Opinion: In today’s pages: EPA, CIA, and heaven
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Columnist Joel Stein learns that heaven isn’t all harps:
The book [‘Heaven’] is 533 pages long, so I decided to just call [author Randy C.] Alcorn at his ministry in Oregon. He’s one of the foremost non-dead experts on heaven, having also written ’50 Days of Heaven,’ ‘In Light of Eternity: Perspectives on Heaven’ and ‘Heaven for Kids’.... The clouds-and-harp version came about for two reasons, Alcorn told me. One is Satan. The other is the early church fathers who tried to blend the Bible with Greek philosophy and wound up with a Platonic version of the afterlife stripped of the physical. In the heaven in Alcorn’s book, he imagines we’ll be riding on the backs of brontosauruses and throwing baseballs with Andy Pettitte. This does not sound like it will be heaven for brontosauruses or Andy Pettitte.But that’s actually the heaven on Earth that only gets going after the return of Christ.
Author Alex Frankel remembers to thank the miracle workers who make Christmas happen -- store staff and deliverymen and women. Bob Stone and Rick Cole say Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s across-the-board cut would be too painful.
The editorial board says the EPA’s decision on California emissions was a politicized one, and explains why Bush finally yielded on an investigation into CIA tapes. The board also notes that Kiefer Sutherland, unlike most convicted celebs, will serve a fairly long time in a Glendale jail.
Readers react to the EPA ruling. Temple City’s Robert C. Lutes says, ‘Under this irresponsible administration, the EPA should be renamed the EDA -- the Environmental Destruction Agency.’