Northern Minnesota is under a new alert until Friday at 7 p.m.

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

Academic and environmental blogs have been aflame over the recent nastiness of the dispute between climate skeptic 

St. Thomas University professor John Abraham

Amid all the hubbub over Monckton's outlandish behavior and the debate over who has the science right, something strikes me as odd:

Here we have a minor celebrity with sketchy credibility (Monckton) being allowed to take the stage at Bethel, a Christian university. When a professor from St. Thomas, another Christian university, contradicts the man's work later on, the celebrity publicly insults and bullies the professor, trashing the university and its leader in the process.

Public statement from fellow Christian Bethel: Nothing.

Granted, the president finally did run a rather mild 

on his blog Friday, but it seemed less than introspective, and its embarrassment level seemed practically zero.

What responsibility does a Christian university have when it comes to vetting third-party speakers? 

Considering that the Moncktons of this planet already have plenty of forums in the polarized world of TV and talk radio, must a university really allow a potential bomb-thrower a platform? And should it apologize if he takes the stage and explodes?

While I wait for university responses, here's the background:

spoke Oct. 14, 2009 at Bethel University 

as guest of the Minnesota Free Market Institute.

He started in early by calling climate-change activists are "forces of darkness" and "bed-wetters," and the environmental Left in general:

(He was actually talking about those who support the ban on the pesticide DDT, but the quote gives some of his flavor.)

He then proceeded to lay out why he thinks the science behind climate change is bunk. I won't get into science in the debate -- just the tactics.

Afterward, St. Thomas mechanical engineering professor John Abraham, who has a PhD from the University of Minnesota and specializes in heat transfer, fluid mechanics and computational methods, 

put out a presentation countering Monckton's claims

Then Monckton shot back in an Alex Jones Show interview, here on 

apparently in this Bible college, lying is part of what they regard as their Christian mission

He called St. Thomas' Rev. Dennis Dease a "

the bishop these days is probably too busy sorting out the problems of little boys that he hasn't got time to deal with this one.

Abraham has, at least publicly, remained calm. Monckton has said he's trying to get St. Thomas to investigate Abraham, but St. Thomas won't back down. The university's attorneys 

told Monckton to shut it in a recent letter

Meanwhile, Bethel said practically nothing in public until President James "Jay" H. Barnes III 

 that Bethel merely rented space to the program's sponsor, the Minnesota Free Market Institute.

In addressing the vetting of engagements on Bethel property, he wrote:

The Bethel president mentions the group -- in this case it was the 

, which I assume would pass the test -- but not speakers.

Go over Monckton's past and decide for yourself whether his statements and tactics are antithetical to Bethel's mission.

He has had a less-than-unblemished history back in Britain. In a piece titled "Monckton's response to John Abraham is magnificently bonkers," George Monbiot of the British newspaper The Guardian 

falsely claimed to be a member of the House of Lords

 (by suggesting to Margaret Thatcher that the SAS introduce a mild bacillus into the water supply in Port Stanley); maintained that he has invented a cure for HIV, multiple sclerosis, influenza and other diseases; and grossly exaggerated 

his role in shaping Margaret Thatcher's views

Aside from that, in 2007, The Scotsman newspaper reported that Monckton had 

concocted a pity story for the news media 

so he could boost sales of a puzzle he had invented. In other words, he didn't tell the truth.

Meanwhile, St. Thomas has remained low-key. After all, the university has itself had its share of fallout from controversial speakers -- most notably Archbishop 

"We think, 'Oh, Bethel, we feel your pain because we’ve been there," said St. Thomas spokesman Tim Winterer.

Bethel spokeswoman Amanda Wanke said the flap hasn't strained relations.

 "There's never been anything tough between St. Thomas and us," she said.

Alex Friedrich

Author

Matthew McDermott via Wikimedia Commons Welcome at Bethel? Academic and environmental blogs have been aflame over the recent nastiness of the dispute between climate skeptic Christopher Monckton and St. Thomas University professor John Abraham. Amid all the hubbub over Monckton’s outlandish behavior and the debate over who has the science right, something strikes me as odd: Here we have a minor celebrity…

Should Bethel be responsible for who's under its roof?

Go Deeper.

Like this?