February 20, 2007
Adventist News Round Up. Former Adventists meet in Redlands, CA.
Headlines February 2007. A special ATNewsbreak with stories about climate change and global warming, and about the Middle East!
Take Action Today! Taking action in light of the latest IPCC report on the 90% likelihood of human acceleration of global warming!
Former Adventists meet in Redlands, CA (16-18 February 2007). Some former Adventists and others gathered this weekend at the Trinity Evangelical Free Church in Redlands, CA, for a weekend seminar hosted by Life Assurance Ministries, founded by a former Adventist pastor, Dale Ratzlaff. He along with two other former Adventist ministers, Mark Martin and Greg Taylor, made presentations. The theme on Saturday night was "Amazing Revelation: One Shepherd, One Body, No Extras" in which there were testimonies of former Adventists and a sermon by Dale Ratzlaff on Acts 10. The select testimonies including those of the pastors were delivered with Christian earnestness, and told of personal struggles over doctrinal issues and a search for peace in Christ, with little if any indication of bitterness toward the Adventist church. (Unfortunately, the pastors' websites tend to be rather more strident and condemnatory: LifeAssuranceMinistries.com, ExAdventist.com, and OneFlockMinistries.org); and sadly, they abandon the Hebraic and Biblical concept of conditional immortality, that death is a final oblivion, apart from the resurrection). In standard dispensational pattern, they argued that Adventists obscure the gospel by calling for Sabbath-observance and other lifestyle claims.
The Adventism these pastors lament seems in some respects reminiscent of a historic fundamentalism not as uniformly predominant as in former years. They have a strong point in critiquing a tendency to legalism and cultic strains in Adventism particularly vis à vis the usage of Ellen White and exclusivist attitudes toward other Christians. While examining Adventist Christianity, it should not be missed that there are exclusivist, imperial, cultic, and theocratic strains in evangelicalism and in Christianity in general which also should not escape critical scrutiny. Some of the best contemporary scholarship on Paul's epistles, embodied in the evolving "new perspective on Paul", if correct, suggests that Paul was not attacking "Jewish legalism" in favor of "Christian freedom" as evangelicals and other Christians often triumphalistically and inaccurately put it. Rather he opposed the imposition of ethnic identity and covenant "signs" (such as circumcision, dietary laws, etc.) as salvational tests on others in the newly multi-ethnic, multi-cultural Christian community of the 1st century CE. In this light, Christians whether Adventist, Messianic Jewish, evangelical Protestant, Roman Catholic, or Orthodox should grant each other full freedom on matters of community practice, without mutually-assured condemnation. Such a corrected understanding might have prevented many religious wars and crusades, much of the historical anti-Semitism and the current Islamophobia in segments of Christianity. – LFG.
The release of the new International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that recent global warming since the mid-20th century is "very likely" (~90% probable) due to human addition of green house gases, further implies the need for bold, vigorous action to ameliorate as far as possible the human impact on climate change, with its possible consequences. Here is the link to a 21 page summary, "Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis" of the coming ~1200 page report by the IPCC. In the "TAKE ACTION Today!" section are a few ways you can act, and protect parts of the planet that act as bellwethers of planetary health and as carbon reservoirs! – LFG.
 An iceberg in Wolstenholm Fjord, just north of Thule, Greenland, is captured from the National Science Foundation/National Center for Atmospheric Research C-130 aircraft during the Tropospheric Ozone Production about the Spring Equinox (TOPSE) experiment. (Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research / Photo by James Hannigan). |
Evidence For Human-caused Global Warming Is Now 'Unequivocal'
Science Daily (February 2, 2007) â€â€? The first major global assessment of climate change science in six years has concluded that changes in the atmosphere, the oceans and glaciers and ice caps show unequivocally that the world is warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that major advances in climate modelling and the collection and analysis of data now give scientists “very high confidence” (at least a 9 out of 10 chance of being correct) in their understanding of how human activities are causing the world to warm. This level of confidence is much greater than what could be achieved in 2001 when the IPCC issued its last major report. Today’s report, the first of four volumes to be released this year by the IPCC, also confirms that the marked increase in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) since 1750 is the result of human activities." [More of the story].
Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study
By Ian Sample, science correspondent, The Guardian (February 2, 2007). "Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world's largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today. Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Travel expenses and additional payments were also offered. The UN report was written by international experts and is widely regarded as the most comprehensive review yet of climate change science. It will underpin international negotiations on new emissions targets to succeed the Kyoto agreement, the first phase of which expires in 2012. World governments were given a draft last year and invited to comment. The AEI has received more than $1.6m from ExxonMobil and more than 20 of its staff have worked as consultants to the Bush administration. Lee Raymond, a former head of ExxonMobil, is the vice-chairman of AEI's board of trustees. The letters, sent to scientists in Britain, the US and elsewhere, attack the UN's panel as "resistant to reasonable criticism and dissent and prone to summary conclusions that are poorly supported by the analytical work" and ask for essays that "thoughtfully explore the limitations of climate model outputs". Climate scientists described the move yesterday as an attempt to cast doubt over the "overwhelming scientific evidence" on global warming. "It's a desperate attempt by an organisation who wants to distort science for their own political aims," said David Viner of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.
Has the White House interfered on global warming reports?
A new report claims that the Bush administration has suppressed scientists' climate-change work.
By Peter N. Spotts, The Christian Science Monitor (31 January 2007). "More than 120 scientists across seven federal agencies say they have been pressured to remove references to "climate change" and "global warming" from a range of documents, including press releases and communications with Congress. Roughly the same number say appointees altered the meaning of scientific findings on climate contained in communications related to their research. These findings, part of a new report compiled by two watchdog groups, shed new light on complaints by a scattering of scientists over the past year who have publicly complained that Bush administration appointees have tried to mute or muzzle what researchers have to say about global warming. 'We are beyond the anecdotal,' says Francesca Grifo, director of the scientific integrity program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), one of the two groups, referring to press reports of a dozen instances of interference that have emerged over the past 12 months. 'We now have evidence to support the view that this problem goes deeper than just these few high-profile cases.'… In all, 150 scientists reported a combined 435 instances of real or perceived "interference" related to global-warming research within the past five years. This has led to self-censorship… During Tuesday's hearing, additional evidence came from Rick Piltz, who resigned from his position as senior associate with the administration's Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) in 2005 over what he saw as repeated instances of interference in the program's reporting process – often with pressure coming from two conservative think tanks that have spearheaded efforts to debunk global warming. The issue of climate-science politicization reemerged last year following a report in The New York Times about a NASA public affairs officer's attempt to muzzle James Hansen, a noted climate researcher at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. Subsequent stories alluded to similar activities at NOAA… Adds Grifo, 'It's time for the public to stand up and be angry, too. It's their knowledge, their scientists, just like Washington is their capital.' More than 120 scientists across seven federal agencies say they have been pressured to remove references to "climate change" and "global warming" from a range of documents, including press releases and communications with Congress. Roughly the same number say appointees altered the meaning of scientific findings on climate contained in communications related to their research." [More of the story].
Israel's surge of despair
Top Israeli officials admit last summer's war against Hezbollah was a failure -- and denounce President Bush's actions in the Middle East.
By Gregory Levey, Salon.com (Feb. 15, 2007). "Hezbollah operatives plant explosives along the disputed border area between Lebanon and Israel. The Israeli military moves in and destroys them. Israeli and Lebanese forces engage in sporadic gun battles. It may sound like the prelude to the war waged last summer between the Israeli military and Hezbollah, but it happened just last week. Tensions are running high along the Israel-Lebanon border again, and political and intelligence analysts are predicting another major flare-up of hostilities this spring or summer, or perhaps even sooner. According to Israeli military intelligence, Hezbollah remains firmly rooted in Lebanon and has successfully rearmed -- the Iranian-backed Shiite militia now has even more missiles than it had before last summer's war. To many Israelis, it seems as if that war, and the destruction it brought, were all for nothing… In light of Israel's close strategic ties with the United States, and particularly with the Bush administration, it has been all but taboo in the past for Israeli officials to openly criticize U.S. policy. But some officials I spoke with also voiced rising fears -- and disapproval -- over the Bush administration's handling of Iraq and Iran. Those officials include octogenarian Rafi Eitan, currently an Israeli cabinet minister, who told me that in the wake of Israel's failed efforts to crush Hezbollah, and with the deepening crisis in Iraq, Israel is in one of the most precarious situations he has ever seen in his seven decades of military and government service. Regarding President Bush's handling of Iraq, Eitan said, "Unless the policy changes, it is hopeless." [More of the story].
Zbigniew Brzezinski Calls Iraq War a Historic, Strategic and Moral Calamity & Says Stop the Trappings of Colonial Tutelage From a copy obtained by The Washington Note blog (31 January 2007). "Senate Foreign Relations Committee Testimony – Zbigniew Brzezinski
February 1, 2007
'Mr. Chairman:
Your hearings come at a critical juncture in the U.S. war of choice in Iraq, and I commend you and Senator Lugar for scheduling them.
It is time for the White House to come to terms with two central realities:
1. The war in Iraq is a historic, strategic, and moral calamity. Undertaken under false assumptions, it is undermining America's global legitimacy. Its collateral civilian casualties as well as some abuses are tarnishing America's moral credentials. Driven by Manichean impulses and imperial hubris, it is intensifying regional instability.
2. Only a political strategy that is historically relevant rather than reminiscent of colonial tutelage can provide the needed framework for a tolerable resolution of both the war in Iraq and the intensifying regional tensions…
The quest for a political solution for the growing chaos in Iraq should involve four steps:
1. The United States should reaffirm explicitly and unambiguously its determination to leave Iraq in a reasonably short period of time…
2. The United States should announce that it is undertaking talks with the Iraqi leaders to jointly set with them a date by which U.S. military disengagement should be completed, and the resulting setting of such a date should be announced as a joint decision. In the meantime, the U.S. should avoid military escalation…
3. The United States should issue jointly with appropriate Iraqi leaders, or perhaps let the Iraqi leaders issue, an invitation to all neighbors of Iraq (and perhaps some other Muslim countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, and Pakistan) to engage in a dialogue regarding how best to enhance stability in Iraq in conjunction with U.S. military disengagement and to participate eventually in a conference regarding regional stability…
4. Concurrently, the United States should activate a credible and energetic effort to finally reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace, making it clear in the process as to what the basic parameters of such a final accommodation ought to involve. The United States needs to convince the region that the U.S. is committed both to Israel's enduring security and to fairness for the Palestinians who have waited for more than forty years now for their own separate state…
It is also time for the Congress to assert itself.'" [More of the former National Security Advisor's Senate testimony].
US 'victory' against cult leader was 'massacre'
By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad, The Independent, London (31 January 2007). "There are growing suspicions in Iraq that the official story of the battle outside Najaf between a messianic Iraqi cult and the Iraqi security forces supported by the US, in which 263 people were killed and 210 wounded, is a fabrication. The heavy casualties may be evidence of an unpremeditated massacre." [More of this developing story].
Also read and/or listen to the news story, Battle in Najaf: Is US-Iraqi Claim of Gunfight with Messianic Cult Cover-up for a Massacre? containing the interviewing of The Independent correspondent Patrick Cockburn and Iraqi physician Dr. Amer Majeed on DemocracyNow.org. "There are new doubts about the US and Iraqi claim that the hundreds of people killed in a battle in Najaf over the weekend were members of a messianic cult. Reports indicate the official story might actually be a cover-up for a massacre. We speak with London Independent correspondent Patrick Cockburn and Dr. Amer Majeed, a doctor who treated the wounded." [More of the interview broadcast on this story].
(AP Photo/ Najaf Governor Office).
Carter Is No More Critical of Israel Than Israelis Themselves
By Yossi Beilin, Member of the Israeli Knesset and chairman of the Meretz-Yahad Party, The Jewish Daily Forward (Jan 19, 2007). "Looking at the controversy that has erupted over former President Jimmy Carter’s book, 'Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,' I have to say I am a little envious â€â€? envious of a national culture in which a book, or just a book title, can stir such a debate… what Carter says in his book about the Israeli occupation and our treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories â€â€? and perhaps no less important, how he says it â€â€? is entirely harmonious with the kind of criticism that Israelis themselves voice about their own country. There is nothing in the criticism that Carter has for Israel that has not been said by Israelis themselves. Of course, Carter is not just another media pundit or a leftist Israeli. A former president of the United States and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, he has been one of the world’s most accomplished statesmen in the past three decades, a public figure of enormous moral clout. His words weigh heavier than those of others, and his actions make a difference in the real sense of the term… Every Israeli, and every Jew to whom the destiny of Israel is important, is indebted to Carter for breaking the ring of hostility that had choked Israel for more than 30 years. No American president before him had dedicated himself so fully to the cause of Israel’s peace and security, and, with the exception of Bill Clinton, no American president has done so since." [More of the Israeli opinion piece].
Israeli and Palestinian Peace Activists Strategizing Together
By Uri Avnery… "Veteran Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery reports on a recent meeting of Israelis and Palestinians to strategize together about how best to build peace. Such meetings have not happened for a long time, and represent a significant sign of hope… " [More of the story].
Rev. Robert Drinan, politician and priest, dies
CNN.com (January 29, 2007). "WASHINGTON (AP) – The Rev. Robert Drinan, a Jesuit who – over the objections of his superiors – was the first Roman Catholic priest elected as a voting member of Congress, died Sunday. Drinan, 86, had suffered from pneumonia and congestive heart failure during the previous 10 days, according to a statement by Georgetown University which said he died at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington. 'His death was peaceful, and he was surrounded by his family,' said the Rev. John Langan, rector of the Georgetown University Jesuit Community where Drinan lived. An internationally known human-rights advocate, Drinan was elected on an anti-war platform and represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House for 10 years during the turbulent 1970s. He stepped down only after a worldwide directive from Pope John Paul II barring priests from holding public office… He opposed the draft, worked to abolish mandatory retirement and raised eyebrows with his more moderate views on abortion and birth control. 'Father Drinan's commitment to human rights and justice will have a lasting legacy here at Georgetown University and across the globe,' said Georgetown President John J. Degioia… Drinan, dean of the Boston College Law School from 1956 to 1970, called for the desegregation of Boston public schools during the 1960s and challenged Boston College students to become involved in civil rights issues. "He'll be remembered in the country for his advocacy for the poor and underprivileged," said John Garvey, the Boston law school's current dean… His run for office came a year after he returned from a trip to Vietnam, where he said he discovered that the number of political prisoners being held in South Vietnam was rapidly increasing, contrary to State Department reports. In a book the next year, he urged the Catholic Church to condemn the war as 'morally objectionable.' He became the first member of Congress to call for the impeachment of Richard Nixon – although the call wasn't related to the Watergate scandal, but rather what Drinan viewed as the administration's undeclared war against Cambodia. 'Can we be silent about this flagrant violation of the Constitution?' Drinan demanded angrily back then. 'Can we impeach a president for concealing a burglary but not for concealing a massive bombing?' Decades later, at the invitation of Congress, he testified against the impeachment of another president: Bill Clinton. Drinan said Clinton's misdeeds were not in the same league as Nixon's, and that impeachment should be for an official act, not a private one." [More of the story; and an interview with Robert Drinan a few years ago].
Help Set a New US Global Warming Policy Agenda
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is the new chair of the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and is holding hearings on the dealing with the problem of global warming. Here is your chance to weigh in and rank ways to control global climage warming and offer your own 1000 word suggestion and pass them on to the new Chair!
Action Alert: Indonesia's Biofuel Expansion on Rainforest Peatlands to Accelerate Climate Change
Let the President know the world expects Indonesia to keep the Environment Minister's promise to tackle the root causes of rainforest fires and peatland drainage
By Climate Ark, a project of Ecological Internet
(February 18, 2007).
Indonesia's Ancient Rainforests and Peatland Soils Hold Tremendous Carbon Stores. "Indonesia’s rainforests contain 60% of all the tropical peat in the world. Peatland rainforests are wet, swampy rainforests that when drained and cleared, their peat filled soils become highly susceptible to long burning, carbon and methane rich fires. Such rainforests on peat soils are one of the world’s most important carbon sinks and play a vital role in helping to regulate the global climate. They are also very rich in biodiversity and a refuge for species like orang-utans, since most of the non-peat lowland forests have already been cleared." [More of the story and sign petition letter].
Save America's Rainforest from the Timber Industry "One of our greatest natural treasures - Alaska's Tongass National Forest - is targeted for massive clear-cutting. The Forest Service has proposed a plan that caters to the timber industry and would sacrifice much of this treasured forest's critical wildlife habitat. But before their plan is finalized, they must accept public comment. You can help us protect this magical place with its towering, ancient trees. Take action today. Don't miss this window of opportunity! Demand permanent protection now!"
 Caption: Clearcutting ancient forests is antiquated, barbaric and ecologically deadly |
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Action Alert: End Clearcut Logging of Ancient Old-Growth Forest Wilderness in Northern Finland |
Listen to returned US troops speak out in this unique presentation! "THE GROUND TRUTH: SOMETIMES THE GREATEST ACT OF COURAGE IS TO TELL THE TRUTH" and Join in legislative and other actions to end the war and work for a stable and peaceful Iraq. Become informed and inform others: Out of Iraq: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now (Paperback)
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