Here is a letter to the editor from the weekend edition of the Dallas Morning News:

Show a true respect for life:

The proposed coal-fired power plants are distressing to many people of faith because they fly in the face of the core religious teaching of "respect life."

This means defending human life by reducing pollution and fostering an environment where human life can thrive, especially at its most fragile beginnings. This includes keeping unborn babies safe from toxins like mercury.

Respect for life means using God's gifts wisely and conservatively and building respectful communities that honor each person's voice, not autocratically "fast-tracking" decisions that will effect Texan's lives for years to come.

It also means respect for our capacity as God's children to grow and change; to solve problems as a community, and to love each other and the environment we share.

Bee Moorhead, executive director, Texas Impact, Austin

OooK! I have to pass on my congratulations to Ms. Moorhead who has successfully hijacked language typically used by the pro-life movement. I guess we should be flattered as imitation is the most sincere form of flattery and that the standard the respect life movement has set is apparently good enough for the environmental movement as well.

There is a trend in evangelical churches to take on the environment as a priority issue, but so far, this has not happened in the Catholic Church, but one can imagine that this kind of thing is not far off.

A search of the word "abortion" on the web site of Texas Impact, which "exists to advance state public policies that are consistent with universally held social principles of the Abrahamic traditions," "yielded no results."