469 Global Warming, Part 2
The average temperature rose nearly 10 degrees last month. Talk about global warming! I panicked. A friend had to calm me down. “Relax Clothman,” she said, “its just springtime.”
Still, everyone knows the earth is heating up. The question is no longer “if” the earth is warming, it is “why” is it warming? (Although, if the earth is warming why do my heating bills keep going up?)
The most widely accepted explanation for this warming is the huge increase of carbons being released into our atmosphere in the form of greenhouse gases. These increased gases are primarily being produced by humans burning fossil fuels.
Some, such as Gary Calder former editor of New Scientist, say that clouds (in conjunction with solar rays) are the reason behind climate change. Others say global warming is too complex to be attributed to just one factor, whether greenhouse gases or clouds. Still others, like the writer of a recent letter to the editor say global warming is not caused by any physical emissions, but rather by the spiritual omission of God in our country. She said, “the stench of moral decay and ungodliness has come up to God’s nostrils and has kindled his wrath, which is coming upon this earth…” Thus, God’s wrath is causing global warming.
Can we ever find our way through this maze to truth? Not if we follow some of the religious leaders in America. For example, Jerry Falwell recently said, “there's no need for the church of Jesus Christ to be wasting its time gullibly falling for all of this global warming hocus-pocus. We need to give our total focus to the business of reaching this world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ...”
In a letter to the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) Focus on the Family’s James Dobson and two dozen co-signers said, “that Cizik (vice-president of the NAE) and others are using the global warming controversy to shift the emphasis away from the great moral issues of our time,” citing abortion, same-sex marriage and abstinence. They are calling for Cizik to resign or be fired because of his “creation care” agenda.
With all due respect to Dobson and Falwell and the good things they do, they are making the same mistake the church did with previous scientists like Galileo. In trying to protect their turf, they are blindly rejecting both the messenger and the message.
This is the same tactic the religious leaders of his day used against Jesus. After hearing Jesus say some things that ticked them off, “the Pharisee plotted a way to trap him into saying something damaging.” They then launched group after group at Jesus armed with trick questions that he fended off. Jesus “stumped them, literalists that they were. Unwilling to risk losing face again in one of these public verbal exchanges, they quit asking questions for good.” That’s when they started plotting how to kill Jesus - which they did. (See Matthew chapter 22.)
I’m not saying which global warming perspective Christians need to side with, I’m saying we need to stop taking sides that cut off dialogue. We need to get over being threatened and threatening. We of all people should know by now that when we reject both messenger and the message that the masses will rightly reject us.
Let’s pull another chair up to the table, pour a fresh cup of coffee, then listen, learn and love.
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