The Christian Church and Climate Change
Persnickety is branching out...
I began this blog as a way to teach others what pharmacy is really about; it was my intent to show life within the profession to those outside.
I want to branch out now to other ideas, and focus on all the things that it takes to make me persnickety. What riles me, what disgusts, nauseates and sickens me. All of my little pet bete noires that lurk in the shadows of my own particular dark forest.
Up for discussion right now is the prospect of global warming, better known as climate change.
I've been so nauseated recently by the comments of right-wing congressmen who've felt compelled to be ironic now that Washington D.C. has received a couple of snowstorms. "It's going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries 'uncle,'" tweeted Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.
I understand why Republicans are against the idea of climate change. If the science is accurate then businesses are going to have to pony up and thus they pay to have their congressmen/women vote in a more business-friendly way. I understand that. It is the way of the world.
What I do not understand is the view of my fellow Christians. Like their views on the healthcare debate, I feel them to be on the wrong side. Shouldn't Christians want to help the unfortunates who find themselves without adequate or any insurance coverage? Shouldn't they advocate for the oppressed and the sick? Likewise shouldn't Christians exhort, as Jeremiah did so many years ago when he said, "I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable." (Jeremiah 2:7 NIV)
What is it about the modern Christian church? Does it beat in lockstep with the Republican Party on every bullet point of its platform? Will it sell its soul to the devil for the purpose of power politics? Did it not learn its lesson during the Reagan and Bush eras, when though aligned with the right it failed to produce any meaningful legislation that could in any sense be called Christian (prayer in school, abortion)?
The Christian Church needs to define itself not by the party in power, not by political means, not by picking sides in a liberal vs. conservative drama, but by the words of Christ, and Paul and the apostles. "Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." (Romans 1:19-20 NIV)
Persnickety is branching out...
I began this blog as a way to teach others what pharmacy is really about; it was my intent to show life within the profession to those outside.
I want to branch out now to other ideas, and focus on all the things that it takes to make me persnickety. What riles me, what disgusts, nauseates and sickens me. All of my little pet bete noires that lurk in the shadows of my own particular dark forest.
Up for discussion right now is the prospect of global warming, better known as climate change.
I've been so nauseated recently by the comments of right-wing congressmen who've felt compelled to be ironic now that Washington D.C. has received a couple of snowstorms. "It's going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries 'uncle,'" tweeted Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.
I understand why Republicans are against the idea of climate change. If the science is accurate then businesses are going to have to pony up and thus they pay to have their congressmen/women vote in a more business-friendly way. I understand that. It is the way of the world.
What I do not understand is the view of my fellow Christians. Like their views on the healthcare debate, I feel them to be on the wrong side. Shouldn't Christians want to help the unfortunates who find themselves without adequate or any insurance coverage? Shouldn't they advocate for the oppressed and the sick? Likewise shouldn't Christians exhort, as Jeremiah did so many years ago when he said, "I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable." (Jeremiah 2:7 NIV)
What is it about the modern Christian church? Does it beat in lockstep with the Republican Party on every bullet point of its platform? Will it sell its soul to the devil for the purpose of power politics? Did it not learn its lesson during the Reagan and Bush eras, when though aligned with the right it failed to produce any meaningful legislation that could in any sense be called Christian (prayer in school, abortion)?
The Christian Church needs to define itself not by the party in power, not by political means, not by picking sides in a liberal vs. conservative drama, but by the words of Christ, and Paul and the apostles. "Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." (Romans 1:19-20 NIV)
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