What I know about Jesus is based solely on what I’ve heard and what I’ve read. My opinions on the man come from hearsay along with some good books, so to speak, that paint a fairly clear picture of his times and culture, if not of Him Himself.

Unfortunately, when having any “What Would Jesus Do?” discussion, this leaves me at a distinct disadvantage to those who apparently know Jesus personally. And it turns out there are a lot of people out there who are on more than a first name basis with the guy. Not only that, they’re also happy to tell us all what he thought and, to some, thinks, about a host of issues including environmentalism.

These very knowledgeable people have a number of oft-used arguments explaining why environmentalism is “against” Jesus and God and the Bible. While they’re not specifically limited to the fundamentalist religious right (just a couple years ago, for example, the Pope was warned by council of an Antichrist who is “a pacifist, ecologist and ecumenist”), they do seem to be in possession of the greatest amount of truth on the matter. Here are some examples of how green clashes with God:

• The End of Days: Coming soon to an ecosystem near you. Environmental disasters are canaries in our coal mine of sin (or blackbirds falling from the sky). Jesus is coming and the Word is there’s going to be some global warming involved, anyway.

• Who’s driving this bus? You? Me? No. Just ask the Representative from the Great state of Illinois, John Shimkus, who reminds us “God will decide when to end the Earth, not man.” Well, there you go. Stop that silly worrying and drill, baby, drill!

• Stop monkeying around! Many in the religious right see a distinct connection between environmentalism, evolution and humanism. Think of it like a domino effect – first we evolve and pretty soon we’re all wanting to save the planet. It’s a slippery slope.

• Greenies are all about the S-word. Environmentalists tend to rely on the cult of science that proves things such as the earth being much, much more than 6,000ish years old.

• Kill the competition. The far Christian right works to paint the Green movement as type of religion. Unsurprisingly, like most movements other than their own, it’s after our children and determined to undermine our way of life.

Many of these points are laid out in the recently released and much-covered video film series Resisting the Green Dragon, described by its creators as “a biblical response to one of the greatest deceptions of our day.” Watch it and get the “the armor you need to rise up slay the Green Dragon and promote the true gospel of Jesus Christ.” The storyline, celebrated by Glenn Beck and told by a who’s who of right wing religious think-tankers and Christian group leaders, paints environmentalism as “a threat to the Christian state” (Michigan? New Hampshire? Oh yes, the United States) and takes pot shots at the movement’s “gospel” – some movie called Avatar.

But back to our man.

While many of these know-Him-alls’ points are said to be based on the Bible, it’s pretty tough to pin an anti-green label on Jesus. In my own anecdotal research, I have yet to hear someone say “Jesus said it’s okay to trash the planet.” The truth is that most data, even some from the Good Book, leads us to an entirely different conclusion than God vs. Green.

What, briefly speaking, do we know about Jesus? What kind of lifestyle did he lead and embody? As near as we can tell, given the time lapse between his death and the emergence of scripture, what types of ideas did he champion?

Jesus, it seems, lived a communal lifestyle in a close-to-the-land manner. He shunned wealth accumulation at the expense of the poor, spoke of the meek inheriting the earth and of creation – all creation – as being a gift from his father, God. He identified with pain and suffering and sacrifice for the good of the whole, promoting a spirit of equal access to many, as opposed to special privileges for the few. Exploitation, he preached, was a sin. A good summation comes from The Reverend Stuart C. Lord, Dean of Dartmouth’s Tucker Foundation, who answers that he calls “The Lifestyle of Jesus Question” with four key concepts: inclusivity, community, integrity and humility.

Let’s take a moment to consider the tenets of environmentalism.

Environmentalism, says Merriam-Webster, is the “advocacy of the preservation, restoration, or improvement of the natural environment; especially: the movement to control pollution.” Inclusive? One people, one planet. Community? Is there anything more community-oriented than efforts to preserve, restore and improve its home. Integrity? What do they say about cleanliness? Where is it? Oh yeah. And what about that final concept, humility? Who are we to look a gift-God in the mouth. It’s enough, perhaps, to say thank you, give a bow if you wish, and refrain from defiling what’s been given.

If we dare ask the question of why anyone would want to paint the concept of environmentalism as anti-Christian, we have to be prepared to take a serious look at the co-opting of broad-based cultural and religious movements into corporate fiscal and political agendas. Other questions come to mind, like: Why are so many poor against national healthcare? Why are anti-spending hawks so gung-ho for massive military expenditures? When asking how so many have become convinced of the sheer nonsense that taking care of our Earth – our God-given home, if you like – is somehow heretical or socially dangerous, it would be folly not to consider the obvious. Read: follow the money.

That thesis paper aside, which would make note of Sliming the Green Dragon’s hackneyed brainwash-speech (constant repetition of terms like terms like “policy,” “new world order,” “liberty” and the dreaded “global governance”), isn’t it time to take a look at what The Man actually said and did? Indeed some Christian groups already are, as the Creation Care and Evangelical environmentalist movements continue to grow in the United States and around the world. Whether or not these groups will have the will to take on the well-funded Becks, Cornwall Alliances and Shimkuses of the world is another matter.

Having never dreamed that I would end a story with a quote from the Bible, I’m going to go ahead and throw down (I know, it’s Old Testament. So shoot me): “You shall not pollute the land in which you live… you shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I also dwell.” Numbers 35:33-34.

Amen.

Scott Adelson is a Jewish-born, Buddhist atheist. <ducks>

Image: Rodrigo Soldon

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So the joke goes that there’s a guy stranded on the roof of his house. Flood waters are rising and he’s praying to God for help. A couple of kids come by in a canoe and say, “Hey Mister! Jump in!” Preoccupied with prayer, he ignores them and they paddle away. Soon the water level is higher and the local sheriff comes by in a dinghy, “Get in, pal! It’s gonna get worse!” The man says, “Please, officer, not now, I must focus on the Lord!” Before long the waterline breaks over the roof of the house and a helicopter comes by, dangling a rope ladder. “Climb up!,” the pilot shouts above the roar of his engine. With the water raging and chopper wind blowing fiercely around him, the man screams, “Leave me! The Lord will save me!” Finally, the flood overcomes the man. As he’s being swept to his doom he looks to sky and asks, “Oh Lord, why have you left me to die?!” “Left you to die?!,” booms the Almighty, “I sent you a canoe, a dinghy and a helicopter, you idiot!”

I couldn’t help but think of this joke when I heard the infamous and honorable Representative from Illinois, John Shimkus (who is currently seeking the chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce panel in the next Congress), tell us that we don’t have to worry about global warming. Only God, says Shimkus, can destroy this earth, not man, and after all, He made a deal with Noah not to flood us out any more. I feel like shaking this guy and saying, “your Guy’s sending you data and science and smart people, you moron! He’s speaking to you and he’s saying: ‘Save thyself!'”

The War on Science is on and some people are telling us that He/She/It doesn’t believe in global warming and neither should you. By way of background, here’s a right-on quote from a blogger on About.com: “One of the principle driving forces behind all this [science] denial is a desire to get around the conclusions of science when they conflict with some preferred ideology – political, economic, religious, whatever.”

The political and economic issues behind climate change denial seem clear. As my father used to say, it’s always about two things: money and dollars. Corporate polluters have a record of funding efforts to portray good science as bad, promoting the notion of “science impotence” (portraying science as a  failure based on the fact that certain phenomena remain “unexplained”), and of course funding the campaigns of science deniers (take a guess where BP put its money this last election cycle). But what’s with the religious attacks? I mean, if you’re looking for something apocalyptic, global warming experts are offering up some crash and burn on a silver platter.

Of course there’s a thesis to be written here and we can go back to Descartes gumming up Church works with his thinking therefore am-ing, and then, of course, there’s our man Darwin who really queered the deal. But while portraying evolution as a theory as opposed to fact might be harmless enough (if ignorance can ever be harmless), denying changes in the weather puts people at risk. I don’t want to question Rep. Shimkus’ sincerity of motives; let’s not presume that his beliefs are really a front for corporate-backed efforts to derail climate change legislation. But his (and other policymakers‘) anti-science stance is dangerous and is based on antiquated thinking that precludes the coexistence of science and biblical creationism, something our greatest theologians would find ignorant, at best.

The truth is, there’s plenty of room for theology to exist alongside science and even support its conclusions as perhaps information coming straight from God’s workshop – tools “delivered” to us so that we might better love and protect ourselves and our neighbors. Whether or not one believes in creationism as the genesis of life, analysis of facts on the ground is just that – and a method to help preserve that life, wherever it comes from. Who knows? Maybe, just maybe, alternative energy technology is a gift from, well, just ask the folks at the Evangelical Climate Initiative.

You know, whatever one believes (or doesn’t believe), it’s important to have enough sense to come in out of the rain. You might even consider such a logical maneuver as taking refuge in God’s house. In any case, most of us can agree to this: finding a port in a storm beats going down with the ship.

Image: radiant guy

The post On Global Warming: If There Is One, He, She or It Is on Our Side appeared first on EcoSalon.

Climate control freaks?

Geoengineering is exactly what it says it is – engineering our geo. But here’s a cooler definition from the National Academy of Sciences:  “Options that would involve large-scale engineering of our environment in order to combat or counteract the effects of changes in atmospheric chemistry.” Consider this: when Mt. Pinatubo, in the Philippines erupted in 1991, its bad-ass belch of some 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide dropped world temperatures by an average of half a degree. Scientists now have the technology get the same job done without any help from the volcano gods; they can use airplanes to inject sulfur dioxide right into the stratosphere. One way to combat global warming? Maybe, but hey, maybe it’s a good idea to set up some rules here before we get all crazy, no?

Who’s upstairs?

There are lots of breakthroughs these days regarding our knowledge of what’s happening at the helm of our own personal wheelhouses. While we’re always going on about how we should all be thinking, buying and even voting green, how much control do we really have as to where our minds and dollars go? What we’re getting here is, do you know what the “neuromarkerters” are up to these daze? Do you know the role they played in this month’s election? Stay tuned in (if you can) for tales about who’s trying to take control of your controls.

Insides Out

While we’re looking at what’s under the hood, how about them stem cells? We’re all about sustainability here, right, and what could be more sustaining than potentially life-giving research opportunities? Well it depends on who you ask. What’s happening on the biotech ground – from university and corporate labs to the halls of the Hill – affect our current and future quality of life every day, and the latest rules and regs and funding issues are playing a major role in how we approach these issues as a society. Who are the players on these issues and what do they have cookin’ up in their petri dishes?

It’s in the air

Blown away by all the wind-generated energy hubbub? Swept up by the grand promises while suffering though the doldrums of slow-to-no progress? Well, we are too. With plans for massive “farming” projects everywhere from the Great Plains to off our coastlines, there are a lot of questions to explore about what’s the right way to go about an effective wind grabbing. What are the costs? What are the potential rewards? Who’s primed to make coin on these deals that could make large-scale engineering efforts like the Hoover Dam seem like specs in our collective rear view mirror? And as a nation, are we interested in taking the innovation lead?

What’s happening?

Save the date! Our global(ish) eco-social is coming up this month in sunny Cancun, Mexico, where the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is guaranteed to entertain. And who better to cover the red carpet happenings than EcoSalon? The background from the UN is this: “Over a decade ago, most countries joined an international treaty – the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – to begin to consider what can be done to reduce global warming and to cope with whatever temperature increases are inevitable. More recently, a number of nations approved an addition to the treaty: the Kyoto Protocol, which has more powerful (and legally binding) measures.” Here’s the subtext for this 16th meeting: Might a new binding treaty emerge? Don’t hold you breath – or maybe hold it. In any case, we’ll be covering the event! (In fact, we should send a reporter, right? Um, editor at ecosalon dot com. Tell her Scott sent you.)

OMG! It’s getting warmer in here!

If you thought we were going to leave Rep. Shimkus alone (note our shot across the bow last week), you’re mistaken. Not that we’re not saying there’s anything wrong with a Godly approach to life, but if he is speaking to us at all, he’s probably saying “knock it off with the greenhouse gases!” Anyway, it’s not just Shimkus we’re worried about. We’ll be keeping our eye on the climate control-busting shenanigans class of 2011. No quarter here. That’s a promise.

Duck and cover

Picking up on the Shimkus wave, we’re here to remind you that the War on Science is alive and well – and well-funded. Science denial seems to reaching a crescendo these days, whether deniers are taking on Einstein or climate change, the span between what science is telling us and what we believe seems to be growing. What are the facts on this issue? Does anyone care? Who wants you not to know better?

Is this thing (still) on?

Do I really need a new laptop already? It seems like I just bought one. Well, surprise, surprise, my breakdown might have been planned to go down well before my box was boxed. Planned obsolescence is a story not only about marketing and corporate greed, but about product footprints, waste and and throwaway culture. As our pal Brian Clark Howard recently said over at The Daily Green, “The issue has big environmental implications, because our insatiable appetite for stuff drives carbon emissions and pollution.” Quick, before the warranty expires, let’s take a look at this issues, and why it’s not necessarily an all-bad phenomenon.

Okay, so there’s a little EcoSalon skin. Hot huh? We missing anything? Thoughts? Ramblings? Send us a note at contact at ecosalon dot com.

Images: World Economic Forum, flydime, Liberal Democrats, James & Vilija, , phault
World Economic Forum, danielfoster437, woodleywonderworks, m.gifford

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