Why Environmentalism is So Difficult

I try to take care of my planet.  I pick up other people's trash and it infuriates me to see people cutting down trees when they should just leave them alone.  Needless to say, I try to do my part.

But it's hard.  In the old days, you just tried not to use more than you needed, and you put your trash where it belonged.  Simple enough.  But these days the environmental movement has grown in many directions and these different factions of environmentalists don't agree on things.  They all drag scientific claims into their corner and try to appeal to our emotions with pictures of animals and children, but their methods disagree with one another which leaves me scratching my head.

---

For example: what are we to do with paper towels? It sounds simple, but it can be complicated.  For example:

While cleaning a spill with a paper towel, I suddenly hear my cat making a fuss.  I assume it's nothing, but as I turn around I see a hippie standing behind me dressed as a Native American with a single teardrop in his eye.  I'm moved as he tells me that throwing away the paper towel  creates landfill waste that breaks his heart.  I think that a thin paper towel covered in biological substances from my kitchen is going to biodegrade in a landfill rather efficiently, but the hippie who just broke into my kitchen says no and sheds a second tear.

Sooo, I need another solution.  Cloth towels!  Just like Little House on the Prairie!  I get out my cloth towel and do the extra work of washing it afterward  just to keep my paper towels out of landfills. Suddenly, I'm visited by another environmentalist who is crying great tears.  She points to my washing machine and my dishwasher and says that I'm hurting wildlife by dumping soap into the rivers.  In her hands is a dead fish that choked on Palmolive. She is soon joined by a dehydrated fellow who tells me that I'm depleting our supplies of water when I wash my towel.  Unable to deal with the emotions they have heaped upon me I agree to stop.

Recycling - that's the key!  The woman holding the dead fish and her dry friend both smile and leave so I can employ my new plan: use paper towels again - but I'll recycle them this time!  It's so simple, why didn't I think of this before?  But, predictably, I am visited by yet another environmentalist with a terrible sunburn and a breathing mask.  What's wrong?  He tries to tell me, but his coughing gets in the way, so he shows me some research that shows that recycling paper emits more greenhouse gases than simply creating new paper.  My great idea is actually hurting the ozone layer and killing the planet by releasing more carbon - I was better off just buying new ones and throwing the old ones away.  According to many, our planet won't last another generation or two due to global warming, so I shouldn't do anything to contribute to that.  Running out of trees is terrible, but the effects of global warming are said to be far worse!

How about those wipes that come with cleaning substance on them, already?  I head to the store to buy some of these, but the first two environmentalists I met, the smelly one and the crying one, are in the cleaning isle of the store shaking their heads.  This product contributes to landfills and pollutes the ground and rivers.  Back to normal paper towels.

I head to the paper goods aisle and see another environmentalist standing in between me and the jumbo pack of paper towels.  He's holding a small sapling of a tree and asking me if I want to take away its future so I can clean up my kitchen.  I have to admit that at this point that pizza sauce on my kitchen floor is getting pretty rank, so I take some paper towels and rush home to clean up my mess.  Naturally, all of the environmentalists and their friends protest my decision by holding hands and surrounding my house singing Peter, Paul, and Mary songs (which I like, but they keep insisting I'm not allowed to sing along).

---

Now, you see, there are competing theories of environmentalism that don't work together.  Some tell me to just do something and it will help, but, as you can see, plenty of popular ideas are useless or counter-productive.  I've even been told recently to recycle paper in order to stop global warming, which I think makes no sense.   (Of course, asking me to recycle paper to save trees would make more sense, but I think people like to say "global warming" whenever they mean "something bad is going to happen to the environment.")

So, I'm stumped.  Do I care about the environment?  Of course I do.  It matters that we take care of our planet, but we don't have unified and well understood goals for doing so.  The answer should come from science, but that community spends its time defending the words of politicians so they can continue to receive grants and, as such, is not helping us do anything but muddy the waters.  Responsible environmentalism is hard.

Why "Turning Back to God" Will Not Fix the Economy

In late antiquity, the nation of Rome knew economic depression.  The gory days of Julius Caesar were over and the population was dwindling - taking the economy with it.  In 313 a.d., Roman Emperor, Constantine, issued the famous Edict of Milan which allowed Christians to practice their religion legally.  The persecution was ended and the Roman nation embraced Christianity with open arms.  All government leaders were Christian and Constantine had Pagan centers burned down or converted into churches.  A few generations later, Theodosius would officially make Christianity the religion of Rome (In school, you were probably taught that Constantine did that) and everyone in the empire proclaimed a Christian faith.  The church worked hand-in-hand with the government to bring order and to worship God.

And it didn't help the economy.  Rome dwindled away even faster than before and was soon a memory to most of the people who had known it as their home.  Barbarians took up where Rome had left off and the empire would never be the same.

Previously, Armenia had been facing economic downturn and had made Christianity their official religion (before Rome) only to be conquered (by Rome).  They found their independence and forged a strong legacy over many centuries, but their small country has known great hardship.

The United States (which is nothing like Rome - despite the many crude comparisons made by TV pundits) is certainly having trouble, today.  And some say that the answer is Jesus.  As a Believer, I can't recommend anything that benefits a person better than to pursue a relationship with Him.  No matter how bad things get, His hand will lead us on.  But this is not a recipe for economic recovery.

The very people who struggled with disease and poverty in the early middle ages prayed every day and never missed church (and, no, no one was forcing them at the time).  They were Christian societies that did their best to honor God while wearing rags and never knowing prosperity.  Of course, their consolation was found in scripture; the Bible tells us stories of people who did everything right and still did not have a rich life.  The very apostles they adored so much received nothing but murder and torture for their troubles, and for many Old Testament prophets each trial just led the way to another.

Personal devotion is always important for the Believer, however, the motivation for it should not be money.  Let's remember our devotion in order that we may know Him - no matter what the word around us brings.

Rude Christians on the Internet

Jonathan Acuff (whose hilarious and insightful work can be found at the Stuff Christians Like website) has written something useful over at CNN's religion blog that explains why he thinks Christians are so rude in internet discussion.  It's a good article, and I think he's nailed it.  Read it.

Thanks to internet arguments about Creationism and Bono's salvation, THIS is the legacy Christians are leaving in this generation.  Let's do something about this, because I'm tired of explaining to everyone that being a Christian doesn't make me a hateful teenager who protests science and attacks gays.  Surely we can leave a better impression than that.

Missing My Point on Politics

A few weeks ago I published an article about Christians attacking Obama; the main point was that mean and insulting attacks against other people (yes, politicians count) are not acceptable for we who have been asked to love our neighbors.

Some of you loved it.  You linked it to your Facebook page and told me I was right.  I liked that.  It makes a blogger happy to see their work spread around.

Then some of you disappointed me.  A day later some of the same people who praised my work were leveling rude malicious attacks against Republicans in the manner I had decried.  Did you think that I was taking Obama's side in politics?  Or that my website had become a love letter to the Democrats?

So, let me make this even more clear.

"Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 7:12)

A Pharisaic lawyer once asked our Lord, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:36-40)

It is not OK to agree with me when I say, "Don't be hateful to Obama" and then, just like a child, turn around and be hateful to Ann Coulter.  I understand that politics makes our blood boil - I understand this very well - but you have completely missed my point if you agreed with that earlier post but used that same hateful rhetoric against the Republicans.  If you cannot show love to your political enemies by disagreeing with them in a dignified and mature manner, then I recommend you don't discuss politics until you can do so in love.

Some of you are highly critical of the so-called "Christian Right" for trying to appropriate Jesus for their political leanings, but I see many Christian Democrats going down that same path while making those complaints.  They say that a True Christian must vote for Democrats and that Republicans are sinners.  Yes, I do actually see people say that and they have the nerve to criticize the Christian Right movement who gave them the original idea.

This is the sort of thing I shouldn't have to write, and it makes me sad to type it at all.