As Georgia signed a cease-fire agreement today, Pres. George W. Bush decried Russia’s “bullying and intimidation” as unacceptable ways “to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century.” Russia earlier declared that the United States must choose either”a real partnership” with Moscow or an “illusory” affiliation with Georgia.  Does the United States even have the right or responsibility to choose a side in this conflict?

U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice thinks it does. Reiterating a statement from a speech given just over a month ago in Georgia, Rice firmly declared Wednesday that Unites States’ support would continue to remain with Georgia’s democratically elected government. In last month’s dialogue with Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, Rice said,“I  want to again affirm that the United States remains committed to the territorial integrity of Georgia, to its democratic development.”

She restated the importance of a peaceful resolution between Georgia and South Ossetia and warned that neither party should carry out violence.  She said the United States would “do everything that we can to help resolve conflicts” through the Friends process.

Now the United States is pressured to live up to its promises of continued commitment to “democratic development.” Aligning itself with Georgia, the United States announced Wednesday that it will begin to send humanitarian aid to victims of the fighting in South Ossetia and Georgia. However, President Saakashvili implied America should do even more, stating, “America is losing the whole region, and this is the region of eastern and central Europe, this is much bigger than any other place where there is American influence.”  He called this region the “most natural” of American allies.

But as one senior French official pointed out, Georgia was “mad” to bomb South Ossetia.  Georgia aims to once again control the region of South Ossetia after 16 years of self-proclaimed independence, leading to questions of whether alignment with Georgia in the name of “democratic development” is almost a double standard.

According to BBC, some feel Saakashvili’s goal for Georgia to be granted NATO membership may have shaped his actions. Aligning with NATO in a conflict against Moscow would create a formal alliance, but creating new tensions with a Cold War adversary is far from NATO’s best interest.

For now, the United States is firmly backing Georgia. In a speech on Friday, United States’ President George Bush said,“The people of Georgia have cast their lot with the free world… unfortunately, Russia has tended to view the expansion of freedom and democracy as a threat to its interests.”

Is a belief in evolution compatible with Christianity? Michael Zimmerman, founder of The Clergy Letter Project and Evolution Weekend, says it is.

In 2004, Zimmerman, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Butler University, wrote the Clergy Letter in response to a Wisconsin school board’s passage of several anti-evolution policies. The letter states that many Christian clergy “believe that the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist,” and that “the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests.” Over 11,000 clergy members have endorsed this letter.

Evolution Weekend grew out of the Clergy Letter, providing an opportunity for congregations to “come together and discuss the compatibility of science and religion,” says Zimmerman. Almost 800 congregations from nine different countries will participate in this year’s third annual Evolution Weekend, February 8-10.

Zimmerman told WoW that many clergy members choose to give sermons or hold lunch forums on the topic. Other congregations view “Paradise Lost: The Religious Life of Charles Darwin” or NOVA’s “Judgment Day – Intelligent Design on Trial” and follow with discussion groups. Zimmerman only asks that participating clergy provide a forum for discussion on the compatibility of science and religion.

Evolution Weekend is not without debate. Casey Luskin, Program Officer at the Discovery Institute, finds it “hypocritical for Darwinists to claim (incorrectly) that intelligent design proponents mix religion with science, when in fact it is the Darwinists themselves who are making a big push to promote pro-evolution theological views.”

Luskin told WoW, “If people want to find ways to reconcile evolution with religion, that’s fine. That’s their right and prerogative. For us, this issue is not about religion, but science. And there are many legitimate scientific reasons to challenge Darwinian evolution.” Luskin said that the Discovery Institute opposes teaching both religion and pro-evolution theology in the science classroom because it “encourages science teachers to violate the separation of church and state by injecting religion into the science classroom.”

Last year, Bruce Chapman, president of Discovery Institute called Evolution Sunday the “height of hypocrisy,” but Zimmerman hopes Evolution Weekend will “continue to increase the quality of national and international dialogue on this topic.”