Baby, it’s hot outside

A few days ago, my family and I left the relatively cool climes of Scotland, although it was hotter and drier there than it ever was during our many previous visits, and we returned to the scorching heat of the Midwest.

We will be be back home here for a few days before going on another trip, this one to the northwest, where we hope to enjoy a respite from heat and drought.

I heard climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe—who is the subject of the Washington Post article below—speak at the Trinity (Episcopal Church, Wall Street ) Institute a few years ago about the earth’s increasingly “weird “ weather. Weird was her word.

She spoke then and now as a data-driven scientist and as a person of deep faith in God. She demonstrates that Christians, including evangelical Protestant ones, do care, can care and must care about God’s creation.

I hope more people will listen to Katherine and to the many other experts who warn us about global warming. I also hope that all of us will do all we can to care for this earth and will strive to persuade our political leaders to do the same, while we still have time to save our planet.

Here is the link to the article:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/one-of-americas-top-climate-scientists-is-an-evangelical-christian-shes-on-a-mission-to-convert-skeptics/2019/07/12/9018094c-8d2a-11e9-adf3-f70f78c156e8_story.html

Freedom costs

During my copywriting days ages ago, I remember writing a newspaper advertisement for the Louisville branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. I thought my headline was clever and even unique: “Freedom isn’t free.” My copy went on to say, “It cost to win it. It costs to keep it.” The other day I saw that same headline on someone’s shirt at the fitness center. So much for my supposed cleverness and uniqueness. I was reminded of that ancient ad of mine today as I read the column below from the New York Times. Freedom in America and in many other countries is under attack. Autocrats seek absolute power and control of people. They think they know better than we do. As I prepare to celebrate Independence Day, I remember my direct forebear John Chumbley. He was a farm boy from Virginia who joined the Continental Army and fought the authoritarianism of George III and the British Government during the American Revolution. This long-ago grandfather of mine lived to see the formation of this great Republic, this experiment in ”government of, by and for the people,” as Lincoln said. May we, the people, remember on July 4 and every day the patriots who fought, bled and died for democracy; they paid that price, because they preferred liberty to slavery, self-government to one-man rule. Freedom is never free. Perhaps that headline was neither clever nor unique when I wrote it in 1985, but it was true. It was true in 1776, and it is certainly true in 2019.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/02/opinion/a-revolution-in-happiness.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share