Posted on 03/28/2008 10:10:00 PM PDT by xjcsa
Several dozen leading members of the Southern Baptist Convention, including its current President and several past Presidents, recently released a "Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change." I attended Liberty University, a school affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and specifically affiliated with Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. Both the church and the University were founded and led by Jerry Falwell until his death last May. The school and church are now led by Rev. Falwell's two sons: Jerry Falwell, Jr. is the Chancellor and President of Liberty University, and Jonathan Falwell is the senior pastor of the church.
Nobody directly affiliated with these ministries appears on the list of signatories to the Declaration. I thought it appropriate to send the ministries the following letter regarding the situation:
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Rev. Falwell-
I am a 1997 graduate of Liberty University living in my hometown of Cedar Falls, IA. I spent four great years at Liberty and was awarded a B.S. in Religion with a concentration in Youth Ministries. I enjoyed my time there, and I have a great deal of respect for you and your brother, and for the institutions which you lead. You guys seem to be doing a great job, and I commend you. I hope to be able to visit the campus one of these days to see all the changes.
I write with concern not for Liberty or TRBC specifically, but for the direction of the Southern Baptist Convention, with which Liberty and TRBC are affiliated. I thought it was a good move to join the SBC at the time it happened, but a recent event causes me great concern.
This week prominent members of the SBC - including several men I remember having heard speak at Liberty during my time there - signed a document titled "A Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change." The document is mostly innocuous, but the following paragraph is a serious problem:
"Though the claims of science are neither infallible nor unanimous, they are substantial and cannot be dismissed out of hand on either scientific or theological grounds. Therefore, in the face of intense concern and guided by the biblical principle of creation stewardship, we resolve to engage this issue without any further lingering over the basic reality of the problem or our responsibility to address it. Humans must be proactive and take responsibility for our contributions to climate change—however great or small."
Here's my translation: "The debate on climate change is over. It's time to do whatever Al Gore and the Environmental Left say we should do."
The global warming movement is, in blunt terms, an evil, anti-human cult. Its aims are to impoverish developed nations and keep poor nations from improving their condition. And the "precautionary principle" which this "declaration" embraces is a deeply flawed and dangerous lens through which to view the world. It ignores the real - sometimes extreme - costs of the action advocated to "fix" the "problem," and serves as a mechanism to shut down discussion.
C.S. Lewis, in his excellent science fiction novel "That Hideous Strength," tells of a rather mad scientist who dreams of making the Earth look like the surface of the moon - so "clean", completely barren of organic life. The basis of organic life, as any Star Trek viewer knows, is carbon. The "mad scientist" essentially wanted to eliminate carbon. And now we see the scientific elites declaring war on nothing less than carbon - the basis of all life on earth.
If the SBC is truly embracing this "Declaration", then it is time for serious ministries to exit the Convention. If this is simply the views of a few, I urge you to enter the fight against the preposterous demonization of carbon dioxide and the embrace of an evil cult.
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks and God bless-
[xjcsa] LU Class of 1997
For reference, the "Declaration" in question is available here.
True enough. But it's sad that the President of the SBC jumped on board this crap. He's been backpedaling...sort of...but he says he still stands by the text of the Declaration.
Anyway this is one issue that I'm happy to go to war over any chance I get.
The soulution to the so called problem is to give up some of your freedom for "the greater good".
I suggest you read "1984" or "A Brave New World".
Get back to me when you have.
Jerry Falwell is spinning in his grave. How did such a great man raise such pathetic nincompoops?
The president has no authority to make statements on behalf of anyone other than himself. The messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution on Global Warming in 2007. But even that resolution is not binding on any local church. Find the 2007 resolution here:
http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=27583
The Vatican is heading down that road too. Eco-socialism, social “justice”, and other concepts continue to creep into mainline Christian denominations, with less room left for scripture and the concept of individual salvation. Schisms have been wrought by far less.
How indeed.
I guess we should look at the mother.
Ronald Reagan’s older two children were and are decent people.
Nancy’s spoiled brats, on the other hand...
Allow me to show you the SBC and its membership in four years:
1. As the pastor tells the congration of upper, middle and lower-class members that SUVs are hurting the environment...someone will look into the parking lot and find that 30 percent of the vehicles there...are SUVs. In Sunday school the next week...the topic will come up with wives and their husbands. Peer pressure won’t make them dump their vehicle but it will make their quit their church.
2. As the more wealthy members quit the church...the chief guy of each church managing the plate collections will report to the deacons that revenue is down...by every single church.
3. Deacons will ask why are collections are down, and discover that five percent of their church membership doesn’t attend anymore...the wealthy group and SUV owners. The Deacons will go to their house to “talk” them into returning...which the topic of environmentalism will come up. They won’t return.
4. Some members will then announce that using AC units is evil...using too much power...so they want the windows of the churches open...in July heat...and make everyone boil. This will take out another five percent of the membership who think this is stupid.
5. The topic of pledges will come up in Bible school...part of the handout program from the SBC. The middle-class folks will take some of this the wrong way...and trigger a 10-percent exodus from the church.
6. Several smart guys sitting out in a congregation....will quiz the minister...who is a divinity guy only...not a true scientist...over “facts”...making membership uneasy over questioning God’s word. Those smart guys...have got to go.
7. The folks who do the 14-day missionary runs to Peru...to make themselves feel good and burn tons of carbon...are going to be yanked around and told its evil to burn carbon like that...so no more church missionary trips to Peru or El Salvador or such. More membership to quit.
8. Finally...some folks will begin to take this all true to heart and question the yearly SBC ritual of a mass meeting where tons of carbon is burned to get them folks to some point. The SBC will decide to have only eight guys to meet somewhere....probably New Orleans...and just make decisions for everyone.
The true impact of this game...was devised a year or two ago...by the far left. They realized the impact on the Republican party by the SBC. This is a guaranteed vote column of at least thirty percent. Once they realized the near-idiot competency of the top ten divinity guys in charge of the SBC...they went after them. None of the leadership for the SBC has any knowledge of science, period. They weren’t taught science in divinity school and certainly know less than the average guy in their church.
Thats the tactic of this game....bring the SBC membership to half of what it is today. Make the Republicans lose a huge segment of their support. Course, in the other direction today...the democrats are finding this Obama election is triggering an exodus of unhappy black voters...so maybe this is all even in the end. Truly a mess...but an American-produced mess.
Well, one response would be that he was too fat to be spinning in his grave. He should have smoked for 40 years, but that would have been a sin.
delete double post.
Xcellent letter. It IS a cult.
Rev 16:8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
Rev 16:9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
Get back to me when you have.
I'm not sure if you read my post, but I'm on your side. Emphatically so.
Perhaps my introduction wasn't clear enough. The Falwell brothers did *not* sign this statement; my letter was commending them for *not* signing the statement and urging them to actively fight against the Warmist fools. As far as I can tell they're solid men, unlikely to be led into this kind of idiocy.
How indeed.
He didn't. They did *not* sign this garbage; sorry if my intro wasn't as clear as it could have been. His sons are good men, as was he.
Again, doing a bit of damage control here, since apparently I wasn’t as clear as I could have been. The Falwell brothers did *not* sign the Declaration. My letter was written to commend them for *not* being a part of the Warmist cult, and to encourage them to fight openly against the Warmists. They’re solid men, and their mother is a good woman. My letter was directed their way simply because they have been my main connection with the SBC.
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