The ‘spiritual battle’ behind global-warming

July 27, 2006

Most days, it’s tough enough to talk about [tag]global warming[/tag] with unhinged lawmakers, confused presidents, and spectacularly dumb commercials from the oil industry muddling the discussion. But when we inject some far-right theology into the mix, it’s bound to get worse.

James [tag]Dobson[/tag]’s [tag]Focus on the Family[/tag] sent an item to its membership yesterday, touting the work of the “[tag]Interfaith Stewardship Alliance[/tag],” which wants to dispel beliefs about [tag]climate change[/tag] “from an [tag]evangelical[/tag] viewpoint.”

One Alliance supporter tried to summarize the “debate.”

The Rev. Jim Tonkowich of the Institute on Religion and Democracy said there is a spiritual battle behind the global-warming scare.

“Much secular thinking about the environment includes a right to abortion. Why is that?” he asked. “Well, we want to keep the population down because human beings are nothing but users and polluters.

“The biblical view sees human beings as stewards, builders, co-creators with God. Take the stuff of creation and make — build cities.”

I tried to follow the logic here, but ultimately gave up. The bottom line: it’ll be a while until the [tag]religious right[/tag] is on board with addressing global warming.

The Religious Reich does not want to get on the global-warming bandwagon. To do so would be to say that we need to fix the problems with this planet, so we can live here for a really long time. That, in a nutshell, would contradict all of this “end-times voodoo” that the Reich’s propaganda department is spewing forth….

  • So, the 1906 San Francisco eathquake was God’s way of telling the multitudes “no, no, no, you built it wrong!! Here, start over.”

  • I don’t think this is necessarily bad…there is a segment of the evangelicals that are basically environmental Christians. This idea of stewardship…of our being the caretakers of God’s creation, is very compatible with environmentalism. You could also say that the Golden Rule is compatible with environmentalism…if you love your neighbor as yourself, then why not try to avoid dumping toxic waste in his water supply, or polluting his air.

    I realize that in your quote above, Tonkowich only connects stewardship to building cities, but there’s more to it. They’re not all crazy gun-fanatics like Ted Nugent either…

    There’s an opportunity here, just like Obama was reaching out to “values conservatives” by connecting the Democrats’ message to Christian values. You can connect environmental values to Christian values as well…it’s just that a lot of people haven’t taken the time to look at the issue that way.

  • First, they have to acknowledge that there is a Globe (and that it has been around for about 4.5 billion years, not 6,000). Then they have to acknowledge that all life on the Globe owes its evolution and existence to the Sun, not God. Then they have to acknowledge that the key to understanding how the system works is science, not religion. Then they have to acknowledge that, as technology brings us all closer together, it’s more important than ever that the hated-filled, blood-bath inducing religious fictions/factions be done away with. I believe the best to do that is by forgetting about religion altogether (a la Founding Fathers), though the same effect could be achieved by actually practicing what religious people (Jesus, Gandhi, MLK) preached.

  • This is a crock of christian crappola and I cannot believe anyone can understand (much less support). Any policy or example connecting abortion to global warming is obviously lunacy.

    Addison, your point about christianity being compatible with environmentalism is 100% accurate. Christianity is also compatible with caring for the poor (welfare), universal healthcare, and almost every other Democratic platform issue. The problem with your argument is that these FOTC crack-pots have strayed so far from the teachings of Jesus that they are CINO’s (Christians in name only).

    The gold in your argument is that true christians should be Democrats as the party positions align more closely with the positions of the religion.

    Building cities is a vague meaningless reference. I could read that as the good reverand suggesting that all people must leave the rural parts of this country and move to the city to participate in god’s plan.

    This is simply a religious wing of the republican party and they need to be ignored (since we cannot ship them off to some other country).

  • Blah, blah, blah.
    If god is running the show and we need not interfere, why go to the doctor ? Why cure the planet, god has it under control. Why give my kid antibiotics, god’s got a master plan.

    I swear, some days, I wish god would come down a snatch up all his children so the rest of us can start functioning as a human beings. Allah can grab all his children too.

    Wouldn’t the word truly be a better place ?

  • Of course this has nothing to with religion and everything to do with the power structure of the religious right. Dobson and his kind don’t want to lose their flock to people who are actually willing to think about what Jesus said and how it applies to their lives. They would rather keep their “bible know’s best” scam going as long as possible.

    Re: #4
    Science is just our interpretation of God’s language (ie, how the world works).

  • PhilW has the underlying motive. On the surface, what Dobson is saying is that secularists made up global warming as a problem to be solved by reducing the population via abortions. We don’t just want them to be available to those who want them, we want to force people to have abortions. We manufactured global warming to force people to have abortions.

  • Just another example of the War on Terra that Dobson and his ilk have been waging on so many fronts. They probably don’t even like each other all that much, but for now they have to stick together or it will all fall apart.

  • I like the term CINOs.
    My take is that this is about commerce. The CINOs prefer the route of making as much money as possible, because that is god’s will. Any steps taken to solve global warming will cost someone money, so that is against god’s will. Perhaps that is oversimplified, but that’s how it looks to me.
    True Christians would work to be good stewards of this earth, and many are doing that. But the true Christions don’t have the megaphones, microphones, television stations, or Fox news appearances.

  • “We don’t just want them to be available to those who want them, we want to force people to have abortions.” – crispy

    Which just shows how stupid Dobson is. We would just implant the girls with long term contraceptive devices.

    Why make them go through the pain and confusion of an abortion. What sickos!

  • Don’t you people know that you can pollute the planet, have as many children as you want, drive as large a car as you want, and just trust God. It says in Revelations that Jesus will create a new heaven and an new earth when he returns. The time table is a little sketchy though. . .

  • A little background on Dobson and the IRD – Institute on Religion and Democracy. The IRD first because it’s less well known – for a reason – they are a stealth organization. Their purpose is to claim to want to end controversy and make churches stronger by going back to tradition. They create controversy by stifling discussion. It’s difficult to have ‘communion’ if that means that you must agree with everyone. It’s the strategy pursued in the Southern Baptist Convention. They have campaigns targeting the biggest denominations that are vulnerable and separate names for each – to sound as though they originated in each denomination. The list of major contributors includes the descendants of the founders of the John Birch Society, and other far right political supporters. They stand to inherit or control billions of dollars of property and a large communications network. Their budget is at, or near, $1,000,000 annually. The opposition to the IRD operates on $50,000, and has been in existence for only 2 years.

    If we want freedom of religion in this country we must find support for this opposition within secular political organizations and funding groups. The major denominations under attack are hemorrhaging membership and operating budgets, and are particularly susceptible to some of the more manipulative ploys of the IRD.

    Dobson operates on $135, 000,000 per annum. His main message is that fathers must be domineering, and women stick to their proper roles. He’s one of the most prominent anti-gay voices in the world. Viewed from overseas it’s difficult to tell him from conservative Mullahs. His media / communications reach is vast.

    People and organizations with primitive theology have embraced modern communications and cognitive science. Organizations with modern theology are utlizing primitive communications or devoting only a pittance to it. If these primitive theologies continue as they are – placing pre-packaged and professionally produced programming and canned news on cable and the networks – the voices of progressive people will be drowned out.

    Encouraging and funding progressive people of faith to utilize modern communications and marketing will allow the discourse to be complicated, and not allow primitive belief to dominate. We have more in common with progressive people of faith than most of us realize. Even they react with suspicion at someone who introduces themselves as ‘Christian’. The word has been successfully rebranded by the right – political and corporate money.

    If we believe that secular people can sway the public chew on this one: surveys indicate that between 80% and 95% of Americans define themselves as religious or deeply religious. The response varies with the specific questions. They tend to discount the message based upon the source, as we all do. The voice of progressive people of faith has been absent.

    The number of people identifying as conservative Christian follows the increase in budget of conservative Christian media. This parallel is particularly disturbing because of the rapid increase in broadcast media spending over the last 10 years.

    There are enough resources, and enough talent in this country, primarily within secular groups, to put progressive religious voices back in the arena. The only thing stopping this is a paradigm that we must step through – religion is not an evil force, in and of itself. The collusion of power and religion can be, but only when its opposition is weak.

  • The bottom line: it’ll be a while until the religious right is on board with addressing global warming.

    I don’t think they think so with the Rapture so near and all.

  • Ed Stephan wrote:
    “I believe the best to do that is by forgetting about religion altogether (a la Founding Fathers”

    Well thats very ignorant of you to say! Name one founding father who was an Atheist! None of them were even close to being an atheist, let alone saying all of them were!!!

    And for global warming. What if they are wrong? What if they’re taking in all the weak minded who can’t think for themselves but want desperately to matter? Environmentalists are tools used by socialists and Communists to push their agenda through.

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