Letters to Christians in the U.S
4 Oct 2006
Brian McLaren will be starting a series on his site, of letters from christian around the world, called ‘Letters to Christians in the U.S from your Sisters and Brothers Around the World.”
I’m not sure when the letter I wrote will appear there, but here it is for you now.
Continued
Letter from London
I have had the privilege of traveling to the US several times a year for the last ten years, for work, study, and vacation. Through all those visits I am still amazed at the sheer size, and diversity of the US, and have delighted in every experience I have had, in visiting twenty states so far. Indeed the US has been our favorite place as a family to visit and stay, especially for a two-month sabbatical.
One year I stood sweating in 95 degrees of hot sunshine in Houston in January and that same to day traveled on a short flight to Atlanta, where I had to scrape Snow off my hire car. It’s an experience that reminds of the difficulty in trying to make general statements about the USA. The more I visit, the harder it is to ‘sum up’ what Americans are like.
So knowing I will have to visit much more to begin to understand the US, I offer these few thoughts and observations, a someone who loves the USA. I see how the US has provided so much for the rest of the world, and pray for it to thrive, and hope you read these thoughts in light of that hope.
The Religion of Politics
Amongst of our friends in the US, we have noticed a growing trend and change. People we love who are republicans and democrats are becoming increasingly hostile to each other. There has been a polarization in politics fueled by religion that has distressed us; mainly due to the way it has affected the character of people we love.
I have sat in meetings with Christians who are convinced George Bush is God’s man, and every Christian must vote for him or be part of some left wing conspiracy against God. I have been in meetings with left leaning Christians, where I thought it would be easier to admit to murder than to say I liked republicans.
Now I believe our faith should inform our politics, but the co-opting and polarizing of faith by politics, seems ugly and wrong. Or has politics been co-opted and polarized by faith? Surely there is another path, a way where Christian faith informs and critiques the left and right. The US could lead the rest of the world in walking that path.
The Environment
Every time I post an item on my web site about global warming I usually have a Christian from the US comment that there is no such thing, and it still shocks me when they do. In UK and Europe we believe in global warming, we believe we are consuming energy and pumping toxins into our atmosphere in a way that cannot be sustained.
The environment is a huge and growing issue in the UK that politicians on all sides are responding to, and making part of their policies. Yet the US, the largest polluter of all nations seems to prefer to pretend it isn’t happening, or just ignore the problem.
Yet with the sheer numbers of Christians in the US, if they all engaged in tackling global warming, they could make all the world of difference, and set an example that our children and history would remember. At present Christianity in the US seems more synonymous with consumption.
Al Gores’ video ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ is currently making waves in the UK, and by the sounds of it is doing so in the USA. Yet I suspect that, as he is a democrat vast swathes of the US won’t ever take the movie seriously let alone watch it, out of political bias and prejudice.
‘God Bless America’
We hear George Bush say it regularly; in fact in all our imported US TV and films, the phrase ‘God Bless America’ is a very natural and normal expression in the USA, as well as talking about praying.
The use of God and prayer in public life by public people is a question of your sanity in the UK. The US has a separation of church and state, yet has a very religious society. The UK has a state church, but a very secular society.
But if the UK prime minister used these phrases, there would be outcry; they are inconceivable in public life, except maybe for our Queen. In deed earlier this year Tony Blair in an in-depth and wide ranging interview referred to his belief in God in guiding him, and there was a public outcry, and fear that he was a religious maniac.
Even our Queen, can only make a statement of broad general spirituality, rather than a definite claims of God being for us as a nation, and an appeal to prayer.
There is a voluntary principle in the USA with no tradition of church-state, yet the US is a country that claims ‘One Nation under God’ and that ‘in God we trust’. Whilst 40% claim to attend weekly in the US, with people seemingly anxious to be seen as churchgoing, in the UK the claim for church association is 5-7%. It is 1% in many of our largest towns and cities.
Religion in the UK was imposed until recent times, but we can now choose our religion. In the USA, religion has always been personal choice. I’m not sure if that qualifies us to make any observations, but it might explain some of the ways we see things taking shape in the USA, and I hope help you understand us better.
So I will continue praying that the Christians of the US would unite under God, and lead the way in caring for our planet, and no partisan engagement in politics. There are enough of you to make all the world of difference.
Jason Clark
London, UK
http://www.jasonclark.ws
Tagged: Brian-McLaren, Christians, Church, Key-Posts, USA
39 comments
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Comment by billy
6.06 pm on 4 Oct 2006
Thanks Jason. I appreciate the fact that you point out our hostility to one another along partisan lines. In terms of the environment, I pastor in a very liberal part of a very “blue” state. (Santa Barbara, California, near UCSB). I have often been asked by friends, many who are grad students in the school for environmental studies why Christians seem to be the ones resisting the scientific evidence for global warming. I think it has to do with the fact that Christians, pastors etc. feel an obligation to advocate for the financial prosperity of their people and have somehow bought into the Republican idea that greater environmental consciousness will be “bad for business.” The American church’s historical bond to libertarian capitalism is very strong. I believe this particular element of our cultural captivity has yet to be subverted by the Gospel of the Kingdom. Pray for us.
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6.44 pm on 4 Oct 2006
[...] One of my favorite blogs is kept by Vineyard pastor Jason Clark who oversees Vineyard Church plants in the UK. Today he posts a letter to christians in the US. [...]
Comment by Paul
6.59 pm on 4 Oct 2006
Great letter Jase. As someone who is half american and has close family living over there I appreciate your words of hope and healing…
Now I’ll go back to singing ‘God save the queen…” :)
Comment by dh
9.39 pm on 4 Oct 2006
I really liked your letter here and I too support Christians responsibility to the environment but you said one thing that concerned me. You mentioned that the US is thegreatest polluter in the world. When I see India and china andthe pollution they have and on aper capita basis so much greater than that I just feel the harshness is overboard or is an overgeneralization. I think that is why many Americans reject muchof the environmentalism in that there is so much politics in environmentalism. When you tell an environmentalist about the environmental problems in India and China that are greater than in the US they change the subject back to America being the problem. I just don’t understand this. We need to rebuke the problems ofthe environment wherever it is rather than focus on the US andto a lessor extent the West. This overfocus on the Us and the West begs the question as to why they are overly focused on and leads to conspiracy theories that are overly harsh and terrible like liberal, communist, etc. These are the overreactions to the overreactions to the problem. Does that make sense? I think more Christian Americans would get involved if there wasn’t a clear political motive or at least aperception of that therein behind the environmentalists.
Jason, I value what you havesaid in thepast regarding the environment. I have always thought of you as being very balanced. I would hope you can recognize the lack of balance frommany environmentalists and look to the bigger picture rather than go overboard on the US and the Wests so-called environmental problem. I see greater problems elsewhere that threaten our world so much so that future improvements in the West and the US might not have a direct impact on the environmental problems going on currently. We must address China, India and third world pollution. They obviously either don’t have the money or the incentive (whichever one applies at different times) to comply with regulations equal to the American EPA.
Comment by Jason
5.55 am on 5 Oct 2006
DH (3): …and I think we have hit the nail on the head DH, that most Americans just do not realise that the USA is the greatest polluter on the planet.
I think it is a straw man to say others countries pollute so we won’t do anythingg. So your comment alas makes no sense to me.
It is a fact that the US coumes, and produces the most waste on the planet, and yes other countries may catch up one day.
I don’t see how the pollution of other countires allows the US to say we don’t need to do anything?
How about the USA lead the way on pollution, and that might have some impact on India and China?
Comment by Jason
6.06 am on 5 Oct 2006
…and it is often qouted that the US produces 25% of all C02 emissions, you can see this at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions.
Comment by David Alexander
6.17 am on 5 Oct 2006
Thanks for sharing your perspective. I am always interested in hearing more about the church in the UK and it is very interesting to hear how the UK church views the American church which is often tainted by political religiosity.
Enjoy the blog.
Comment by Doug
2.07 pm on 5 Oct 2006
Jason,
Thanks for your thoughtful letter.
Two thoughts. First, I live in the US, and while I feel an awakening in myself and other Jesus followers I know to see our part in God’s mission of restoring/caring for the earth (that old Genesis riff informed by the newer Romans riff), I must admit, that when it comes to “global warming” –which many would agree is just a monumentally complex proposition to unravel–the political climate adds a layer of complexity, which confuses any possibility for people to have a meaningful dialog about it. The issues range from oversimplification (i.e., fossil fuels = global warming), to sensationalization by the media for commercial intent, to political warfare with the concept as ammunition. Even the scientific community has skirmishes within it. So, to me, I find it hard to perceive it as true or not, and if so, to wht extent, and, following, the neccesary and appropriate measures.
Second, the God Bless America part. I have re-read your post a couple times (and it’s morning here and I might plead “dimness”) and I can’t tell exactly what you are trying to say in that part. Is it simply, “that God Bless America stuff just seems weird to someone in the UK,” or is there something more there you are trying to say?
Just curious.
Comment by dh
2.40 pm on 5 Oct 2006
Jason, I neversaid the US shouldn’t do anything about it. I said we need to do the best we can but we mustn’t focus only on the US when the problems are greater than theUS. True 25% of the CO2 is from the US but pollution is beyond just CO2.
If I gave you an idea that the US shouldn’t do anything that was not the intent. I was just pointing out more would be done if the politics of the environmentalists wasn’t there and we would just do all we can without all of the hostility. We are in agreement except for the motive, praxis and over focus on one set of countries. We shouldn’t give any nation or group of nations a free pass when it comes to environmental problems. The left seems to do this suggesting a robin hood mentality to environmentalism that doesn’t need to be there. If we just focus on the problems and solving them without all of the hot air around it more would get done.
Comment by Jason
5.18 pm on 5 Oct 2006
DH (9): Thanks DH, it is heartening that you do think the US should do something about pollution and global warming. I hope you see that my letter was not about other counties but the US.
I of course think all countries need to take action, and I think the US can and should take the lead.
I think all the people taking global warming seriously fully understand that all countries need to be involved, but they despair that the US seems unwilling to do much at all.
Comment by Jason
5.41 pm on 5 Oct 2006
Doug (7): Sorry Doug, the god bless america section is to show how different the UK is not a criticism of the US!
Comment by colin
5.46 pm on 5 Oct 2006
Thanks Jason,
Hello from Canada.
For all of the hype about the US in regards to global warming it was interesting (and sobering) to find out in our last general election that Canada had decreased her harmful emissions at a substantially lower level than the US – this with Canada having signed on to the Kyoto protocol. Many christians are in denial in Canada about the whole global warming issue (it is seen as a part of a godless liberal agenda by many).
On the policization of the church, it too has reared its ugly head in ‘the Great White North’. We too need to realize that Christ, not any particular political party, is our banner of righteousness.
One last seemingly irrelevant snippet of trivia (based upon something billy said): unlike the US the colours blue and red respectively mean conservative and liberal in Canada.
Comment by dh
6.50 pm on 5 Oct 2006
I appreciate your God bless America part.
I understand your letter is about the US but one must also include the other nations who are polluting more than the US in other areas besides CO2 as well as look at per capita pollution rates.
When you look at a per capita basis you can see other nations are not doing better than the US. Also, not many nations have a governmental environmental authority like the EPA. I guess I don’t see theUS unwilling to do muchat all. Isee them doing as much asthey can but aren’t going to get into a political shouting match with other nations. Once the politics of the environment are eliminated more will bedone than has already taken place.
I just don’t see anyone who takes global warming seriously mewntioning other nations who are doing it worse. I’m appauled at China and India. The economics excuse doesn’t work. Their GDP is such they can take care of the environment. Yet they do nothing whereas the US has the EPA and additional technology that helps. China and India do nothing to help the environment. Why not focus on those who do nothing as compared with those who do a lot but need to do more? Just because we didn’t sign Kyoto doesn’t mean the US doesn’t do enough for the environment copared with China and India.
Comment by Jason
8.52 pm on 5 Oct 2006
DH (12): I don’t know who you are reading and listening to, but all the major environmental groups, are talking about the global problem, and not just the US. Other nations are mentioned all the time.
To us outside the US, the US seems intransigent and unwilling to take a lead, when they produce the most pollution and consume the most energy.
You seem to be arguing for the US to do nothing, until china and india reform?
And you do have your EPA, on whose web site you can see in ghrapic detail that the US produces 6.6 tons of of greenhouse gases per person, which makes it the according the EPA, the worst nation in the world.
So yes india and china are bad, but why won’t the US take a lead, when it is the worst even by it’s own stats?
http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/emissionsindividual.html
Comment by Jason
8.57 pm on 5 Oct 2006
DH (12): But there are some hoepful signs with California the 12th largest polluter of emission in the world signing up for emissions reductions. I hope it catches on in other states.
http://www.climatechange.ca.gov/documents/2006-09-27_AB32_GOV_NEWS_RELEASE.PDF
Comment by dh
10.29 pm on 5 Oct 2006
I never argued that the Us should do nothing. I have no idea where you are getting this. I’m just stating the emphesis seems to be solely on the US as compared to other polluters in the world that in some areas are polluting more than the US and definitely more in terms of per capita.
Jason, are we focusing only on emissions and CO2 greenhouse gases? Aren’t there other types of pollution? When you factor in the other forms of pollution you can see other nations need to have equal focus with other nations.
Also, how are the figures in terms of per capita? I would be interested in those figures.
However, I do agree the US needs to do more but I would argue in addition that other nations who pollute worse need to be rebuked as copared with the US who seems to always get a bad rap.
You mention California? That is why their gas prices are 25% to 40% higher than therest of the country. I’m all for helping the environment but not in such a way that poor people are hurt by higher gas prices.
Comment by dh
10.39 pm on 5 Oct 2006
Jason, I know America needs to do more but I also don’t think we need to focus on only one type of pollution. When I see China and India with sewage problems that are much worse than any nation, where america IS taking the lead; then you can get an accurate representation of whatenvironmentaly is going on. I totally agree with you on the US needing to do more but India and China needs to do more in so many areas other than just CO2 emissions that the problems are so much worse there. We need to focus equally on all nations who have problems. Who know maybe we have an emissions problem because it is an end result of solving other forms of pollution? I don’t know. The simple “America needs to take the lead” as compared with “all nations which are terrible need to improve”; the later response has a better solution than the defeatist attitude of where bad when the bigger picture is not the case.
Comment by ZooMuse
6.35 am on 6 Oct 2006
As an american who has lived in other cultures for the past 22 years, including ten+ in Europe, let me speak to dh’s comments. First, Americans do not have control over what India or China are doing. We do, however, have control over what Americans do. American evangelicals, for the most part educated, middle and upper-middle class, tend not to be able, willing or even aware of conservation: lights burning in every room, gas-guzzling 4×4s, water running down the driveway and down the street. America and Americans are very happy to take the lead–when it serves (or seems to serve) their own national interests. We overlook the human rights violations in China because we desperately need their markets to sell to. At present Chinese and Indian believers have little voice and bigger problems for survival that do American Christians. Yet, the voice of the American evangelical church, for the most part, wants to focus on gay issues and abortion issues — issues of personal morality — rather than on broader issues of justice, mercy, compassion, etc. Note, simply, that US newspapers make much of American casualties in Iraq, while saying very little about the horror we unleashed there which has caused the deaths of thousands upon thousands of Iraqi lives, people who now will never have the opportunity to hear the good news of Jesus. America is the only nation that sees itself as a Christian nation. Sadly, that self-description does not work itself out in terms that the rest of the world can understand. Am I glad to be American? Absolutely, but an American who is willing to see and admit when his nation has truly made mistakes, and continues in them.
Comment by Jason
6.38 am on 6 Oct 2006
DH(16): And we go round and round in circles on this….my original post was about how we see america with regards to global warming, it never said other countries didn’t need to to something, but drew attention to the US being largest per capita polluter, worst with regards to GDP and worst in regards to totals.
And the US instead of taking the lead seems to do very little.
You see we need to focu equally on all nations, that is what the rest of the world is trying to do, but the USA keep opting out DH. When other countries say lets address this together the US opts out.
So I still hope and pray that whilst others countries are proactively doping something the US would use it’s postion, and wealth to do something more than it is.
And DH you are not outside the USA where most people I know see the USA as unwilling to tackle or even acknowledge the pollution the US produces and it’s is frustrating.
So please don’t remind me that other countries pollute, we know that!!! :-)
Comment by Jason
6.42 am on 6 Oct 2006
ZooMuse (17): Thanks for posting. Do you think you have this perspective from living outside of the USA or did you have it whilst before then?
Comment by Paul Mayers
10.43 am on 6 Oct 2006
I know the context of Jason’s post was a letter to america but for me the main reflection that came out of it was about personal responsibility – i have a voice and a lifestyle so how do I use that? how do collectively we as Christians use our life and our voice for environmenal justice?
For me it is a destructive to blame other nations or even my own as to who pollutes more – it is too easy to get me off the hook like that – but when I read Christ’s command to love my neighbour it makes me think ok how am i loving my neighbours on planet earth – it starts to challenge me about the impact my consumption has not just on me but on the world – the weightier matters of love, justice, mercy means that sometimes i put aside my convienience and personal consumption and try and do something different. For me it is a long wake up call, from fair trade, footwear, energy consumption, clothing I am slowly taking my head out of the sand…
That’s one of the joys of hanging around with you people – we encourage each other to think and act, to take ourselves less seriously and God more so whatever the words of the country on our earthly passports are you help me live in the here and now as a citizen of heaven…
and i really appreciate that, thank you.
Comment by ZooMuse
10.56 am on 6 Oct 2006
Thanks, Paul, for this reminder. After we moved from Germany (our village gave us a heavy, many-paged pamphlet regarding recycling — nearly everything could be recycled. My wife cried the first time she tried to read the booklet!), we fell out of the recylcing mindset. However, we have recently begun again (cans, bottles, paper). It’s amazing how much less unrecyclable trash we now generate.
Comment by ZooMuse
11.03 am on 6 Oct 2006
Jason (19) — I did not have any concept of anything other than apple pie and the American flag before we took a missions trip to India in 1984 — first time outside the good ol’ US of A. Does a fish know it lives in water? We were transformed by 12 years in Kenya and, in different ways, by seven years in Germany. The Kenyan experience showed us the inventiveness of people who have little. I look at what is tossed in the Tip here in the UK and always think, ‘Wow, kenyans would love to get their hands on this stuff!’ They could build small industries around what is thrown in the tip here. Our German experience awakened us to recycling, a bit anal-retentive there, but mind-opening just the same. It’s a shame there are not more recycling receptacles in the UK and a greater variety.
Bottom line — when I was strictly moncultural, I had no idea there were other ways of viewing life. Now, when I go to the US, I struggle with the mindless wastefulness, particularly among middle, and upper-middle class evangelicals (is that an oxymoron?).
Comment by Makeesha
10.03 pm on 6 Oct 2006
Thank you Jason. Lovely letter. I think it’s almost laughable (in an unfortunate way) how many of your commenters feel the need to refute your statements or at least comment on them. It’s a really good peek into how we Americans can’t just listen and say “gee thanks, how great to hear from you across the pond”.
So without commentary dear brother “gee thanks, how great to hear from you across the pond”.
;)
Comment by Timothy Wright
9.27 pm on 7 Oct 2006
Hi Jason,
Let me give you some comments.
Your wrote about the environment, what a surprise. You seem to care more about trees and the environment. I know its tied into people but not the most innocent. Talking about the environemnt is an easy win, how about having some balls and say something about abortion. You wrote nothing about abortion and gay marriage, who wants to live in a world when the innocent are slaughtered enmasse and condoning the perversion of gay marriage or civil partnerships and devaluing marriage as a whole. If the family goes out the window, so does the culture.
As for Politics, we have a chance to overturn abortion if we select the right president and the Supreme Court goes to the right. Europe will never get rid of abortion. You don’t seem to care, how may babies are killed by the govt. When was the last time you or the majority of the people in churches heard anything of the sin of abortion. You don’t even mention healing for women and men who have been involved with abortion.
Tim
Are you not glad that I held back quite a bit?
Comment by Jason Clark
9.56 pm on 7 Oct 2006
Tim (24): I despise abortion, how on earth do you get from me asking about the environment to assuming I condone abortion? How sad, that you read my concerns for other issues in that way.
Just beause I care for the environment, doesn’t mean I have no other issues of concern.
Comment by ZooMuse
11.23 am on 8 Oct 2006
For Timothy Wright (24) — as an American who has been on the conservative side of most political discussions for much of my life, I would suggest you read “Myth of a christian Nation” by Gregory Boyd. Every historical attempt to have a ‘Christian’ nation or government (a power OVER form of influence) has ended with things like people burned at the stake, the inquisition, the Crusades. Power OVER, the paradigm of the Kingdom of the World, is the antithesis of Jesus’ model of transformation and influence. The power of the Kingdom is power UNDER, something most evangelicals, who cut their teeth on John Wayne and, later, Rambo-type movies, can’t quite get a hold on. Power OVER controls and conforms, but only power UNDER transforms.
Comment by Timothy Wright
2.53 pm on 8 Oct 2006
Hi Jason,
In your letter to the US Christians you had an opportunity to mention anything you wanted. You choose the environment. By doing this, it seems to me that you neglected, ignored,… missed the opportunity to say something on abortion. What a missed opportunity. In all my years in the UK church, I have never heard about abortion from the pulpit or seen anything in their newsletter about abortion. I have no idea what your position on abortion is-no did I assume that you were for abortion.
Tim
Comment by ZooMuse
3.59 pm on 8 Oct 2006
Sorry, but why in the world would a letter to American Christians have to deal with the issue of abortion, something they have strongly-held views. Jason had no need to address that issue since it is well in hand (though, sometimes with too much rhetoric and condemnation together with too little grace and service). What American Christians need to be challenged on is where they are weak, where they have blindspots.
Comment by Jason
3.59 pm on 8 Oct 2006
Tim (27): I’m afraid you apalled me in your response, you seemed delight in suggesting you ‘held back’…
I think the US and christians in the US do a great deal with regards to abortion, aling with many other areas.
I still wonder how when I write about two issues that the US seems blind to, for us outside the US, you contrue that as me supporting abortion.
Obviously abortion is a major issue for you, but please don’t expect me to mention is every time I talk about the USA.
It might have been kinder of you to say, ‘thanks for wirting, but as I look at the USA something else bothers me, that of abortion.’
Rather than lash out in anger at me…which seems very bizarre.
Comment by Helen
4.09 pm on 8 Oct 2006
I find the emphasis of some US Christians on abortion rather annoying, actually, since they seem to care more about unborn babies than already-born people who have lots of needs.
Comment by Timothy Wright
9.44 am on 9 Oct 2006
Jason,
I was not lashing out in anger at you. If you believed every women should get an abortion I would not be angry. James 1:20. Afetr reading my 1st response it was way off for me to critique you on abortion. Forgive me.
Lets move on to pollution. Americas produces 25% of the worlds products and creates 25% of the worlds pollution.
Now thats a lot of pollution. But that is also alot of stuff they produce.
Please read george Monbiots latest book. I was reading an excerpt from it where he says that the only way to divert the coming environmental catastrophe is if right now %85-90 of all air travel would stop. The reason he says no one wants to push these point is that because it will stop people from doing anything. How kind of them, protecting us for the truth.
We recycle everything we can because it is the best use of resources that God has given to us.
Helen: I don’t every think we can do or say enough to protect the unborn. We should as you say not neglect the living. We are to do all that we can to communicates Jesus’ love in action.
Tim
Comment by dh
2.47 pm on 9 Oct 2006
Jason, I totally agree America in terms of CO2 pollution is theworst. I was just pointing out that there are other formsof pollution besides CO2. When you look at those and not focus on one pollution aspect you can see other nations need to “take the lead as well”. America needs to take the lead on CO2. However, those nations which produce other types of pollution more than the US needs to take the lead on those as well. This isn’t a transfer of blame but a renewal of focus on pollution in ALL OF ITS FORMS rather than just one thing.
Comment by Makeesha
9.30 pm on 10 Oct 2006
*sigh* sometimes I’m so embarrassed to be an American Christian.
Comment by dh
10.53 pm on 10 Oct 2006
What i’m embarrassed about isthat other nations don’t take as strong a stand on abortion, that certain nations who pollute the water, have terrible hygene when it comes to bacteria, etc. are let off the hook while America is focused on one type of pollution, CO2.
I totally agree America needs to do more in relation to CO2 but India and China need to do more in terms of water pollution and bacteria control which are other forms of pollution. In terms of amount of criticizm it seems America is looked at more harsh than other nations giving the impression that other nations are “off the hook”. If the statements were of equal focus on the areas where there are problems I could agree.
I’ll for thesake of unity agree America needs to domore in thearea of CO2 emissions even though it hasbeen shown that animal and human flatulation contribute the most to global warming.
Comment by Jason
2.51 am on 11 Oct 2006
Interesting thoughts, and perhaps there are bits of truth in them but often it comes down to the lesser of two evils as you must decide who will represent. It’s really as simple as the moral issues in which 99% of democrats support. And some republicans fall into the same error, please find me a democrat who will honestly stand up for:
A marriage ammendment act (male female)
No Cloning for stem cell research, adult stem cell research only.
And a democrat who is prolife….?
Where are they?
Comment by Simon S
2.12 pm on 11 Oct 2006
Jason’s letter is thought provoking. Although I am British I have a young American daughter so feel I can comment.
A lot of global warming environmentalists state ‘the end of the world is nigh’ and talk about the earth becoming inhabitable, in the history of the earth (apologies to literal creationists) there have been many times in earth’s history with much higher CO2 levels and temperatures. The damage a largish (1km) asteroid striking the earth would do is much much greater than anything mankind can do (at least with current technology).
The issue is that the damage caused by global warming caused by CO2 emission mainly from rich countries is likely to fall hardest on those who do not have the resources to do anything about it (in USA or UK we can always turn the A/C up a few notches and can afford to do so) – so the eventual Christian issue is not damage to the earth per se, but social justice for the worlds’ poor because of damage caused by the rich.
Comment by dh
2.32 pm on 11 Oct 2006
Jason, thanks for your last post. I’m really intrigued and enjoyed your last post. It would be interesting to see a party who was economically liberal and socially conservative. For myself, I think supporting increase in jobs and helping business with job creation rather than the opposite is better. So if there were a party like you suggest I would still be on the Republican side. However, it would be intersting to see an American third party like the one you were suggesting. :)
Simon S.: I too agree with your post as well but the first part. The fact is the other forms of pollution are not damages caused by the rich but by the poor. The poor need help and need to have their governments held accountable for their pollution. When I look at the issue beyond just Global warming I see the problem is more thanjust a rich vs. poor dichotomy. I think ones that focus on one form of pollution (not Jason because him and I went full circle on this) are people who have other agendas beyond the direct problem itself. If you get mydrift.
Comments are now closed.