For week ending April 28 ...

Real quick, before we get to the News of the Week, I'd like to give a big shout out to everyone for checking out the blog. I just got my 2,000th hit yesterday. OK, so maybe that's not a lot for a full year, but, hey, it's something. Here's hoping we'll get another 2,000 hits in the year ahead ... after all, that's 2,000 people who can hear the life-changing message of Jesus Christ.

Grace and peace ...


Wiccan symbol OK on military headstones (MSNBC)

The Wiccan pentacle has been added to the list of emblems allowed in national cemetaries and on government-issued gravestones of fallen soldiers.

Well, at least they're not taking all the crosses down ... not to give them any ideas, mind you. I just hope no one from the ACLU is reading.

Norwegian Church Aid Bringing Water to Haiti (Christian Today)

Norwegian Church Aid, a non-profit Christian group, is finalizing plans to dig 40 wells in Haiti, supplying water to 70,000 residents, a project that will cost the equivalent of $1.7 million.

Two thoughts here: first, it's a blessing to see that after the domestic turmoil and bloodshed that's taken over Haiti in recent years -- really, just the latest in a bloody history there -- Christians are able to move back in and get back to the work of being Christ's hands and feet in what is one of the world's most needy nations. I have some dear friends who have gone on numerous missions trips there, and my wife and I would love to go with them some day.
Second, the city in which I live, Charleston, West Virginia, has an estimated 51,176 people. Few, if any, are without running water ... yet in Port-Au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, digging wells to add water to 70,000 people is just scratching the surface of their need. Most of us cannot fathom the level of poverty that exists in Third World countries ... and I would suspect most of us don't want to know, either.

Asking Why (Christianity Today)

Christian Fellowship helps survivors of the Virginia Tech shooting deal with larger issues

God did not walk into a Virginia Tech classroom and kill 30-some students with two handguns.

Briefly ...
So Al Gore is blasting Canada for that country's new plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a plan that officials there say will reduce emissions by 20 percent by the year 2020. Problem is, that country signed the Kyoto Protocol, agreeing in 1997 to cut emissions by five percent lower than 1990 levels by the year 2012. Guess what Canada's current emissions levels are, according to the Associated Press? It's 30 percent above 1990 levels. And, in a story in E/The Environmental Magazine, most signatories to the Protocol won't meet the new standards to which they agreed, including Japan. The U.S. did not sign the agreement ... Mark Driscoll, of Mars Hill Church, is in the middle of some controversy again, this time the result of a public rift between his church planting network, Acts 29, and the Southern Baptist Convention. There are a number of issues at play here, and I won't weigh in ... I'm not in the loop and don't want to make any judgements on who is right or wrong. Read for yourself. Driscoll's account is here and you can read the SBC position here.