Politics, Polar Bears, and the Pulpit

Churches have been splitting up and regrouping through centuries of differing opinions about such things as music, money, and politics. Lately, the Christian religion is again dividing itself, this time along the lines of social issues and global warming.

I doubt anyone would debate that Christian conservatives elected George W. Bush. And yet recently, rather than strictly adhering to right-wing politics, there's been division among the Christian ranks, splitting off over concern for social issues (such as caring for the poor, fighting in Darfur, HIV/Aids), and, more recently, environmental issues.

Many churches have joined together to specifically fight against global warming.¹ But this is not a popular position among some conservative churches.

For example, I visited a different church this morning, during which the pastor said: "These people, these liberals, who are constantly blowing smoke about global warming (a long pause here for audience scoffing and laughing), well they just don't get it! They don't understand it was God who created this earth and God who set the boundaries of the oceans. It was God who said that He would never again cover the earth with water, so it's just never gonna happen." His derision was followed by shouts of "amen" and "that's right." I might have thought he was joking but for the obvious contempt in his voice.

Let me just tell you that I am a Christian, I love my Lord, and I am not mocking God. I am, however, mocking the pastor who made these statements. (Whether global warming is or is not a problem is a subject of separate debate. I mock, not to express an opinion on the debate itself, but rather to express my outrage that the man serving in this pulpit weighed in on an important issue with nothing more than rhetoric for the purpose of entertainment.)

Why is love of environment dismissed as a liberal issue? Why do conservative churches scoff at those who are passionate about defending natural resources? Why is it so hard to get a conservative Christian involved in the debate over global warming or any other world issues?

I've discovered two of the possible answers to those questions.

On the one hand, we have the religious leaders who preach and believe that God has everything under control and we have no need to worry. This is otherwise known as the bury-your-head-in-the-sand style of preaching. Like the preacher quoted above who said that God set the boundaries of the ocean, and so we don't need to worry about the earth flooding again. I've read a bit about global warming; I don't believe anyone has said that we're facing "Waterworld" in the very near future. This is the kind of skewing of the facts that infuriates me and is done from the pulpit all the time. Preachers have a license to be irresponsible. It's a dangerous thing when the pulpit is used to indoctrinate a congregation with lazy thinking.

On the other hand, there's another school of religious thought proposing that there is no reason to get upset about any of it, including environmental issues, war, nuclear proliferation. Why not? Because we're coming to the End Times and Christ is returning soon and all that's happening now is supposed to happen. Using this logic, though, couldn't the Apostles have adopted the same attitude?

The problem with this is that just about every generation has looked at the events of their day in light of the prophecies of the Bible and concluded that surely Christ was returning during their lifetime. The Bible says that none of us knows when Christ will return. So should we really be taking such a passive view of environmental issues, in the belief that it's all a moot point because the Second Coming of Christ is right around the corner?

What will our grandchildren and great-grandchildren say about that if He doesn't return by then? Will they be happy that they are stuck with such problems as an overheating earth and the destruction of so much of what God created?

Just a few months ago, the Bush Administration agreed to formally propose protecting polar bears under the U.S. Endangered Species Act because of the effects of global warming on the bear's sea ice habitat.

Now, that same Bush Administration has issued a gag order to stop government employees from discussing the role of global warming in the plight of the polar bears.²

As long as Christ has not yet returned, we need to do what we can today to take care of the earth. We are responsible for the interim times; God charged us with the role of being stewards of the earth, and we need to take that responsibility just as seriously as we take all of our other Christian responsibilities.

Christians should be leading the fight, not sitting on the sidelines deriding those who are in it.