Chuck Colson
The Christian Post
Western Christians, both Protestants and Catholics, are currently observing Lent, the 40-day season preceding Easter. Through self-denial, alms-giving, and prayer, many Christians prepare themselves to properly commemorate our Lord’s passion and resurrection.
Lenten self-denial traditionally includes giving something up we enjoy, like a particular food or pleasurable activity. Well, this year, clergy in Britain are asking their dwindling flocks to give up coal for Lent.
Well, sort of. The Anglican bishops of Liverpool and London have called for a “carbon fast” this Lent. Instead of giving up, say, chocolate or meat, people should reduce the amount of greenhouse gases they produce.
Thus, preparing for Good Friday and Easter consists of actions such as the following: “avoiding plastic bags”; “giving the dishwasher a day off”; “insulating the hot water tank”; and “checking the house for drafts.” I’m serious.
Perhaps the bishops were aware of how, well, silly this sounds because they had to cloak it in language like this: It is “individual and collective action” on behalf of the poor. According to the Bishop of Liverpool, “it is the poor who are already suffering the effects of climate change,” and “to carry on regardless of their plight is to fly in the face of Christian teaching.”
It’s true that “carrying on” while ignoring the plight of the poor violates Christian teaching. What’s not so clear is how giving your dishwasher a day off or using paper instead of plastic fulfills your Christian duty to the poor.
Then again, as Frank Furedi of the University of Kent reminds us, the religion being appealed to here isn’t Christianity but, instead, “environmentalism [as] a caricature of a religion.” He calls the carbon fast a “morally illiterate attempt to recycle” Christian practices “as a form of environmentally correct behavior.”
In this caricature, according to Furedi, “original sin has been reinvented as a wicked act of ‘carbon emission.’” Instead of the Seven Deadly Sins, we have “everyday behaviors,” including your morning latte, turned into an offense against the planet and, oh yes, the poor.
Of course, recycling and conserving energy, however sensible, won’t make any difference whatsoever in the lives of the poor. And it certainly shouldn’t be passed off as a “sacrifice” for their sake. Its only beneficiaries will be westerners who will feel better about their own lives, even as the lives of the supposed beneficiaries remain untouched.
The saddest part about this “carbon fast” business is that our preparation for Good Friday and Easter ought to include an examination of our assumptions about what constitutes the “good life.” The global recession is a painful reminder of the dangers of laying up our treasures where moths, rust, and thieves—including those in expensive suits—can take them from us. This will be the subject of tomorrow's broadcast.
God may be calling us to live more simply—but it ought to be as an expression of our trust in Him, not fear of an environmental doomsday. This, in turn, will enable our concern for the least of our brethren to go beyond choosing paper over plastic.
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"...environmentalism as a caricature of a religion." An apt description, I think.
---Katie
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
The Lamentable Republican Civil War
I always appreciate Thomas Sowell's writing. I'm not so sure I agree with him about Republicans' fighting amongst themselves being a bad thing. It seems to me that conservatives either need to take control of the party or form another party that is able to articulate conservative principles to groups beyond the traditional constituency of the Republicans. Click on the title to read the entire article from the Philadelphia Bulletin!
The Lamentable Republican Civil War
By Thomas Sowell, For The Bulletin
Thursday, March 19, 2009
As if it is not enough that they have been decimated by the Democrats in the past couple of elections, the Republican survivors are now turning their guns on each other.
At the heart of these internal battles have been attacks on Rush Limbaugh by Republicans who imagine themselves to be so much more sophisticated because they are so much more in step with the political fashions of the time.
New Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele’s cheap shot at Rush’s program as “ugly” set off the latest round of in-fighting. That is the kind of thing that is usually said by liberals who have never listened to the program.
Regular listeners to the Rush Limbaugh program or subscribers to the Limbaugh newsletter know that both contain far more factual information and in-depth analysis than in the programs or writings of pundits with more of a ponderous tone or intellectual airs.
-------- snip
There is certainly a lot to be said for inviting wider segments of the population to join you, by explaining how your principles benefit the country in general, and those segments in particular. But that is fundamentally different from abandoning your principles in hopes of attracting new votes with opportunism.
No segment of the population has lost more by the agendas of the liberal constituencies of the Democratic Party than the black population.
The teachers’ unions, environmental fanatics and the ACLU are just some of the groups to whose interests blacks have been sacrificed wholesale. Lousy education and high crime rates in the ghettos, and unaffordable housing elsewhere with building restrictions, are devastating prices to pay for liberalism.
Yet the Republicans have never articulated that argument, and their opportunism in trying to get black votes by becoming imitation Democrats has failed miserably for decades on end.
-----------end
It seems to me that the recent election proved that being "Democrat Lite" has failed the Republicans miserably. It is time to encourage those Republicans who think we need to be more like the Democrats to gain votes to just go ahead and become Democrats. Let the Republican party stand for conservative ideals and articulate them clearly instead of being embarrassed by those who do.
---Katie
The Lamentable Republican Civil War
By Thomas Sowell, For The Bulletin
Thursday, March 19, 2009
As if it is not enough that they have been decimated by the Democrats in the past couple of elections, the Republican survivors are now turning their guns on each other.
At the heart of these internal battles have been attacks on Rush Limbaugh by Republicans who imagine themselves to be so much more sophisticated because they are so much more in step with the political fashions of the time.
New Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele’s cheap shot at Rush’s program as “ugly” set off the latest round of in-fighting. That is the kind of thing that is usually said by liberals who have never listened to the program.
Regular listeners to the Rush Limbaugh program or subscribers to the Limbaugh newsletter know that both contain far more factual information and in-depth analysis than in the programs or writings of pundits with more of a ponderous tone or intellectual airs.
-------- snip
There is certainly a lot to be said for inviting wider segments of the population to join you, by explaining how your principles benefit the country in general, and those segments in particular. But that is fundamentally different from abandoning your principles in hopes of attracting new votes with opportunism.
No segment of the population has lost more by the agendas of the liberal constituencies of the Democratic Party than the black population.
The teachers’ unions, environmental fanatics and the ACLU are just some of the groups to whose interests blacks have been sacrificed wholesale. Lousy education and high crime rates in the ghettos, and unaffordable housing elsewhere with building restrictions, are devastating prices to pay for liberalism.
Yet the Republicans have never articulated that argument, and their opportunism in trying to get black votes by becoming imitation Democrats has failed miserably for decades on end.
-----------end
It seems to me that the recent election proved that being "Democrat Lite" has failed the Republicans miserably. It is time to encourage those Republicans who think we need to be more like the Democrats to gain votes to just go ahead and become Democrats. Let the Republican party stand for conservative ideals and articulate them clearly instead of being embarrassed by those who do.
---Katie
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