Danville Enlightener

VOL. VIII, No. 6

February 11, 2007

The Church of the Earth?

“Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the vast majority of the world’s scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced.”

This is how cinema director Davis Guggenheim describes the Al Gore movie “An Inconvenient Truth;” a film about the dangers of global warming. (This is being written while the temperature outside is 0 and there are five inches of snow on the ground, a record for this date in February).

With virtually all the media outlets, schools, etc. behind this doom and gloom propaganda, Americans are afraid if we don’t park our cars and take up bicycling we are not long for this world. I have a different take on this hype. I believe modern environmentalism is not science but religion, let me explain.

In describing the religion of the gentiles Paul said they “exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever,” (Rom 1:25). The earth is the creation of God and the religion of environmentalism seeks to worship it.  Therefore, the title of this article.

Environmentalism (The Church of the Earth) is a religion that has its concept of The Garden of Eden, not the biblical Eden but the supposed pristine paradise of Mother Earth; that is, the time when all the indigenous people lived in a state of harmony with the environment. They conveniently ignore that their premise is false.

They next move to the Fall of Man in their religion. This is not the fall into sin associated with Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve rebelled against God and ate the forbidden fruit. No, the fall of the religion of environmentalism is when man fell into pollution; the pollution of water and air by burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil 

and clearing forests. According to this religion of worshiping the creature (earth) we are all pollution sinners. Salvation comes when we demand stricter emission standards; turn down the thermostat at home and plant a tree. These and many more acts of contrition will bring about our redemption, according to the Church of the Earth.

Communion in the Church of the Earth is organic food and pesticide-free water. And only those who have been converted (true believers) will partake. All others will eat trans-fats, preservatives and processed sugar. Unbelievers will use Styrofoam cups and plates, and then they are tossed into landfills creating more sin (pollution).

Remember Earth Day and keep it holy. Earth day is celebrated each year since 1970. This was the brain child of John McConnell. Read McConnell’s (almost biblical sounding) proclamation. “And so it came to pass we initiated the celebration of Earth Day on March 21, 1970. The first Proclamation of Earth Day was by San Francisco, the City of Saint Francis, patron saint of ecology. Designating the First Day of Spring, March 21, 1970 to be Earth Day, this day of nature’s equipoise was later sanctioned in a Proclamation signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations where it is observed each year. Earth Day was firmly established for all time on a sound basis as an annual event to deepen reverence and care for life on our planet.” By the founder’s own admission earth day is a time to reverence (worship) life on our planet; “Worship and serve the creature.”

Like all other false religions the Church of the Earth has its Armageddon. The apocalypse of environmentalism is global warming. This doom and gloom hype about global warming reminds me of all the disaster predictions of Premillennialism.

In Premillennialism we hear about the coming holocaust in the Middle East, but in environmentalism we hear of the worldwide catastrophe known as global warming. Instead of a world ending war (Premillennialism) there will be a world ending heat wave. There is no validity in the false religion of either.

I don’t wish to be misunderstood. I believe it is important that we human beings conduct our lives in a way that considers the consequences of our actions, including the consequences to other people, and the consequences to the environment. I believe we should behave in ways that are sensitive to the environment. I am for clean water and clean air, I believe we should treat both animals and the earth humanely but we should worship neither.

These people today that are touting radical environmentalism are not more enlightened or sympathetic. Instead they are seeking to proselytize to their religion. Their religion is secular and they are very militant in promoting it. They refuse to believe in the God of    Scripture    but   they   must   have   something   in   which   to   believe,   so   it   is 

environmentalism.  No  one  can  go  through  life without having faith in something or someone. “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end,” (Eccl 3:11). There is something “hardwired” in every human being that causes us to seek to worship something greater than ourselves. When God is not sought after one cannot simply spend his life NOT believing in something. Thus, he begins worshiping something or someone else; human accomplishments (atheism) or nature (environmentalism). Whether it is acknowledged or not, such belief is religious. I am in complete agreement with Michael Crichton when he said: “Environmentalism seems to be the religion of choice for urban atheists.” 

No Christian would sit idly by while Ministers, Priests or Rabbis try to proselytize a child, but yet many ignore the religion of the Church of the Earth (environmentalism). Their “evangelists” are at work in the media, the United Nations, the United States Congress and in public schools seeking to control the minds of our youth.
Environmentalism as it is being promoted is not based on science it is a religion. This can also be said of evolution. Therefore, I am convinced all Christians, while being conscious of our surroundings, should expose the Church of the Earth for what it is; a church that worships and serves “the creature rather than the Creator.”              -- jrb

"As I See It"

“Lust in Space” is how the cable news shows describe the sordid activities of some astronauts. Navy Capt. Lisa Nowak, a 43-year-old flight engineer who made her first space-shuttle flight in July, was arrested in Orlando, Florida on Monday on charges of assaulting U.S. Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman.

It seems Nowak, who was separated from her husband of 19-years, was romantically involved with another astronaut 41-year old Navy Commander William Oefelein. Oefelein however was interested in Colleen Shipman. Therefore, Nowak, wearing diapers so she would not have to make a bathroom stop, drove her car nearly 1,000 miles from Houston to catch up with Shipman in Orlando.

Nowak is accused of attempted murder and other charges after she sprayed Shipman with pepper spray. Nowak told police she did not intend to harm Shipman, but police said she wore a disguise during the assault and was carrying a knife, steel mallet and BB gun when she was captured.

Listening to all the talking heads on TV, from journalists to representatives of NASA, one common theme keeps emerging. What happened? People can’t seem to figure out why she did what she did. Did she snap? Was she on drugs? Why would someone risk destroying a career and even jail for such a thing? Can someone say – SIN?

It doesn’t take a “rocket scientist” (no pun intended) to figure out what’s going on. Paul writes “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” (Rom 6:16). Here are three people who apparently have given themselves over to the lust of the flesh, so it is no wonder Nowak did what she did. She became a willing slave to her passions. Peter describes people of this character as “having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls” (2 Pet 2:14).

I don’t know what is going to happen to this woman, whether she will get prison time, whether NASA will fire her, whether she will be forced from the Navy. But, AS I SEE IT, unless she surrenders her will to the will of Christ and begins reigning in her passions, she will remain a slave to sin and to bizarre behavior.