Climate Change and Evangelism
A frightened - and frightening - rump of the evangelical community has launched an attack on the climate change consensus, suggesting that it is somehow inherently anti-human.
The first volley in the most recent attack came last Monday from the Rev. Jerry Falwell - the Moral Majority founder who has done so much to reintroduce religion into American politics. Falwell, who apparently has an inside track on the devil's thoughts and tactics, said that climate change was “Satan’s attempt to redirect the church’s primary focus” from evangelism to environmentalism.
By Friday, the (Right to) LifeSite was reporting on the deepening schism in the evangelical movement between those who are urging attention to climate change and those who are trying to politicize the science. While the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) has urged its members to support policies that will address climate change, the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance (ISA), led by Focus on the Family founder Dr. James Dobson, is saying that “Global warming is not a consensus issue and our love for the Creator and respect for His creation does not require us to take a position."
LifeSite explains this position by saying "Environmentalist doctrine presupposes that the answer to climate concerns is the elimination of huge portions of the human population through mass abortion, sterilization programs and numerous other means."
(Clearly, I'll have to go back and reread the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, because I missed the whole section on attacking humanity. I thought we were talking about energy conservation and better urban design.)
In its recent letter, the ISA says, “We believe there should be room for Bible-believing evangelicals to disagree about the cause, severity and solutions to the global warming issue.” Notwithstanding that, "we are evangelicals and we care about God’s creation.”
The last word on that interpretation must got to a commenter on ThinkProgress , who offered:
'A little Old Testament for Rev. Falwell: Gen. 2:15 which says, "The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden as its gardener, to tend and care for it." The Hebrew word for tend can also mean "to serve" and the world care may be translated "to keep save, preserve, protect."
'That mandate has never been rescinded.'
All about money
Religion is about stewardship and caring for one another and the environment, again proving that Falwell and the evangelicals are not about religion and all about lining their pockets with cash.
It appears Falwell doesn't
Expediting the Rapture,
Operators are standing by
Thanks anon, for providing
Thanks anon, for providing confirmation of the nastiness of that brand of religious fundamentalism. You certainly look like a frightened rump to me.
You make the irrational claim that people who wish to keep the earth livable for ourselves and our children are really members of a rival religion to your own. This suggests that you are not able to discern the difference between a conclusion based on evidence and a belief which is not based on evidence. In fact more people are becoming concerned about the environment and AGW because we are capable of facing reality and we have the common sense to realize that we need to take action about it.
If You Don't Believe Suzuki, You MUST Be a Christian Fundy!
Sorry? What were you saying? I wasn’t paying attention because I’m all freaked out about this whole Y2K thing.
Uh huh
New York Times article about
New York Times article about other groups trying to get the National Association of Evangelicals to stop speaking out on global warming.
"...In interviews, some signers of this latest letter said they were wary of the global warming issue because they associated it with leftists, limits on free enterprise and population control, which they oppose..."
So the idea is to destroy the environment because it's the rightwing thing to do?
It is the left that destroys
Once Again
Johan proves that the deniers are the side of calm and reason in this debate.
BTW, Capitalism is the way to go if you want to outsource many of your environmental problems, along with your manufacturing sector, to the third world.
Like our filthy Alberta
Like our filthy Alberta oilsands, spewing GHGs? Oil companies dumping arsenic and God knows what else into our rivers, wasting our good water, giving people cancer? Capitalism is just as harmful as communism, unless it is regulated for the public good. Greed is not good.
As for Al Gore; it is quite possible for a Christian to be an environmentalist. The problem is with extremist fundamentalists who cannot understand that creationism is a matter of faith, NOT a scientific theory. Science deals with the material universe, not with matters of the spirit. It requires the ability to look at the material evidence objectively and to accept nothing on faith.
"Associated with leftists"
I have found this emotional (and misleading) "loony-left" sentiment to be virtually ubiquitous chez the deniers, and I think it shapes their take on AGW more than anything else. Johan would be a case in point, as would ZOG. I find it interesting that America is the industrial country in which the division between "left" and "right" is at its sharpest and most contentious, and that it's the country that has been the last to publicly acknowledge AGW. Unfortunately this degree of personal identification with one's "party" (not referring to Dems or GOP) tends to cloud the judgment.