The Spectacle Blog
What Does the Bible Say About Global Warming?
Answer: Nothing, as theologian Cal Beisner explained on Tuesday at the Fourth International Conference on Climate Change, hosted by the Heartland Institute.
Answer: Nothing, as theologian Cal Beisner explained on Tuesday at the Fourth International Conference on Climate Change, hosted by the Heartland Institute. Jeff Poor of Newsbusters reports:
According to Beisner, the belief that fighting global warming was a component of helping the poor was specifically used by the Evangelical Environmental Network and endorsed by others to make this case.
“They jump quickly from, ‘We need to help the poor,’ to ‘global warming is going to hurt the poor, therefore we need to fight global warming,’” Beisner said. “In 2006, a group - the Evangelical Environmental Network launched a new project called the Environmental Climate Initiative, which put out a statement, ‘Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action.’ And that statement was endorsed by 86 different leading evangelicals - presidents of the evangelical colleges, admission organizations. And I went down the list of endorsers. There was no list of authors of that. I later found out the main author was an ethics professor named David Gushee. When I debated him over that at this university, he told me before the debate, ‘You know when I was preparing for this debate, I found out the science was a whole more nuanced than I realized when I wrote the paper.’ I thought, ‘David, you should have known that before you wrote.’”
A non-theologian (me) wrote about ECI for Spectator Online four years ago:
These “social Gospel” passages can hardly be construed as a legitimate case for the fight to reduce global warming. The first misinterpretation is the proper role of man in relation to the creation. Calls to “stewardship” in the Bible never have to do with caring for some pristine earth — for its own sake or for God’s. Instead God gave man “dominion” over the world and its creatures, for human consumption and use.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you pollute willy-nilly. Dumping oil or chemicals where they can seep in someone’s water supply certainly is unneighborly. But that has nothing to do with Biblical “earth” stewardship, and linking disputed negative global warming effects to proper social practices is misleading at best. If environmentally conscious Christians want to do something that will clearly and measurably help their poor neighbors, why don’t they invest in waste removal in places like Port-au-Prince and Bangladesh instead?
We’re still waiting for this band of misguided Jesus freaks (especially the Southern Baptist Co-opters) to get their priorities straight.
View all comments (16) | Leave a comment
Related Blog Posts
More Blog Posts by Paul Chesser
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/05/20/what-does-the-bible-say-about
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
Current Issue
- Wincing at Cumberbatch
- Of Wizards and Weapons
- Consternated Conferences
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Kenneth E. MacAlister Jr.| 5.20.10 @ 3:27PM
Great column Mr. Chesser, but please refrain from using the term "Jesus freaks". Freaks like those you mention in this column use Jesus Christ for their own political means & 1) do not understand GOD's Word, The Bible, & 2) do Jesus Christ a great disservice by using him as a pawn in their political games. Jesus Christ is all about truth & there is NO truth in the myth known as "man-made glo-bull warming". GOD is still in control of the entire universe, including the climate & weather which make Algore's & the left's claims of "man-made glo-bull warming" utter b.s. & the denominations involved in perpetuating the lie of "man-made glo-bull warming" totally clueless Biblically speaking & utter frauds. EnvironMENTAL freaks do not recognize GOD's truth, therefore they do not recognize the truth of Jesus Christ either. They want, like Algore & the left, cash & control. THAT is what environMENTALism is all about.
KJW| 5.20.10 @ 3:28PM
Actually, God DOES say something very clearly about (read: "against") global warming. Hat tip to the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, from whom I first heard this:
Genesis 8:22 (King James version) "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."
http://bible.cc/genesis/8-22.htm
(NOTE: After the rapture as detailed in Revelation - this will change.)
John3| 5.20.10 @ 4:48PM
The seventh commandment enjoins respect for the integrity of creation. Animals, like plants and inanimate beings, are by nature destined for the common good of past, present, and future humanity. Use of the mineral, vegetable, and animal resources of the universe CANNOT BE DIVORCED FROM RESPECT FOR MORAL IMPERATIVES. A good example is the idea that population control by contraception and abortion is necessary to keep the earth intact. Allowing God's will that more children be born (right to life) should not be subverted by an inordinate need to keep our land human-free.
Man's dominion over inanimate and other living beings granted by the Creator is not absolute; it is limited by concern for the quality of life of his neighbor, including generations to come. The problem is that many radical conservationists do not even factor in a "concern for the quality of life of his neighbor." They are obsessed with protecting the earth REGARDLESS of its human population. In essence, the earth has become their god, and all have to bow before it.
Kenneth E.MacAlister Jr.| 5.20.10 @ 5:08PM
Very well put John3. Take care & GOD bless!
Rick jenkins| 8.13.10 @ 12:45AM
Yeah well put, i think people are starting to love the creation more then the CREATOR.
Nate| 5.20.10 @ 5:52PM
Case closed.
The Bible doesn't say anything about global warming. Therefore, it can't be happening.
Why can't everything be this simple?
Kenneth E. MacAlister Jr.| 5.20.10 @ 9:18PM
Exactly!
Mike| 5.21.10 @ 1:28AM
Whenever I see an article chatting about how climate change can't be happening, I try to get people to pay a little more attention to some of the more obvious ways we continue to affect local environment, because of how easy it is to see. We did a pretty good job learning how to not fill the Great Lakes with sewage, and we now understand radioactive materials better to the point where we've reduced the number of superfund sites that require major cleanup. But we still fill the oceans with trash, every day. The intensely enriched runoff from midwestern farmlands spills into the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Mississippi, leading to oxygen depletion and supercolony growth along the coastline; to see that just dip your toe in the water there. There are numerous other clearcut effects you can see. Seeing them for real might make the more widespread effects easier to recognize. Following the evidence, it pretty quickly becomes easy to separate effects on climate due to ecological mismanagement, and political speeches that say it ain't happening.
matthew s harrison| 5.21.10 @ 2:11AM
I am sure the guys I see freezing their butts off in Chicago all winter, are hoping beyond hope that there is global warming! Can you imagine all the poor people north of the mason dixon line who wouldn't need to pay for heating oil in the east, gas in the midwest, and electricity in the west, if global warming actually existed!? It would be great!
Nancy| 5.21.10 @ 10:00AM
It's not that global warming is not happening or has not happened. It's that it is not man made. We seem to be in a cooling tend now, but the earth will warm again. Sorry, Earthlings. It's a natural cycle. Global warming is also not a religion, the way so many on the left treat it. And "carbon footprints?" What a scam!
Raving Rabbi| 5.21.10 @ 12:09PM
Our tradition is that the Bible talks about EVERYTHING. The word "Torah" means Teaching or Guide, and our tradition is that it's the "Instruction Book" that comes with our planet.
While Gen. 8:22 can be understood as "As long as the earth exists, there will be seasons," which doesn't tell you how hot or cold those seasons would be, there are other references.
From one great Rabbi: "The Lord... has girded Himself with strength, He also established the world not to be budged." (Psalms 93:1) He understands this to mean the world will remain in its full usefulness until the Messianic realignment.
I personally wonder if the wicked sense the coming of Malachi's prophecy: "For behold, the day comes, burning like a furnace, and all the purposeful sinners and workers of wickedness will be straw, and the coming day will set them ablaze, says the Lord of Hosts... And there shall rise for you, those that fear My Name, a sun of righteousness with healing in its' wings..." (Malachi 3:19, 20)
Hmmm, perhaps those worried about global warming need to worry, and those not worried don't need to worry.
From our Rabbinical traditions:
On Ecclesiastes 7:13: "View all the works of G-d: For who can fix what he's already corrupted?" "At the time the Holy One, Blessed be He, created Original Man, He took him and brought him around to all the trees of the Garden of Eden and said to him, 'See My creations, how lovely and praiseworthy they are. And all that I created, for your sake I created. Set your mind not to ruin and destroy My world!" (Kohelleth Rabbah 7) While understood as primarily a warning not to destroy it with sin and spiritual corruption, there is an implicit understanding that we must treasure G-d's gifts in the physical sense as well... as well as having the right to use it for our benefit. (In a few places, King Solomon's Proverbial picture of the "gold nose ring in the pig's snout" is used by the rabbis to describe abusing G-d's gifts due to underappreciation.)
I think the emerging picture from these and other sources is: "Use the Earth well, don't abuse it, leave the rest to Me."
hans | 6.6.10 @ 10:28AM
hey, what about the possibility that God provided us humans with petroleum for it's incredibly useful properties, and it would last us until Jesus comes back!?! Yes, we should not be wasteful and not trash this place, but maybe we should not gripe about how we are "depleting the planet's natural resources".