[Promoted from the diaries by Susanhbu]
The earth will be kindling for end-time Christians; the earth will be destroyed to satisfy big corporations’ greed. What the hell can we tree-hugging, earth-loving progressives do about it?
Bill Moyers wrote a brilliant piece in the New York Review of Books, in which he discussed the Bush environmental policy, and the impact that this administration’s affiliation with end-time Christians is having on the roll-back of protections of the earth. Moyers’ basic thesis is that for Christians who believe the Rapture is imminent, there is no need to take care of the earth. After all, not only did God, in Genesis, give man dominion over the earth, the end times are so close that there is no need to be accountable to future generations.
As Moyers says, his argument sounds paranoid, but the evidence he presents is quite sound. Combine end-time Christians with rapacious corporations, and Mother Earth is not in for easy times:
That will mean one thing to Dick Cheney and another to Tim LaHaye, but it will confirm their fraternity in a regime whose chief characteristics are ideological disdain for evidence and theological distrust of science. Many of the constituencies who make up this alliance don’t see eye to eye on many things, but for President Bush’s master plan for rolling back environmental protections they are united. A powerful current connects the administration’s multinational corporate cronies who regard the environment as ripe for the picking and a hard-core constituency of fundamentalists who regard the environment as fuel for the fire that is coming. Once again, populist religion winds up serving the interests of economic elites.
The corporate, political, and religious right’s hammerlock on environmental policy extends to the US Congress. Nearly half of its members before the election–231 legislators in all (more since the election)–are backed by the religious right, which includes several powerful fundamentalist leaders like LaHaye. Forty-five senators and 186 members of the 108th Congress earned 80 to 100 percent approval ratings from the most influential Christian Right advocacy groups. Not one includes the environment as one of their celebrated “moral values.”
I went looking for information about Christian environmentalism. I know Christians who consider themselves to be stewards of the land, and who believe that their duty as Christians demands that they care for God’s creation. I found this article by Dr. Ray Bohlin
Christian Environmentalism, and I was heartened by what I read there. Heartened, until I got to the following paragraph:
By failing to fulfill our responsibilities to the earth, we are losing a great evangelistic opportunity. Many in our society are seeking an improved environment, yet they think that most Christians don’t care about ecological issues and that most churches offer no opportunity for involvement.
Because the environmental movement has been co-opted by those involved in the New Age Movement, many Christians have begun to confuse interest in the environment with interest in pantheism and have hesitated to get involved. But we cannot allow the enemy to take over leadership in an area that is rightfully ours. As the redeemed of the earth, our motivation to care for the land is even higher than that of the New Ager. Jesus has redeemed all of the effects of the curse, including our relationship with God, our relationship with other people and our relationship with the creation (1 Cor. 15:21-22, Rom. 5:12-21). Though the heavens and the earth will eventually be destroyed, we should still work for healing now.
The language that refers to “enemies” and the assurance that even though the earth will eventually be destroyed, was distressing. I had wanted, in my heart of hearts, to find some hope that perhaps Moyers was over-stating things.
If he was, the following did nothing to reassure me:
Carter and again
What Scriptures Tell Us About
Environmental Stewardship
Samuel Casey Carter
Now that secular liberalism has all but driven orthodox religion out of public life, it should come as no surprise that heterodox spirituality has become the latest battering ram of the left. In a time when the Bible has been expunged from schoolrooms as an icon of Western bigotry, biblical arguments are now oddly on the comeback, recast as a fashionable means of pushing a leftist agenda. What is not to be expected is the degree to which well-meaning Christians have become the spokesmen of these distortions. Embracing the tenets of radical environmentalism without an eye to the manner in which these teachings are fundamentally hostile to Christian tradition, a new brand of Christian is out to save the earth, but in doing so he may well flip his faith upon its head.
The gist of the argument is this. Care too much about the earth, and you’ve supplanted God as object of worship. The earth becomes just another graven image. Think I’m kidding? Read on:
As it was said in the beginning, Christian environmentalists have turned the world on its head. In using language reserved for God to show their concern for the Earth, they have only bred contempt for man and made a mockery of real religion. What they have not done is to make the Earth a proper object of worship. It can’t be. But more to the point, theirs is not a genuine religious concern. They have simply invoked religious rhetoric to give new urgency to their worldly agenda. Sadly, for those who don’t discern this agenda, this manner of speaking will make an idol of the Earth
You’ve got to give me credit. I’m stubborn. I really don’t want to believe that these are mainstream views. And I did find some good news, I think. I googled “Christian environmentalism” and found this Christianity Today, and I thought I had struck a gold mine. But all the articles are from 2001 or before.
It is difficult to reach this adminstration. They have bought the Brooklyn Bridge that Bjorn Lomborg, the Danish political scientist who claims that global warming is a hoax, is selling. Two years ago, I went to hear Bjorn Lomborg speak at a conservative think tank in Washington. The talk, and the questions that followed, were frightening, not only for their ignorance of basic science, but because of their hatred of environmentalists, who are seen as extremists who hate the United States.
For me, the atheist, nature is the only temple I want to worship in. It is the place where I get in touch with the Muse, and I have discovered that, West Coast woman that I am, the Eastern woods hold marvels. As I wrote to a friend one day:
“I love the Eastern woods. When I’m out West, I marvel at Nature’s spectacular displays of will-the soaring peaks, jagged rocks, enormous Doug Firs and Sitka Spruces. There, the Muse seems to me to be in her young, nubile phase, bestowing her favors on those hardy enough to make the journey into some pretty challenging pieces of country. Whereas when I’m in the woods around here, I’m always struck by how fecund everything is. It’s lush, viridescent, sensual in a way that the west is not. I think the Muse here is the maternal, plump and rounded and not so rough around the edges, a little scarred and battered, but worn smooth by experience, and yet incredibly sexual in the sheer plethora of life that grows along a path through the woods. Today the cicadas and crickets were competing for airtime, there was a kestrel hunting, I could hear the rustle of woodchucks and chipmunks in the woods. The squirrels were in the oak trees, chucking acorns down at me and I just felt so damn happy and grateful to be alive and
able to participate in all of this.”
I am asking you to help me figure out a way to reach these people, at least in terms of the environment. I know no dialogue in some areas is possible. But I cling to this stubborn hope that if we can find the right words, we can convince even the end-time Christians, that the Rapture does not give them the excuse to destroy their God’s most glorious creation.
Lorraine, YOu might want to check my diaries as I have had several discussions on this subject, or at least about communicating with conservatives.
However I am not sure that the far right can be reached so lets just try for the moderates, maybe.
You can find my diaries by clicking on my name below.
Thanks, Diane. I will definitely check your diaries.
I agree. I learned a long time ago that certain people will never change their mind(nor will I on certain core values to me). This would be the rapture people and other far right extremists, so you have to concentrate on people who are moderates, who still believe in science and are willing to discuss issues like the environment.
To me it just seems logical to take care of Mother Earth if we want to stay healthy and keep it beautiful so future generations will be able to enjoy its wonders.
Right now it so happens I have a poster on my desktop of a Native American set of commandments. The very first commandment is: Take from the Earth what is needed and nothing more. Another is: The Earth is our Mother, care for her.
Thank for this lovely diary. A good subject on an Easter sunday when spring and rebirth is in the air.
I hope your optimism is correct. But I fear that Moyers knows what he’s talking about.
Dark days, indeed.
Possibly based on no evidence at all, but still. I remember reading an article not too long ago about a group of Christian (or it may have been religious, with christians included) leaders who came out against Bush’s environmental policies. I don’t recall much detail, but possibly Pastor Dan would know.
Beyond that, I think there are quite a few individuals who identify themselves as christians (and some who identify themselves as republicans, for that matter) who are at least environmentally friendly, if not actively involved.
Great diary, and now it has me curious. I’ll have to see what information I can find too. 🙂
I’m not religious, but I’d check out Jim Wallis, who wrote, “God’s Politics : Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It” – he has an organization called “Sojourners” which you can find at sojo.net. I heard him interviewed on Fresh Air and though I’m not a Christian, I was really impressed by him.
Thank you. Moyers writes for Sojourners, too. He had a gorgeous essay there about a month or so ago. I think it’s still online.
Moyers
I have been confused for years about the Christian distain for the environment. I was raised in liberal Christian churches that honored all creation as God’s work and thus supported conservation and care of the earth as our sacred mission. It’s only in recent years that I became acquainted with the conservative Christian view concerning the environment and I’ve got to say, it is frightening and depressing.
I do hope we can discover a bridge to the conservative Christian community, but I’m a bit pessimistic it can happen. I don’t have any suggestions, therefore, on how this can be accomplished.
Our hope for the preservation of our country’s environment may lie in the nation’s first peoples. Although they are less than 1 percent of the population, they own a high percentage of our nation’s natural resources and they ain’t selling. As a matter of fact they are fighting to regain control of many waterways and other areas in order to restore them to their natural pristine state. They are doing this by buying back land and going to court to fight for their treaty rights. In more and more instances they are winning.
A few months ago I read a book by Paul VanDevelder that might interest you. It follows several generations of one American Indian family and their tribe’s struggle with the US government over treaty obligations. It’s called, “Coyote Warrior, One Man, Three Tribes, and The Trial That Forged a Nation.” Really, I highly recommend this book.
I have always felt a deep connection with the earth. Perhaps because my paternal grandparents were both mixed race. American Indian and white. My grandmother’s native ancestry was Chippewa (Anishnabe) and my grandfather’s was Abenaki, Huron, Lenape and Seneca. I imagine some of my native ancestors may have wandered the Eastern forests of which you so poignantly write. Seven generations ago my grandfather, whose Indian name in English means “Big Trees” was probably thinking about his promise to me, the seventh generation, to preserve and care for the earth so that I would inherit it unspoiled.
When I was a child, each year my parents took my brother, sister, and me to a special place where the water bubbled up from the base of a mountain and where salmon returned to release their eggs. The water was so clean we would walk out into the midst of the river on large river rocks and dip our cups into the clear clean strikingly cold water and drink. All the while the river was teeming with spawning salmon. These days, in order to preserve the few salmon still making their way back, fences are posted preventing people from getting close and possibly damaging what is left of the run. I’m now in my 50s. This has happened in my short lifetime and I can’t tell you how much this saddens me, especially when I think of my ancestors and even more when I ponder the legacy we are leaving to future generations.
It isn’t enough that we preserve, we must restore what we can for our children, our grandchildren and the seventh generation. We have a lot of work to do.
…to be so long winded.
you were not long-winded. Passion sometimes requires that kind of thought.
I struggle with this. I know I can’t be a control freak and change people’s minds, but I want the rapturists to understand that Jesus hasn’t set an appointment date, and their children are going to have to live with any mess they create.
Pacifica, it’s late. No worries!
Lorraine, I’ve been thinking about your remark in your diary that you are an atheist. Yet you so vividly and passionately sense and see the wonder that is Mother Earth.
Why do you think it is that the rapture devotees have become so wrapped up in the wonder of an abstraction instead of the wonder that surrounds them daily?
(This could be asked of all kinds of participants in movements.)
I’m one of those people who, when asked, identify myself as “spiritual,” not religious. I’ve had some pretty profound experiences out in nature. I feel “right-sized” out in nature. What’s interesting about the west is that when I’m standing in the shadow of a Doug fir or a mountain, I become aware of just how infinitessimally small I really am. Out east, where things are smaller, you don’t quite get that same sensation. But I’m working on it, looking for the ways that I can connect to eastern beauty.