Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Rev. Dr Peter Walker, Principal of United Theological College, thinks emitting industrial CO2 is sinful. But Jesus told us we must take care of the poor – and there is no greater tool for alleviating poverty than industrialisation and economic development.
RESURRECTING SIN TO ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE
Recent infernos in California and floods in Germany remind us that climate change is a global drama which may end in utter tragedy for the whole creation if we do not act. Just as when a finger bumps a spinning top from its perfect rhythm, and the rotating toy then teeters out-of-balance before finding a new equilibrium or collapsing, the Earth System has been bumped out of balance. And not by accident, but by a willing, decision-making species. That’s us. Earth System Science tells us this planet is finely tuned, yet one species has been serving its own needs to such an extent that the cost to everything else has become intolerable. And it is showing.
…
As strange as the language of Christian theology may seem in the public square today, the human-induced climate emergency, brought about by our selfish abuse of the planet, surely requires a resurrection of the language of sin. There was speculation in early 2020 that Pope Francis might name humanity’s abuse of the Earth as sinful in his statement on the plight of the Amazon. He did not. In Querida Amazonia (Beloved Amazon), Pope Francis did denounce the unrestrained industrial destruction, saying “The businesses, national or international, which harm the Amazon and fail to respect the right of the original peoples to the land and its boundaries, and to self-determination and prior consent, should be called for what they are: injustice and crime.” That language of “injustice and crime” is powerful, yet it is not the most inherently powerful language available to Christian leaders.
The abuse of the Earth is a sin. The climate emergency has come about because of our sinfulness. It is a sign, and may prove the most telling of all signs, of our universal gone-wrongness, and of the fact that humanity has turned in upon itself. Calling people to prayer for the planet without naming the sin that makes those prayers and global action to save the planet essential is a profound moral and theological failure.
Rev. Dr Peter Walker, Principal of United Theological College
Read more: https://www.insights.uca.org.au/resurrecting-sin-to-address-climate-change/
What about the sin of denying food and clothing to the poor?
Matthew 25:34-36 tells us “Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’”
What will the King say to those whom, however well meaning, would rip away today’s abundance of food, clothing and medicine?
Dr Walker, I have no doubt you mean well. But seeking to tear down the keystone of our age of abundance is a direct attack on the reliable supply of food, clothing and clean water to the poor. How do you reconcile your attack on our age of industrial abundance with the Gospel of Matthew?
Only cheap energy and industrial civilisation can deliver the abundance we all too often take for granted, the abundance which has fed and clothed more poor people, and healed more sick people, than anything mankind has ever previously attempted.
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This reminds me of Jerry Falwell blaming Hurricane Katrina on New Orlean’s
sinfulness.
Yeah, I wonder what sins the dinosaurs committed to have God toss the Chicxulub meteor at them 66 million years ago. Or was God being sinful for doing the horrible damage to the planet that created the mass extinctions of that period?
God probably just felt like smiting something.
Not to mention the current “Branch COVIDIANS” who are wheeling out the “its their fault” brimstone and fire condemnation when it comes to sick people they don’t like – much like Falwell et. al., did concerning HIV…
To Rev. Dr Peter Walker, Principal of United Theological College.
God wants you to take a science course, and to stop being a leaping, gaping, flaming imbecile.
Relax Reverend….Bezos will relocate heavy indusry to space…no more industrial CO2 – problemo solved…you are welcome….space solves everything according to Lord Bezos.
What’s especially funny is that the establishments on Bourbon Street were on some of the highest ground and were mostly unharmed.
Every heritic has his verse. (In Dutch: “Elke ketter heeft zijn letter”)
This is racist….all of the increase in CO2 has come from China and the developing world
What about the Climate Liars’ grave sin of LYING, to the detriment of humanity and nature as well?
Good point, Mr. Cobb.
2 thoughts:
1) Don’t dignify this ignorant nonsense with a response.
2) Given, we are responding to it:
The “climate emergency” has, indeed, arisen out of human sin, for it is a lie driven by greed.
Janice
I fully agree and further assert that ordering our lives around a lie is the opposite of allowing the truth to set us free. Living the lie will bring oppression and subjugation. It is extremely difficult to get information to those like Dr, Walker when we are shut off at every turn and Katharine Hayhoe is givin center stage wherever she goes.
It’s because nonsense like this has been allowed to spew forth for decades without a smackdown that we’re at the tipping point of ridiculous carbon taxes, natural gas restrictions, net-zero ‘final solutions’, etc.
It’s a wicked solution, a socially justified solution as is their convention, to what they purport is a hard problem. A Twilight faith, a Pro-Choice (e.g. “ethical”) religion, a politically congruent (“=”) ideology. Cognitive dissonance avoided.
So, are they cancelling pride parades?
Yes, lions, lionesses, and their [unPlanned] cubs playing in gay revelry have been deemed antiso[cial], a bitter example, a deplorable reminder.
He uses fossil fuels every day, what a HYPOCRITE!
Sinfulness, yes. A conflation of logical domains and sociopolitical climate emergency.
“I have no doubt you mean well”
I am less and less convinced of that (esp. as it applies to politicians and the MSM) the longer this climate change insanity goes on.
God gave a religion to order behavior, advised a separation of logical domains.. The gods and goddesses are laughing, scheming, playing to occupy their time. The mortal gods and goddesses are counting their greenbacks in gay revelry, take a knee, beg, good boy, girl, whatever.
Mother Nature, known as Gaia to the Romans of Mithra persuasion, has a habit of reminding entire nations what happens when infrastructure is not maintained and improved after ample previous events.
The Pope wrote, text from ex-PIK boss Dr. John Schellnhuber CBE, a paean to Gaia, Laudato Si. Whether the above pastor ever heard of this is a question.
Maybe the Pastor needs to re-read Genesis –
https://biblehub.com/genesis/1-28.htm
See :
¨God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Dams, canals, irrigation, hydroelectric, roads, rail, even ships, barges, all need maintenance. True, the Bible does not illustrate a maintenance contract, but hey, that we can handle!
And beware snakes offering apples.
Or politicians promising “deliverance” from our “climate sins” in return for our money and our freedom.
Lots of Christians seem to forget that Adam’s first job was to tend the Garden. Even Eden needed human intervention & supervision to reach full potential.
I am a Christian and someone who first studied the physics of climate in the 1970s. I am disgusted by the position of the Church of England on this matter too. The Archbishop appointed Bishop of the Climate Crises. I have tried to engage with him, he has a degree in ecology (very useful) and just won’t discuss the matter. This scam harms the poor and anyway they seem to have forgotten Genesis 8:22.
Someone needs to remind the dear Reverend that throughout the Old Testament God spoke through Moses and others requiring continuous animal sacrifices to atone for man’s sins. Most of the sacrificial animals were burned using firewood as fuel. Burning firewood emits CO2 and, according to the dear Reverend, is a sin. Apparently the Heavenly Father the Padre claims to worship didn’t view the release of CO2 as a sin. He should spend more time studying the Bible and less time opining on what is and is not a sin.
Same here from the Catholic side, with a nuclear engineering degree too. Was on the green bandwagon in the 90s, but then started noticing that the politicians and greens didn’t give a damn about the people or even the effectiveness of their proposed solutions, solutions to a problem that I eventually found out didn’t exist.
Seriously embarassed by Laudato Si and frankly Pope Francis too. Miss His Holiness Pope Emeritus Benedict and JP2 immensely.
The whole situation in the world, politically speaking, can’t be sustainable if people going around believing in a lie, can it? While the world could still be explored believing in geocentricity, and we could still land on the moon using Newton instead of Einstein, at least those ideas worked in their own frame of reference. Solar would only make sense in space and one would have to make flying turbines that could harness the jet stream to make a go of wind.
How dare you!
Jesus wants you to live in darkness and cold to absolve yourself of sin. All clergy teach this, even Rev. Biden.
Rev Biden and his demrat flock are not doing as they preach….why Hunter Biden alone has a laptop of sin.
Christ was cooking over a charcoal fire after the Resurrection. No problem with burning. I think He would have a problem with the dangerous epoxies and glass fibres that wind turbines are made of. Actually, as long as we do the best we can to balance all the pluses and minuses and not hurt anyone, including ourselves, we’d be ok with the Big Guy. Wasting subsidies on turbines and panels and rich people’s electric luxury sport sedans wouldn’t fit the bill. Children mining lithium doesn’t quite fit the bill for “suffer the children”.
“Children mining lithium doesn’t quite fit the bill for “suffer the children”. ”
A large number of church members & pedo-priests take “suffer the children” as the 1st commandment.
The road to hell is not paved with asphalt; it is paved with good intentions.
According to Terry Pratchet, it’s actually paved with frozen used car salesmen, and the imps go skating on it at the weekend.
I heard the same crap from Sir John Theodore Houghton CBE FRS FLSW to give him his full overblown title.
Same message, same bollox, same belief that nobody else but he could be right.
Sadly Houghton influenced a whole crowd more idiots who jumped on the same bandwagon, one of which called Margaret (with later regrets and recanting used it to lynch the UK coal & steel industry, so they could import the stuff with a “clean” conscience from places which has less HSE interference ).
Houghton’s stupidity and passions are well documented, but nobody has taken his nonsense to pieces and shown how devastatating his legacy has been to the UK and western economies in favour of subcontracting it all to CHINA.
pigs_in_space,
I agree with your assessment of the influence of Sir John Houghton.
However there is one undoubted contribution he has made to the climate debate,perhaps unintentionally.
Chapter 10 of James Hansen’s “Storms of my Grandchildren” is ‘The Venus Syndrome’ in which he gives a highly inaccurate historical comparison of the origins and states of the Earth and Venus and concludes-
“So Venus had a runaway greenhouse effect.Could Earth?
Of course we know that it could.The question is,rather,how much must carbon dioxide(or some other climate forcing) increase before a runaway effect occurs.”
After discussing modelling (which he says ‘we should treat with skepticism’(!)) he concludes,
“..the forcings needed to reach …runaway greenhouse conditions are no more than 10 to 20 watts per square metre when solar irradiance or carbon dioxide change are defined as the forcing.”
Sir John Houghton in “Global Warming:The Complete Briefing” (Fifth Edition) at Chapter 2,under the ‘runaway greenhouse effect’,contradicts Hansen entirely on the respective initial conditions on Earth and Venus and concludes-
“There is no possibility of such runaway greenhouse conditions occurring on Earth”.
Probably at the top of the list helping after Hurricane Harvey were churches, both local and far away. At the bottom of the list was government with an important exception, and no surprise the exception wasn’t FEMA which spent money carelessly. This was obviously predictable as we have made ‘respectable’ the corner preachers with the signs–“The End is Near.” I suppose it did take a few people off the street, but this outfit seems suspect.
Sorry, Preach. The “woke” don’t believe in God. You won’t draw them in with that sermon. 😏
An excellent example of why our founders separated church and state. Theology has no place in secular government, whether conventional religion or the pagan Climate Cult.
Historically, the US has not had a secular government. Look at the first freedom guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. Or this from the Declaration: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created (!) equal, that they are endowed by their Creator (!) with certain unalienable rights…”
Seems to me Deists such as Paine & Jefferson draw quite a distinction between a creator & “religion”.
Yikes. I always ask these people exactly what did God sound like and what exactly did he say to you? How did He put it, exactly? Did he say anything about false prophets?
The god-experience is always someone else’s.
Walker would describe himself as a Christian theologian. He quotes Reinhold Niebuhr, Martin Luther King Jr and Pope Francis yet he does not mention Jesus even once.
Walker conveniently ignores the extraordinary teaching of the Christian Scriptures on the sovereignty and providence of God including the words of Jesus: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:44-45) (my emphasis). Even Pope Francis distorted by selectively quoting from these verses (encyclical Laudato Si’).
Jesus knew the Old Testament passages on God’s providence including:
He (The Lord God) covers the sky with clouds;
he supplies the earth with rain
and makes grass grow on the hills.
He provides food for the cattle
and for the young ravens when they call. (Psalm 147:8-9)
Jesus’ teachings show there are two options: being a fearful climate alarmist or believing in the God of providence. For a Christian only one is possible.
Postscript: By examining the whole parable of the sheep and goats in Mat 25 closely, not just selective verses, Jesus was not teaching what many would like to read into the passage.
Yeah…. “Uniting.” Right. Uniting what? The Unitarians, for one “unity” group, reject Jesus’ claims about himself, apparently simply pretending that they have addressed the Liar — Lunatic — Lord (C. S. Lewis) issue.
To add another on point Bible reference (one both Jews and Christians believe) to your fine essay:
“As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will
never
cease.”
Genesis 8:22
Janice, the verse you quoted makes an astonishing claim shared by orthodox (small letter) Jew and orthodox Christian. Neither can reconcile belief in a sovereign Creator and simultaneously live in fear of a climate catastrophe. However, there are also some agnostics and atheists who do not buy into the current climate alarmism because of other reasons namely that they see logical flaws in the prevalent narrative.
Both the Old and New Testament giving us numerous insights into ancient problems with various weather conditions and how people adapted. There are references to the ancient Jews digging cisterns to store water, of Joseph encouraging storing surplus wheat in the good years for the dry years, of the people moving their herds because of drought, of understanding that houses need to be built on secure foundations not where flooding was prone.
To add to that thought, I examined the college website and saw lots of “god” words and Bibly/Christiany words, but no clear statement of faith and belief. It appears that this man and his church school are founded on modern liberal theology. Secular, humanist beliefs shrouded in a skin of religiosity:
“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5)
Flash: accurate observation. Disgusting.
Edit: For anyone unfamiliar with what the Apostle Paul meant in II Timothy,
note that it is GOOD to love pleasure. Only when a pleasure is also a sin, e.g., drunkenness versus merely enjoying alcohol in moderation.
That man needs the stupid burned from his mind.
The stupid have always been out there, but now they are running the show.
During centuries of Old Testament history, God asked for animal sacrifices (burnt offerings) as sin offerings, which were offered on wood fires. Burning wood releases CO2 into the atmosphere, whether or not the carcass of a sacrificed animal is on top. Were all those devout Jews who offered these sacrifices sinful because they released CO2 into the air, even though God asked them to do it?
In one of his parables, Jesus praises five “wise virgins” who brought extra oil for their lamps to greet a late-coming bridegroom, and criticizes five “foolish virgins” who ran out of oil. Burning that extra oil would have emitted more CO2 into the air, but to Jesus it was more important to light the way for the bridegroom than it was sinful to burn the oil.
In one episode described in the Gospels, between the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, Jesus himself builds a fire to cook fish for some of his disciples along the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Was Jesus himself, the ultimate Redeemer from sin according to the Christian religion, committing a sin by building that CO2-emitting fire to feed his disciples?
Methinks the good Reverend Walker has not read enough Scripture.
That just about wraps it up for god.
The “church” already tried that excuse … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyXAPG4Xh5M
By crossing from the wouldn’t–it-be-nice world of theology into the real world the gentleman may have layed the foundation of a new discipline: theography.
Ed,
The fool seems to believe he can be both a Christian and a Communist; maybe he admires the Communist currently enthroned in the Vatican!
This is similar to the dilemma of a vegan carnivore; sooner or later you’re going to have to make up your mind!
“resurrection of the language of sin”
These people are blind to irony, and the Gospel.