well they weren't, but i'll make SURE they are now...
Posted on 03/24/2013 1:48:41 PM PDT by Olog-hai
March 24 is Palm Sunday, which means that millions of Christians across the country will be celebrating Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem by carrying palm leaves, often shaped in the form of a cross, into their places of worship. Where do these palms come from? Most likely they have been imported from one of a few Latin American countries: Guatemala, Belize, or southern Mexico, for instance. And most likely, they have been harvested in a manner that is harmful to the environment. Harvesters are often paid by volume rather than quality, and they have a strong incentive to cut as many leaves as possible, without paying attention to what this reckless cutting is doing to the fragile forests of one of the world’s most important ecological regions.
In a few select communities in northern Guatemala and the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, however, villagers—with help from governmental public lands agencies and organizations such as Rainforest Alliance and Pronatura Sur—have adopted a series of impressive harvesting practices aimed at protecting the environment and ensuring a long-term supply of sustainably-harvested palms. Because palm plants need the shade of the forest’s tall trees to survive, maintaining a sustainable palm crop also gives villagers an incentive to protect the forests as a whole. Churches in the United States should buy their palms from these villages. …
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Seriously? They always have to find a way to attack Christianity, don’t they. /rhetorical
Headline “Palm Sunday causing Global Warming during Sequester”. Bush’s fault.
Our church shifted to fake fronds, so they can be reused.
The Easter lilies, though, are real and placed throughout the sanctuary. After Easter, they can be planted or taken to nursing homes.
Know your enemy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slate_(magazine)
Slate is a United-States-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company. Since 4 June 2008 Slate has been managed by The Slate Group, an online publishing entity created by the Washington Post Company to develop and manage web-only magazines.
Mrs. Wexler’s little Jay Jay REALLY needs to find a hobby or something.
Hey Wexler! Go hump a donkey!
Are they fair trade/dolphin safe? Do they offer partner benefits for same sex couples? The pravda media wants to know!
I think this is a false report (consider the source!).
I happen to KNOW that most American Churches get their palms from several farms in South Florida. They are grown and harvested under careful conditions, as evidenced by the uniformity and health of the fronds used by churches (Catholic and Protestant) across America. If this article were true, the palms distributed would be various sizes, not green and healthy-looking like the palms we see. Thge harvest can only be done once a year anyway, so how could this be hurting the environment?
These family-owned and operated farms were featured on several TV documentaries, provide employment for harvesters during the off-season, and are a source of agricultural income for my state.
Not to mention they are a part of Christian Cultural life, which is, I suspect, the whole reason for this article in the first place.
well they weren't, but i'll make SURE they are now...
Get a life, Slate.
Oh, forgot, you’re liberals.
Please, leave the thinking to grownups.
I have no doubt that this is a false report.
Or as the saying goes, "With fronds like these, who needs enemas."
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
Who gives a fig.
Crypto Marxists
Oh good grief.
If it was part of a Muslim celebration you wouldn’t hear a word.
Bump
“Most likely they have been imported...”
Fakse They come from the Coachella Valley of California.
The same place that replaced the Date Palm Trees of Morocco when they had their wilt disease.
From the pile it higher and deeper crowd. This is without a doubt one of the biggest loads of BS I have read this year.
I live in the low desert of Southern California. It is the date palm capital of the US, and the only source of dates in the US. In addition, we have numerous other varieties of palm tries. Our Summer temperatures can reach 120 degrees, and all of these palm trees are in direct sunlight. Yet all of our palm trees thrive. In fact, the palm trees in our residential communities have to be pruned every year. Even if one removed every single frond from a palm tree, within a couple of months, new fronds would be growing rather quickly.
This is simply one more anti-Catholic rant by the religion haters of this world.
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