Our Takes Daily

Brazilian bishop ends strike

Reuters

A Brazilian Roman Catholic bishop on a hunger strike for 23 days to protest against an irrigation project ended his fast on Thursday after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said construction will go forward. Bishop Luiz Cappio, hospitalized since Wednesday, "decided to interrupt the fasting, but not the fight," said Adriano Martins, an assistant to the bishop. The 61-year-old cleric began the hunger strike on Nov. 27 in a bid to block the project that he and other critics say is too expensive and would benefit wealthy landowners more than poor peasants. Environmentalists fear reducing the river's level could affect navigability, fish migration and biodiversity. More info>

Marriage as a poverty buster

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Pastor Clyde Crumpton of St. Louis says he knows a path that will lead his community out of poverty: a walk down the wedding aisle to a happily-ever-after that has eluded many of the nation's African-Americans. Last year, two St. Louis nonprofits, Better Family Life and St. Louis Healthy Marriage Coalition, were awarded more than $11 million in grants from the federal Healthy Marriage Initiative to build a rank of marriage educators such as Crumpton to conduct ongoing courses on healthy relationships. The courses are targeted at residents of the city and poor, inner-ring suburbs. With about 50 percent of all marriages ending in divorce in this country and the rate of births by unmarried women at about 37 percent nationally, marriage is gaining strong currency among sociologists and other researchers: Happily married people on average live longer, build more wealth and raise children more likely to graduate from college, according to the Coalition for Marriage, Family and Couples Education. More info>

There’s a reason it’s called Christmas

CNN.com

Commentator Roland Martin sounds off on efforts to remove Christ from the Christmas season and urges us to take a fuller account of why we celebrate the holiday in the first place. Remember, it’s not about how many gifts we get, but the birth of the Savior of the world. “Parents, don't be so consumed with the notion that your children will have a terrible Christmas because the tree isn't overflowing with gifts,” he writes. “The true love that you show them is more important than anything else.” More info>