In today's pages: Bad health, good China, green church

Columnist Jonah Goldberg explains the gospel of the church of green:

Environmentalists are keen to insist that their movement is a secular one. But using the word "secular" no more makes you secular than using the word "Christian" automatically means you behave like a Christian. Pioneering green lawyer Joseph Sax, for example, describes environmentalists as "secular prophets, preaching a message of secular salvation." Gore too has often been dubbed a "prophet." It's no surprise that a green-themed California hotel provides Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" right next to the Bible and a Buddhist tome.

American University's Nancy Polikoff explores a little-noted 1960s revolution -- when children born out of wedlock stopped being outcasts. Author Donna Foote rewrites the story of Locke High School, focusing not on violence but on poverty and poor education. And editorial pages' copy desk chief Paul Whitefield tells the harrowing tale of trying to mow the lawn with his sons.

The editorial board applauds China's disaster relief efforts, particularly compared to Myanmar's response. The board urges mandatory health standards at immigration detention centers to prevent unnecessary and cruel fatalities and other problems. Finally, the board discusses the plight of female farmworkers facing sexual harassment.

On the letters page, readers react to Bush's comments in Israel on appeasement. David DiBello of Lakewood, N.J., says:

Rather than wasting energy acting appalled, Democrats should spend their time declaring why their policy of troop withdrawal is the better option. Democrats should talk about Bush's appeasement of oil companies, of catering to the wealthy over the middle class, of a failed war plan and of not capturing Osama bin Laden.