Sometimes I wonder about things that I probably should just ignore. For example, I’ll read something like this…
“As a Christian, I believe that there is a creator in God who is much bigger than us,” Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) told constituents last week at a town hall in Coldwater, Mich. “And I’m confident that, if there’s a real problem, he can take care of it.”
Among conservative evangelicals, that is not an unusual opinion. Nearly all evangelicals — 88 percent, according to the Pew Research Center on Religion & Public Life — believe in miracles, suggesting a faith in a proactive God. And only 28 percent of evangelicals believe human activity is causing climate change. Confidence that God will intervene to prevent people from destroying the world is one of the strongest barriers to gaining conservative evangelical support for environmental pacts like the Paris agreement.
…and I’ll think to myself, “What would Rep. Tim Walberg of Michigan tell his constituents if there were a serial killer on the loose in Coldwater who was abducting their children?” Would he say “I’m confident that, if there’s a real problem, God can take care of it”?
I really doubt he’d say that. And I really doubt that he’d get away with it if he did.
I mean, normally, if you have a big pressing problem in your community, you can’t just say that you’re a Christian and God will take care of it.
If the river keeps flooding, you build a damn levee. If earthquakes keep flattening your buildings, you make people build them up to code. If tornadoes are a recurring problem, you build some shelters and stockpile supplies. It doesn’t really matter whether or not a bunch of your constituents believe that God won’t allow a natural disaster to affect them. In the end, even they aren’t going to be satisfied with your complacent attitude.
How is this really different from the parents who won’t seek life-saving health care for their children because they truly believe that prayer will do the job? We want to make that national policy? Last I checked, that was considered a crime.
The best I can do here, and it’s not easy, is to acknowledge that there’s a difference between taking precautions against natural disasters and thinking that you can cause or prevent them. Except, I don’t really understand why you could successfully intercede with God to prevent him from leveling your house but not intercede with him to create an earthquake or hurricane. I get bogged down in these insane internal conversations that I imagine people having.
God says, “I was going to level all these houses in your town but since you asked I will spare you and pick on this other town.” Or God says, “I wasn’t thinking of destroying your enemy’s community, but since you brought it up I think I’ll give them 12.0 trembler and kill almost all of them.”
But I don’t want to have a theological argument about what people can or cannot convince God to do. I just want to point out that it’s actually not normal, even by their own standards, for evangelicals to insist that nothing can be done to prevent or mitigate things that can go predictably wrong. There’s a distinction between believing the God might cure your child of cancer and having so much certainly that he will do so that you don’t take your child to the oncologist. Likewise, it’s possible that the predicted negative results of climate change won’t occur because God “takes care of it.”
That’s criminal in one case and it ought to be criminal in the other.
I’m guessing that this thread will quickly become a ridicule fest, and want to note first that the attitude of Rep. Walberg is not the attitude of many Christians, and not even of all evangelicals. The problem is the political dominance of antediluvian evangelicals in the GOP.
Radical climate change is actually normal in Earth history. Here’s a link to an article that was just in my work e-mail about mass extinctions associated with such climate change.
Radical climate change is actually normal in Earth history.
Certainly, no one will argue that there aren’t natural forces that have contributed to climate change during the history of our planet, and which have resulted in mass extinctions.
Simply because there are natural causes does not mean we should ignore causes which are the result of human actions. Not that this is your argument, but the two really have nothing to do with each other.
I, also, emphatically don’t want to get into a theological debate.
But, having said that…maybe the distinction is when it’s global catastrophe? God “works in mysterious ways” and will “smite” people or communities or races arbitrarily — and is always right in doing so; scripture illustrates this over and over — but humanity is His “special project” that He won’t end until a specific event (the Rapture or whatever) which is good news for us; not bad. So, a worldwide disaster just isn’t in the cards. Especially not a flood; he specifically made “a pact” not to do that a second time.
Could that be what they’re thinking? I know this is like arguing about Santa Claus with a child, but the psychology is (unfortunately) politically relevant.
Am I just repeating the obvious Evangelical position that everyone is familiar with? If so, sorry.
Perhaps evangelicals, like this imbecile Repub, can point to the last time God (alone) “took care of” a “real problem” on earth. We’ll wait….
The key word in Walberg’s lunacy is “if”. “IF there’s a real problem…” Climate denialists (religious or otherwise) don’t believe there’s a problem, unlike the postulated serial killer. Note that the Congressman was not tarred and feathered at his townhall.
Recall the hilarious idea that evangelical Christians could be brought on board to help save the climate by appealing to their supposed duty to be “good stewards” of God’s creation. That’s been thrown on the scrap heap and was a desperate measure in any regard. Very selective reading of the scriptures is a necessity!
You’re a saint to try to throw reason into the mix here. But this imbecile congressman hasn’t the slightest use for it, although perhaps if you tried speaking in tongues….
Remember when Gov. Perry attended a big prayer meeting to pray for rain. Well, it did rain eventually and proved to the believers that they did not need government enforced water conservation to deal with some called a climate change drought. I agree there is no reason to try to throw reason into the mix.
If you read the Bible (as Rep. Walberg obviously doesn’t) there are lots of examples of God punishing people severely for misdeeds far, far less that leaving the planet nearly uninhabitable.
It’s been proven that people can more easily live with a problem they believe can’t be solved (climate change) than a solution they can’t understand (scientific, empirical intervention).
Mix in willful ignorance and gratuitous stupidity, while stirring with fossil based energy evil and here we are.
It’s all about protecting the status quo and fear of taxes. We just have to face it, half of America would rather be ruled by Mussolini than Lincoln.
Half the voters prefer Mussolini to Lincoln – we have a large bloc that doesn’t care enough to even vote and a growing bloc having their voting rights oppressed. Something is seriously wrong in this country.
Well, well, well. God just got Michael Bloomberg and a bunch of America’s elite to pick up all of the obligations of the Paris accourds. They are now negotiating for international recognition that the USA is still in the game.
Billionaire Bloomberg pledges $15 million to UN for climate change
Quite striking that the commitments were such an easy lift. When with the US get serious about climate change? In 1980 and 2000, there were huge missed opportunities. Sometimes personalities are not the most important thing in an election.
This Liar for Jesus was my representative from 2007-2009 and who I was very happy to vote out of office in favor of Mark Schauer in 2008. I was disappointed to see him returned to office in 2010, when I moved out of his district. I’m not the least bit surprised that he’d say something like this.
As a Christian I find Walberg’s attitude blasphemous. We have a responsibility to care for creation commensurate to our stature in it. We have a responsibility to love our neighbors. To do anything less is to throw our God given gifts back in His face. This attitude makes me furious.
Doesn’t the Congressman’s conduct here fall under one of the traditional definitions of blasphemy? That is ascribing your personal desires (no global crisis) to being the will of God?
“And I’m confident that, if there’s a real problem, he [God] can take care of it.”
Oh yeah, God (or Nature, or what have you) is going to take care of the problem, no doubt about that. He/she/it always does, according to natural law, and with no noticeable regard for our hopes, wishes, prayers, magic incantations, or burnt offerings.
It’s likely that we will not like the result, not one bit (well, except maybe for Canadians who will be able to sunbathe in December).
The Republican Party is full of elected officials like Rep. Walberg.
I know of literally no elected official in the Democratic Party who holds such morally and intellectually bankrupt views.
The Parties are not the same. More people in the progressive movement need to get real if they want to be effective in helping us elect politicians who will execute something closer to their policy preferences.
“But I don’t want to have a theological argument about what people can or cannot convince God to do.”
Good. But I think a more basic point is this: Climate change is not a crisis for God, any more than it is for nature. They’ll be fine.
Yes indeedy … I have found this attitude very common among the fundies I am acquainted with…. one told me “I don’t care about global warming … Jesus will take care of MY family when the time comes.” !!! (I guess screw everyone else, but then that left behind mindset they exhibit conditions them to think that way anyway …
(especially if it involves depriving yourself of anything you might lust after in this life) is a fool’s game, since S/He’s gonna bring it all to an end any moment now and set everything just the way religious-right dupes imagine it should be.