Columbus (Introduction). My duties as a little league manager are winding down -- work is still busy (in fact, I almost got sent to Columbus this week at the last minute), but I should be able to resume blogging soon.

In the meantime, like most of the 'piskies here in America, I have been monitoring developments at GenCon06 in Columbus.

Here are my favorite sites:

• TitusOneNine - Kendall Harmon, the heavyweight of Anglicans in American.
• BabyBlue - writer (and fellow Truro-ite) Mary A's reports and thought from ground zero.
• John Burwell's reports - NOT a Blog!. John gives you his perspective and it's got the folksy manner of a Paul Harvey report. Plus, pictures (it was good to see a picture of Mary Hays, who conducted the baptism classes for our first child, now 17).
• GenCon06 - run by the elves of CANN. Everything is there -- Everything.
  

These are my big 4, but there are others who are on the ground and should not be missed, if you want to get the whole picture:

• Matt Kennedy at StandFirm.
• The San Joaquin perspective.
• Ruth Gledhill from London (can I be frank? -- with a name like this and the whole British thing, I was expecting her to look like a dowdy 60 year old retired school mum, not someone who could give Nicole Kidman a run for her money);
• Rick Lord from Vienna, VA.
  
• and Lydia Evans also from SC.

And the non-evangelical (or post-Christian) websites:

• The Center Aisle -- the official DioVa propaganda arm, reporting from the "center aisle" of the cathedral on the far left side of the spectrum.
• Inch at a Time -- (also known as the $200 dollar answer under the category, "Church Demolition" the question being "What's the best way to chip at the foundation?")
• and, of course, Louie Crew.
  

More on the shooting... I picked my daughter up tonight after her small group and my two ball games (actually a practice for my son's team -- I'm the manager -- and my middle daughter's softball game, where I just help out). We stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home and, while picking up some practice balls for the team, I saw the sign over the rifles which indicated that "YOU MUST BE 21 TO PURCHASE AMMUNITION IN VIRGINIA." Although it is apparently okay to purchase a handgun at 18.

Now this is one of those areas where I separate from my conservative brethern. I want to know how this 18 year old mental patient, who had escaped from a mental institution, then engaged in an armed carjacking, then was arrested and bailed out of jail all within the past month... I want to know where he got five pistols, two rifles and a bucketload of ammunition from?

Does this make any sense at all?

I mean, even if you are a gun nut?


My daughter said she heard that some kids at Westfields had heard him talking about doing this... and that the shooter apparently had a myspace page.

this makes no sense...

Still More. My oldest daughter was right -- here's his myspace page.

Browse through the comments and the most expressed comment seems to be "rest in peace." This guy was a neo-nazi who took seven firearms and got off 70 shots -- killing a mother with two kids and critically wounding another and all you can say is rest in peace? One guy writes,

Well, you did what you always claimed wanting to do. I've never prayed for anyone before, but i'll do it for your sake tonight, praying that there is no hell.

This seems to me the John Lennon Imagine generation at its best....

Sad Day. We lost a police officer in the line of duty here in Fairfax County today. There are two more who have been hospitalized in critical condition. Please pray.

More. Here is an article on the officer, Vicky Armel, who was shot and killed. An excerpt:

Vicky Armel made a life-changing decision about two years ago, and she wanted everyone to know it.

“She was on fire for the Lord,” said Julie Higdon, part of a home-based Bible study with Armel in Jeffersonton.

Armel, an outgoing mother of two young children and a resident of the Quail Ridge subdivision in northern Culpeper County, was killed Monday afternoon in Chantilly when a gunman opened fire on the Sully District police station.

She was a nine-year veteran of the Fairfax County Police Department. Her husband, Tyler, also worked with the FCPD.

Armel leaves behind a 4-year-old girl, Mason, and a 7-year-old boy, Thomas.

“She accepted Christ within the last couple of years,” said Mark DeCourcey, assistant pastor at Mountain View Community Church. “It was fairly new to her, which is what made her so exciting to be around. The new relationship with Christ was just energizing to her.”

Church members say Armel performed several behind-the-scenes roles such as painting, planning a family retreat, folding bulletins, making decorations and doing administrative tasks.

“Knowing that she had given her life to Chirst,” DeCourcey said, “that’s something we’ll be able to celebrate soon once we get through the shock and the loss.”

Word spread quickly that the Mountain View Community had lost a loved one. Lead pastor Mark Jenkins and Bible study leader Dwayne Higdon were in Chantilly Monday night and could not be reached for comment.

Members of the Mountain View congregation did not know Armel’s age or when she moved to Culpeper, but Julie Higdon said she had lived here “for a while.”

“She was probably one of the nicest people you’ll ever want to know,” said church member Kim Elias. “Great mom.”

This is so sad -- to leave behind young children.

I live in a neighborhood with a lot of police officers and they're really great men and women -- this loss affects us all.

A few months ago I was in a McDonalds with my son out in Chantilly and a very beautiful female police officer came in and was keeping an eye on some [probable] gang members. My son was very impressed with her -- her uniform and of course the pistol. She struck up a conversation with my son and he was just so impressed. She was 30-ish and had a boy about his age. The thing that really impressed me was that she could be so gentle with my son and yet, I could see her tough vigilance of the gang guys. It was like being in two worlds at once.

And that's the way most of the force that I encounter seem -- they walk in two worlds and do so with skill. It's gut-wrenching to think of one of these women or men cut down in the prime of life with young kids.

Pray for Tyler, Mason, and Thomas.

Still More. I don't mean to imply that the police officer I met was Officer Armel; it's possible, but doubtful. While that McDonalds was in Chantilly (Greenbriar Shopping Center, for those familiar with the area), it's kind of far from the police station and may be in another district. I just meant that, well, we have some really good folks on the force and I appreciate them.

YES!

(Jai Lewis, please work on your foul shots -- nearly all of Fairfax just had heartattacks.)

Forget "Roe for Men," what about Roe for Children, Babies, and the Unborn?

What happens to the mind of a person, and the moral fabric of a nation, that accepts the aborting of the life of a baby without a pang of conscience? What kind of person, and what kind of society, will we have 20 years hence if life can be taken so casually?

- Jesse Jackson, Jr., quoted here

Many people are very, very concerned with the children in India, with the children in Africa where quite a number die, maybe of malnutrition, of hunger and so on, but millions are dying deliberately by the will of the mother. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace today. Because if a mother can kill her own child - what is left for me to kill you and you kill me - there is nothing between.

- Mother Teresa, Address to the Nobel Committee, November 11, 1979

Mickey Kaus, in his very concise manner, throws out some quick scenarios if the "Roe for Men" case were to have some degree of success. Yet, what so much of what the Roe for Men issue misses is Roe’s impact on children, born and unborn. The current issue* of the Harvard Journal for Law & Public Policy has a valuable essay which explores “the connection between the mistreatment of children and the dehumanization of unborn children, and will argue that both wrongs stem from the misguided premise that human lives only deserve constitutional rights once a set level of development is reached.”

Moreover, as author Tracy Leigh Dodds states in the next sentence, “[t]rue recognition of the civil rights of children will not meaningfully progress until America learns to value children at all stages of development.”

This is something I firmly believe – it used to be a tenet of progressivism, witness the Jesse Jackson quotation above – but it is something which has been lost along the way.

In the Guardian last week, Madeline Bunting wrote “…a bias against having babies has permeated our culture. This phenomenon needs a new word - anti-natalism…”

No, actually, I think Pope John Paul, II had a better grasp of what civilization was up against – it’s the culture of death:

Above all, society must learn to embrace once more the great gift of life, to cherish it, to protect it, and to defend it against the culture of death, itself an expression of the great fear that stalks our times. One of your most noble tasks as Bishops is to stand firmly on the side of life, encouraging those who defend it and building with them a genuine culture of life.

- John Paul, II Address of the Holy Father to US Bishops of California, Nevada and Hawaii, October 2, 1998

* In addition, the Journal republishes one of William Hubbs Rehnquist’s more important law review articles, The Notion of a Living Constitution from 1976. I know when he passed away, I wanted to link to it, but it was not on-line at the time. The article shows Rehnquist’s always dry humor (“At first blush it seems certain that a living Constitution is better than what must be its counterpart, a dead Constitution.”) but was really one of the first to scrutinize the arguments for the “living constitution” fallacy.

Out Again. *sigh* Yes, I do travel too much -- I was in NC recently -- we stayed in the same hotel with the VaTech and Boston College Teams for the ACC tournment. Also, the Miami cheerleaders -- why don't the cheerleaders stay in the same hotels as the teams?

Anyway, I probably won't be blogging much until July -- I'm managing a Little League team (the A's!) and it's taking a lot more time than I expected. Plus, still traveling for work.

Also, rumor has it that two people at work were fired for misusing the computer. Since our organization has a "no blogging with Corp. equipment" rule, and when I travel, I only use a Corp. computer (as I mentioned when this rule was put into effect), well you get the picture. I miss writing while I'm on travel, but I do like my job.

Ding-Dong. (repeat frequently) . From afar the congregation of Truro Church has been watching young love in bloom -- (am I being too corny? -- hang it -- who cares). Specifically, for a number of years, the son of one minister has been dating the daughter of another minister. Sometimes, (speaking for some of the parents at least) we feel less like a congregation and more like those background singers in "The Little Mermaid" (kiss the girl Sha-la-la-la-la-la )

The daughter, Catherine Crocker, was my oldest daughter's small group leader for a number of years. The son, Jamie Brown, has been, among other things, the worship leader for the Saturday Night service at Truro Church.

And Catherine blogs about her life and experiences. So when my daughter, Joy, told me the bare minimum, namely that Catherine had a ring, I turned to her blog (on xanga) to get the details that Joy was too stingy to share.

It's a really sweet story -- I urge all of you to read it. A very romantic day with some very romantic traditions (the ding-dong of the title could be wedding bells, but isn't -- you'll see if you follow her story). Start here, then go here (this is the one with all the details), and go here to see the ring.

Oh and she has lots of great pictures.

(and since Catherine said I had a really big blog that everyone read, I'm hoping her news will get picked up by some of the real biggies, like CANN and Kendall)

Now we're all wondering who will celebrate (or is the proper ecclesiastical word "officiate") the service?

Alternate History and the Constitution. One of my resolutions for the new year has been to read at least one law review article a week. This isn't a discipline, so much as it is a treat -- yeah, it's good for me, but I also love it. I've come across quite a few things I should be sharing. Here are two bits of alternate history.

Both come from Michael Stokes Paulsen's "Captain James T. Kirk And The Enterprise Of Constitutional Interpretation: Some Modest Proposals From The Twenty-Third Century" 59 Alb. L. Rev. 671 (1995), which riffs off from the Star Trek episode The Omega Glory.

The gist of Paulsen's article is that the Constitution is for "WE THE PEOPLE" not just for the high priest known as the Supreme Court. In making his argument, he puts forth a number of hypotheticals and proposals. The first hypo is this one:

Consider another not too far-fetched hypothetical. The year is 1861. Abraham Lincoln has been inaugurated as President and southern states are seceding in droves. Suppose that the same southern-dominated Taney Court that decided Dred Scott ruled that the South could lawfully secede, and that President Lincoln's prosecution of the Civil War was therefore unconstitutional. If Lincoln is persuaded that the decision is wrong, lawless, and immoral, is he nonetheless bound to recall Union troops, vacate the White House, and move the capital of the remaining states in the United States of America somewhere north of the Maryland border? Or suppose instead - quite plausibly, in light of Dred Scott - that the Supreme Court declared the Emancipation Proclamation unconstitutional as a taking of property. Should Lincoln acquiesce in a judgment returning freed blacks to slavery?

I say, and Lincoln (by then) certainly would have said, absolutely not.

Notes omitted. Interesting question, no? Is the Supreme Court always right?

Okay, now consider this hypo, which relates to the doctrine of interposition:

As a way of trying to consider this issue afresh, and counteracting out instinctive biases, I ask you to consider the real-life case of Lemmon v. The People, decided by the highest court of the Empire State, the New York Court of Appeals, in 1860, on the eve of the Civil War. Lemmon is, in many ways, the companion piece to Dred Scott.

A Virginia family was travelling to Texas by way of New York City. (That was the most efficient route in those days, because of the efficiency of steamboat travel from New York City to New Orleans.) The Virginians brought their eight slaves into New York State, where they were freed on a writ of habeas corpus. New York was, of course, free soil. Under New York law, Negro slaves brought by their owners voluntarily into New York immediately became free. (Runaways were governed by the Fugitive Slave Cause and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.) The New York courts chose to apply their own state's law, rather than the law of Virginia, to this choice-of-law situation. The Court of Appeals affirmed the lower courts' holding that these were free men and women.

Suppose now that history had played out slightly differently in 1860 and 1861: Either Vice President John Breckenridge or Senator Stephen Douglas is elected President in 1860, rather than Lincoln, and the South stays in the Union. Lemmon goes up to the U.S. Supreme Court on appeal. The Taney Court reverses the New York Court of Appeals, on the authority of Dred Scott's recognition of the right to hold slaves as property and a determination that the Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article IV protects a slaveholder's right to keep that property when he travels to another state.

This was a foreseeable, even an expected result, noted by Lincoln and a good many others in the aftermath of Dred Scott. Lemmon would be simply the next logical step from Scott. And, as a consequence, it would require that slavery be tolerated in the North, confirming Lincoln's prophecy that the Nation could not survive half slave and half free. Lemmon would make slavery the law of the land. There could be no such thing as a "free" state.

Suppose now that you are the Governor of New York. The pro-slavery Taney Court has held that former slaves freed under the laws of New York must be returned to their Virginia masters. Indeed, anyone may move to New York from the South and keep their slaves. Moreover, it follows that native New Yorkers can start holding slaves too. Under the Supreme Court's ruling, which you firmly believe is both wrong under the Constitution and wrong as a matter of morality, New York harbor is about to become the largest slave-trading port in the world. What do you do? May you refuse to obey the Supreme Court's decision, refuse to return the freed slaves, and resist the Douglas or Breckenridge administration's attempted enforcement of the Lemmon decree?

I am inclined to say yes, yes, and yes. State government officials - governors, legislators, judges - also swear an oath to support the federal Constitution. Fidelity to that oath, I should think, requires resisting violations of the Constitution by the federal government with all the powers at your disposal as a state, including, perhaps, calling forth the militia. I have to tell you that, under this scenario, I would expect (or hope) that Governor Paulsen would be leading the Yankees into armed rebellion against the lawful government of the Union, rather than acquiescing in the extension of slavery to free soil and the sending of freed men back to bondage.

Now this should be disturbing. For, in a sense, this is Governor George Wallace blocking the schoolhouse doors to resist integration. My point here is simply that interposition can be used for good or for ill, and its legitimacy should not turn on the historical accident that it has been most regularly invoked for ill.

Again, note omitted.

Girl Scout Cookies. Ever feel like eating a whole box of Girl Scout cookies? Want to know what will do the most damage? My wife, the troop cookie Mom, has figured this out.

Calories per box

Trefoils . . . . . . . 1430
Cafe Cookies . . .1410
Thin Mints . . . . . 1330
Do-si-dos . . . . . .1320
All Abouts . . . . . 1200
Samoas . . . . . . . 1125
Tagalongs . . . . . .975
Lemon Coolers . . 858

Sorry, no internet sales allowed.

Of Partial-Birth Abortions and Heart Attacks. Okay, why does our beloved media feel compelled to refer to partial birth abortion in scare quotes or with other qualifiers? See, for example, this WaPo Story from yesterday, which began,

The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to decide whether a 2003 federal ban on the procedure that critics call "partial birth" abortion is constitutional . . .

The justification ususally given is that this is a term that pro-lifers came up with or that it's not medically accurate (or both).

Of course, I would reply that it doesn't matter who came up with it and that it is accurate.

In any event, why can't our beloved media get the story of Harry Whittington's heart irregularity correct? So far, I've only seen one story, by the LA Times, surprisingly enough, describe it correctly. It wasn't a "heart attack."

The rest of the media keep referring to it as a "heart attack." See, for example, this story by ABC, also posted yesterday:

Whittington, 78, was struck by up to 200 shotgun pellets in the right torso, neck and face. He sustained a mild heart attack caused by a pellet lodged at his heart three days after the shooting but was released from a Corpus Christi hospital Friday.

As explained in the Best of the Web,

A physician who reads this column writes:

Calling the pellet-induced arrhythmia a "heart attack" is a little sensationalist. A "heart attack" is not an official medical term, and is generally taken as meaning a blockage of a significant cardiac artery and resultant damage to the heart. Calling the pellet-induced heart damage a "heart attack" is like calling a bruise a "tissue infarction." The pellet presumably irritated a small area of heart tissue or obstructed a tiny blood vessel.

If the media can go through all its pains when it comes to partial birth abortion (or what journalists call "a procedure critics call 'partial-birth abortion.") why can't they get Whittington's heart irregularity correct?

Admittedly, I've had way too many arguments about this in the past, but this is one of those things that will not go away...

Which Sci-Fi crew would you fit best in? Hmmm....

Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics)

created with QuizFarm.com

I'm afraid of this one.

What do you get? An ambiguous Derrida mug with no top and no bottom?

Hurricane Names, 2006. My name is on there -- is yours? Is this the year your name becomes mud? We have two friends named Katrina -- both have told us they always loved their name until this year.

Alberto
Beryl
Chris
Debby
Ernesto
Florence
Gordon
Helene
Isaac
Joyce
Kirk
Leslie
Michael
Nadine
Oscar
Patty
Rafael
Sandy
Tony
Valerie
William

I predict the one to watch out for is Nadine.

The Pacific names (including "Bud" -- how can anyone evacuate when faced with a Hurricane Bud?) and future names are here.

Test: Keys to the Heart.
(Valentine's Day Edition)

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free. In love, you feel the most alive when things are straight-forward, and you're told that you're loved. You'd like to your lover to think you are loyal and faithful... that you'll never change. You would be forced to break up with someone who was emotional, moody, and difficult to please. Your ideal relationship is open. Both of you can talk about everything... no secrets. Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment. You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred. In this moment, you think of love as commitment. Love only works when both people are totally devoted.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

Global Warming. I had hoped to get back to the subject of global warming, but the "Blizzard of '06" took up too much of my time this past weekend. (No, I'm not trying to be snarky there -- although the juxtaposition is definitely difficult for those making the global warming comments. [When I was a boy living in DC from 1969-71, we had one big snow and at least one winter with no snow. These days we get more frequent snowfalls and also heavier snows.]) I had some time yesterday to go on-line, but couldn't get through to my dial-up, so I did taxes instead. And shovelled a lot of snow...

I hope to come back to this in a day or two.

In the meantime, here's an interesting article about the political developments regarding global warming in the US: Academy to Referee Climate-Change Fight from the free section of the WSJ last Friday, regarding the National Acadamy of Sciences.

And a big hello to Bruce Geerdes a gentleman I truly want to recommend.

I met Bruce through the Daniel Amos Discussion List and its various Off-Topic lists he established. Bruce is a very thoughtful person -- I especially recommend him to those of you who are bloggers on the Right side of the political spectrum. Bruce is faithful to Christ and brings a perspective that will make you think twice about your political beliefs.

Go forth and be challenged.

Truth as a Defense. I've read a couple of things since the funeral. As Howard Kurtz notes, in the WaPo,

Whether you think it was appropriate or galling for Jimmy Carter and Rev. Joseph Lowery to use a funeral to take partisan shots at a president who was sitting behind them, this was news.

As I indicated, just below, I thought this was crass -- but others, including conservative commentators James Taranto and Mark Byron didn't find it so bad.

Lee Harris, on the other hand, aptly describes the situation,

This week, at the funeral for the widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, two of the speakers, Jimmy Carter and Rev. Joseph Lowery, might have opened their remarks by saying that they came not to bury Coretta Scott King, but to bash Bush, which is exactly what they proceeded to do. They exploited a solemn occasion in order to take cheap pot shots at the President, keenly aware that their remarks would be broadcast around the world, and into many American classrooms.

Of course, both Carter and Lowery were also aware that the target of their attack, George W. Bush, was sitting right behind them. Had he not been present on the occasion, their Bush-bashing would have only been an affront to good taste. But because Bush had come there to honor the memory of Coretta Scott King, and not to engage in a debate with his political opponents, the attacks on him crossed the boundaries of mere bad taste, and became low blows. They were deliberately attacking a man who they knew could not, under the circumstances, defend himself against their assault. Their aim was quite obvious -- to embarrass and humiliate Bush in the full knowledge that there was not a thing Bush could decently do about it.

I've listened to the defenders of Rev. Joseph Lowery (and Carter although, as I indicated, by that point in the funeral, I was gone -- I had to get to work) to understand their point. As best I understand it, their defense is truth. Even Mark Byron set out this defense:

I wasn't appreciating the digs that folks were getting in at Dubya's expense, but it was within their character, speaking what they saw as the truth to the power in front of them.

In his initial response (and a comment to my posting below) UCC Seminarian Chuck Currie used this defense. Now his response is a modification of that -- it's the Jack Nicholson "You can't handle the truth" response. Anyone who disagrees is a "right winger" who "Just Hates Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mrs. Coretta Scott King." (I'm glad to see the spirit of moderateness and temperance still lives in the UCC.)

As an aside, before I proceed, not all the commenters agreed with Currie -- there was a moderate spirit there trying to persuade him to the contrary. I particularly liked this:

While I may agree with what was said, there is no one on this earth that could make me believe that Mrs. King would have wanted an invited guest to be embarrassed. There is a time and a place for everything and I think what Rev. Lowery and President Carter did today was terrible. A funeral is not the place for partisan politics. It was to lift up Mrs. King - not the time for digs at a President.

No, truth is not a defense to charges of gracelessness or crassness. It never has been.

Let's try an experiment. Imagine if President Bush had stood up and said something that included the following lines:

• On October 10, 1963, the Attorney General of the United States, Robert F. Kennedy, authorized the wiretapping of Dr. King's telephones, and then hotel rooms. He did this even though Dr. King was not a terrorist, always preached and lived a life of non-violence. He did this even though Dr. King was a U.S. Citizen, living in the U.S.
  
• The tapes were played for the President of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson, a Democrat, who enjoyed the salacious details.
  
• The government of the United States even delivered a copy of the tapes to Coretta exposing her to the sordid details of his infidelity. An infidelity that whet beyond the '?lusts of the heart'? in the words of one former president and were more akin to the exploits of another president....
  
• Yes, Dr. King was not always with his wife, but at least none of his lovers drowned while he was driving...
  
• Why the President of the United States, Democrat Lyndon Johnson couldnÂ?t even find the time to attend the funeral of Martin Luther KingÂ?.

Yuck . . . I can'?t go on. All I'?ve written above it "?true"? yet, it'?s disgusting -? it'?s beyond crass. We'd all be condemning him. (Except, maybe the right-wingers, which sort of proves my point about people like Currie.)

In short, like what Lowery did, it doesn't belong at a funeral.

Let Her In. I'm alive today because of a private bill of Congress -- it's a long story -- another time.

Kim-Hoan Thi Nguyen, Mother of Binh N. Le, USMC, needs a private bill to get to the floor of the Congress in order to be permitted to stay in the U.S.

So she can leave flowers on the grave of her son, who gave his life for our country.

It's time Congress -- let her in.

On-Line. It's weird the things you can find on-line. When I was 15 and fresh off the plane in Hawai'i, I swam in the Waikiki Roughwater Swim. It's 2 and a half miles in the sea, outside the reef, from Diamond Head to the beach by the Hilton. I see now my results are on-line -- I did it in 1:05:43. I see now I placed 65th overall and 15th within my age-group. Not bad, but not spectacular. However, little Dickie Walter, age 10, swam it in 59:52 and placed 34th overall (and first in his age group).

It's the closest I'll ever get to a marathon.

And I'll never do it again. (But I would love to do the Maui Channel Relay...)

Earth Day (early) - According to the NYT, today is evangelical earth day -- specifically a number of evangelicals (86 according to the NYT, "more than 85" according to its website) held a press conference this morning in DC to announce a new initiative: the Evangelical Climate Initiative. The publicist for this group is Jim Jewell of Rooftop MediaWorks. The group is funded by the Hewlett Foundation ($475,000), among others -- it is not clear whether this is a grass-roots organization or an astroturf organization.

I hope it is an organiztion which is genuinely concerned about doing well and truth -- I am concerned, however, that the emphasis is on "global warming." According to their FAQ's:

What is Climate Change or Global Warming?

Climate change, also called global warming, is an urgent problem that can and must be solved. The problem is caused primarily by human activities that produce heat-trapping or greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, artificially warming the planet and thereby changing the climate. Serious consequences include dryer droughts, fiercer floods, and harsher hurricanes. Carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas or global warming pollutant, is released when fossil fuels such as oil, gas, or coal are burned in our vehicles, by power plants, and by industry. The good news is that there are plenty of cost-effective solutions that will create jobs, clean up our environment, and enhance national security by reducing our dependence on foreign oil, thereby creating a safe and healthy future for our children.

Why is global warming an urgent problem?

There are three basic reasons for urgency: (1) Global warming is happening now. Impacts are already starting to be felt, e.g., a 2003 heat wave in Europe that killed approximately 20,000 people. (2) The oceans warm slowly, creating a lag in experiencing the consequences. Many of the impacts from climate change to which we are already committed will not be realized for several decades. The consequences of the pollution we create today will be visited upon our children and grandchildren. (3) As individuals and as a society we are making long-term decisions each day that determine how much carbon dioxide we will emit in the future, such as whether to purchase energy efficient vehicles and appliances that will last for 10-20 years, or whether to build more coal-burning power plants that last for 50 years rather than investing more in energy efficiency and renewable energy. We need to start solving global warming now to make it easier and less expensive for our children to deal with in the future.

Recently, I was reading The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time by John Kelly and came across this passage:

Sometime between 750 and 800, Europe entered the Little Optimum [note omitted] a period of global warming. Across the continent, temperatures in-[45]creased by an average of more than 1 degree Celsius, but rather than producing catastrophe, as many current theorists of global warming predict, the warm weather produced abundance.* England and Poland became wine-growing countries, and even the inhabitants of Greenland began experimenting with vineyards. More important, the warm weather turned marginal farmland into decent farmland, and decent farmland into good farmland. In the final centuries of Roman rule, crop yields had fallen two and three to one – a yield represents the amount of seed harvested to the amount planted: a return so meager, the Roman agricultural writer Columella feared that the land had grown old. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, as winters became milder and summers warmer and drier, European farms began to produce yields of five and six to one, unprecedented by medieval standards.

*Says Dr. Phillip Stott, professor emeritus of bio-geography at the University of London, “What has been forgotten in all the discussion of global warming is a proper sense of history... During the medieval warm period, the world was warmer than even today and history shows that it was a wonderful period of plenty for everyone.” (Phillip Stott, interview, Daily Telegraph, 4/6/2003.)

From pages 44-45. (I include two links in Kelly's footnote so you can critique Stott yourself.)

This seems to make sense to me. First, I am not sure that "global warming" exists; second, I'm not sure, if it does, that it is human-created; third, I'm not sure it would be a bad thing if it did exist.

Actually, there are two notes in the FAQ I find more troubling:

Does addressing climate change mean we're becoming liberals?

No. We believe that creating a better future for our children and grandchildren by fulfilling out biblical call to stewardship and love of neighbor through reducing pollution is simply being a good biblical Christian. Climate change is not a liberal issue. It is a profound problem for people Jesus loves, people Jesus died to save.

Are we working with environmentalists?

No. While we are not working with environmentalists, and are critical of some of their views and approaches, we also feel that once we have established our own voice on this issue we should use this as an opportunity to share the gospel with those who care about "environmental" issues. We also appreciate all environmentalists have done to protect God's creation. Finally, we do not rule out working with environmentalists and anyone else of goodwill in the future.

Umm, excuse me -- who really cares if "we're becomming liberals?" Nothing's wrong with that, is there? Second, what's wrong with working with environmentalists?

I'm sorry, but there's a lot in this whole "initiative" which rubs me the wrong way...

More

See also these two excellent posts by Mark Byron: 1. Christians and the Environment-Part I-The Purpose-Driven EPA? and 2. Christians and the Environment-Part II-Who's in the ECI?. Then there's this in GetReligion and this on the CTwebsite.

Mary Magdalene. One of my wife's friend's called her last night looking for information on Mary Magdalene. I know the basics -- she was a follower of Jesus, she was not a hooker, nor was she ever married to Jesus. Beyond that, I don't have a lot of recall. I handed her this book by Ben Witherington, III (I didn't know until just now that he has a blog...) and she read aloud an extensive passage.

Anyway, today I see there's a long piece on MM in the New Yorker. It's not bad -- I don't agree with a lot of the spin (definitely not evangelical) and the ending's weak -- but there's a few things I hadn't seen before.