, also reducing or eliminating interest on your debt, through repayments schedules that meet your monthly budget they get your finance ordered, debt consolidation counseling services are very effective lowering your monthly payments.
As you can see, these are the best ways to face your bad credit and, sometimes a debt consolidation is the only way to get four finances back in order, specialized advise in this situation is priceless and recommendable.
Summing up, by a thoroughly researching and then comparing as much debt consolidation services, consumers are to identify the company that meet your specific financial situation, plus the cheapest interest rate the debit consolidation market is offering. Nevertheless, it is recommendable going with a seasoned and reputable debit counselor before making any decision, this is the way you will save time through specialized advise and cash by getting better results in a reduced span of time.

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