Thursday, October 26, 2006
Christians and Creation - It's A Plot
One of the reasons I worked so hard to develop the fact that Christians have a FUNDAMENTALLY different view of creaiton than environmentalists is because people are working hard to join the two not out of religious motives, but political ones. I wrote an entire series on the ramifications of that differnt world view for Christians to demostrate how the issue is really being used.
This article and its related links (HT:SmartChristian) gives near bald naked view into the genuine political facts of the matter.
A little study of history should make the political ploy apparent - we've seen this before. The Christian impulse to charity is easily exploited for political gain, and mischief. Socialism is naturally attractive to Christians - it is theoretically chraritable, it is even apparently modeled in scripture (Acts 2), but people fail to see the difference between it arising naturally in a community of faith, and employing it as a means of government with the force of coercion.
Because of this natural attraction Christians jumped on the socialism, in varying degrees, bandwagon in great droves in the 50's, 60's and into the 70's. This lead to a general decline in our society and is also, I think, responsible for much of the downfall that the mainline denominations are experiencing. From this decline arose the parallel movements of Reaganism politically and modern Evangelicalism in the church. To be sure, both existed prior, but the genuine explosion came starting in the late 70's. As the ultimate expression of socialism, the Eastern Bloc, was first confronted and then fell, the problems of this coercive approach to genuine charity became apparent.
Rush Limbaugh is fond of saying that the green movement is the new home of old socialists and communists. This is not just Rush being glib. Both movements are very much based in the concept of foregoing individual property and having everything belong to the community. Both count their perception of the public good as more important than personal property. Both seek to coerce the chartiable (although in the case of environmentalism, the actual charitiable nature of the proposed activity is questionable) and so in these attempts that "aligns evangelical goals with the goals of countless grassroots environmental groups around the U.S..." we see, once again, the forces of political mischief attempt to co-opt the charitable impulse of Christians.
As you consider these things, I would ask you to examine yourself closely. Is your desire to coerce charity really an attempt to have someone enforce the discipline in yourself? Is it a desire to deflect attention from your own lack of personal charity? Why is your response to a perceived lack of charity in the world to coerce it from others rather than to be more charitable yourself?
The growing political power of Evanglicals in this country will, I think, in the end harm them as it harmed the mainlines some decades ago. We risk becoming a group to be fought over and a group whose agenda others want to capture - rather than a group that worships God and then acts accordingly.
It is time to get deep; it is time to get serious about your faith, what you believe, what you think, and how you live. It's not a trend; it's not a lifestyle; it's not just for weekends.
Related Tags: Christians, creation, environmentalism, politics, socialism
This article and its related links (HT:SmartChristian) gives near bald naked view into the genuine political facts of the matter.
A little study of history should make the political ploy apparent - we've seen this before. The Christian impulse to charity is easily exploited for political gain, and mischief. Socialism is naturally attractive to Christians - it is theoretically chraritable, it is even apparently modeled in scripture (Acts 2), but people fail to see the difference between it arising naturally in a community of faith, and employing it as a means of government with the force of coercion.
Because of this natural attraction Christians jumped on the socialism, in varying degrees, bandwagon in great droves in the 50's, 60's and into the 70's. This lead to a general decline in our society and is also, I think, responsible for much of the downfall that the mainline denominations are experiencing. From this decline arose the parallel movements of Reaganism politically and modern Evangelicalism in the church. To be sure, both existed prior, but the genuine explosion came starting in the late 70's. As the ultimate expression of socialism, the Eastern Bloc, was first confronted and then fell, the problems of this coercive approach to genuine charity became apparent.
Rush Limbaugh is fond of saying that the green movement is the new home of old socialists and communists. This is not just Rush being glib. Both movements are very much based in the concept of foregoing individual property and having everything belong to the community. Both count their perception of the public good as more important than personal property. Both seek to coerce the chartiable (although in the case of environmentalism, the actual charitiable nature of the proposed activity is questionable) and so in these attempts that "aligns evangelical goals with the goals of countless grassroots environmental groups around the U.S..." we see, once again, the forces of political mischief attempt to co-opt the charitable impulse of Christians.
As you consider these things, I would ask you to examine yourself closely. Is your desire to coerce charity really an attempt to have someone enforce the discipline in yourself? Is it a desire to deflect attention from your own lack of personal charity? Why is your response to a perceived lack of charity in the world to coerce it from others rather than to be more charitable yourself?
The growing political power of Evanglicals in this country will, I think, in the end harm them as it harmed the mainlines some decades ago. We risk becoming a group to be fought over and a group whose agenda others want to capture - rather than a group that worships God and then acts accordingly.
It is time to get deep; it is time to get serious about your faith, what you believe, what you think, and how you live. It's not a trend; it's not a lifestyle; it's not just for weekends.
Related Tags: Christians, creation, environmentalism, politics, socialism
