Their leaders have a lot of influence, and they are starting to back off the hardline global warming denial - so what purpose does trashing them serve?

But in orthodox Christianity, including Catholicism and the older and more intellectually serious forms of Protestantism, such as the Anglicans (though not the homophobic African kind), the Presbyterians and the Lutherans, the revelation of God's will can come through extra-biblical sources, such as human reason.  From that perspective, it is inhumane and sinful to reject the discoveries of science.  Rejecting science can be interpreted as a culpable denial of the fundamental doctrine of the Incarnation, that the man whom we know as Jesus Christ, the Word of God, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, by assuming the human nature in the womb of the human Virgin Mary, is both true God and true Man.  And since knowing, through the use of reason, is a fundamental character of human beings, the use of reason, including of course science, has been elevated to divinity by the Incarnation of the Word of God.

As Saint Thomas Aquinas, the great Dominican theologian and philosopher of the thirteenth century, said (more or less): "If you are wrong about the creation, you are wrong about the Creator.  So get your science right!"

Also, private revelations are not to be disregarded, though they are not necessarily to be imposed on all the faithful.  The young Saint Francis of Assisi heard (in a dream?) Christ in the Crucifix of San Damiano telling him, "Rebuild my Church!," and that has become the foundational commission of all Franciscans.  He was also moved to love all creatures, most notably animals; and so, by his example, many Catholics and other Christians have found their way into environmentalism and animal-rights ethics, understanding those causes to express the will of God.

In the same way, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was inspired and moved to minister in a new, more personal way to poor people in India, especially the dying, and then to found an order with that mission.

In December of 1531, at the hill of Tepeyac, to the north of Mexico City, the Virgin Mary appeared to a recently converted Mexican, Cuauhtlatoatzin (Speaking Eagle), baptized as Juan Diego, canonized as a saint in 2002.  (La Virgen de Guadalupe is now explained as coming from the Nahuatl Tecoatlaxope, "she will crush the serpent of stone" -- ???, but it makes for a nice story, and we all like stories.)  Mary said, basically, "I love the peoples of the Americas, and so does God"; it perhaps did not actually need to be said, but it was good to hear it; and so the cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe is a hugely important thing to Mexicans, and to many other Catholics in this hemisphere, including me and my husband.

In the early 20th century, much less helpfully, Mary appeared to some kids near the town of Fatima in Portugal, and basically said, "I sort of like capitalism, but I like good ol' patriarchal feudalism much more, and I definitely dislike the direction that the Russians are going in."  No wonder she became the special patron of the late (Polish) Pope John Paul II.  In 2004, when we were speeding along the highway from Coimbra to Lisbon, we passed her exit without a thought of stopping, and never looked back.  And so there we are: personal revelation is really revelation, but it is OK often enough to ignore it.

Many Protestants think that Catholics are either stupid or blasphemous for thinking that God expresses God's will that way.  And many Catholics, cordially returning the compliment, think that Protestants are either stupid or blasphemous or churlish for denying that God expresses God's will through such sweet people as the Virgin Mary, Saint Francis and Mother Teresa.

I love this poorly remembered line from the 1992 movie (by Robert Redford), "A River Runs Through It."  The narrator (Craig Sheffer) is the brother of Brad Pitt (imagine the cruelty of God, allowing somebody to be the brother of Brad Pitt, and realize before long that nobody in all his life is ever going to look at him for longer than two seconds, because everybody is staring agape at Cutey Pie).  The father (the excellent Tom Skerritt) is a Presbyterian minister, from Scotland, who upholds the proud Presbyterian tradition of high culture, love of learning, and literacy.  The narrator returns home from his university, and tells his father that he has met a young woman, and intends to marry her.  The father, not unnaturally, asks what church she attends, and is told, "She's a Methodist."  (Coincidentally, that is the denomination of both Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush.)  So the father says, either, "Ah, the Methodists, they are just Baptists who know how to read"; or, "Ah, the Methodists, they are just Baptists who wear shoes."  Same idea either way.

Of course, for us Catholics, who stew Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists all together in the same bubbling pot of Pope-denial and Mary-insult, with no interest in distinguishing amongst them, that remark is rather puzzling.

Back, finally, to Parham's article: Notice that where the SBaps wrote, "the anthropocentric nature of climate change," they presumably meant "anthropogenic."  Anthropocentrism is indeed a huge moral failing of many in the biblical tradition, but that is not the issue at hand.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

Having created the world with his noodley appendage and having declared that it was good, particularly with some grated parmesian cheese and maybe some garlic bread, he would be most displeased at having us ruining the climate.

Already the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) is withdrawing supplies of hard durum wheat and therefore limiting the sacrament of pasta from the people of his creation. Reports of threats to shelled sea life by ocean acidification could limit the availability of canned clam juice without which a really good marinara sauce cannot be made.

Thankfully Joel Salatin has demonstrated that proper care of cows (meatballs and cheese) can sequester carbon on pasture land but only if the cows are allowed to eat the fresh growth of green grass.

Maybe the FSM can be appeased by this effort until enough people dress like pirates for him to withdraw his steamy wrath from the earth.

Carbo Diem

p.s.-what's up with those Buddhists? I tried to talk to some of them about climate change but they just sat there doing nothing. Wouldn't even say anything to me for almost an hour.

Put the Carbon Back

Alternatively, we could just start a string of "how many southern baptists does it take to change a lightbulb if electricity has not been specially revealed" jokes.  

Baptist bashing?  Yes - and richly deserved.  But my larger point is simply that if one is going to claim that religion has sole authority to define the truth (as no shortage of fundamentalist religions do), then one ought at least be consistent.

Although he did not practice catch and release he used fish nets that did not catch and destroy other creatures in the sea.

He aways went off into nature to commune with god and even spent a 40 sabbatical in the wilderness.

The wilderness area's of W.Va and East Kentucky are being destroyed by MTR, can't ever find a good miracle worker when you need one. Most of us are prone to living in the wilderness if they would only leave us some. If J.C. comes back we got enough landing pads down here for the heavenly hoards. If he could calm the seas maybe he could stop this sea of destruction thats washing over this part of Appalachia.

Without being factitious, its best to keep religion out of it altogether. If one looks at the Middle East it's easy to see it offers no solutions and only add to the chaos and confusion.

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

Hypothermia patients come back from the dead all the time. It's barely noted in newspapers anymore because we understand it. Likewise there are several poisoning mechanisms that can leave a person dead to all appearances but revivable. Hydrogen sulfide toxicity can do that if it doesn't outright kill you.

I recently saw video of a burning mountain in Armenia; it was a natural gas vent that had lit.

Put the Carbon Back

   I grew up in the church (southern baptist), though I left it over 40 years ago.

   Originally the Southern Baptists were the slavery supporting, secessionist version of Baptists.

   As a religion, one of it's charming aspects (there were few!) was that it rejected religious authority.   Each person was supposed to find their own way to God and Jesus through prayer, Bible study and reflection (thought, something that has since been banned).

   If you consider, you can see a strong thread of anarchism in this theology.  Amazing!!

   Then something happened.  The courts ruled that schools had to be de-segregated.  Women demanded that they be treated like human beings (instead of property).  There were gays!!!  And hippies!!! (in passing, the latter).

   Under threat from change, the church circled the wagons and began to do as all organizations under threat do.  Purge.

   As moderates, liberals and Christians left the church, the authoritarians began to prevail.  Cult-like creatures emerged.  Seeking dominion over all the earth (especially their fellow Southern Baptists), they purged and purged and purged.  Until the pure at heart (cowed) were all that were left.

   And so today, the freest most anarchistic of churches has become the most authoritarian of Protestant groups (except Mormons and Anglicans (pre-split)).

   But every times things calm down, the damn moderates raise their heads again.  And in terms of the environment, they are doing it now.  Mostly likely scenario?  A smack-down, more purges and inquisitions.  Possibilities?  The moderates actually win!!

   What impact do the devil-driven Satan worshipers on Grist have on this?  Probably none.

patrick in Beijing

The Southern Baptists, as you explain, are therefore not true Baptists at all.  I recall, during l'Affaire Monica Lewinsky, that Bill Clinton (a Baptist, I guess, toting his Bible in and out of church every Sunday for the admiration of the photographers), said something about how he cherished the traditional Baptist freedom of conscience.  And the Southern Baptists could not say enough to denounce him as a false Christian and no friend of theirs.

Also, remember this event, not too long ago, when the SBC pulled out of the fairly liberal Baptist World Alliance:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44658-2004 ...

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

    Every missionary who passes through town first explains that the previous missionary was not a true Christian, that only their sect/cult is real.  One of my colleagues explained to me that everyone in America speaks in tongues, can communicate with the dead, and heal the sick by laying on of hands.  Amazing!!!

    Interestingly, the term for protestant is usally Christian, which allows the missionaries to explain that Catholics are not Christians, they are Catholics (whatever that is!!).

    I suspect this was done by an early Anglican arrival compiling a dictionary!!

    Are there really an liberal churches any more?  I thought they were mostly dying.  

    In any case, the Southern Baptists of today are busy home schooling their kids not to believe in science.  

patrick in Beijing