tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70744869241802165152011-11-03T02:07:57.691-06:00perspectives on religion, nature, land, and nationThomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.comBlogger641100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-41751905607596911492007-12-15T09:41:00.000-06:002007-12-15T09:55:57.901-06:00

A quote from Calvin DeWitt, a professor at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, from his essay “Let It Be” about what he has learned from living on a marshland (click here for an online version of the essay): “What have I learned as a denizen of the marsh? Many things... but perhaps none more important than to respect the ‘wisdom’ of the

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-451476564860876762007-10-10T10:20:00.000-06:002007-10-10T12:33:23.504-06:00

I am reading Paul Schullery’s delightful book Mountain Time: Man Meets Wilderness in Yellowstone, a wonderfully written and often funny insider’s view of the Yellowstone experience. One particularly puzzling quote caught my eye:“I don’t know as much as bears don’t know” (page 38).I guess I don’t know what bears don’t know, but I know that I sure don’t know a lot more than I know. How about you?*

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-20416910087259004192007-09-30T06:03:00.000-06:002007-09-30T06:38:37.139-06:00

Two weeks ago I heard John Churchill, the national Secretary of Phi Beta Kappa (click here for his message on the PBK web site) speak at a conference on undergraduate research in the humanities at small liberal arts colleges. He emphasized that research for students in the humanities cannot rely on models developed in the natural sciences, in large part because the goals of humanities

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-86959786376284062812007-09-09T22:18:00.000-06:002007-09-09T22:38:34.108-06:00

Kurt Repanshek reports on the National Parks Traveler site that “a federal judge has ruled that a cross can no longer stand atop Sunrise Rock” in Mojave National Preserve in California (click here for his posting). According to a news item in the San Bernardino Sun, a former National Park Service assistant superintendent at the preserve filed the lawsuit with the help of the American Civil

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-38714471133338907022007-09-03T10:25:00.000-06:002007-09-03T10:55:52.482-06:00

Labor Day weekend means the Memphis Music and Heritage Festival, a marvelous two-day event filled with outstanding performances by artists ranging from blues to rockabilly, jazz to gospel, plus storytellers, southern cuisine, crafts, and other vendors (click here for a photo album of a few of the acts). This free festival is put on by The Center for Southern Folklore (click here for their web

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-86509388228642045622007-09-01T10:20:00.000-06:002007-09-01T10:28:35.242-06:00

I just saw an interview of Bill Maher on Larry King Live (click here for the interview on YouTube) about his upcoming documentary, tentatively titled “Religulous,” where he makes religion out to be ridiculous. Maher tells Mr. King, “The topic of religion is just so inherently funny.” I would agree—making it funny is always an option for dealing with something that you have no understanding of

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-77386293095456249162007-09-01T08:58:00.000-06:002007-09-01T09:04:41.961-06:00

Josiah Strong’s popular nineteenth-century book Our Country (click here for an online copy) presents a racially charged argument of white superiority that justifies the inevitable civilizing of the American west, what we might view as a white supremacist articulation of the imperialist doctrine of Manifest Destiny. Strong himself was an evangelical Congregationalist minister; in fact, it was The

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-26857036887288741432007-08-25T15:28:00.000-06:002007-08-25T15:34:24.053-06:00

I have just finished reading a wonderful history of bears and people in Yellowstone National Park, Do (Not) Feed the Bears: The Fitful History of Wildlife and Tourists in Yellowstone by Alice Wondrak Biel (click here for the publisher’s description of her book). Biel’s recounting of the story of Yellowstone’s bears “traces the evolution of their complex relationship with humans—from the creation

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-42231329477563450272007-08-21T23:01:00.000-06:002007-08-22T09:46:12.259-06:00

“Is there such a thing, as journalist Mark Pinsky argues, as ‘Disney Religion?’” inquires John Fea on the Religion in American History blog (click here for his posting). He continues his bewildered musings on the popularity of the Disney Channel’s surprise hit show “High School Musical” and its sequels by asking, “Can traditional religion ever compete with Disney for the hearts of American kids

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-90781207098712752582007-08-16T09:10:00.000-06:002007-08-16T10:04:44.985-06:00

One of the great nineteenth-century defenders of Yellowstone National Park as a refuge from modern industrial society was United States Senator George Graham Vest of Missouri. In the 1880s, Senator Vest denounced the materialism of American culture as he argued on the Senate floor against a proposed sale of Yellowstone lands: “The great curse of this age and of the American people is its

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-3151789619398246942007-08-04T05:54:00.000-06:002007-08-04T06:02:43.602-06:00

Here is a provocative conclusion from Chris J. Magoc in the 1999 book Yellowstone: The Creation and Selling of an American Landscape, 1870-1903: “Americans on the whole are too pragmatic, too industrious, too anthropocentric a bunch to ever accept the notion of the intrinsic worth or rights of nature, however defined.”Does nature have an intrinsic worth outside of what meaningful value humans

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-49189892251134353662007-07-23T19:33:00.000-06:002007-07-23T19:38:47.684-06:00

I am in Philadelphia sifting through great piles of historical documents related to the origins of Yellowstone National Park. I am finding some previously unreported tidbits, including a few details about the illustrious and controversial Nathaniel Pitt Langford. I will need some time to decide whether such details are actually relevant to my project on the history of religions in Yellowstone.In

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-64619985361412226602007-07-12T07:49:00.000-06:002007-07-12T07:54:39.306-06:00

Marc Acito, appearing on the live radio show Live Wire! (click here for more about the program) recorded in the Liberty Theater in Astoria, Oregon and on broadcast April 28, 2007, recounted the history of vaudeville in America, which he characterized as reflecting core American values: “The creation of vaudeville by a guy named Tony Pastor in New York was this intersection of the two impulses

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-89885769368082801152007-07-11T09:51:00.000-06:002007-07-11T09:55:43.936-06:00

My current research has me thinking about a little-known evangelical group that goes by the name A Christian Ministry in the National Parks (click here for their web site). Since the 1950s they have conducted Protestant religious services in virtually all of America’s major national parks. I likely will have more to say about them in the coming months. Their purpose, as they understood it in

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-81062396431834553982007-06-24T10:30:00.000-06:002007-06-24T14:35:44.241-06:00

The conflict between preservation and use is as old as our national parks and continues in nearly everything that the National Park Service does. As National Park Traveler reports (click here for the story), this is especially evident in the rebuilding of Mount Rainier National Park after storms last fall destroyed or damaged much of the park’s infrastructure. The rush to reopen the park has

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-66098465046086735002007-06-23T17:16:00.000-06:002007-06-23T17:40:21.488-06:00

Bill Berkowitz reports in the newsletter Dissident Voice about the high-profile Bush administration convict J. Steven Griles’ audacious plea to avoid jail time by performing “community service” for private entertainment organizations the American Recreation Coalition (ARC) and the Walt Disney Company (click here for Berkowitz’s article; also, see the commentary on National Parks Traveler by

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-78318699909826447992007-06-22T12:27:00.000-06:002007-06-22T12:29:26.988-06:00

"Morality is of the highest importance, but for us, not for God." --Albert Einstein* * * * * *

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-9227821763101215992007-06-21T18:01:00.000-06:002007-06-21T18:12:04.739-06:00

A frightening tragedy on the treacherous and overcrowded climb up the back side of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park last Saturday (click here for a report from Tom Stienstra of the San Francisco Chronicle, including harrowing eyewitness accounts—see especially the comment by Adam) raises serious questions about wilderness experiences for folks who are utterly unprepared. It also exposes the

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-11444948156082268792007-06-15T10:07:00.000-06:002007-06-15T10:11:29.220-06:00

The Puritan colonists who settled in New England often receive blame for initiating the American ravishment of the continent’s natural environments. But not all of the early British colonizers shared a fearful disdain of American “wilderness.” Thomas Morton, who John Gatta describes as “a nominally Anglican, neopagan entrepreneur” offers what Gatta characterizes as “a radically dissenting view

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-91777889536154826992007-06-11T16:23:00.000-06:002007-06-12T20:40:31.677-06:00

Last month was the one-hundredth anniversary of Rachel Carson’s birth, author of the environmental classic Silent Spring, who was born May 27, 1907. Among the many tributes was a remembrance on the radio show Living on Earth (click here to listen to the show).Her influence on the modern environmental movement has been unequaled. Silent Spring was recognized in 1992 as “the most influential book

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-70318578584994357892007-06-05T07:35:00.000-06:002007-06-05T07:39:28.347-06:00

Henry David Thoreau wrote in his journal in 1856 that “it is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves. There is none such. It is the bog in our brain and bowels, the primitive vigor of Nature in us, that inspires that dream.”* * * * * *

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-27585392441093788762007-06-01T14:10:00.000-06:002007-06-12T07:39:36.398-06:00

I have heard it said that there is better music in Memphis churches on Sunday mornings than in any nightclub in America on Saturday nights. My experience tells me that there is much truth to this observation.Singer-songwriter Susan Werner (click here for her web site) tries to bring a bit of that Sunday morning music to the unchurched with her new CD The Gospel Truth. In an interview today on the

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-53837928476442381562007-05-31T15:07:00.000-06:002007-05-31T15:09:38.645-06:00

The Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote in a letter in 1802:“Nature has her proper interest; & he will know what it is, who believes & feels, that every Thing has a Life of its own, & that we are all one life.” (quoted in English Romantic Writers, ed. David Perkins, p. 526).* * * * *

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-87044039586968915062007-05-29T15:29:00.000-06:002007-05-29T21:16:25.123-06:00

Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals and editor of their newsletter Washington Insight, has been a leading voice urging evangelicals to action on global climate change (click here for article about a call for Cizik’s ouster, and here for a follow up article on how the Association backed Cizik in the controversy). Cizik relates in a

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-63559863015901171492007-05-28T08:46:00.000-06:002007-05-28T08:55:18.561-06:00

Today is Memorial Day in the USA, an occasion for remembering my grandmother, Laura Caroline Bremer, who was born on this day in 1898; she passed away in 1984 at the age of 85. My grandmother was a very wise woman who lived simply, who harbored a deep devotion to her Christian understandings of the world, and who greeted everyone joyfully.I could share many profound lessons I learned from my

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-34905327469172032602007-05-26T10:32:00.000-06:002007-05-26T10:46:05.800-06:00

Last weekend we snuck away for an overnight stay and some hiking in Meeman-Shelby State Park, just thirty minutes from our home in Memphis. The weather was perfect for camping, and we couldn't resist getting out of town, if only for twenty-four hours.It still amazes me that so close to Memphis, a major American city where whites make up less than 50% of the population, visitors to the state park

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-9266598119836055982007-05-25T08:18:00.000-06:002007-05-25T08:23:36.069-06:00

David Brancaccio of the PBS program NOW interviewed Chip Giller, founder of the website grist.org, promoting green attitudes with a sense of humor (click here for the NOW program, originally broadcast on May 11, 2007—the Giller interview is at the very end of the program, beginning at 16:20 on the audio download version). Here is some of what Giller has to say about Grist:Regarding their slogan,

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-40424986537847928192007-05-24T08:44:00.000-06:002007-05-24T08:47:05.391-06:00

In regard to the new Skywalk built by Hualapai Indians over a tributary canyon of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Edward Rothstein writes in the New York Times (click here for his article):“In fact, look more closely at Grand Canyon West, and it is as if the roles of the United States government and the Indian tribes had been inverted or exchanged. The Park Service takes an almost sacred view of the

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-34290418303055545382007-05-01T20:10:00.000-06:002007-05-01T20:18:45.855-06:00

The Wilderness Act, signed into law in 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson, created the National Wilderness Preservation System to protect lands "untrammeled by man" (click here for the text of the Act; and here for a brief history of the Act). But what do we do with historical structures of cultural significance that lie within wilderness areas? Two federal court cases in recent years help

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-7698879546317259172007-04-24T08:54:00.000-06:002007-04-24T08:56:13.744-06:00

The rampage last week in Virginia by an angry and confused young man with a gun has me thinking about a variety of difficult issues: gun control; societal attitudes toward mental illness; the media’s delight over tragedy. Perhaps most disturbing are reactions on college campuses across the country that stifle engaged debate rather than encourage it. In the aftermath of traumatic moments like

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-37072257209562760902007-04-14T21:56:00.000-06:002007-04-14T22:08:25.472-06:00

Gary Hathaway, the former Chief of Interpretation at Lava Beds National Monument and, according to “Ranger X” (click here for his post), “the most talented interpretive ranger I've had the privilege to know,” wrote this about the National Park Service (NPS) in May 2000:For me the concepts of the NPS were a creed, a religion, the only path to follow. Like a religion they became sacred to me and I

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-59370718589762876152007-04-06T15:49:00.000-06:002007-04-06T18:34:58.545-06:00

Thomas Merton wrote from his cloistered home in Kentucky, “In this wilderness I have learned to sleep again. I am not alien. The trees I know, the night I know, the rain I know. I close my eyes and instantly sink into the whole rainy world of which I am a part, and the world goes on with me in it, for I am not alien to it” (in When the Trees Say Nothing: Writings on Nature, edited by Kathleen

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-60454539487874756522007-04-06T08:49:00.000-06:002007-04-06T14:19:09.685-06:00

The National Park Service maintains the site of Abraham Lincoln’s birth near Hodgenville, Kentucky (click here for information about the site). At this National Historic Site, the American national religion becomes evident in the stark contrasts of the neo-classical monument at the top of the hill in the pastoral setting of the Sinking Spring Farm where Nancy Lincoln gave birth to her famous

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-40979362397534801632007-04-04T20:21:00.000-06:002007-04-04T20:29:41.727-06:00

Singer-songwriter Carole King (click here for her website) owns a 128-acre ranch in Idaho adjacent to what may one day be the Boulder-White Clouds Wilderness, if a bill in Congress ever meets success. In a show broadcast back in January on the PBS program NOW (click here for the show), King explained to correspondent Jon Christensen her fervent defense of the Boulder and White Clouds Mountains:

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-3071360885814635932007-03-12T20:19:00.000-06:002007-03-12T20:37:53.964-06:00

Dennis M. Clausen writes in the North County Times (of San Diego County, California), “Political leaders who created our national parks and California state parks also understood that American values and dreams are deeply connected to the natural landscape” (click here for his commentary). I think, however, that Mr. Clausen is reading too much of our political leaders’ motives through the

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-4736178792971716612007-03-12T19:42:00.000-06:002007-03-12T20:47:32.813-06:00

Clay Jenkinson, the Theodore Roosevelt scholar-in-residence at Dickinson State University in North Dakota, writes against allowing hunters to reduce the dangerously overpopulated elk herd in Theodore Roosevelt National Park (click here for his opinion piece). He bases his argument on the sanctity of national parks, and warns of a slippery slope when we allow hunters into the sacred places of our

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-44287036537909863582007-03-02T20:56:00.000-06:002007-03-02T20:58:55.079-06:00

Karl Puckett of the Great Falls Tribune reports that the National Geographic Society plans to publish a “geotourism” map of the Crown of the Continent region with Glacier National Park and Canada’s Waterton National Park at its heart (click here for the article). As Puckett reports, “The official definition of geotourism is tourism that sustains a place's environment, culture, aesthetics,

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-79179127517311727732007-03-02T20:07:00.000-06:002007-03-02T21:02:24.380-06:00

Bob Madgic writes on Redding.com (click here) that the mission of the national parks is clear: preservation of natural, cultural, and historical resources must take precedence over commercial interests in the parks. His argument makes an appeal not only to the legislative record, but also to religious sensibilities that regard America’s parks as sacred ground. His opinion piece concludes,Our

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-54698084019682770672007-02-25T09:12:00.000-06:002007-02-25T10:03:54.604-06:00

The New York Times reports (click here for the story) that the history department at Middlebury College in Vermont has “notified its students this month that Wikipedia could not be cited in papers or exams, and that students could not ‘point to Wikipedia or any similar source that may appear in the future to escape the consequences of errors.’” This reflects a growing awareness and concern about

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-87461903670588450852007-02-23T20:35:00.000-06:002007-02-23T20:45:52.979-06:00

Yellowstone now has a series of virtual tours of the park, called Inside Yellowstone, with interpretive ranger Beth Taylor. All of her interpretive talks (initially there are thirty segments) are less than two minutes each, which means she can "only scratch the surface," as she notes in the Introduction segment. They do not substitute for an actual visit to the park, but I wonder how many

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-11761217329728743632007-02-23T19:06:00.000-06:002007-02-25T10:06:00.205-06:00

As students on our campus prepare for their spring break travels, including "alternative" spring break trips to help with rebuilding along the Gulf Coast and elsewhere, Ryan Beiler presents some challenging thoughts to take into the field (click here for his article on the God's Politics site). He writes about his own "short-term missions trips" around the world, and he brings up some difficult

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-82737020509584088072007-02-22T22:38:00.000-06:002007-02-22T23:05:19.794-06:00

The U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales went before the leadership of the staunchly partisan Southern Baptist Convention to announce the Justice Department's new "First Freedom Project." The goal of the project, according to the press release from the Justice Department, is " to protect religious liberty." But as pastordan reports on "Street Prophets," choosing to unveil this new initiative

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-11622033198069046942007-02-22T20:25:00.000-06:002007-02-22T20:30:33.666-06:00

Russ Finley, a.k.a. "biodiversivist," discusses a recent encounter with a couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses on the Gristmill site (click here for his posting, including the readers’ comments). He mentions their brochure about “creation care,” but he reports their reluctance to be labeled “environmentalists.” Most disconcerting is Finley's admission of always engaging the Witnesses when they come

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-6655536150346981722007-02-21T18:29:00.000-06:002007-02-21T18:56:01.596-06:00

Wildebeat continues its series on diversity in the wilderness (click here for my previous mention of their series) with a story on the the WildLink program in California, a partnership between the Yosemite Institute and the Sierra Nevada Wilderness Education Project. WildLink offers a wilderness experience to low-income, ethnically diverse students. According to the Wildebeat program, some of

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-53191786202388409502007-02-20T20:58:00.000-06:002007-02-20T21:15:21.232-06:00

As Rob Boston reports on the Wall of Separation site, the United States Army is not yet prepared to take religious diversity as a serious issue. Don Larsen, a recent convert to Wicca, has been removed from the Army's chaplains’ corps and sent home to Idaho from his duty in Iraq (his story appeared in the Washington Post). One irony in this story recalls the key role that racial integration in

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-37563143566970628232007-02-18T23:12:00.000-06:002007-02-19T09:44:53.857-06:00

Kurt Repanshek offers on his National Park Traveler site some thoughtful words from the latest book The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth from the biologist and theorist E. O. Wilson, including this quote:The defense of living Nature is a universal value. It doesn't rise from, nor does it promote, any religious or ideological dogma. Rather, it serves without discrimination the interests

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-59583660384093790172007-02-17T21:19:00.001-06:002007-02-22T08:20:26.196-06:00

Ranger X has posted “The Top Five Places For Sexy Time in National Parks!” on his site. This not only attracted my attention, but also elicited my response, which can be found in the comments section of his posting (click here). Ahhh, the sweet memories of youth!

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-80134771470185282662007-02-17T14:58:00.000-06:002007-02-17T15:06:14.262-06:00

Scott Silver notes on his Wild Wilderness site that privatization of Canada’s national parks, in his words, “has failed, failed, failed.” This, he suggests, does not bode well for U.S. parks if current trends toward commercialization continue.He includes Darcy Henton’s article about the Canadian parks that appeared in the Edmonton Sun News.

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-35289673716727961602007-02-17T14:31:00.000-06:002007-02-17T14:39:54.040-06:00

Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, helped launch last month the web site stepitup07.org. In a posting on the God’s Politics site, he describes the idea behind the site: “that the time had finally come for Americans to move past concern about global warming and on to real action.” The site encourages people everywhere to

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-3111952228612152002007-02-17T13:59:00.000-06:002007-02-17T14:02:34.217-06:00

Becky Garrison discusses on the God’s Politics site a couple of contrasting Christian views of “The Rapture” as depicted in the Christian book of Revelation. On the one hand, she mentions the Left Behind books, whose authors, according to Garrison, gleefully greet every event in the Middle East “in light of their Revelations inspired road map that predicts the onset of Armageddon.” In contrast,

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-81650555793646847532007-02-16T10:32:00.002-06:002007-02-16T16:15:06.703-06:00

Kurt Repanshek asks on his National Parks Traveler site whether the private sector is really up to donating $100 million per year for ten years to the national parks. I think there could be some benefits in such a campaign, especially in heightening public awareness of the dire plight of the parks and encouraging citizens to invest directly in the parks. On the other hand, the government's

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-89460939694236261132007-02-10T16:00:00.000-06:002007-02-10T16:00:33.009-06:00

I have to say that I am ambivalent about Al Gore's nomination for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. On the one hand, I am glad that the attention he has brought to global warming receives such prestigious international recognition. On the other hand, I have to agree with Harriet McLeod, a columnist for the Charleston, S. C. Post and Courier, who said on today's broadcast of Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-15416619202128350882007-02-10T15:49:00.000-06:002007-02-10T16:21:04.283-06:00

Al Gore has some pretty sobering words about the power of television and its impact on the democratic process. He expresses a rather profound insight when he remarks, "The consent of the governed is now a commodity that can be purchased by the highest bidder." And who would know this better than the former vice-president, whose bid in 2000 for the consent of American voters was not quite high

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-85134164559563156292007-02-07T18:30:00.000-06:002007-02-07T18:49:22.622-06:00

Scott Silver on Wild Wilderness reports on a speech by Jay Rasulo, the Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, presented Jan. 31, 2007 to the Travel Industry Association. Mr. Rasulo asked his audience "to imagine a fabulous theme park called America." So John Winthrop's Puritan vision of America as "a city upon a hill" has become the "happiest place on earth."

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-82922379620625509962007-02-07T17:44:00.000-06:002007-02-07T18:12:53.952-06:00

Duane Shank on the God's Politics blog notes that the proposed Bush budget includes about $750 billion for combined "security" spending, while "all non-defense/security discretionary spending comes to around $400 billion." Moreover, Shank notes, citing a report in The Washington Times, that "the United States would spend more on security next year than the rest of the world combined." [Shank's

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-41216323753969591802007-02-07T10:00:00.000-06:002007-02-07T10:09:51.762-06:00

An upcoming federal court appeal, with retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day Oconnor sitting on the three-judge appeals panel, will hear about how evangelical Christians have taken the Bush administration's open-door policy for "faith-based" initiatives into the prisons. But their good works is not only about transforming the lives of hardened criminals; it does so through proselytization

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-82648243754772378022007-02-07T09:48:00.000-06:002007-02-07T14:45:30.418-06:00

The Bush budget proposal released this week includes big increases for the national parks, but a closer look reveals a cynical evisceration that continues the parks' decline into playgrounds for the rich. As Scott Silver notes on the Wild Wilderness site, "Much of what you'll be reading will be further confirmation of the ongoing efforts of this administration to radically transform the National

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-19471006645947720592007-02-02T15:18:00.000-06:002007-02-02T15:21:29.881-06:00

My comments in response to today’s posting on Park Remark:"Frustration with the loss of 'that personal connection we used to share with the wild outdoors' seems to me like a nostalgia that forgets why the 1960s produced so much environmental initiative. Those were angry times of upheaval, and the environmental movement rode in on the wave of public sentiment spurred first by the civil rights

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-64047444136152904482007-02-02T00:22:00.000-06:002007-02-02T00:23:54.374-06:00

Matt Rasmussen reports on the current state of eco-terrorism in Orion magazine. He asks whether someday we will regard Earth Liberation Front arsonists with the same heroic regard by which we venerate the nineteenth-century abolitionist martyr John Brown. Too early to tell where their zeal might lead us.

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-33336332642830910002007-02-02T00:06:00.000-06:002007-02-02T00:09:22.039-06:00

Tom Wharton writes about the trend of fewer visitors in the national parks and states, “From a purely selfish standpoint, I view the decline favorably.” I, however, remain ambivalent about the declining numbers of people getting out to camp, hike, and otherwise enjoy the natural settings of America’s wild parklands. Certainly, it makes sense that the parks will become less attractive as they

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-81659299728493875862007-01-31T08:59:00.000-06:002007-01-31T20:00:46.770-06:00

Last night Lucy Lippard—writer, art critic, and culture critic—spoke at the Memphis College of Art. I know her from her book On the Beaten Track about tourism and art. Her lecture in Memphis talked mainly about the book she is working on now, tentatively titled Scratching the Surface, about her current home in Galisteo, New Mexico. She has lived there for fourteen years and writes the local

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-10448136950329741602007-01-30T21:45:00.000-06:002007-01-31T20:02:55.410-06:00

Scott Silver on today’s Wild Wilderness blog decries how the National Park Service’s policies have put our parks, according to Silver, “well on their way to becoming commercial theme parks.” His stern criticism of the Park Service’s dismissal of Friends of Yosemite Valley includes a reprint of David Brower’s essay on the National Park idea published posthumously in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-88009737360922405502007-01-29T21:40:00.000-06:002007-01-31T20:04:36.536-06:00

The national parks and wilderness areas historically have not appealed to racial and ethnic minorities in overwhelming numbers. There are a lot of good reasons for that, some of which I may someday contemplate here or in published venues. Nina Roberts, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at San Francisco State University, has some very good

Thomas S. Bremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13161785756995010118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074486924180216515.post-39478434045500527432007-01-29T18:41:00.000-06:002007-01-31T20:06:36.111-06:00

The last month has seen more controversy over Tom Vail’s book on sale in bookstores at Grand Canyon National Park. Vail claims that the same flood that Noah survived in the Hebrew Bible story carved the canyon in Arizona; the canyon could not be as old as geologists say because, according to a good creationist like Vail, it contradicts the biblical account of the earth’s origins.A press release

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