Global Warming
Out of context: Reply #292
- Started
- Last post
- 643 Responses
- monospaced1
Saw this reposted on another site, taken from a comment in a reddit thread (apologies for not having the original source or reference link), and it really got me thinking and seeing connections.
"American Evangelical Christianity (AEC) is intrinsically intertwined with the Republican Party. Please note that this isn't American Christianity in general, it's just the one that is the most vocal and thus the one that you, as a foreigner, see on television. The intertwining was a conscious decision made by the Republicans somewhere around three decades ago (although there were ties before that). Grover Norquist and others put together a strategy wherein business would back social conservative candidates, while single-issue groups (pro-life groups, NRA) would support low taxes and deregulation. The idea was that business would supply the money to win elections, while the single-issue folks would supply the energy needed to get people out to the polls. This is how the GOP is able to stay viable in elections even as the percentage of rank-and-file Republicans decreases.
As a result, issues that are for the most part unrelated to Biblical principles (like gun rights or global warming), or anti-thetical to Biblical principles (like cutting welfare) become framed as Biblical issues by a lobby that is incredibly shrewd at doing so. Even if one accepts the overwhelming scientific evidence for global warming, one can bypass the idea that something should be done about in any of the following ways:
In Genesis, God gave Adam dominion over the Earth, thus the Earth is ours to do with it what we please
Christ will return within our lifetime, and therefore there is no reason to act on global warming
We are being punished for straying from the Bible, and a return to Biblical principles will, by itself, reverse global warming"