Article originally appeared in the Washington Post (13 August 2007)

"Irene Morgan Kirkaldy, 90, who died of Alzheimer's disease August 10 at her home in Gloucester, Virginia, quietly changed history in 1944 when she refused to give up her seat on a crowded Greyhound bus to a white couple. Her case resulted in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation in interstate transportation and sparked the first Freedom Ride in 1947.

Mrs. Kirkaldy's defiance of the discriminatory Jim Crow laws of Virginia came 11 years before Rosa Parks's similar act in Montgomery, Alabama, galvanized the civil rights movement and made her a national icon. Without fanfare, Mrs. Kirkaldy's early case provided a winning strategy for fighting racial segregation in the courts.

On the July morning in 1944 when she boarded a Greyhound bus in Gloucester bound for Baltimore, Mrs. Kirkaldy was not thinking about tackling racial segregation. Instead, the 27-year-old mother of two, who was recovering from a miscarriage, just wanted a comfortable seat for her lengthy ride home to see a doctor.

She settled into an aisle seat in the fourth row from the back -- in the section designated under Virginia's segregation laws for black passengers. Beside her sat a young mother cuddling an infant.

About a half-hour into the trip, the bus stopped, and a white couple boarded. When the driver ordered Mrs. Kirkaldy, then known as Irene Morgan, and her seatmate to give up their seats, Mrs. Kirkaldy refused. She also told the young woman to stay put.

'I can't see how anybody in the same circumstance could do otherwise," Mrs. Kirkaldy told Washington Post reporter Carol Morello in 2000. "I didn't do anything wrong. I'd paid for my seat. I was sitting where I was supposed to.'

The Greyhound bus driver, however, thought otherwise. He drove to the jail in Saluda, Virginia, in Middlesex County, where a sheriff's deputy boarded the bus and gave Mrs. Kirkaldy a warrant for her arrest.

In a daring and dangerous move, she tore up the warrant and threw it out the window. The deputy then grabbed her arm and tried to yank her off the bus. She didn't go peacefully."....

"After being dragged off the bus, she was thrown in jail. Mrs. Kirkaldy pleaded guilty to the charge of resisting arrest and was fined $100 but refused to plead guilty to violating Virginia's segregation law.

At her trial in Middlesex Circuit Court, her attorney, Spottswood Robinson III, argued that segregation laws unfairly impeded interstate commerce. Robinson, who later became chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District, made a strategic decision not to argue that the laws were unfair under the 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection, because racial segregation, while unjust, was the law of the land.

The strategy failed the first time around. Mrs. Kirkaldy was found guilty and fined $10.

Success came, however, when two young NAACP lawyers, Thurgood Marshall and William H. Hastie, appealed her conviction of violating segregation laws all the way to the Supreme Court. (Marshall became the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court; Hastie, the first African American judge on a federal appeals court.)

On June 3, 1946, in Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in interstate travel was unconstitutional as 'an undue burden on commerce. ' ".... [Click here for entire story]

To Air Is Divine, Say Backers of Imperiled Station
By Marc Fisher, Washington Post (29 July 2007)

A review of ...

God's man, Darwin
By Clifford Goldstein, Adventist Review website.

“Let’s get hypothetical and pretend that the Genesis Creation account was never meant to be taken literally. Although God was communicating with us about the work of creation, suppose the texts themselves were to be understood metaphorically, symbolically, nothing more. Given that premise, what, then, was the Creator seeking to reveal about our origins? Two points, even in a broad and liberal reading of Genesis 1, come through. First, look at these verses: [Quotes from] (Gen. 1:3, 9, 11, 26, 27, KJV). Everything was planned, precise, calculated; nothing random, arbitrary, chancy. It would take a Dadaist interpretation to derive randomness out of Genesis 1. Second, look at these: [Quotes from] (verses 21, 24, 25). The texts reveal unambiguously that each creature was made after its own kind; that is, each one was made separately and distinctly from the others. Even from a nonliteralist interpretation of Genesis, two points are obvious: nothing was random in the act of creation, and there was no common ancestry for the species. Now, along comes Darwinian evolution, which in its various incarnations teaches two things: randomness and common ancestry for all species. How, then, does one interpret Genesis through a theory that, at its most basic level, contradicts Genesis at its most basic level? If evolution were true, it would mean that for thousands of years (from the Israelite period up through and beyond the Protestant Reformation) the Lord’s church was kept in darkness regarding human origins, until God, in His infinite wisdom, raised up His divinely appointed one, Charles Darwin, an atheist, to finally reveal the truth about the proper interpretation of Genesis. And though we shouldn’t judge someone in the nineteenth century by our standards today, God’s man Darwin also held racist views that would make David Duke look like an ACLU lawyer. Even worse, thanks to Darwin and his theory of human descent, racism had now been given a ‘scientific’ rationale. Finally, many of Darwin’s teachings are rejected by evolutionists today. Even Richard Dawkins (the most vociferous of the evolution apologists) wrote: ‘Much of what Darwin said is, in detail, wrong.’ So, if evolution were true, then the Lord used an atheist racist with detailed errors in his teaching as the divinely appointed one to finally set the church straight on the book of Genesis and our origins. I don’t know, but if Charles Darwin were right, it would seem that the One who is ‘the Word’ (John 1:1), the One who created language, could have done a much better job of communicating with us than He did. Why inspire a creation account that teaches nonrandomness and a noncommon ancestry of all species when God used randomness and a common ancestry as His means of creation? Am I being a closed-minded, right-wing dogmatic intellectual bigot not to see something radically wrong here? Though I disagree with those who don’t read Genesis literally, their position is not absurd. What is absurd is to read an evolutionary schema into a biblical account that, even with a broad and free interpretation, denies it at the most fundamental level” [Op-ed].

Editorial comments: Cliff Goldstein in his AR print-blog states that even a "broad and liberal" or non-literal reading of Genesis 1 forbids any randomness or common ancestry in the creation of living things whereas Darwinian evolutionary theory affirms both. Although this column was posted earlier in the summer, clarifying some issues is a worthwhile endeavor.

Creation accounts in the Hebrew Bible
Rather than only one literalistic Genesis creation account, numerous Bible students and scholars see two detailed and differing creation accounts in Genesis 1-2:3 and 2:4-25 (continuing in chapter 3). In addition, there are seven other creation accounts elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible. Far from being literalistic, all of them are vividly diverse portrayals of God's primordial creative work, how he acted, and in what order, and each account is richly marked by non-literal, metaphoric, and parabolic language and imagery. There have been Christians throughout the centuries, long before modern science, which have recognized aspects of this.

Furthermore, there is nothing in Genesis 1 or any of other Hebrew creation accounts that even addresses let alone forbids the following phenomena. (a) The randomness of genetic mutations is well-observed but the fixation and loss rates of beneficial and deleterious mutations within populations under natural selection are vastly non-random. (b) Speciation, or the evolution of new species, occurs through the erection of reproductive, chromosomal, geographic, or behavioral barriers within populations severing once common gene pools into separate gene pools, and ultimately separate species. (c) Many extant species of living things once shared common ancestral gene pools as evidenced by numerous shared, derived genetic changes. (d) Discovering more functions within the vast non-coding DNA in genomes is fully consistent with the common ancestry of species as has been pointed out by some evolutionary biologists for more than a decade. (e) Complex adaptations in morphology, physiology, coloration, and behavior of numerous extant species are specific adaptive responses to local selective constraints, resulting in non-random genetic fixation of these traits in new species.

Whether and at what level extant living species share one or several common ancestral species, other processes are at work (such as horizontal gene transfer, genomic duplication, common mechanisms like "hot spots" at some loci rather than common ancestry, etc.), they present us with explicit hypotheses that continue to be tested in the emerging age of genomics. However, even in evolving new species, every individual is always born "after his kind” with some changes. The question of the origin of new species is not even addressed in Genesis 1 or in any other creation account in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Contrary to some culture warriors of the right and the left, acknowledging these phenomena does not do away with God, make life a meaningless accident, or remove purpose from the universe. For many who are Christians (including Adventist Christians) and scientists, observing life's resilient adaptiveness in the face of adversity reveals the grandeur of creation and constitutes real evidence of the genius of our Creator.

What Darwin didn't know
Cliff quotes from "Memes: The New Replicators" in Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene (1976): "Much of what Darwin said is, in detail, wrong." But Cliff fails to take in the historical context. As careful, exhaustive, and observant a naturalist as Charles Darwin was, he knew nothing about Mendelian genetics, discovered by Gregor Mendel several decades later. Darwin believed in blending inheritances, instead of the atomistic, particulate inheritance of Mendelian factors (i.e., alleles of genes). In fact, natural selection cannot operate on blending inheritances, but works very predictably with well-worked out mathematical models on allelic inheritance. Expansions of these models underlie modern molecular genetics and the exploding fields of genomics and bioinformatics. The adaptive, non-random shaping of life by natural selection is evident throughout the living world. Like questions in physics or cosmology, the details will be resolved by researching the growing scientific data. An exciting development would be strong evidence that there were more independent common ancestors than currently thought! A forest of life rather than a tree of life! Darwin himself asserted the possibility of more than one common ancestor in the closing paragraph of Origin of Species.

An atheist?
First, it is simply mistaken to claim that Darwin was an atheist. Besides concluding Origin of Species with a reference to life "having been originally breathed by the Creator," Darwin varied in his description of himself as a "theist" or as an "agnostic" respectively depending on whether he thought of the wonderful intricacy of life or considered the problem of evil. The death of his beloved 12 year old daughter, Annie, rendered his struggle poignantly difficult.

A racist?
Far from being the backward racist comparable to David Duke that Cliff describes, Darwin (although a product of his time in many ways) was quite progressive in his historical context. This was an age when many Christian and political leaders held that the races of people of color were different species, mentally inferior, not truly human, harmful to intermarry with, condemned because of sinfulness by the curse of Ham, fixed forever separate and inferior by God to be dominated by whites, and were the product of human-animal interbreeding. The more reactionary defended as Biblical the slavery of Africans, and the genocide and ethnic cleansing of American Indians. The subjugation of women was a given. The more progressive, for example Abraham Lincoln at a earlier stage, still insisted on innate African inferiority, denounced political and social equality, and defended laws forbidding intermarriage.(1) By contrast, Charles Darwin (although he used the commonly-used terms “barbarian” and “savage” to describe indigenous peoples, including our ancestors) vehemently condemned slavery and upheld human equality, (2) held that people of all races are part of the one human species, all of one ancestral stock, essentially equal in every way, that racial differences are biologically overlapping and insignificant, that differences in ability are greater within races than between them, and that intermarriage has no ill effects. Hardly the ideas of a 19th century racist, or any other kind!

Slavery apologists aside, Darwin also compares favorably with the founders of the Adventist church, some of whom had mild abolitionist sympathies, but were also products of their time. Along the same line as the contemporary author Buckner Payne,(3) Ellen White wrote that “the base crime of amalgamation of man and beast which defaced the image of God, and caused confusion everywhere” was the main cause of the flood and was repeated post-flood as is evident “in the almost endless varieties of species of animals, and in certain races of men.” (4) While some Adventist scholars have struggled since then to interpret the meaning of these quotations, the Review and Herald editor, Uriah Smith, felt no such hesitancy. In an apologetic book on Ellen White’s ministry, he defended this view arguing that “naturalists affirm that the line of demarkation between the human and animal races is lost in confusion” and argued that White’s critics could be “easily silenced by… such cases as the wild Bushmen of Africa, some tribes of the Hottentots, and perhaps the Digger Indians of our own country.”(5, 6) Of course, there is not a shred of biological evidence, we realize today, to support such claims. Also, in a similar vein to Francis Galton in England (a relative of Darwin's), Dr. John Harvey Kellogg was an active figure in the American eugenics movement and the push for “race hygiene” which had fateful consequences in those years (particulaly in the US), and later when adopted by Nazi Germany in the mid-20th century.(7) Yet, it would be unfair to ignore the contributions of our Adventist pioneers by noting how the prejudiced racial climate of the time may have influenced them.

One thing Darwin also suggested was that humankind has African roots. Genetic markers in many independent data sets strong suggest that all of us in the human family are part of the African diaspora. This evidence is surely a strong refutation of racism as has been pointed out by biologist Luca Cavalli-Sforza (see The History and Geography of Human Genes [Princeton University Press, 1994] and in many more additionally definitive studies since).

For a church like ours which has struggled within to come to terms with racial and gender equality, and which was sadly silent during the Civil Rights movement, some humility is in order. Within a church paper, to compare Darwin, who on race was at least among the more advanced and progressive of his age, to David Duke, the neo-Nazi, white supremacist, Holocaust-denier, one among the most backward and regressive of our time, is a real distortion and misrepresentation indeed. Honest openness and humility on many subjects Biblical, scientific, and historical is important for all of us.

Why would God use a sometimes agnostic/theist?
Now why would God use a reticent, sometimes agnostic-theist, who struggled with a God who created parasitic wasps and allowed his 12-year old daughter to die, to discover evolution of species via natural selection? Why not? God used a sometimes cantankerous, spiteful man, Sir Isaac Newton, who practiced Alchemy, to discover the law of gravity and co-discover the calculus. Evidently God had no problem using Albert Einstein, a Spinozista who did not believe in a personal deity at all, to discover special and general relativity, and the photoelectric effect. Similar observations could be made about many biblical characters and other great people of history. Of course, there is no conceivable reason why God should not use them. Such objections do not bear any weight.

Rhetorical question: “a closed-minded, right-wing dogmatic intellectual bigot…?”
A standard for a reasoned critique of historical figures and their views is accuracy and fairness in representation of the person and the historical context. Regretfully, Cliff’s criticisms fail on both. Only if these failures were deliberate and malicious would "yes" be the answer to his prominently-displayed, rhetorical question, "Am I being a closed-minded, right-wing dogmatic intellectual bigot not to see something radically wrong here?" Simply not being aware isn't bigotry, because there is the straightforward solution of becoming aware. Thankfully and in fairness to thoughtful fellow Christians across the centuries, Cliff grants that although personally disagreeing with it, a non-literal reading of Genesis "is not absurd." –Lee F. Greer.

Footnotes: (1) See the first full paragraph in the text of Abraham Lincoln’s fourth debate with Steven Douglass on September 18, 1858: http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/debate4.htm.

(2) “It is often attempted to palliate slavery by comparing the state of slaves with our poorer countrymen: if the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin; but how this bears on slavery, I cannot see; as well might the use of the thumb-screw be defended in one land, by showing that men in another land suffered from some dreadful disease. Those who look tenderly at the slave owner, and with a cold heart at the slave, never seem to put themselves into the position of the latter; what a cheerless prospect, with not even a hope of change! picture to yourself the chance, ever hanging over you, of your wife and your little children – those objects which nature urges even the slave to call his own – being torn from you and sold like beasts to the first bidder! And these deeds are done and palliated by men, who profess to love their neighbours as themselves, who believe in God, and pray that his Will be done on earth! It makes one's blood boil, yet heart tremble, to think that we Englishmen and our American descendants, with their boastful cry of liberty, have been and are so guilty” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, 1839. There are many references attesting to Darwin’s abolitionist views and progressive bent.

(3) Buckner H. Payne, 1799-1883. [pseudonym ‘Ariel’]. 1867. The Negro, What Is His Ethnological Status?: Is He the Progeny of Ham? Is He a Descendant of Adam and Eve? Has He a Soul? Or Is He a Beast In God's Nomenclature? What Is His Status As Fixed By God In Creation? What Is His Relation To The White Race? (2nd edition, first edition in 1842). Cincinnati, OH: 48 pp. For references to amalgamation as the terrible sin bringing the flood and occurring after the flood (or ‘miscegenation,’ i.e., interracial mixing of “whites” as “humans” with Negroes whom Payne considered “beasts”), see pp. 25, 27, 31, 34, 38, 40, 41, 45, 48.

(4) The statements from Ellen White, 1864. Spiritual Gifts, Vol. 3, pp. 64, 75: “But if there was one sin above another which called for the destruction of the race by the flood, it was the base crime of amalgamation of man and beast which defaced the image of God, and caused confusion everywhere” (p. 64). “Every species of animal which God had created were preserved in the ark. The confused species which God did not create, which were the result of amalgamation, were destroyed by the flood. Since the flood there has been amalgamation of man and beast, as may be seen in the almost endless varieties of species of animals, and in certain races of men” (p. 75).

(5) James White reviewed and endorsed Smith’s book in the Review and Herald (August 15, 1868). The Whites apparently also promoted the book on the campmeeting circuit, according to Gordon Shigley in “Amalgamation of Man and Beast: What Did Ellen White Mean?” Spectrum 12(4): 18 footnote.

(6) Uriah Smith, 1868. The Visions of Mrs. E. G. White, A Manifestation of Spiritual gifts According to the Scripture, p. 103. (Battle Creek, Michigan). The entire quote from pp. 103-4 “‘Since the flood there has been amalgamation of man and beast, as may be seen in the almost endless varieties of species of animals, and in certain races of men.’ This view was given for the purpose of illustrating the deep corruption and crime into which the race fell, even within a few years after the flood that signal manifestation of God's wrath against human wickedness. There was amalgamation; and the effect is still visible in certain races of men.’ Mark, those excepting the animals upon whom the effects of this work are visible, are called by the vision, ‘men.’ Now we have ever supposed that anybody that was called a man, was considered a human being. The vision speaks of all these classes as races of men; yet in the face of this plain declaration, they foolishly assert that the visions teach that some men are not human beings! But does any one deny the general statement contained in the extract given above? They do not. If they did, they could easily be silenced by a reference to such cases as the wild Bushmen of Africa, some tribes of the Hottentots, and perhaps the Digger Indians of our own country, &c. Moreover, naturalists affirm that the line of demarkation between the human and animal races is lost in confusion. It is impossible, as they affirm, to tell just where the human ends and the animal begins. Can we suppose that this was so ordained of God in the beginning? Rather has not sin marred the boundaries of these two kingdoms?”

(7) Edwin Black, 2003. War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race. (New York, NY ), pp. 88, 238 on Kellogg, and pp. 15-17 and elsewhere on Galton.

One week on, more aid needed to meet Peru quake survivors' critical needs
By Kun Li, UNICEF

"NEW YORK, USA (August 22, 2007) — 'I was watching TV in my room when suddenly the power went out,' recalled Peruvian earthquake survivor Ivan, 11. 'We tried to get outside, but we couldn't, because of all the dirt and dust,' he said. 'Finally, we got out. I am here with my younger sister, my aunt, my mom. Everyone is desperate.' The powerful earthquake shook Peru on August 15, affecting more than 85,000 people in the southern part of the country. According to Peru's National Institute for Civil Defense, a government authority, the quake killed 513 people, injured 1,090 and has left 37,521 families homeless.

Ivan's hometown, Pisco, was at the epicentre. Nearly 85 percent of the city's homes were badly damaged or destroyed. At least 200 people in Pisco were buried in the rubble of a historic church where they had been attending services.

A young earthquake survivor looks at the debris on a street in Pisco, near the epicentre of the massive earthquake that struck Peru on August 15.

Humanitarian aid coming
'We lost everything, we have nothing left, we have been left homeless,' said a desperate Pisco resident, Esperanza Micma, the day after the earthquake. 'Up until now, no one has given us water or food. We haven't had breakfast since yesterday, not even our babies.'

One week on, hard-hit cities such as Pisco and Ica are still suffering from water shortages and lack of electricity and sanitation. To help communities in need, a joint UN mission is on the ground, working with the government to provide humanitarian support. "

In the community of El Bosque in Pisco, a group of children ask for help after the earthquake.

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Record-setting sizzle
By Bob Swanson and Doyle Rice, USATODAY.com

"Phoenix, a city familiar with triple-digit heat, is closing in on a record this summer. Through Aug. 21, there have been 27 days with high temperatures of 110°F or more in 2007. The current record for 110+ days is 28, set in both 2002 and 1979. With 110°F temperatures possible through Friday in Phoenix and still a month to go during which 110°F temperatures are common, there is a high probability that a new record will be set this year.

In the statement regarding the record, the National Weather Service states that the number of 110+ days have been increasing over the years and cites "urbanization and regional/global climate change" as possible causes."

Dean is one for the record books
By Bob Swanson and Doyle Rice, USATODAY.com

"The central pressure of Hurricane Dean at landfall this morning was 906 millibars, the third strongest Atlantic basin hurricane at landfall since record-keeping begain in 1851. Dean's intensity at landfall has only been surpassed by the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane (892 mb) and 1988's Hurricane Gilbert (900 mb)."

(A color-enhanced satellite image of Hurricane Dean as it entered the Yucatan Peninsula near Costa Maya, Mexico, at 4:30 a.m. ET, Tuesday, August 21, 2007. Image courtesy National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

Here is a list of the Atlantic basin hurricanes that have made landfall as Category 5 storms:
Aug. 21, 2007: Hurricane Dean; near Majahual, Mexico; at least 13 deaths
Aug. 24, 1992: Hurricane Andrew; near Homestead Air Force Base, Florida
Sept. 14, 1988: Hurricane Gilbert; Cancun, Mexico; 327 deaths
Aug. 31, 1979: Hurricane David
Sept. 2, 1977: Hurricane Anita
Sept. 9, 1971: Hurricane Edith; Nicaragua; 30 deaths
Aug. 17, 1969: Hurricane Camille; Mississippi; 256 deaths
Sept. 28, 1955: Hurricane Janet; Chetumal, Mexico; more than 600 deaths
Sept. 16, 1947: Unnamed; Bahamas; 51 deaths
Sept. 3, 1935: Labor Day Hurricane; Florida Keys; 408 deaths
Sept. 5, 1932: Unnamed; Bahamas; deaths not recorded
Sept. 13, 1928: San Felipe-Okeechobee Hurricane; Puerto Rico; 2,166 deaths

USA TODAY weather focus: "Excessive heat expands extreme drought"
By Bob Swanson and Doyle Rice, USATODAY.com

"After average or even above-average July rainfall, the hot, dry first half of August has plunged much of Alabama into exceptional drought conditions, with extreme drought conditions affecting much of the Southeast and Tennessee Valley. The farmers in Alabama desperately need rainfall as, according the USDA, 76% of Alabama's corn crop is in poor to very poor condition."

(Graphic reprinted from USA TODAY newspaper)

More Weather Stories

Midwest flooding death toll reaches 22
By TODD RICHMOND, Associated Press Writer (21 August 2007)

"GAYS MILLS, Wis. - Water-weary residents across the Midwest began counting their losses Tuesday as damage estimates from this weekend's deadly flash floods climbed into the tens of millions. The rain moved into Ohio, where roads flooded, schools canceled classes and residents were rescued from flooded homes by boats.

The death toll from the two storm systems — one in the Upper Midwest and the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin in Texas and Oklahoma — climbed to 22 when searchers found the body of a man tangled in a tree about four miles from his wrecked, upside-down car near a creek south of Lewiston, Minn.

Most of Gays Mills, a village of 640 people in southwestern Wisconsin, had been under water Sunday night. About half of the village was accessible Tuesday, and the growl of sump pumps filled the air as residents made their way back in.

'It's heart-wrenching, man,' said Deb Holtz, 48, who found the furniture shop she runs with her husband in Gay Mills coated with mud. 'Makes me want to cry.'

In the Ohio village of Carey, waist-deep water swirled through the tiny downtown, submerging cars to their rooftops. Dozens of flooded streets made it impossible to cross the town. The Carey Nursing & Rehabilitation Center was evacuated, with 28 residents transferred to a local hospital.

Firefighters used boats to rescue families from flooded homes in Bucyrus after nearly 9 inches of rain fell, and the Upper Sandusky school district in north-central Ohio canceled the first day of school.

In Wisconsin and Minnesota, thousands of homes were damaged: A preliminary survey by the American Red Cross in Minnesota identified about 4,200 affected homes, including 256 complete losses, 338 with major damage and 475 that are still inaccessible, said Kris Eide, the state's director of homeland security and emergency management. " [More of the Story]

Fog shrouds the hillside above old farm buildings, surrounded by flood waters, near La Crescent, Minn., Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2007. A powerful storm system that swamped the upper Midwest and killed at least six people moved into Ohio on Tuesday as weary Minnesota residents returned to their water-logged homes. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

NEW FILM RELEASE
wikpedia.org

"The 11th Hour is a 2007 feature film documentary created, produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio on the state of the natural environment. It was directed by Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners and financed by Adam Lewis, Pierre André Senizergues and Doyle Brunson. Distributed by Warner Independent Pictures. Its world premiere was at the 2007 60th Annual Cannes Film Festival and was released on August 17th, 2007.

Synopsis
With the contributions of over fifty of the world's most prominent thinkers and activists, including reformer Mikhail Gorbachev, physicist Stephen Hawking, and Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, the film documents the grave problems facing the planet's life systems. Global warming, deforestation, mass species extinction, and depletion of the oceans' habitats are all addressed. The film's premise is that the future of humanity is in jeopardy.

The film offers hope and potential solutions to these problems by calling for restorative action by the reshaping and rethinking of global human activity through technology and social responsibility and conservation. Scientists and environmental advocates such as David Orr, David Suzuki, and Gloria Flora paint a portrait for a radically new and different future in which it is not humanity's intent to dominate the planet's life systems, but to mimic and coexist with them. " [More Info]

Click here to view film trailor.

ABOUT THE BOOK
SDAnet.org

"More than a Prophet was born out of the raging controversy over the credibility of Ellen White as an inspired writer. Books, videos, and thousands of websites are attempting to destroy the credibility of the gift of prophecy manifested in the ministry and writings of Ellen White. Surprisingly, most of the material attacking Ellen White, has been produced by former Adventists, some of whom were church pastors. * To respond to the many attacks against Ellen White, Prof. Graeme Bradford spent twenty years of his life examining and digesting the writing of Ellen White in the light of the manifestation of the gift of prophecy in biblical prophets. By examining the human side of Bible prophets as revealed in scripture, Bradford shows that the problems they encountered, were not much different from the criticism brought against Ellen White. This book defends the true nature of Ellen White's ministry, by showing how her ministry was perceived by herself, her son "Willie," and church leaders who worked closely with her. These leaders, including the General Conference President A. G. Daniells, expressed their fears at the 1919 Bible Conference, that the Church was heading in a wrong direction in its understanding and use of her ministry. Unfortunately, their worst fears were realized as cultural pressures influenced the Church to promote an unrealistic understanding of her ministry. Fortunately, today Adventism has returned a full circle by coming back to a more biblical understanding of her gift. This intriguing story is revealed in this book. This book has been long overdue and will do much to restore confidence in the validity of the gift of prophecy manifested in the writing, preaching, and teachings of Ellen White--a woman who has left such a rich legacy not only for the Adventist Church but for the world at large. " Read the Book

EDITORIAL REVIEW reprinted from amazon.com

From Publishers Weekly
"With his usual eloquence, patience and humor, Wilson, our modern-day Thoreau, adds his thoughts to the ongoing conversation between science and religion. Couched in the form of letters to a Southern Baptist pastor, the Pulitzer Prize–winning entomologist pleads for the salvation of biodiversity, arguing that both secular humanists like himself and believers in God acknowledge the glory of nature and can work together to save it. The "depth and complexity of living Nature still exceeds human imagination," he asserts (somewhere between 1.5 million and 1.8 million species of plants, animals and microorganisms have been discovered to date), and most of the world around us remains unknowable, as does God. Each species functions as a self-contained universe with its own evolutionary history, its own genetic structure and its own ecological role. Human life is tangled inextricably in this intricate and fragile web. Understanding these small universes, Wilson says, can foster human life. Wilson convincingly demonstrates that such rich diversity offers a compelling moral argument from biology for preserving the "Creation." Wilson passionately leads us by the hand into an amazing and abundantly diverse natural order, singing its wonders and its beauty and captivating our hearts and imaginations with nature's mysterious ways."