i can hardly believe this quote from falwell that i just read, in regards to global warming:
“I am today raising a flag of opposition to this alarmism about global warming and urging all believers to refuse to be duped by these ‘earthism’ worshippers,” the Rev. Jerry Falwell said in a Feb. 25 sermon on “The Myth of Global Warming” at his Lynchburg, Va., church.
it’s from this article in christianity today. ARGH!
there are days i’m feeling convicted about god’s ability to use all kinds of people to reach all kinds of people, and about the beauty of the diversity in the church. and then, there are days when i want to stop calling myself a christian if this is what the name has come to mean. really, this is one of the primary reasons i say “christ-follower” or “jesus follower” and not “christian”. thanks, jerry. i’m pissed.
if only it was only Falwell that was making outrageous comments…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/10/AR2007031001175.html
apparently Dobson, Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer, and others fail to think that God’s command at the beginning of time to take care of the earth (Gen. 2:15) is no longer relevant to today.
ugh.
oops…typo…
fail to think that…is still relevant today.
joel — huh?
a couple paragraphs from my above referenced article:
“Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, and two dozen other conservative Christian leaders, including Gary L. Bauer, Tony Perkins and Paul M. Weyrich, sent the board a letter this month denouncing the association’s vice president, the Rev. Richard Cizik, for urging attention to global warming.
The letter argued that evangelicals are divided on whether climate change is a real problem, and it said that “Cizik and others are using the global warming controversy to shift the emphasis away from the great moral issues of our time,” such as abortion and same-sex marriage.”
alright…i’m done hogging the comments.
i meant to say…
“apparently Dobson, Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer, and others fail to think that God’s command at the beginning of time to take care of the earth (Gen. 2:15) is still relevant to today.”
gosh i made this complicated. i do actually have a brain. i promise.
I did a message in our main worship service a couple years ago about the brokenness of this world and I spent maybe 10 minutes about the environment and our role in caring for it. I had about a dozen folks come up to me afterwards telling me that “the hippie crap doesn’t belong in church” or that “pastors shouldn’t be tree huggers” and that sort. So in response, Im trying so hard to push our church more and more towards being more green!
Rob Bell had an amazing qoute in the first chapter of Sex God that hit me hard about the way we treat our planet and environment (even though he used it to talk about how we treat each other). “How we treat the creation shows how we think about the creator” or something along those lines.
i just cant stand how we set up false dichotomies.
Dominion theology is a scary movement… an interesting (and short) read is Divine Destruction: Dominion Theology and American Environmental Policy by Stephenie Hendricks.
Wow! This is exactly in line with what I am going to be preaching in Chapel this Thursday at seminary. I am even using that quote from Rob Bell’s book, “How you treat creation reflects how you feel about the creator.” I think it’s short-sighted that someone would think that only abortion and homosexuality are the great moral issues of our time. What about the issues in the Darfur region, AIDS, pollution of our earth and water, slave labor (I found a stat that said there are more slaves now than any other time in history), and homelessness just to name a few! This definitely makes me more excited to deliver my sermon, though I am interested in how it will be received. I know it will tweak a few people, but God has really laid this issue upon my heart.
I guess I must be the lone dissent. Mark, I don’t think global warming issue has been decided. Not all scholars embrace it. The 90% figure is of the UN council who is studying many of whom have no expertise in this area.
My concern isn’t so much that evangelicals embrace stewardship, I think we should. I think it is great witness to those around us when we recylce and the like. I wouldn’t necessarily endorse what Dobson & Falwell are saying, but I can also see their point.
Should stewardship should have the same focus in the church as say evangelism? I don’t believe so, and I don’t see stewardship being made a priority in scripture.
Also I am tired of the lack of debate regarding global warming. The person (I forget who said this) who likened those who deny global warming with those who deny the holocaust shut down the debate, and are in fact quite insulting.
So I’m not necessarily a denyer, but I think the verdict is still out.
I had to chime in here. What really bothers me about your post is your tone. Why attack other Christian brothers in public. I really think you are out of line here, not with what you are saying, but how you are saying it. If you have a problem with what Falwell says, then you need to get into contact with him, not broadcast to the world that you are pissed with him.
There are dissenting voices in science as well, although the minority. In my opinion, it is arrogance to think that we have all the scientific answers on what is causing Global warming. Should we take care of the world we live in, absolutely. Should we cut down on greenhouse emissions, absolutely. But to say that you don’t want to be called a Christian because of what someone else thinks on the subject is intolerant and unloving.
shane and mike — thanks for your comments. i welcome disagreement (especially if it’s not mean spirited or sarcastic, which neither of you were). clearly, we don’t agree on some things (and, i’m sure, do on much more). yes, we don’t have all the facts on global warming: much more inquiry and investigation needs to be done. but the evidence is clearly mounting. and EVEN if one doesn’t believe there is yet enough evidence to be convinced (which i am, but that’s a moot point to this sentence), to dismiss the whole thing is selfish and stupid at best (“i don’t care about what future generations have to deal with”) and downright anti-God at the worst.
as to “attacking another brother in public”: falwell’s comment was made in public. it appeared, as he tends to like things to, in a national paper. and i’m not making ANY statements about his character in this post: i’m merely saying that his public comment angers me and makes me want to distance myself from the kind of head-in-the-sand, ignore-god’s-creation-because-jesus-is-coming-back-anyhow kind of christianity. it violates everything i believe about a loving creator god who is passionate about all his creation. that’s not “earthism worship”! that’s creator worship!
Marko,
I totally agree. It is people like the Rev. Jerry Falwell that makes me ashamed to call myself a christian. I am also ashamed at the way the Church is turning a blind eye towards our environment.