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Archive for July, 2007

13
Jul

Am I becoming a liberal?

I must confess that one of my biggest hangups with the whole conservation/Green environmental movement has been that has been championed by liberals, whose amoral or convenient morals drive me insane. I have not ever been a big fan of the so called “science” behind many of the “extreme” views of global warming. For much of my life I have never been real concerned with conservation unless it meant saving me money.
Since then somewhere along the way to now I have been convicted that I have no idea how much longer God’s going to let this storyline continue, and if the church didn’t at least try to take care of the needy people and at most try to change the social, political, and biological environments in which it lived then what would the world look like in 200 years. Sure Jesus may come back tomorrow, but I don’t know that, and my apathetic attitude toward responsible consumption and disposal could do nothing but harm those left to live here 200 years from now.
With that being said I believe our responsibility is not so much in what we do with our waste, although I believe it to be important. I also do not believe that limiting what we consume is most important either. Instead I believe we need to begin asking the question, “Why am I consuming this?” or “Why should I consume this?” or “What might be the negative impact of not consuming this?”
Asking these questions seem to go against my love of capitalism and the ideal that I cling that a free economy is good and Socialism is bad. However, I believe I can still hold that I might think a free economy is good while at the same time demanding that auto manufacturers design more fuel efficient cars, that KY collect a deposit on Aluminum and plastic containers, and that the city of Georgetown ramp up it’s recycling program to include home pick up, or at least designate neighborhood depositories.
For the church to have the attitude that , “Everything’s gonna burn anyway.” gives the impression that we’re whimsical about this planet, which happens to be just as unique as I am in comparison with the millions if not billions of other planets out there. I think that because Earth is so unique, holding that Tom Cruise and John Travolta are really crazy, it’s no wonder God’s first command to Adam and Eve was to care for it.
My impression is that most political liberals are pro-environment because they don’t believe there is anything else after this life, and that we’re stuck with the Earth as long as we can sustain life. And most political conservatives are anti-environment as a negative response to all things liberal. I think the Church would begin to make huge strides in releasing itself from the bondage it has placed itself in with conservative politics if it began to say to the world, “We care, and so we’re going to ask the hard questions before we consume and make waste. Because when Jesus comes back in 500 years we want Him to be able to look at what we’ve done with His planet and for people and be glad He left it in our hands.