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Re: [greenyes] Political Armageddon


At 07:56 AM 11/3/2004 -0600, you wrote:
As long as words like "cranks" are used to describe a massive portion of the
electorate who say they care about moral issues more than economic or
environmental ones, there will be no progress.

There is, in fact, a burgeoning movement within Christian evangelicals (see
www.sojo.net) who care deeply about environmental justice and who mounted a
"too little, too late" campaign to counter the single issue agenda that has
once again swept conservative "cranks" into power.

The concepts of "creation care" and environmental stewardship are gaining
ground with evangelicals and Catholics - and can be the basis for shifting
momentum away from the Armageddon crowd. These concepts have to be perceived
as important a moral issue as stem cell research.

That will not happen, however, if current antagonistic attitudes prevail.

Jenifer Lugar

Dear Jenifer:

I am in no mood for debating anything this morning, but I suppose I own a response.

First, my reference to "cranks" was mainly a characterization of my own responses. But I apologize if you were offended.

I know there is an "environmental stewardship" line of thought within various christian groups. I have very occasionally been invited to talk at a church by people with these interests. This line of thought, however much we like it, doesn't seem to resonate well with the fundamental tenets of most flavors of christianity--which seem to me to be based on aggression and claims of superiority over other ways of doing and being. So it should be encouraged but I don't know how much is realistically to be expected, at least in the short run. I hope you are right and it is "burgeoning."

As I read the Grist piece it struck me that many people view "environmentalism" as a sort of perverted religion of its own. And one can claim that our concerns over global warming--for example--deserve to be rejected a just another End Time concern. We are the cranks.

A couple of times a week I get emails from people I know and like, and who are concerned about cancer and pollution, circulating info about how "environmentalists" are trying to depopulate the planet of humans, turn the US government over to the United Nations, and suchlike.

The bible-waving pols are not concerned with accommodation, or understanding, they are concerned about victory (over "us") Last night they won a very important battle, no?

Alan





-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Muller [mailto:amuller@no.address]
Sent: Monday, November 01, 2004 6:15 PM
To: greenyes@no.address
Subject: RE: [greenyes] RE: PEER Press Release


At 03:54 PM 11/1/2004 -0600, Wolbert, Brad wrote:
>One source for the direction this thread has gone is probably the
>following article on the Grist webzine, which appeared last week:
>
>http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2004/10/27/scherer-christian/
>
>as well as the recent, widely discussed article on the role of religion in
>Bush's presidency, which appeared in the New York Times Magazine. Having
>read both articles, I hesitate to dismiss the concern as blithely as Ken
does.
>
>Brad

I feel I have awakened into a nightmare. That I have been ignoring this
stuff for years as the rantings of a few cranks, while it fact these
beliefs have worked their way into the mainstream of American politics.

It's really terrifying, because one cannot counter superstition with
reasoned arguments....these people do not believe in an orderly
relationship between cause and effect, or in the possibility that other
views may have equal validity to their own.

Alan Muller

Alan Muller, Executive Director
Green Delaware
Box 69
Port Penn, DE 19731 USA
(302)834-3466
fax (302)836-3005
greendel@no.address
www.greendel.org

"Innumerable suns exist; innumerable 'earths' revolve around these suns
in a manner similar to the way the seven planets [sic] revolve around our
sun. Living beings inhabit these worlds."

GIORDANO BRUNO, scientist/philosopher
-burnt at the stake in 1600 for his"astronomical heresy"

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