Clueless Climate Crusaders and Christless Christianity

Now religious left loonies are confessing their sins – to plants! I kid you not.

There is never a shortage of nutjobs amongst us, and religious nutjobs can be the worst of the bunch. I deal with them all the time. In fact – and I kid you not – I recently started saving actual examples of this, simply from people who send in whacko comments to my website.

I have long been saving the hate comments that come my way, but of late it has seemed that it is also worth saving some of these quite goofy comments. And wow, there sure are some real winners out there. One guy for example basically insisted that only he and his pet Chihuahua were going to make it to heaven: “My first rapture dream 123 people out of the entire country USA were eligible for heaven. The most recent dream only 1,2, or 3 people out of the entire world eligible for heaven.”

Oh dear! I get the same on the social media, where one can find fruit loops galore running amok. I often have to draw the line with some of these folks, saying enough is enough. I had to let go of another one of these guys just last night. There are so very many idiotic conspiracy theories and just plain moonbat things some believers will hold to.

But it is not just the nutter fightin’ fundies who can come up with such moronic and idiotic stuff. The religious left in general, and progressive Christianity in particular, are up to their ears in all this as well. By way of background, see this article for more on these folks: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2011/01/23/progressive-christianity/

And one of the most bizarre examples of this has just made the headlines. A liberal theological seminary in the US now has staff and students confessing their sins – not to God, but to chrysanthemums, tree ferns and assorted cacti – really! Forget about repenting over things like abortion or adultery – something much more important is being run with here. Says one article:

Students at Union Theological Seminary prayed to a display of plants set up in the chapel of the school, prompting the institution to issue a statement explaining the practice as many on social media mocked them.

“Today in chapel, we confessed to plants,” the nation’s oldest independent seminary declared Tuesday on Twitter. “Together, we held our grief, joy, regret, hope, guilt and sorrow in prayer; offering them to the beings who sustain us but whose gift we too often fail to honor. What do you confess to the plants in your life?”

Thankfully they did indeed get plenty of critics absolutely amazed at this lunacy. As one said, “This is utter nonsense. Absolute theological bankruptcy in every way. Your Seminary is a cemetery.” Yes quite so. But the school dug in its heels and said this:

We’ve had many questions about yesterday’s chapel. In worship, our community confessed the harm we’ve done to plants, speaking directly in repentance. This is a beautiful ritual. We are in the throes of a climate emergency, a crisis created by humanity’s arrogance, our disregard for Creation. Far too often, we see the natural world only as resources to be extracted for our use, not divinely created in their own right—worthy of honor, thanks and care. We need to unlearn habits of sin and death. And part of that work must be building new bridges to the natural world. And that means creating new spiritual and intellectual frameworks by which we understand and relate to the plants and animals with whom we share the planet. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/absolute-theological-bankruptcy-union-theological-seminary-students-pray-to-plants

Good grief. Um, rocks, dirt, cockroaches, mosquitoes and leeches are also part of divine creation, but I sure ain’t gonna confess my sins to them, asking them for forgiveness! Give me a break! This is just what we find Paul warning about in Romans 1:25: “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.”

It is not just overseas that we find the religious left worshipping at the altar of climate change. In Australia we have it happening as well. As I speak, another climate change protest is under way, and plenty of leftist religious groups are hopping on the bandwagon. Consider but one example:

Jesuit Social Services stands with young people across the globe demanding climate action. As an organisation, we continue our commitment to ecological justice…

Inspired by Swedish school student Greta Thunberg, students in Australia and across the globe have asked everyone to join them in calling on governments to commit to urgent action to create climate solutions. Grassroots actions will take place in cities and towns all over the world ahead of the UN Climate Action Summit 2019 in late September, centering on the Global Strike 4 Climate on Friday 20 September. https://jss.org.au/jesuit-social-services-supports-the-climatestrike/

Oh dear – whenever you see a religious group getting its inspiration from someone like Thunberg instead of Jesus, you know they are in big trouble. If you are not aware of who she is, see this piece for more on this false messiah and eco-evangelist: https://www.spectator.com.au/2019/04/greta-thunberg-child-sacrifice/

As to the environment, I have said plenty of times now: Yes of course, Christians are to be good stewards of the planet that God gave us. We are to take care of this world, and be responsible managers of it. That is certainly part of our biblical mandate as believers.

But we are not to worship it, nor are we to replace the biblical gospel with a new green gospel, which is really a rehashed Marxist gospel. See more on this here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2010/11/23/%e2%80%98useful-idiots%e2%80%99-and-the-greens/

As to liberal Christianity with its watered-down gospel and false gospels, let me finish with three perceptive comments. In 1923 J. Gresham Machen put it this way: “[W]hat the liberal theologian has retained after abandoning to the enemy one Christian doctrine after another is not Christianity at all, but a religion which is so entirely different from Christianity as to belong in a distinct category.”

In the 1930s H. Richard Niebuhr was warning about this very thing. He lamented the emptiness of liberal Protestant theology in which “a God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.”

Or as Mark Steyn put it much more recently, very nicely summing up where these folks are at:

Most mainline Protestant churches are, to one degree or another, post-Christian. If they no longer seem disposed to converting the unbelieving to Christ, they can at least convert them to the boggiest of soft-left political cliches, on the grounds that if Jesus were alive today he’d most likely be a gay Anglican bishop in a committed relationship driving around in an environmentally friendly car with an ‘Arms Are for Hugging’ sticker on the way to an interfaith dialogue with a Wiccan and a couple of Wahhabi imams.

Yep. Welcome to the whacky – and deceptive – world of the loony religious left, where anything goes – except the God of the Bible.

[1167 words]

15 Replies to “Clueless Climate Crusaders and Christless Christianity”

  1. If people whom i would assume describe themselves as Christians are praying to created objects, that is called idolatry. Paul has a bit to say about this in Romans 1:18-32. “Claiming to be wise, instead they became utter fools.” (1:22)

  2. Spot on Bill, “Christless Christianity” says it all. In June this year I have challenged the ARRCC and the National Councils of Australia with the following email:

    Dear National Council of Churches in Australia
    As a sincere (Biblical Truth) Christian I was disgusted to learn that your organization and your members have now officially joined and worship a pagan god: the climate change cult.
    I urge you to read the following summary on environmentalism. Man will worship His Creator and not creation. May you rediscover the fundamentals of Biblical Christianity.
    The real Church/body of Christ is now in the making. Israel Folau: Most of your members are attacking him similar to attacking climate deniers. Who are the real deniers?

    Environmentalism
    By Pastor Rick Rogers
    Key Verse: Colossians 1:16
    Introduction: The environment must be included in a study of ethics because of the implications – not always so evident – that accompany it. In this section, two views will be under discussion.
    1) Biblical Environmentalism. There is a strong biblical responsibility concerning the environment. Many believers are not aware that God, as part of His creation and Divine plan, has given direction and commands concerning the world in which we live. Man is a steward of God’s world.
    2) Modern Environmentalism. This view has perverted the biblical doctrine, and the environment has become a symbol of control, religion and radical regulation. It is difficult to separate much of the modern environmentalist movement from the New Age movement! One means to clearly differentiate between the two is to note that with Biblical environmentalism, man controls creation; with modern environmentalism, nature controls man!

    II. A NEW AGE (PAGAN) ENVIRONMENTALISM
    Defined: In using this phrase I am referring to the modern definition of radical New Age environmentalism, with the extreme characteristics that are essential to support and defend the view. You are likely familiar with the nomenclature that is used, as global warming, over-population, mother earth, … There is an entire “theological” scheme with this type of environmentalism that cannot be disregarded in a discussion such as this, so by virtual necessity we must discuss some of the main tenets of the New Age Movement. If not for the belief system such as this, there would not be this type of radically, unstable and irrational movement. Having some background on this will enable you to understand the emphasis in our world on nature, the environment, and mother earth. Note that this is a very brief synopsis only.
    In point of fact, it is easy to contrast a Biblical environmentalism with pagan environmentalism. In a Biblical framework, man controls and cares for nature according to God’s Word. In the pagan framework, nature controls and cares for man – the exact opposite. In the Biblical perspective, man is sovereign over nature. In the pagan perspective, nature is sovereign over man.

    Make no mistake: the NAM may well set the stage for the false messiah we know as the Beast, Man of Sin.

  3. Correct Keith. Foolishness or rather supidity.
    Dietrich Bonhoeffer seems to have identified the reason why “climate emergency” advocates are so hard to talk to. The stupidity of the blind acceptance of the CAGW/climate change/“Carbon Pollution” scam cannot be countered because…
    ‘Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenceless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed- in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.
    ‘If we want to know how to get the better of stupidity, we must seek to understand its nature. This much is certain, that it is in essence not an intellectual defect but a human one. There are human beings who are of remarkably agile intellect yet stupid, and others who are intellectually quite dull yet anything but stupid. We discover this to our surprise in particular situations. The impression one gains is not so much that stupidity is a congenital defect, but that, under certain circumstances, people are made stupid or that they allow this to happen to them. We note further that people who have isolated themselves from others or who lives in solitude manifest this defect less frequently than individuals or groups of people inclined or condemned to sociability. And so it would seem that stupidity is perhaps less a psychological than a sociological problem. It is a particular form of the impact of historical circumstances on human beings, a psychological concomitant of certain external conditions. Upon closer observation, it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in the public sphere, be it of a political or of a religious nature, infects a large part of humankind with stupidity. It would even seem that this is virtually a sociological-psychological law. The power of the one needs the stupidity of the other. The process at work here is not that particular human capacities, for instance, the intellect, suddenly atrophy or fail. Instead, it seems that under the overwhelming impact of rising power, humans are deprived of their inner independence, and, more or less consciously, give up establishing an autonomous position toward the emerging circumstances. The fact that the stupid person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent. In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with a person, but with slogans, catchwords and the like that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being. Having thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil. This is where the danger of diabolical misuse lurks, for it is this that can once and for all destroy human beings.
    ‘Yet at this very point it becomes quite clear that only an act of liberation, not instruction, can overcome stupidity. Here we must come to terms with the fact that in most cases a genuine internal liberation becomes possible only when external liberation has preceded it. Until then we must abandon all attempts to convince the stupid person. This state of affairs explains why in such circumstances our attempts to know what ‘the people’ really think are in vain and why, under these circumstances, this question is so irrelevant for the person who is thinking and acting responsibly. The word of the Bible that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom declares that the internal liberation of human beings to live the responsible life before God is the only genuine way to overcome stupidity.

  4. Thanks Francois. But your first comment of 1900-words not only went a wee bit over my recommended 100-word comment length, but it was even longer than most of my articles! So I have edited it somewhat to keep it down to a more manageable 500 words! And I was tempted to edit your second rather lengthy comment as well, but left it as is!

  5. With all the madness and PC of today I think I have reached the point where nothing surprises me anymore but I will still fight against it.
    How on earth can anyone confess their sins to flowers etc. the mind boggles at their stupidly.
    I believe the young girl who is pushing climate emergency is being used by her parents, the UN (IPCC) and those who are making their goriness out of it. I note she met with Obama as well.
    I was reading an article today by Howard Thomas Brady who stated who said that “we need to look at the development of the science over the last 250 years. We quickly discover that climate science is NOT SETTLED.”

  6. I see claims that today’s “Global Strike 4 Climate” in Australia drew 300,000 people out. Are there any sources which confirm such estimates? I tried to read this source:
    https://au.news.yahoo.com/protestors-take-aim-at-sco-mo-as-thousands-march-for-climate-action-063544239.html but saw only vague numbers like “tens of thousands” whereas News Ltd sources referred to 300,000.
    One pic showed a placard with this text: “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it” which epitomises an expression I read recently, calling these people “Global Therapists” who are trying to take the world’s temperature, diagnose a fever and prescribe a new ‘no-carbon’ diet as the cure (see Rupert Darwall “The Age of Global Warming: A History”).

  7. Is Francois Stallbom (above) not describing whom in Proverbs is described as “the fool”?

  8. Marching for anything is not as useful as praying to our Creator for rain!
    Practical action, in caring for the plants at our place might be thought of as part of that prayer!
    Caring for the patch of ground that we are responsible for might also fall into that category.
    I’m joining with the gardeners and farmers praying for rain.

  9. In biblical terms, it is man’s revolt against Almighty God that is the ultimate cause of the present futility by which terrestrial ecology is enslaved. Our first father was expelled from Paradise, only to be doomed to the ecological revolt of thorns and other weeds against his “hard labour” in pursuit of daily bread. When ancient Judah and Israel rebelled against the LORD, the landscape mourned in droughts and other ecological crises. National sins have their repercussions for the territory where the sinful nation lives. Pharaoh – and the other gods of Egypt – paid a terrible price in environmental disasters for refusing to let Israel, the LORD’s firstborn, go free.

    When a nation’s ethical fundamentals begin to rot away, eventually that nation’s economic fundamentals will begin to crumble under the weight of divine wrath – not to mention the self-injurious nature of the nation’s besetting sins…

  10. I think I know where they get their wacky doctrine from.
    John15. The Vine and the Branches,
    This disillusioned lot thinks that just because Jesus is the root and stock of the vine, it’s ok to believe He is the root and stock of every type of garden plant there is.
    I hope they understand that Jesus prunes unfruitful suckers from the vine.
    Oh well I guess there’s a sucker born every minute

  11. Dear Bill,

    In my opinion the mass protest rallies by youth about climate change is mass hysteria as a result of years of gloomy propaganda by zealots of the Green religion.The world will never be perfect. As an old person I have heard of tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, droughts and even lived through an earthquake. I have lived through a war with its bombings, shortages, queueing, rationing and austerity. In my young adulthood nuclear war seemed inevitable. Fruit cakes like Paul Ehrlich in the seventies predicted mass famine through over population by 2000. We are still waiting! We have had holocausts, massacres and genocides. Our true home is Heaven not this world but whilst we are here we should educate ourselves so we can contribute positively to the world we live in not simply whine and get angry and rebellious about it. Many have done that and the world would be even worse if it were not for them.

  12. Thanks Bill, nothing new though. Having studied in the 1980’s at Churches of Christ College of the Bible, this is very close to one retreat I attended. We were asked to hug trees and connect to the spirit of the tree. It was most difficult being a Bible believing Christian in a Liberal College. Fortunately I survived, graduated and continue to proclaim Christ. Peter Lyne Pastor Cornerstone Christian Church Deception Bay

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