The man who originally introduced the name "Earth Day" was a Pentecostal minister, according to the Assemblies of God (AG) Heritage magazine.

John McConnell introduced "Earth Day" at the 1969 UNESCO Conference on the Environment. The next year, Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D-Wisconsin) moved Earth Day to April 22, when he held a political protest.

"So the next thing I knew they stole my name Earth Day and they used it for April 22," McConnell told the AG Heritage. "I was urged to sue, but I didn't. I didn't believe in suing."

McConnell's grandfather was at the Azusa Street Revival and his parents were founding members of the AG. Darrin Rodgers also did a video interview with McConnell.

"If there had been no Christian experience in my life there would be no Earth Day - or at least I would not have initiated it," McConnell said. "We love God ... [and therefore should] have an appreciation for His creation."

I celebrated Earth Day by purchasing a plane ticket and reserving a hotel room. From May 13 to 15, I'm going to join other evangelical Christians who care for God's creation at the Flourish Conference in Duluth, Georgia.

The lineup of speakers is intriguing. It blends people who don't usually appear on the same platform because of their differing constituencies and mixes veteran environmental presenters with other well-known speakers who haven't addressed this issue with their publics. Add to that the symbolism of a Southern Baptist venue for an environmental conversation and the fact that several of the speakers are "professional Southern Baptists" (that is, their public face is linked with Southern Baptist institutions).

But what is most interesting about this conference is this:

When Frodo sailed into the West, never to return to a Middle Earth that was itself slipping away, I got choked up. When Narnia was no more, I felt a longing of regret:

The spreading blackness was not a cloud at all: it was simply emptiness. The black part of the sky was the part in which there were no stars left. All the stars were falling: Aslan had called them home.

As a billion people observe the 40th Earth Day today and think about the noble goal of preserving (and for Christians, stewarding) the planet on which we live and move and have our being, I am thinking about heaven.

There's a reason the Bible promises us a new heaven and a new earth. This world, as seemingly solid and as breathtakingly beautiful as it is, is transient beyond our comprehension. And despite our best (and sometimes misguided) efforts, this pale blue dot in a sea of inky blackness is headed for extinction. That's not a world-denying premillennial eschatological perspective that cannot be verified. It's the latest findings of the new science of astrobiology.

According to Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, life on earth is the result of a precarious - and temporary - balance of air, rock, and solar activity. In The Life and Death of Planet Earth, They write, "Our neighboring planets, Venus and Mars, one blisteringly hot and the other frozen, have provided valuable insights into how rare, unique, and wonderful our own home is."

Ward and Brownlee, authors of Rare Earth, say the planet is already in decline and make the following predictions related to earth's eventual demise:

- The long-term climate threat to human civilization comes not from global warming, but from a new ice age: "Human civilization has arisen in a brief ?interglacial' that has lasted only about twelve thousand years and may already be ending."
- The loss of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in 100 million years will spell the end of plant life (meaning the Age of Plants is 95 percent over);
- All life, even microbial life, which most scientists believe began 3.4 billion years ago, will be extinct in a mere 500 million years;
- When earth, currently estimated at 4.5 billion years old, is 12 billion years old, it will be swallowed by an expanding sun.

This world is not my home, I'm just passing through.
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.

Yes, while we pass through this world, let's take care of it for our good and for God's glory. But let's remember that Jesus has promised to prepare an even better place for his followers. For us, the end of the world represents the beginning of something far better.

Why do people care about the environment? Critics often dismiss ecoconcern as something irrational - as in the derogatory label tree hugger. But for religious believers (whether Christians, Buddhists, Jews, or Muslims), there are reasons that are deeply rooted in their belief systems.

Renewal (4 stars) is a 90-minute DVD featuring eight stories of religious groups taking environmental action. The documentary leads off with a group of evangelicals drawing attention to the impact of "mountaintop removal" mining operations on poor residents of Appalachia. Most memorable are scenes at a Jewish environmental summer camp where campers weigh their collective food scraps after each meal as they learn to cut down on waste - a value shared by Jews and Christians (at least Puritans and Mennonites). Groups that want to use the DVD for discussion purposes can learn more at the Renewal website.

Too much press coverage misunderstood what the Vatican was doing in issuing its recent list of serious sins. (See the excellent media criticism piece by Mollie Hemingway at Get Religion.)

But as you engage in serious self-examination this Holy Week, you might want to read a light-hearted op/ed posted today at the Indianapolis Star website (the piece originated with sister newspaper Noblesville Ledger).

Ledger columnist Jane Younce reflects on the new list of sins and finds them, well, not as personally challenging as the old Seven Deadlies: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. Those were sins that everyone had to avoid. Whereas the new list seems to be dominated by sins of the rich and powerful: embryo-destroying stem cell research, environmental pollution, poverty, excessive wealth, etc.

It's not that we can do nothing about embryonic stem-cell research or environmental pollution. I recycle and use compact fluorescents, but I don't really think the Vatican is counting the occasional unrecycled paper cup among the mortal sins. That warning about environmental pollution is surely for the captains of industry.

The danger that Jane Younce's delightful column hints at is this: It is easy to feel righteous about recycling that urethane foam milkshake cup and to forget about the gluttony that I abetted by buying that milkshake.

But don't let me blather on. Just read Younce's op/ed.

Lost in the media storm preceding and following Super Tuesday, and the actual storms that debilitated or devastated much of the US that same day, was media coverage of the start of Lent, arguably the most recognized of the exclusively Christian seasons on the Church's liturgical calendar. In reviewing English-speaking coverage of this turning of the seasons, I was struck by the difference between US media reports and those issuing from across the pond in the UK.

Georgia received rain late Wednesday and early Thursday, one day after Gov. Sonny Perdue led a public prayer for rain to end the region's historic drought.

"Certainly, we're not gloating about it," the Associated Press quotes Perdue. "We're thankful for the rain and hopefully it's the beginning of more. ... Frankly, it's great affirmation of what we asked for."

Mainstream press is quick to point out that the prayer came as the National Weather Service predicted rain. Still, the Atlanta Journal Constitution is also quick to say "The faithful ought to keep praying." Forecasters say that the storm likely did little to ease the state's drought.

A separate AP story examines how previous politicians have approached public prayer differently, from George Washington to Thomas Jefferson to Harry Truman.

While public prayer vigils might raise eyebrows in other parts of the nation, they are mostly shrugged off in the Bible Belt, where turning to the heavens for help is common and sometimes even politically expedient.

TIME magazine writes a piece that examines who is at fault for the drought.

"Politicians always call catastrophes 'acts of God,' blaming unnatural destruction caused by natural phenomena on supernatural forces," writes Michael Grunwald. ... "But it wasn't God who allowed an outdoor theme park to build a million-gallon mountain of artificial snow while the Southeast was running dry; it was Governor Perdue and his fellow elected officials. They also allowed the wasteful irrigation of Georgia's cotton farms and the rampant overbuilding and overslurping of metropolitan Atlanta."

TIME says the state will need serious water management and long-term thinking, which may take a miracle.

The L.A. Times writes that during his prayer, Perdue cut a newly repentant figure.

"Oh father, we acknowledge our wastefulness," Perdue said. "But we're doing better. And I thought it was time to acknowledge that to the creator, the provider of water and land, and to tell him that we will do better."

To celebrate my 60th birthday yesterday, I had dinner with the Secretary General of the United Nations. The Washington Post's Dana Milbank covered the event in his puckish (my wife called it "snarky") style.

Okay, so I had dinner with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and 300 other people. And the Washington Post didn't even mention me. Secretary General Ban and I were only sitting at adjacent tables. But I did get a grip-and-grin photo op with him before the banquet, and after his speech I was one of three evangelical leaders invited to give a brief response.

The banquet itself was a joint effort of the National Association of Evangelicals and the Micah Challenge. It was the closing event of the NAE's semi-annual board meeting and the opening event of the Global Leaders Forum. Organizations involved in the Forum (beyond the NAE and Micah Challenge) included Bread for the World, World Relief, Frontiers, The Salvation Army, Tearfund, the Evangelical Environmental Network, the Korean Church Coalition, and the UN Foundation and the UN Millennium Campaign.

Attendees at the sold-out event got this message loud and clear:

It turns out I may have spoken too soon (and not for the first time). On June 22 in the CT Liveblog, in a posting entitled "Gas and Hot Air," I wondered why no one is talking about nuclear power as a partial answer to the nation's energy woes. Actually, people are talking about it. According to a report in today's Chicago Tribune, fears over global warming are sparking thoughts among environmentalists that maybe splitting the atom is the lesser of two evils, even though storing nuclear waste and protecting against possible terrorist attacks remain issues:

"Patrick Moore, a Greenpeace co-founder who has become a fervent nuclear energy advocate and industry consultant, said the industry needs to prepare for such worst-case scenarios, but those shouldn't drive the debate over nuclear energy.

"Moore said his former environmentalist allies, some of whom now deride him as a corporate shill, are stuck in a Cold War mentality that lumps together the benefits and dangers of nuclear technology.

"'You don't ban the beneficial uses of a technology just because that same technology can be used for evil," he said. 'Otherwise, we would never have harnessed fire.'"