Greens And God

Dick Meyer: Environmentalism Is Compatible With Christianity & Needn't Be Polarizing In Politics

(CBS)  This commentary was written by CBSNews.com's Dick Meyer.

---

As Endless Campaign '08 relentlessly grinds on, voters might consider a little project of mine as a tonic to ward off the election cycle blues: flip the conventional political and journalistic custom of always focusing on discord and division on its head, and instead search out pockets of consensus and convergence. It sounds boring, but it's not.

One area that intrigues me is the environment.

I have never really understood why conservative Christians weren't hardcore environmentalists. If conserving God's earth and creations isn't both conservative and spiritual, what is? Sure, I understand that the culture of America's greens is Birkenstock liberal and associated with an anti-business, pro-Big Brother Government mindset that conservatives can't stomach. Environmentalism got tossed into the whole culture war deal and the greens ended up on the blue side.

When I looked a bit deeper, it turned out that the views of Christian conservatives on global warming and environmental issues weren’t very different from the rest of society. Godly people are pretty green.

A CBS News poll out a few weeks ago showed that 46 percent of white evangelicals think global warming is having a serious impact on the environment - a view shared by 52 percent of the population as a whole. Not a big difference. Only three percent of white evangelicals think global warming doesn't exist.

Global warming and the environment will be "very important" or "extremely important" voting issues for 43 percent of white evangelicals; the figure is 55 percent for the rest. Not a big difference.

The two Republican candidates coming from a Christian evangelical base, Mike Huckabee and Sam Brownback, talk about caring for the environment as part of taking care of God's creations.

"I believe that even our responsibility to God means that we have to be good stewards of the earth," Huckabee said, "be good caretakers of the natural resources that don’t belong to us; we just get to use them.”

There is plenty of action on the conservative environmental front. A group called the Evangelical Environmental Network is busy reaching out to the evangelical community on green issues. In his terrific book, "Crunchy Cons," Dallas Morning News columnist Rod Dreher makes a compelling case for a sophisticated Christian environmentalism.

Richard Cizik, a vice president for governmental affairs at the National Association of Evangelicals, has been an aggressive advocate for action on global warming. And he took some heat for it from conservatives who thought he was becoming a deep blue green.

There are plenty of evangelicals who still think Green=Gore=Evil. After all, shortly before his death, Jerry Falwell said the flap over global warming was "Satan’s attempt to redirect the church's primary focus." That Satan ought to just mind his own business, you know?

Now flaps are what reporters and consultants focus on. "Split Over Global Warming Widens Among Evangelicals," read one The Wall Street Journal headline. The Washington Post declared: "Global Warming Starts to Divide G.O.P. Contenders." Democratic strategists now see climate change as a wedge issue. Maybe they can peel some traditionally Republican voters away by playing the green card.

Well, how about a headline that says something like, "Growing Consensus On Global Warming All Along The Political Spectrum?" Too boring.

What's really boring is the perpetual push to polarize everything. America is not polarized. It is fragmented, confused, complicated and inconsistent. As it should be. Voters aren't polarized about global warming; the vast majority thinks it's a serious problem. The debate about what to do about it is unsettled, to be sure, at every level.

The truth is the environment is an issue where folks on the left and on the right have found some real common ground. Keep an eye out for more pockets of consensus as this campaign that is built on phony polarization drones on. It's more challenging than listening to the same old arguments.

---

E-mail questions, comments, complaints, arguments and ideas to
Against the Grain. We will publish some of the interesting (and civil) ones, sometimes in edited form.

[brianbwb-2009]

For those who claim Christianity, was not Adam''s original job to "tend the Garden"?

For those who don''t subscribe to a religion, does it not make sense to take care of our food and water supply?

To those concerned with the medium and long term economic outlook for the country, wouldn''t it be wise to avoid potential food and water crises, by protecting the conditions best for production?

This leaves the "my immediate profit above all else" crowd, to explain why the world needs such people as themselves...

Any takers?

[mediapreachr]

How about using the laws on environmental protection we already have rather than making new ones,and please stop parading that fool gore,on the world stage.

[tnt1954]

1776, adam smith''s wealth of nations published and
sold like hotcakes. 1776, american revolution
and beginning of industrial revolution and war
profiteering by the dupont corporation. caesar
rodney casting deciding vote on revolution and
independence for delaware and the dupont corporation.
now they have clothes that wash themselves and
never wear out. why buy new ones? no one does.
repeat sales? a thing of the past. bible teaches
to subdue the earth. another subdivison another
day. thou shalt build, build, build and build
some more. till there is land no more. then into
space to build, build and build some more. poe-tic
justice. edgar allan poe. quoth the ravings, gimme
more. even if there is a blackout on it.

[quatrops]

Oh dear. Another article with "God" in the title.

Don''t look for a lot of humility or reasoned discourse in the posts prior to or following this one!

[antoniof123]

The religious nuts have done more damage to the earth in the name of their god (notice I said their god not mine or yours). They continue to try to force us to listen to them. I say you can''t talk with a stupid person the only way to make them listen is to beat them with a stick. This will make it stick in them for good. Too funny.

[vet_sk]

From amino acids we come and when we die, we are once again amino acids. It would be nice to think that there is something more but there is not.
We should live our lives the best we can, making sure my kids and yours, and theirs, have a planet as strong as the one we had.
It is a scary time. To think that everything we burn and the huge forests our machines tear down do not affect the planet is rediculous.
I have cut my heat way down in my home and am riding my bike to work today.
Anyone else?

[codexkills]

I can''t wait until the government tells me how me how many baths to take, how much trash I can throw away, how many trips I can take in my car, and what kind of toilet I should buy. Meanwhile, it subsidizes growing corn and only corn, which mandates tractors, fertilizer, polluting feedlots where all outputs are considered "waste" and not recycled. And no one suggests a real non-polluting alternative form of energy. Only regulation and the use of the same forms of energy. Environmentalism will be the new religion and will simply turn into a form of fascism where neighbors can snoop on you and criticize you in new ways.

[eggy1620]

%u201CMANY Americans came here to ESCAPE from religious NUTS.%u201D

Yes, but before that, this nation was colonized by religious nuts. The Pilgrims, remember, left Europe because everyone there thought them way too fanatical. They came here looking for a place to hang witches.

[oscarez]

Vet_SK ... Well said. I believe that it is to late to stop the inevitable destruction of the planet by the human race. Nothing last forever.

[feelfree1]

Re: The Chevron "human energy" campaign.

By "human energy", is Chevron talking about the energy that it expends to torture, murder and rape people, in their efforts to maximize profits:

"Chevron is one of the largest foreign investors in Burma and is the only remaining major U.S. corporation with a significant presence there. In 2005, Chevron bought the company Unocal weeks after the latter settled a lawsuit accusing it of assisting the Burmese military junta in the torture, murder and rape of villagers during construction of a pipeline."

www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/12/1454252

...or are they proposing the idea of squeezing oil out of humans, directly?

[wooleywews]

Does the ant or sparrow glutton themselves on the richness of mother earth? Does not the pine and the palm sway to the same breeze?
WE MUST TALK -- sigh --to the misunderstood overly bold environmental fighters. Honestly, with real feeling being truthful of the extreme excesses that Western Civilization has punished the poor peoples and the environment of the earth. ONLY THEN, only then will we understand them and change. Then these poor environmental nomads will vent constructively their justifiable rage, and peace with harmony will return. Remember-- Does the lion roar to offend? Or does he roar to defend.

[quatrops]

Actually, the lion roars because someone is stepping on his testicles, wernet2. Nice poetry, though. Time for my meds!

[Swatantra7]

Well, people are born either gay or straight; it''s not a fashion statement! I''m telling you that God made you the way you are.

[p-syrus]

Re: The Chevron "human energy" campaign.
----

Hmmm, so is that like "soylent green"? :-)

[logicanada]

I,ve heard it said that extreme right religious nuts want to crucify non-believers. Thats a lot of trees! Not environmentally friendly at all.

[goldesprit]

Unfortunately, climate change and the temporary warming before an ice age --is not really about "consensus".
Its about whether it is happening or not--and what to do--regardless of the style of government that is in vogue, at all.
If one person is right about this--the rest of us need to follow.
If we don''t have the mechanism for "consensus"-- then there may be an end to any form of democracy that can not respond to a global catastrophy.
This crisis does not care what style of hats we wear--or what kind of commercial CBS and other news organizations like to attach and spin.

[farmerbb]

Didn''t I read recently that some extreme religious types in positions of authority are essentially saying "Screw the environment. We will all be taken bodily into heaven when the Rapture comes, in the very near future".

[spherography]

In my opinion, being the son of a former minister, he and I were having a talk about glaciers melting. I brought up the question of as they do, the bacteria and viruses sealed in those enormous chunks of ice could be another compounding factor besides the rise in water. It''s another issue we''ll have to deal with of course. Although, I was here to mainly speak of the ideas of, "Why even care if we''re not going to be here because of a rapture?" I can tell you I don''t know how it is going to work. But what I can also say is that I had perceived parts of Revelation of being mostly if not all events in the past. For an example, to be something of the past is when the church was talking about the seven hills. That''s present day Italy. It had also spoke of facing death more than once by consumption of fire and for those who were saved were to overcome that with an exception to those who weren''t. There may be some out there who have interpreted this as to be an experience during this present day era perhaps an event that is nuclear in nature or that too being celestial but in fact it was about a fire that broke out. Personally, I believe that there is something that isn''t being said about global warming and that is the more carbon dioxide, the more green and the more green, the more oxygen. But this still leaves us with a rising water issue which would strike up the question of just how much intake would those greens soak up?

[taddles-2009]

Conservation is not a Christian ideal because Christians are only on earth for a short time before they are taken to heaven. The earth is just a last stop to take a $hit before they head on to eternal bliss.

[jon2012-2009]

If we don''''t have the mechanism for "consensus"-- then there may be an end to any form of democracy that can not respond to a global catastrophy.

Posted by goldesprit

I think you''re right goldesprit and it''s frightening. What we have in our society is a significant population of so-called believers in some form of religion. These people are, in certain ways, not amenable to logic and vulnerable to manipulation by individuals in position of authority. Democracy stipulates a well-informed citizenry capable of independent thinking whose collective decision-making determines where we go as a society. If some of us are fundamentally impaired, they are not conributing productively to such decision-making and we will fail to achieve the best possible outcome as we do today.

[PopTech]

NO ''Consensus'' on "Man-Made" Global Warming
http://www.populartechnology.net/2007/10/no-consensus-on-global-warming.html

[godseyesore-2009]

Since when did religion have anything to do with rationality or consistency?

[rayuk-2009]

A fair question to ask all Republicans and especially Conservative Evangelicals is why do you hate Gore?

Let''s list a few just for kicks:

- Gore is a Democrat
- Gore is smarter than they are
- Gore won the Nobel and a Conservative can''t
- Conservatives have an inherent need to hate

So there you have 99% of the answer. Pathetic as it is. So,consensus with radicalism seems impossible.

[rayuk-2009]

Think about it. Can anyone justify taking a chance that climate change is not real? Are you willing to gamble the planet on a maybe? The extent of change is unknown. Is there a run-away possibility that can''t be stopped. Are we willing to risk the possibility that our children will become toast? I''m not!

[Ozark_Sunshine]

We don''t hate Gore. We hate bad science and ignorance used to line the pockets of Gore and his greedy corporate friends. When even a Judge finds that most of his movie is wrong and he is not a scientist but can discern facts, then why can''t people take a look around and realize the truth. They can''t explain away the fact that there are solar flares that are coming towards the earth, nor can they explain away the fact that between volcanoes and shifting plates beneath the ocean that massive amounts of toxic gas are being put into the atmosphere. They would rather you use Gore''s company and buy carbon offsets and line their pockets than think for yourself.

[Ozark_Sunshine]

btw - johndevinejr - Why do you choose to generalize about the majority of the population with lies you know that are not true. You are the hypocrite because you are intolerant. You want us to accept what you say and then you call us what you really are. This Christian is a disabled vet who served his country to give you the right to post your blog, what have you done to serve your country? You are un-American because you don''t want to discuss facts, you only want to name call. How childish you are in your actions.

[rayuk-2009]

Ozark- Read my post that begins: "Think about it" Then when you reach the only possible honest and logical answer tell us about how misguided and wrong you are.

"Bad science"- Tell the world that we are looking at bad science. Bad science, in this case, is only in the mind of narrow minded fools.

[rayuk-2009]

Ozark- Read my post that begins: "Think about it" Then when you reach the only possible honest and logical answer tell us about how misguided and wrong you are.

"Bad science"- Tell the world that we are looking at bad science. Bad science in this case is only in the mind of narrow minded fools.

[tburzio]

What does a scientist do most of the day? You''d be surprised to know that the answer is: write proposals for funding. It''s amazing, if you add the clause "and the effects of Global Warming" to your proposal, your chance of funding and amount of the grant goes up astronomically...

[tburzio]

Christians distrust environmentalists because, for a large part, they are sinners of the first rate, liberals and other flotsam lost to eternal life forever and ever...

[theanchores]

Well, Mr. Meyer, your effort to show right and left where they may tread on common ground was commendable. Despite comments which do not edify either side, it''s worth trying again, if you''ve the urge.

[alanrobisch]

Christians distrust environmentalists because, for a large part, they are sinners of the first rate, liberals and other flotsam lost to eternal life forever and ever...



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by tburzio at 05:09 PM : Nov 02, 2007

Was this sarcasm? while I don''t think of myself as an environmentalist. I certainly believe in make the air cleaner keeping the wild areas wild and unpoluted and can only dream of a time when we can create the needed energy for our civillization without polluting the air

[rushlimpdrug]

"I have never really understood why conservative Christians weren''t hardcore environmentalists"

because most "christians" are stupid idiots. They will be at a Nascar race praying for some "miracle on the asphalt" then support abortion by buying some chineeze krap.
"christians" have become more and more stupid and it is evident if you travel the country. A beautiful church with nicely paved parking and manicured landscaping is all that is important.
That and hating gaays.
that is why sooooo many churches say NOTHING about the support their members give by buying communist china products.
Of course, the chineeze will eventually become christians - when hell freezes over and Nascar idiots are completely sold out.

[myidoncbs]

The author asks, "If conserving God''s earth and creations isn''t both conservative and spiritual, what is?"

Apparently, the thinking of modern "Christians", from James Watt (Reagan''s secretary of the interior) onwards, has been that by killing all the Muslims, they can force Jesus to come back to earth to wage war with Satan''s minions for 1000 years, and when that''s over, the world will end. So, to them, there is no point in "conserving God''s earth"! They''re going to destroy it all anyway. Conveniently, this fits in very well with the Republican philosophy of "greed is good". Short term profits are all that matter. R@/pe and plunder are "good"! Saving the environment is "bad" because it cuts profits!

[myidoncbs]

Some oil company shill said, "We hate bad science and ignorance used to line the pockets of Gore and ..."

1. Al Gore gave all his "profits" from his movie to charity, so he did NOT "line [his] pockets" as you claim!

2. The movie, "An Inconvenient Truth" is NOT bad science. It contains a few errors and exaggerations, but the basic premise, that global warming is occurring right now and that human activity is contributing to that warming, is unassailable scientific truth.

Most of the "bad science" is taking place on YOUR side.

[elz523]

What does a scientist do most of the day? You''''d be surprised to know that the answer is: write proposals for funding. It''''s amazing, if you add the clause "and the effects of Global Warming" to your proposal, your chance of funding and amount of the grant goes up astronomically...



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by tburzio at 05:06 PM : Nov 02, 2007
+ report abuse


Tburzio, I don''t know if you have first hand knowledge of this, but I suspect you are repeating a familiar claim made by Rush Limbaugh and other cons. The thing is, even if true, does it make the science untrue?

[elz523]

Christians distrust environmentalists because, for a large part, they are sinners of the first rate, liberals and other flotsam lost to eternal life forever and ever...



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by tburzio at 05:09 PM : Nov 02, 2007


I am a Christian and an environmentalist. Swill that in your small mind. Cognitive dissonance (for you) may do wonders.

[libsluvsuvs]

1. Al Gore gave all his "profits" from his movie to charity, so he did NOT "line [his] pockets" as you claim!

2. The movie, "An Inconvenient Truth" is NOT bad science. It contains a few errors and exaggerations, but the basic premise, that global warming is occurring right now and that human activity is contributing to that warming, is unassailable scientific truth.

Most of the "bad science" is taking place on YOUR side.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by MyIDonCBS at 11:38 PM : Nov 02, 2007
+ report abuse

first. Gore may have given the ''profits'' but that is after they had taken or skimmed thier cut from it..if you want sympatethic recognition..let them contibute thier time and cost from thier own pockets.

last, do you need a movie to tell you that you are *** king up this planet? okay tell me..have you changed your ways to help the planet?

[libsluvsuvs]

all science does is explain GOD.

[lloydbest1]

*** Meyer''s piece reminded me of a temporarily popular question posed on billboards throughout the region where I live:
"What would Jesus drive?" This is a question posed by a small but increasing number of conservative Christians who are concerned by our dependence on fossil fuel. It is a difficult question to answer because none of us, at least in our present state, are in a position to ask Him. Here%u2019s my take:
He probably would walk or take public transportation whenever possible. He might have purchased a bicycle but I suspect it would have been a used clunker that had only five or ten speeds, be fairly dirty, with a worn out seat, bald tires and a loose crank. If so, then He would have maybe picked up one of those old wire baskets and installed it Himself and used it to carry small items.
It is possible He would have purchased a car of some sort but I doubt that likely. He may not even have bothered with a driver%u2019s license as much into living simply as He was. But if He did purchase a motor vehicle, it%u2019s most likely to be another ancient wreck selected more for its up front price than for its fuel economy. After all He wasn%u2019t going to drive it much.
No, based on what I read and heard about the man, Jesus would not buy into the typical American mode of conspicuous consumption that is so prevalent these days; and the car He would drive, if He bothered at all, would be an old 1970 Volkswagen Beetle of a similar vintage Ford Fairlane or Chevy Nova.

[lloydbest1]

"*** Meyer''''s piece reminded me of a temporarily popular question posed on billboards....."

Good grief, guys. can''t your profanity elimination software do any better than that!?
O.K. if it''ll make you-all feel better, then..."RICHARD Meyer"

[mediapreachr]

"Global warming" and "Peak oil"-you find them in your local library under Fiction.
We''re all big boys and girls now-hence can do our own research.

[feelfree1]

Related:

"Blumenthal opens the video by interviewing Tom Delay, who when asked how much the "Second Coming" plays into his support for Israel, says, "obviously, it''s what I live for, I hope it comes tomorrow."

"Delay closed by saying, "we have to be connected to Israel to enjoy the second coming."

www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/58017/