Letters

Many Evangelicals are not on the global-warming bandwagon

The Nov. 9 article, "New sermon from the evangelical pulpit: global warming," failed to mention that there's another side.

Richard Cizik is the vice president for governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals, and he does personally endorse the film "The Great Warming."

But Mr. Cizik does not speak for the association and its 30 million members, which last January refused to take a position on global warming because it saw no consensus on the climate-change issue among Evangelicals.

More important, the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance in July released "A Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Response to Global Warming," which is now endorsed by 120 leading Evangelicals, including climate scientists, geologists, biologists, and environmental economists, as well as pastors and theologians, plus 20 non-Evangelical scientists.

The "Call to Truth" argues that recent and foreseeable climate change is largely natural, is on balance as likely to be beneficial as harmful, and is not subject to significant mitigation by mandatory reductions in CO2 emissions (the achievement of which would be harmful to the world's poor).

For those who support climate-change action, "creation care" is a good motive, but that concept doesn't justify a given position on any given environmental concern; that requires good scientific, economic, and ethical analysis.
E. Calvin Beisner
Pembroke Pines, Fla.
National spokesman, Interfaith Stewardship Alliance; and coauthor of, "A Call to Truth...."

I read with interest the Nov. 6 article, "After the Amnesty: 20 years later," and I think it would be only fair to show the other side of the story.

Illegal immigration is a serious problem in America.

Why is it so difficult to talk about and show how it has negatively affected American families, our communities, and our nation?

Many who are here illegally seem to be forcing their culture and their language on America. They do not want to assimilate, and some declare that they are here to take back the land that was stolen from them long ago.

Please do a story from the American point of view.
Judy Dix
Robinson, Ill.

I write in response to the Nov. 13 article, "More people give the gift of choice," about giving gift cards for the holidays.

The perfect gift is to pick up brand new bills at the bank (one-dollar or five-dollar bills, so that the stack is a little bit thick) and lightly glue them all on one end so that the bills will be like a note pad.

It is fun to receive such an unusual presentation of plain old cash.

Then, when the gift recipients pay for an item at a store, they can simply pull out the pad and start pulling off the right number of bills – that is, if they can bear to part with this cute stack of money.

Doing this puts fun into the use of the gift, no matter what the beginning amount. Everyone delights in this – the gift giver, the recipient of the gift, the one collecting the spent bills, as well as those who see the transaction.

The real value of our gifts is to delight one another. Is it not?
Esther Sandberg
Bellevue, Wash.

The Monitor welcomes your letters and opinion articles. Because of the volume of mail we receive, we can neither acknowledge nor return unpublished submissions. All submissions are subject to editing. Letters must be signed and include your mailing address and telephone number. Any letter accepted will appear in print and on our website, www.csmonitor.com.

Mail letters to 'Readers Write,' and opinion articles to Opinion Page, One Norway St., Boston, MA 02115, or fax to (617) 450-2317, or e-mail to Letters.