Recently in National Council of Churches Category

Sweden's Carl Gustav Boberg penned the timeless hymn we translate today as "How Great Thou Art." Based on Psalms 8, it's a wonderful testimony of how creation reveals not only God's majesty but His matchless grace and love as well.

According to the wiki Boberg wrote the poem "O Store Gud" in 1885 with nine verses, including these:

När tryckt av synd och skuld jag faller neder,
Vid Herrens fot och ber om nåd och frid.
Och han min själ på rätta vägen leder,
Och frälsar mig från all min synd och strid.

(When burdens press, and seem beyond endurance,
Bowed down with grief, to Him I lift my face;
And then in love He brings me sweet assurance:
'My child! for thee sufficient is my grace'.)

När jag hör dårar i sin dårskaps dimma
Förneka Gud och håna hvad han sagt,
Men ser likväl, att de hans hjälp förnimma
Och uppehållas af hans nåd och makt.

(O when I see ungrateful man defiling
This bounteous earth, God's gifts so good and great;
In foolish pride, God's holy Name reviling,
And yet, in grace, His wrath and judgment wait.)

The inspiration for the poem came when Boberg was walking home from church near Kronobäck, Sweden, and listening to church bells. A sudden awe-inspiring storm gripped Boberg’s attention, and then just as suddenly as it had made its violent entrance, it subsided to a peaceful calm which Boberg observed over Mönsterås Bay. "From the woods on the other side of the bay, he heard the song of a thrush…the church bells were tolling in the quiet evening. It was this series of sights, sounds, and experiences that inspired the writing of the song..."

He wrote this in 1885 by the way, in those dark ages before the creation care movement or the NCC's eco-justice program. How did he ever manage it?

Cogent analysis on tax-exempt pulpits at Touchstone today - some obvious ramifications toward churches and partisan environmental lobbying...

Speaking strictly for myself, I personally think that the current standard is basically sound (there is definitely room for clarification and other improvements) and one based on common sense.  I likewise think that nothing could be more disastrous to the integrity of the Christian faith and churches than to embroil them into secular politics to the extent of endorsing particular candidates or parties, as so many adherents on both sides evidently desire.  Theological conservatives or traditionalists cannot rightly complain about the NCC being in effect a political action committee for the Left if they seeking to debase their own churches into political handmaidens for the Right.  But the central underlying questions which this IRS ruling brings to the fore -- the relations between church and state; how the Church can and should be in but not of the world; how it can and should present a faithful witness without succumbing to worldly means and blandishments -- have long been debated, and are worthy of thoughtful, intense, but civil discourse here.

Both Democrats and Republicans pull out their faith-based guns during Congressional hearings on climate change. Mayhem ensues.  I used to think having Christians hip-deep in the politico-ecology debate was a good thing. Not so sure now.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, the problem with the GOP is too many religious voters.

FrontPage Mag:

Officers of the U.S. National Council of Churches (NCC) merrily visited Shanghai last month to converse with officials of Chinese government-controlled Protestant agencies to seek an “even deeper working relationship that allows us to consult regularly with one another and to speak and act together in response to contemporary issues."

According to the NCC, among those “contemporary issues” that will unite the chronically left-wing NCC and the official Chinese church groups are Global Warming!  After all, the U.S. and China are the world’s leading emitters of ostensibly deadly carbon.

Among the issues on which the NCC will not cooperate with the official Chinese Protestant agencies are spreading Christianity and asserting religious freedom, topics on which the NCC has long since lost interest in favor of political causes of the left.

Somehow I'm not surprised.

Grieved, actually.

Phil Baugh is the Director of Community Development over at Green Exchange. He's looking for green companies to be tenants. A Green Exchange business or non-profit must be advancing initiatives in one or more the following areas: 1) environmental responsibility, 2) health and wellness, or 3) social responsibility. You can catch him at phil@greenexchange.com.

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Last fall, folks from across the country working on coal and energy-related issues came together to launch a new project- Power Past Coal: Expose the True Cost of Coal, Plug into New Power. The goal of this project is to "connect, identify, and publicize 100 independent actions during the first 100 days of the Obama administration and weave them together into a narrative about the growing movement for a better energy future." They hope to raise the profile of individual campaigns and educate citizens, business leaders and politicians about the problems caused by coal and solutions that will help us move beyond coal.

The campaign kicks off January 21st with a national call-in day to the White House organized by CLEAN, a collaborative movement of organizations and individuals with the common goal of implementing a new energy future. Christians for the Mountains has pledged to make 400 calls.

Rebekah Epling sez there's lots more at powerpastcoal.org.

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Jordan Blevins, one of the good folks at National Council of Churches Eco-Justice, sez Senate bill 22 "provides a unique opportunity to take action to protect more lands for the good of God's Creation."

From giving congressional authorization to the National Landscape Conservation System, to protecting some of the finest scenic views, wildlife habitat, and outdoor recreational opportunities in the Wyoming Range, to establishing new wilderness areas in the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia, this legislation provides Americans across the country with new opportunities to experience the beauty of God's Creation, and new places to which they can journey to experience the presence of the Holy.

More here.

Shea Gunther has launched Green Options. Go over and run up his new hit counter, will you?

Been a while since our last cow flatulence update. (via)

While I'm a skeptic about anthropogenic global warming gas, I have been steadily pointing out the suspicious silence by the MSM on the meat issue -- because according to all the official data, human meat consumption is said to be the number one cause of global warming. I now I see that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is laying the issue at Al Gore's feet -- and they accuse his movie of failing to address cause number one...Among other things the letter cites studies showing that switching to a vegan diet is more effective than switching to a Prius...I hope they hold Al Gore's feet to the fire on this one. Something about the way they're avoiding meat strikes me as downright devious. I suspect it's because they don't believe their own rhetoric. Or maybe it's because they think taking the country off meat will be too much of a hard sell. Whatever it is, I'd like nothing more than to get to the bottom of this nonsense.

I hope PETA makes Gore squeal like a stuck hog.

Time to start thinking sirloin offsets! More on cap"-and-charade" at Greenie Watch.