Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Clean Technica author Steve Hanley seems to think White Evangelicals have traded their integrity for Big Oil Money.
Why White Evangelicals Don’t Care About Climate Change
The evangelical community has been coming in for a lot of criticism in recent months, much of it from religious leaders and conservatives. They seem to be unmoved by the president’s constant berating of Muslims, people of color, refugees, Jews, gays, and any others who are not typically associated with the evangelical community. Actually, make that the white evangelical community, more than 80% of whom voted for Donald Trump. Only about 20% of non-white evangelicals did so, according to the Pew Research Center.
Have Evangelicals Sold Their Souls?
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Scratch the evangelicals who are parading around the corridors of power in Washington, DC, these days and you will find many of them are backed by the Koch Brothers. No one knows if either one of those old crocks attends church on a regular basis, but they have latched on to the evangelical movement and embraced it in a cynical attempt to solidify their political power.
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Fossil Fuels And God
At this point, I am going to stop and suggest — no urge — you to read an article on this topic published last September by Splinter entitled How Fossil Fuel Money Made Climate Change Denial the Word of God. “Conservative groups, funded by fossil fuel magnates, spend approximately one billion dollars every year interfering with public understanding of what is actually happening to our world,” the article points out.
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What the Koch Brothers and their minions have done is to cynically insinuate themselves and their desire to continue profiting from fossil fuels into the core beliefs of the evangelical movement. Writing in the Washington Post last year, Lisa Vox said, “When scientists began sounding the alarm over climate change in the 1980s, conservative evangelicals, who had been somewhat accepting of environmentalism in the 1970s, became convinced that the Antichrist would use the fear of climate change to seize power.”
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Read more: https://cleantechnica.com/2018/04/05/why-white-evangelicals-dont-care-about-climate-change/
Why should we even look at this vile discharge of delusional anti-Trump alarmist fantasy?
An experienced political campaigner once told me that you have to challenge every lie. The bigger the lie, the greater the risk that some people will accept the lie. The implausibility of a lie can actually add to the lie’s credibility. People find it so difficult to imagine someone would make up a story so ridiculous, they seriously consider the possibility that the story is actually true.
This kind of extreme fantasy might be the climate movement’s last gasp, but they have not lost yet. Clean Technica is not the Wall Street Journal, but people read Clean Technica and are influenced by it.
I have read such claims before, though this is probably the most extreme manifestation I have seen so far.
Allowing festering conspiracy theories like the above stand unchallenged, regardless of how implausible they are, can allow the infection to spread.
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Wow, that tripe is horrific, but I think in a good way, this is a sign that they have become so desperate. The climate change lies have always sat with the super corrupt.
That said, many good people that I know have bought into the global warming general lie, we might warm, but the evidence suggests the opposite. So as the “great lie” comes to a close, the so called elite will try to profit as much as possible before they are marginalized.
It used to be that only Crazy People ran around with signage proclaiming the End of the World and the Second Coming of the Messiah….
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Good to see those same Crazy People are still employed as sign carriers…
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Nothing really changes does it??
Wrong. The deranged left is on the verge of taking power and imposing a racist thug tyranny on America that is difficult to fathom and hideous to consider.
And THIS – THIS exactly is why this is now a purely POLITICAL fight, being waged by the Left. Yesterday there was a thread saying “oh why do you blame the left for this, why antagonize them…” it is because it is the LEFT that is waging political war on everyone who does not buy into the Climate Change / Global Warming religion.
If this was just about science, why would anyone care what evangelical voters think? Why would that ever be an issue? But this is NOT about science, this entire issue is about politics, and the left is furious that evangelicals have decided to support Trump (not because of Trump, btw, but because the left already hated and ridiculed evangelicals constantly). So, the Left is now manufacturing new rants daily not just to attack Trump, but to attack anyone who might even consider supporting him as an immoral, hypocritical, and totally Deplorable person.
And that is all that this story is about.
It’s not just global warming, it’s there belief that government is the solution to all problems and that the more powerful government is, the closer to nirvana the world gets.
Note how in that rant the author claims that “Trump constantly berates Jews…” – even though Trump has been the most Pro-Israel President that the United States has ever had? And that it’s actually the Palestinians who are currently outraged by him, because Trump is so pro-Jewish?
It’s not like the author of the article is actually sitting down and thinking.
In his mind, conservatives hate Jews, Trump is a conservative (not really, but compared to communists …),
therefore Trump must hate Jews.
You’re right, of course, It’s especially notable because all of the most virulent jew-hatred today is found on the Left – just look at the troubles Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party has been having about that.
WWS – the left is constantly berating Jews in one form or another (Jackson’s “Hymietown”, Ferrakhan’s anti-Semite writings, MSM’s negative view of Israel, Bebe, and the backlash against the move of the embassy to Jerusalem, thier pro-Palestinian news articles, etc.). Still, the Jews in this country vote for them. Jews can’t help it. They have always loved big government – all the way back to Chronicles, before Kings. It is historical, with God punishing them on occasion for it.
Or they’re masochistic. Or they like to keep their enemies close? Nah. But I don’t get it.
Definitely not all of them. At least, not many in my family.
“Actually, make that the white evangelical community, more than 80% of whom voted for Donald Trump. ”
That statement is laughably false. Less than 80% even voted.
Any thoughtfu reading of the Bible and one understands that it is mankind’s ability to inflict tyranny one another is the far greater threat.
And all thosenatural calamities of floods, fires, plagues, famines, droughts, etc occurred when atmospheric CO2 was at the supposed perfect level of 280 ppm.
Furthermore, it is the Leftist Socialists that want society to disavow the Enlightenment and drag Western society society back to the Dark Ages of 6th Century Islamization.
One final thought is that Evangelicals are warned every Sunday about evildoers trying to convince followers of Christ into accepting false prophets and pagan religions. Climate change has/is both.
A listener on Rush Limbaugh’s program called the Liberals “MODERN DAY PAGANS”. I wish I would have coined that phrase as it is SO appropriate.
I AM THE LORD THY GOD THOU SHALL NOT HAVE GREEN GODS BEFORE ME. How’s that for an alternative?
While I don’t adhere to the traditional Christian definition of Satan, it is evident a strong majority of the left has morphed into satanic creatures. This is absolutely a religious war, and let us not mince words. There will come a day when these monsters, employing their paid mercenaries in badges come forcefully upon us at gunpoint. The question is, how many of you will die on your feet fighting against this tyranny?
Monotheistic, traditionalist believers are under attack by Satan worshipping savages of the worst kind. They embody the identity of what Christians call Satan, and that is the idea that:
1. man is God
2. truth is relative
3. the self is the utmost importance
4. Self reservation at all costs, especially eugenics
The virtue signaling is simply transference and projection, because they think we are so simple and unintelligent we can’t see through their think veiled mask of misanthropy. Simply put, they want us dead because that leaves more for them. But they are weak. They refuse to hunt to feed themselves. They refuse to understand firearms and the wonder of force multiplication for defense against larger, more powerful oppressors. They place their faith in government (man) while simultaneously chastising humans for being evil. They are the epitome of selfishness, narcissism, deceit, and self-loathing (gee, I wonder where they learned that behavior).
I could go on, but the fact remains they despise doers, such as ourselves. They despise genuine thinkers, because they know deep down they lack the capacity. They don’t like competition because they are to weak to compete.
So when we look at this group, this foul collection of broken individuals, a fear washes over. They are United in their hatred for humanity and they look to destroy it at all costs. They will be successful unless those individuals such as ourselves equally unite against them. The time has passed to continue remarking casually on these boards, but rather unite, get out and work together to change the discussion. We can’t change the minds of these barbaric creatures (not a slight, it’s an accurate description of their words and actions).
We must assist the undecided, the unlearned, the unengaged, those who think they are powerless, etc… We need to show them that logic, reason, politeness, and compassion are real, not just words.
The more these misguided humans act violent, the more we must confront them peacefully until physically attacked… At that point it’s fair game and they stand no chance against righteous anger.
The tipping point was never about CO2. The real tipping point was already how far reasonable, compassionate, loving humans would permit these people to push until we were forced to push back.
Well it’s time folks. It’s time to push back and stomp out this foul religion once and for all
You have to think about where the white evangelicals live and what their circumstances are. Part of the issue is that they don’t want the east and west coast elites dictating their morality. link They are President Trump’s forgotten people. They have been deeply betrayed by both parties. They are bitter, they are drinking themselves to death, they are smoking themselves to death, they are committing suicide. link They voted for Donald Trump because they are desperate.
The Democrat party doesn’t want to deal with the truth. It has all kinds of excuses for why it lost the election. None of those excuses deal with the pain it has inflicted on the people that it, the Democrat party, should have been standing up for. link
Blaming the President’s victory on oil money is just one more way to ignore what’s really going on.
The Democrat party doesn’t want to deal with the truth.
==========================
Trump was elected to rain the Swamp. Both Democrats and Republicans. George Washington left politics largely because of the corrupting influence of party politics. In the years since no one has been able to clean up the mess.
The US did have a solution. The Line-Item Veto. This gave the President the power to veto specific items, such as the New York tunnel in the most recent Omnibus Spending Bill. However:
Intended to control “pork barrel spending”, the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 was held to be unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 1998 ruling in Clinton v. City of New York. The court affirmed a lower court decision that the line-item veto was equivalent to the unilateral amendment or repeal of only parts of statutes and therefore violated the Presentment Clause of the United States Constitution.[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line-item_veto#Federal_government
” the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 was held to be unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 1998 ruling in Clinton v. City of New York.”
I have to disagree with that ruling. The line-item veto does not reduce the authority of Congress, it just makes the process longer for them. If the president vetos a line-item, the Congress can always come back and override his veto if the line-item is important enough to enough in Congress to vote to override.
We will never get our budget under control without a presidential line-item veto. Obviously our Congresscritters are not going to make the hard choices needed to bring it under control.
We should also amend the U.S. Constitution to require a balanced budget.
Did I miss the /sarc? Do you really believe what you wrote?
I know countless evangelicals (both white and not). Smoking is extremely rare in this crowd. About a third of them do not drink alcohol at all and about 90% of the rest have only a few drinks a week. I don’t know of a single case of attempted suicide.
CommieBob – Go jump in a lake.
Or, come over and let’s talk about God’s love for you.
I feel left out! I am a White, Non-Evangelical, skeptical about the Anthropogenic part of Global Climate Change, who actually took money from BIG OIL, and nobody systematically insults me. Looks like the Evangelical part might be the link.
They want the Evangelicals to reject the Christ’s teachings and accept their pagan religion of Climate Change and that it is mankind’s carbon sins that they must make payments for.
“Looks like the Evangelical part might be the link.”
Indeed. Mocking evangelicals goes back, way back, into history. But there is a similarity — strongly held beliefs on weak public evidence. [private evidence can be strong but cannot be demonstrated to others]
This begs the question. It assumes that the rejection was due to their political interests. That is what is being asked. Did Evangelicals sell out their principles for political purposes?
The implication is that certain Evangelical branches place faith before observation anyway. These would believe anything if it benefits them. But even Seven Day Creationists don’t believe anything. They choose to believe based on their reading of the Bible. They don’t write new Bibles as required. It is another leap of faith to say that not believing in evolution is to anyone’s actual benefit.
Besides, a more likely reason for the rejection is that the science is very disputable, both from a lack of evidence viewpoint and because a group unified by faith is not likely to have a unified scientific position. They are likely to have a unified moral position.
And that is where the article really fails.
• It ignores the immorality of acting to prevent climate change at great cost to the poor as a precaution.
• It ignores the corruption demonstrated by leaked emails and numerous attempts to pervert the scientific method.
• It ignores the immorality of asserting absolute knowledge of the truth – breaking the 1st commandment.
The article assumes this is political corruption and not a genuine disagreement. But it proves nothing.
Another point is the significant number of engineers Protestant churches. I have had numerous discussions over donuts and coffee debating theology and the environment. I’ve successfully convinced several people that the threat from climate change is exaggerated and that the proposed solutions wouldn’t work. I’m sure I’m not alone
M Courtney,
I noticed that quote as well. If I were inclined to be less gracious than I am, I’d be forced to believe that this was a direct projection of the author’s own modus operandi.
All in all, after reading the Splinter article (well, as much as I could stomach…after a while you realize that rolling in the mud is neither necessary nor beneficial) including many of the hyperlinked “studies”, what I’d say is, it’s not even wrong. It’s so divorced from reality that it’s basically indistinguishable from a pack of lies. Truly pathetic.
rip
MCourtney: As usual, very good comment from a Courtney. Don’t agree, though, that it proves nothing at all. It proves the author was content to write on a subject of which he is ignorant, and didn’t clutter his mind with alotta “research”. So long as he slanders the right target, editors and publishers swim along.
The AGW adherants just can’t stand people that can think for themselves instead of jumping on the bandwagon of group-think.
That would be liberals in general, not just AGW adherants.
And before anyone complains, I am not saying that all liberals are AGW adherents, however the vast majority of AGW adherents are liberal.
Well what are they supposed to do? I know from long experience trying to talk to CAGW friends that I cannot attempt to discuss science with them because few of them know any. So they rely solely on narrative and the opinions of Kos, Slate, etc., and the more ground they lose (poll after poll shows the issue is politically dead) the more enraged and irrational they get on this particular topic. Why, because their arguments have been mostly emotional, not rational, and as the whole 30 years of CAGW narrative collapses around them in every poll it shows up in, their emotions can only go in this direction – cornered-rat shrill and extreme.
97%
There’s an old saying that you can’t use logic to talk someone out of a position that they didn’t use logic to form in the first place.
They always defer to “experts”, not realizing that some experts disagree with the experts that they believe. They think that there are more experts on their side so that’s where the truth (lies). Science has really gone down the s#!tter in the last 40 years. Hijacked by Marxist know nuthins
Does this claim smack of fraud to anyone other than me?
I maybe be “White” – actually, I’m Caucasian, mostly Cymric Welsh/Cornish/Scot/Irish, plus some French and German tossed in there – and non-practicing C of E, detest evangelism as another form of mind control and fraud, and have an open mind about the subject of climate change. I will listen to a reasoned argument, but when the fractious insults start, I’m gone.
The most despicable parts of this nonsense are the money-grubbing greed that sticks out at the top of the pile of phony claims, the corruption of turning a branch of science into a pseudo-religion, and the public tantrums/anger/threats launched at people who don’t swallow the propaganda, don’t toe the line, and can think for themselves.
It’s just fraud in its purest form, not much else. But you’re right – we owe it to ourselves to be aware of this instead of turning our heads away from it. Otherwise, we will lose.
You’ve never met any actual Evangelicals, have you?
Beware the No True Evangelical fallacy! But I agree if you mean that the Church of England isn’t exactly typical of evangelicals; which is a rather fuzzy term that includes many kinds of evangelicals including Pentecostals which itself is a bit fuzzy and includes snake handling (if I remember right).
I said nothing about what a Evangelical does or doesn’t believe. I was objecting to the characterization of all Evangelicals in general as being mind control and fraud.
Regardless, when the subject is an ideology of any form, then there is a no true Scotsman problem.
For example, to be a Christian you have to believe in the divinity of Christ. Anyone who doesn’t believe in the divinity of Christ may call themselves Christian, but they aren’t.
A libertarian believes in small government. Someone who believes in big government isn’t a Libertarian, regardless of what he may call himself.
The No True Scotsman fallacy derives from assigning ideological conditions on something that is in that case, derived from an accident of birth.
From the article: “They seem to be unmoved by the president’s constant berating of Muslims, people of color, refugees, Jews, gays, and any others who are not typically associated with the evangelical community.”
President Trump only berates Muslim extremists.
President Trump praises people of color.
President Trump likes legal refugees.
President Trump has never said anything against the Jews. He is one of their biggest supporters. If not *the* biggest.
President Trump does not berate gays. He protects gays from radical Muslims.
I see where George Washington University had a forum on “Christian Privilege” yesterday, a thinly veiled attempt to berate Christianity. When will they have a forum on “Muslim Privilege”?
The author of this article is plainly ignorant about a lot of things.
RE: “The author of this article is plainly ignorant about a lot of things.”
Not ignorant, just using the time tested technique of repeating the same lie over and over until the poorly informed begin to believe it. And it may be working.
It’s like the claim that blacks can’t be racist, because they have redefined racism so that it includes the power to do something about it.
To them, blacks as a group have less power than do whites, so by definition, no individual black can be racist.
I’ve always been told that judging people based on the group they are in, rather than by their individual behavior was racist. I guess that’s another rule that doesn’t apply to liberals.
‘blacks as a group have less power than do whites’
And that is extremely situational, depending on what room you happen to be standing in.
I’ve often asked liberals why they believe that the daughter of a black doctor is more entitled to help than the son of a white mechanic.
I suppose it was inevitable that religion would get mixed up in the climate wars, muddying the waters even further. The ecofascist klimate kookaloos see white christian evangelicals as low-hanging fruit, and an easy way to bash all Skeptics/Climate Realists as well as Republicans and conservatives, using the divide-and-conquer tactic. They also love to trot out RINOs like Sheldon Wimphouse as supposedly “brave” Republicans bucking the status quo. They are becoming more and more desperate, and vicious, as they see their ideology circling the drain.
From the article: “Actually, make that the white evangelical community, more than 80% of whom voted for Donald Trump.”
And thank God for that.
Whites make up about 65 percent of the population of the U.S., so when whites vote for you, it makes a difference. Some people wish they could change that proportion. They wish for it real bad. But it’s not going to happen in their lifetimes. Get used to it.
And if you add in the people who are part-white, like me (or part Cherokee, whichever way you want to look at it), then that should tell you, you are fighting a losing battle by berating whites and Christian whites.
The Left has to have someone to hate and blame for everything and whites are it, as far as they are concerned, so I don’t expect them to change their tactics. They have a convenient whipping boy and they are taking advantage of it. But they are not going unchallenged, and they haven’t won the battle yet.
It was 69% of the electorate in 2016:
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/02/03/2016-electorate-will-be-the-most-diverse-in-u-s-history/
But Latinos and Asians don’t vote Democrat at the same rate as black Americans.
… on average, probably don’t get paid/reimbursed as much either.
“Scratch the evangelicals who are parading around the corridors of power in Washington, DC, these days and you will find many of them are backed by the Koch Brothers.”
Standard Leftwing Propaganda. They have to have someone on the other side to demonize and turn into the Great Controlling Evil of the World. The Koch Brothers are the current version of the Left’s “Masters of the Universe”. It used to be that the Jews controlled the Universe. Now it’s the Koch Brothers.
These Lunatics on the Left really are mentally ill. So ill they don’t even realize they are ill.
On the other hand, the fact that their billionaires give way, way more money to causes than do the Koch brothers is not a big deal.
Christian voluntary giving is, by far, the most enormous charitable force on the planet.
Along with everything else we might give, we give far more in aid to foreign countries than the U.S. “foreign aid” budget.
I am an employed, degreed professional, so I pay upper middle class taxes. I give more to my church than I pay in Fed taxes, year after year.
If the academics were honest, they would study this. But the academics are ANTI-CHRISTIAN, so they are voluntarily ignorant.
We know we are not the “favs” of the worldly people. We are told, quite directly, that we will be ridiculed, scorned, and persecuted.
This just lets us know we are over target.
From the Article: “Why should we even look at this vile discharge of delusional anti-Trump alarmist fantasy?
An experienced political campaigner once told me that you have to challenge every lie. The bigger the lie, the greater the risk that some people will accept the lie. The implausibility of a lie can actually add to the lie’s credibility. People find it so difficult to imagine someone would make up a story so ridiculous, they seriously consider the possibility that the story is actually true.
This kind of extreme fantasy might be the climate movement’s last gasp, but they have not lost yet. Clean Technica is not the Wall Street Journal, but people read Clean Technica and are influenced by it.
I have read such claims before, though this is probably the most extreme manifestation I have seen so far.
Allowing festering conspiracy theories like the above stand unchallenged, regardless of how implausible they are, can allow the infection to spread.”
I agree completely.
G.W. Bush *never* challenged the lies the Left told about him and they drove his approval ratings down into the low 30’s because of it.
Trump challenges the Fake News every day and his approval rating just hit 51 percent, despite a relentless attack on his character and leadership by the Leftwing News Media. Trump didn’t hit 51 percent just because he takes on the liars, his tax cuts and other policies also put him up there.
It’s really a little bit astonishing that Trump’s approval rating continue to climb despite the unrelenting hate spewed at him by the Left. I guess that says the American people are a little more savvy than some people give them credit for, and they can sort out the wheat from the chaff. That’s cause for hope.
Progressivism primarily acts by exploiting the mechanisms of bigotry. One of these is the easy, acceptable target. Trump does his best to make the bully bleed.
even the generation behind the millennials are more right wing than their parents and older siblings. These under 20s are waking up to the red pill quickly. It’s good to see.
“Trump challenges the Fake News every day and his approval rating just hit 51 percent,”
It’s good theater! Combat.
“What my vision for a good society is what we call a free and open society. Liberated people can do amazing things. They’re productive, innovative and entrepreneurial. People who are subjugated — intimidated, controlled or dependent — tend not to be.”
CHARLES KOCH
Warmunists really really hate the Koch brothers. Because they have money, and support candidates they see as being supportive of the US and of democracy. They are actually liberals, but in the traditional sense, which is why Progressives, who yearn for a government more along the lines of China’s despise them so much.
And thus sayeth the Pagans. This is sort of like being an antelope that is being lectured by a lioness on how they should weal ankle weights so as to not mark up the range with their hooves when they run so fast.
Most evangelicals I know practice discernment and almost always spot the pagans for what they are.
It’s the Greens who have sold their souls for oil (carbon trading) money* and the **Pew family are reputedly the most vicious right wing fascists in American history, owners of Sunoco Oil.
* according to Naomi Klein.
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_N._Pew_Jr.
As if the Koch brothers even have enough money to match even one of the green organizations? Or are the greens engaging in projection?
From the article in Cleantechnica “It is time to make America great again by returning it to its roots — a pluralistic society that respects the rights of all citizens. That was the promise that set America apart in the beginning and it is America’s only hope of continuing to be a beacon of freedom in the future.”
Did that America ever exist? Is the author not aware a history that includes slavery, segregation, the genocide of native Americans, prejudices against Irish or Mexican immigrants, or McCarthyism. The list could go on and on with almost every group, including warmists or skeptics, citing grievances.
America may be one of the better examples of freedom but it is certainly not a shining beacon.
It’s not about the science. It’s about the old Marxist Leninist evil ideology that has no soul, and has murdered millions throughout history. It’s back, and with new lies for old.
Evangelicals believe in the Holy Trinity, while the author’s faith is in the not so holy trinity of Al Gore, Michael Mann and, and James Hansen.
I have a rule of thumb. If any argument in the political, economic, social realms depends heavily on the characterizations of the Koch Brothers by people who’ve never met them, spoken with them, or know them at all, I discount the argument completely. It saves a lot of time and aggravation.
Socialist Bernie Sanders sure hates them. Rails against them a lot.
On the other hand, Soros giving millions of dollars to groups Bernie likes is a good thing.
The Koch’s supporting groups Bernie doesn’t like is the ultimate evil and proof that conservatives should [not] be permitted to have wealth.
” No one knows if either one of those old crocks attends church on a regular basis” … NO ONE!
They are sneaky as well as evil.
These are religious wars. Nothing to do with climate reality, nothing to do with energy policy, all about zealotry, thought control and the power and money money that brings .
Exactly! No doubt about that! +10
Note how easily racism is applied when it’s an acceptable PC target.
A new label is emerging. Instead of a “denier”, you will be labeled “evangelical”. I bet that Steve Hanley does not even know what the word means.
Gaia is dead.