George Will wrote about global cooling last week. He showed that much of what has been written about climate change over the last 30 or so years has been wrong. It’s an interesting article.
Somehow, climate change became a political issue, with most liberals raising a voice of alarm over the issue and most conservatives claiming that there’s absolutely nothing to worry about. My suspicion is that, like most things, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
What concerns me, though, is the number of Christians that seem to be making it a religious issue. I’m sure that part of that is the fact that many who are conservative religiously are also conservative politically. The problem is, many non-Christians can’t differentiate the two. Their eyes see a GOP seal on our pulpits and an anti-liberal sign on the door. They also suppose that our views on climate change must have some basis in our theology. Why else would Christians speak so consistently on the issue?
Non-Christians know the track record of Bible believers when it comes to science, and it hasn’t been good (think Galileo and the movement of the earth). If climate change turns out to be reality, then Christians come off looking foolish again. And if not, well, I doubt anyone will be converted because these conservatives ended up being right.
Let’s pick our fights carefully. Some things just aren’t worth it.
Well said. I think we as Christians have to take a hard look at where politics and spirituality meet and make sure we are walking in the footsteps of our God rather than in the footsteps of our GOP.
Thanks Robert.
At the last place I worked, one of my co-workers was a passionate fighter in the jihad against greenhouse gases. He had religious zeal. He referred to global warming skeptics as “deniers,” with the same scorn and condemnation in his voice that one would hear from someone talking about a Holocaust denier.
The problem I have with such zeal is that it takes the place of Jesus in many people’s lives. Don’t bother me with the hereafter — I’m trying to save the planet were on right now.
I agree 100 percent — or as they say in motivational speaking, 110 percent — with what you’re saying. The first time I, a journalist who started my career working at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s socialist feminist newspaper, started talking to Church of Christ folk in Texas in the 1980s, I thought I would never feel welcome in their midst. Get them talking about politics, and you can hear some very conservative thoughts and notions, and a lot of condemnation of people based on what they believed politically. Usually, they were condemning someone like myself. I had a “take the log out of your own eye” mentality about folks like that, though not any more.
In New Jersey, where I live and attend church these days, pushing a conservative agenda on folks would really be unhelpful because New Jersey is as liberal as West Texas is conservative. We’d lose three -quarters of our church, and some of our best loved brothers and sisters if we imposed worldly values on Christ’s church.
Fortunately, what’s understood is that putting a political litmus test on believers ignores the fact that both parties have positions that are at serious odds with what Christ teaches, and that all people of all political parties fall far short of the glory of God. So we have some very conservative transplanted southerners attending church with some liberal lawyers who went to watch the polls to ensure that Obama wasn’t cheated in the last election. And, of course, we have the folks who just think the whole political scene is revolting and they want nothing to do with it. (The real majority in any state!) Regardless, we love each other! And it works, the way Christ said it would.
Reel me in, old friend.
You have baited the hook and I have chomped on the bait.
I agree with most of your post. It is too early to tell on Global Warming. I do take issue with this. You frame your argument in terms of damage to the kingdom as being primarily one with conservatives. Remember, it has been Jim Wallis and Christians like him, who have been, for years, beating the drum on issues such as social justice, global warming and the environment. They have framed their arguments as religious and moral. Fine, but if they are wrong, don’t they hurt our witness as well?
I am sensitive about this because a few years ago I heard a speaker, whom I admire and respect, lament the fact that conservative Christians have been so active politically. He made beautiful arguments that Christians are pilgrims in this world and should avoid politics. The response from so many of our friends was overwhelmingly affirmative.
Later, when the elections of 2008 loomed, these guys did an about face. Now they were very politically vocal about the need for “justice” in our country (except for the unborn, of course) and how Christians must be vocal leaders in protecting our environment.
I need to be better about this, but their attitudes really irritated me. At best, their words and activities were inconsistent. At worst, they were hypocritical. Their words and activities ultimately did not reflect a concern for pilgrimage, their words and attitudes reflected a concern for power. I was reminded my of what the old baseball player, Jim Bouton, said. (Bouton was the author of the immortal book, BALL FOUR.) Bouton, in addressing the baseball players’ frustration with the owners said this, “When we say baseball is a game, they say it is a business. When we say baseball is a business, they say that it is a game.”
I have no problem with Christians saying, “Let’s get involved in politics.” I have no problem with Christians saying, “Let’s stay out of politics.” What I have a problem with are Christians who say, “When we speak out, it is Christianity. When you speak out, it is politics. When we speak out, we are: a) serving as prophets or b) functioning as the salt of the earth. When you speak out, you are: a) reactionaries who turn people off or b) contaminating the Christian witness.”
How about we acknowledge that we are all political in a democracy? To not vote may be the ultimate form of cultural influence! How about we acknowledge that we live within a point of tension? To stand up for our beliefs could be risky, but to not speak could equally damage our witness (such as not standing up for civil rights in the 60s).
Maybe the way to go is to encourage individual participation in politics and culture based upon conscience, and we concede failure before our culture, from time to time, as a given.
As for the congregation, to the best of our ability, we leave politics out. At the Lord’s Table, we welcome people from all parties, and do not encourage the policies of any party.
There, now that I vented my spleen, I feel better.
Thank you.
ME
PS–Give my love to Carolina and the kids. Say “hi” to all my friends at Herald of Truth.
Mark,
That’s an interesting viewpoint. And we have had the Ron Sider’s of the world that have gone to the other extreme. (Sorry, I’m not familiar with Wallis). Just so you know, in my class at ACU, I talked about the Christian Right and the Christians Left.
As for politics, well, I guess you know I’m increasingly apolitical, at least in terms of elections, parties, etc. My feeling is that we need to take great to let people know that there is political variety in the church and can be. There are ways to talk about politics that show respect for dissenters and ways to talk about politics that reveal an unChristian arrogance.
It’s my never-humble opinion that this isn’t a fight that’s worth it. On either side. Promote ecological stewardship? Sure. But let’s not build unnecessary barriers for those coming to Jesus.
Grace and peace,
Tim
“Putting a political litmus test on believers ignores the fact that both parties have positions that are at serious odds with what Christ teaches, and that all people of all political parties fall far short of the glory of God. ”
I like that, Andy; can I steal it?
Jesus had a tax collector and a zealot in his band of apprentices. So definitely there must be room for dissenting politics at the table.
Whatever our opinions, we must learn to submit our METHODS to the way of Jesus. We must strive to love unconditionally and to tell the truth without fear of reprisal, no matter where our opinions fall on the modern political spectrum.
On a related note, I believe that part of the reason why the 2008 campaign was so electric is because the pro-life people have been so focused for so long on one-and-only-one form of justice. Certainly, our Lord and Savior stands utterly opposed to cults of child sacrifice, be they ancient or modern. But those same “pro-life” advocates have not stood up for the rights of the murdered Rwandans — for the raped in the Congo — for the migrant workers in California — for those who are obeying their government when they become aliens in our country — for the victims of strip- and mountaintop removal- coal mining in Appalachia — the list can go on and on.
I am all for focused efforts — but calling oneself “pro-life” and then only focusing on one short window of human life is going to cause consternation among those who are also pro-life, but are focusing on other areas of the life they support.
I don’t know if that made sense — but it is at the heart of my frustration.
I also presented to my students information about a group called The Consistent Life Ethic, or so I remember the name. They link opposition to abortion, capital punishment and war with efforts to wipe out global poverty. Whether we agree with them or not, they definitely deserve the label “pro life.”
Amen, Tim. I was belittled on a Christian discussion list because of my views on the topic. The implication was that no Christian could believe in the possibility of global warming and since when did we, mere humans, have the power to alter the climate of the world which God created?
Nick, your comments on being pro-life are spot on!
Tim,
Thing that concerns me, in general, is the fact that concern for the earth has somehow become the work of scientists and activists, while Christians have been basically oblivious or in opposition. That concerns me because we can’t look very much like redeemed humans if we treat the earth like our garbage can. We were made in God’s image and given a definate job: to exercise dominion over the earth, to subdue it, to care for it. OK, so now we live in an industrial world where we consume and pile up our trash at astonishing rates, and whether or not the temp is actually rising, we’ve not done a very good job caring for the earth; in those areas where we have been good stewards, it usually a fight between conservationists and someone whose determined to make a buck. Paul was saved in a particular hope, a hope rooted in the dynamic of the physical creation and the expectation that we and creation were one day going to be liberated (ro. 8.18f). He learned well the Psalms and Isaiah (to name a few) and the promise that when the Lord finally acts the creation is going to celebrate and get new life. Yet most of Christianity supposes the world is not our home, we’re just a passing through, and in the process look more like monsters than the intended pinnacle of creation.
Tim, you are free to steal any rambling commentary of mine as long as you are aware that it is being written between games of Internet checkers and responses to e-mails asking me to join the Facebook equivalent of chain letters. I, however, can not take responsiblity for the inevitable deterioration of your reputation as an intellectual that will result.