Alternet is hosting an interesting piece today that examines the Bush administration's environmental policies within the context of those millenarian whackos who have made Tim LaHaye such a ridiculously wealthy man. The first half of the article is a fairly pedestrian left-leaning response to Republican policies — a litany of offenses ranging from questionable appointees and gross conflicts of interest to the systematic stripping of authority from environmental protection legislation — and it's all well worth reading. But the stuff that grabbed my attention begins at the subhead, "A Higher Power." There, we learn that Jeremy Leggett, author of The Carbon Wars, once had a frank conversation with John Schiller, a Ford Motor executive, who steadfastly refused to believe that the world is more than 10,000 years old. Glenn Scherer writes:
Then Schiller confidently declared, "You know, the more I look, the more it is just as it says in the Bible." The Book of Daniel, he told Leggett, predicts that increased earthly devastation will mark the "End Time" and return of Christ. Paradoxically, Leggett notes, many fundamentalists see dying coral reefs, melting ice caps and other environmental destruction not as an urgent call to action, but as God's will. In the religious right worldview, the wreck of the Earth can be seen as Good News!
I would shake my head in disbelief if I didn't see ample evidence of such absurd theology, both spoken and implied, in so much of the American Church that surrounds me. For Schiller and the millions of Americans like him — and Left Behind readers alone number in the millions — there is a strange syllogism at play: world devastation is an apparent harbinger of the End Times; the End Times will be to God's glory; ergo world devastation will be to God's glory. Perhaps I'm overstating my case; perhaps not. Regardless, overwhelming evidence supports this simple fact: American evangelicals vote in droves for the least environmentally-friendly candidates (while continuing to gather on Sundays and Wednesday evenings to discuss "Christian stewardship"). Scherer continues:
According to the Washington, D.C.-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State, 178 House members in the last Congress allied themselves with the religious right, earning barely a 15 percent average approval rating with [the League of Conservation Voters]. Of 44 senators given an 80 to 100 percent approval rating by the Christian Coalition, the average LCV approval rating fell below 10 percent.
In the 108th Congress, Republican leadership hails almost exclusively from the religious right, scoring a perfect 100 percent with the Christian Coalition, but getting barely a four percent average approval rating from LCV.
Among the religiously motivated leaders are Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Assistant Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and Majority Whip Roy Blunt. DeLay has bluntly said that The Almighty is using him to promote "a Biblical worldview" in American politics, says the New York Times.
New rule: from now on, any politician who justifies his or her behavior by using the expression "Biblical worldview" must provide a handout that clearly demonstrates a direct relationship between his or her voting record and scripture. Otherwise, it's just so much noise and rhetoric. (Sidenote: Many would likely qualify, but with one qualification — they could only use the phrase, "Old Testament worldview.")
Also, some Fresh Air. Today, Terry Gross interviewed Dr. Charles Kimball, Head of Religious Studies at Wake Forest. An ordained Baptist minister and renowned scholar of Islam, he has some unique and refreshingly well-informed opinions concerning the recent controversies surrounding evangelical missions and the Middle East. Plus, he's been known to take some fierce jabs at Jerry Falwell, so you know it will be worth your time.
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