Christians and climate change

I am fascinated and horrified that evangelical Christians are numbered among those who deny climate change or attribute it to non-human factors.

SIN AND THE ENVIRONMENT

The Bible declares that a high proportion of the ills besetting the environment have an origin in human sin. This is declared at the Fall (Genesis 3) and reaffirmed in places like Romans 8. Even when we do not clearly see the link, a straight-forward reading of the Bible suggests that the link is there.

Furthermore, most of the signs of the return of Christ are environmental. The sun will not really darken and the moon turn to blood. But, from an earth-bound perspective, that is how it will appear. We are all aware of how, for example, volcanic eruptions or bushfires have caused the sun and moon to appear dark, and often reddish.

Burning up of grass and drying of rivers -- these, too, are environmental disasters.

Despite the fact that human sin contributes to environmental damage, God's mandate that humans should have dominion over the creation has never been abrogated. It is just that, in our efforts, we fight an uphill battle.

GIVING THE WORLD A BREAK

There is also a clear command that the land is to have its rest -- sabbaths and jubilees -- to allow it to recover. God said (eg. Leviticus 26:34) that, when his people refuse to listen to him and remain hostile towards him, he will scatter them, lay their cities waste, and let the land have the sabbaths it has missed. This theme is also taken up in 2 Chronicles 36:21.

One evidence of this hostility is in greed: when we put money-making above God's command (as when people fail to give the land its rest) we worship mammon rather than God, because it is impossible to serve two masters.

IDOLATRY AND LAND-USE

In fact, the Bible has far less to say about abortion, homosexual activities, single-parent families and so many other bug-bears of so many conservative evangelicals than it has to say about idolatry, unjust trading, accumulation of wealth at the expense of the poor and other forms of economic and social unrighteousness. Yet we Christians far too often assume that these things are beyond God's interest!

COME OUT AND BE SEPARATE

So, when Christians fall in with the world and criticise environmental activity because of its economic costs, they fall in with the world's idolatry and mammon-worship.

I have been around long enough to remember when even non-Christians criticised Soviet-style communism for its assumption that all motivation is ultimately economic (whether or not that criticism was true is beside my point.) Since Reagan and Thatcher, the West has moved to abject mammon-worship and the assumption that economic motives dominate.

It is time for us evangelical Christians to return to our Biblical roots and stand against the world and its ways.

Vanunu

Mordechai Vanunu is under arrest in Israel. He is charged with contacting "a number of foreigners" -- something he was forbidden to do as a condition of his release in 2004 from an Israeli prison (http://www.smh.com.au/world/vanunu-arrested-for-alleged-foreign-contact-20091229-liv1.html)

Vanunu worked in the secret Israeli nuclear facility at Dimona and, in the 1980s, came to Australia where he befriended people at St Johns Anglican Church in Darlinghurst, a Sydney inner suburb. One who spent a lot of time with him was Rev. Dave Smith, now at Holy Trinity, Dulwich Hill. Eventually Vanunu became a Christian.

He was troubled about Israel's nuclear ambitions and refusal to submit to International scrutiny. In 1986, he divulged the story and supplied his own secret photographs to a UK Newspaper. He was subsequently kidnapped by Israeli agents. The Israeli plan was to say that he had returned to Israel of his own free will, but his kidnapping was seen and photographed, including a message Vanunu had written on his hand revealing that he was a victim of kidnapping.

What was intended to be a secret arrest and trial became very much more public, but Vanunu remained in Israeli custody for 18 years, much of it in solitary confinement. Christian support has been very much part of his survival.

Because of his conversion as much as for divulging the Government's actions, Vanunu has been demonised by the Israeli public. He has been re-arrested several times since his 2004 release. His current crimes seem to have included meeting a Scandinavian girlfriend, staying in a hotel rather than his usual place of residence, and having a letter from the US among his correspondence.

The public needs to be aware of this so that Israel is unable to take action

There is a further issue to consider. Over many years of being a Christian, I have met a number of evangelicals whose attitude seems to be, "You can't criticise Israel. They are God's people, and their return to Palestine is prophesied. Do you want to oppose God?"

I have seen many instances where Biblical prophecy has been fulfilled in the recent history of Israel. But it remains true that persecution, racism and violence are so much part of contemporary Israeli life that it well deserves the description "rogue nation."

In Biblical times, Israel frequently faced God's judgment for injustice and unrighteousness. Yet they remained God's people, continued to have a role in God's saving purposes, and were eventually restored to the place of blessing when they repented.

God's people -- Israelites or Christians -- need to hear the voices of prophets and respond to them, or they will hear instead the taunts of their enemies.

Meanwhile it is vital for those of good will, regardless of their religion or race, to refuse to support injustice and unrighteousness from any source, because to support it is to participate in it.

Evil Santa

If there is one Christmas song which bores into the brain and wreaks havoc, it is Santa Claus is coming to town.

I was thinking about Santa Claus, and the origins of the story in the 4th Century Bishop of Myra (Turkey), Nikolaos. Nikolaos became best known for giving gifts of money to three young women whose impoverished father could not afford their dowries. Without dowries, they could not marry, and they faced possible futures as prostitutes.

It struck me that these girls didn't in any way deserve this gift. It was entirely a matter of grace on Nikolaos' part.

I also thought that it was clearly an act of disinterested love. He had the girls' best interests in mind, and acted accordingly.

It is also clear that Nikolaos wanted nothing in return. As it was an act of grace and love, it was not something from which he stood to gain anything.

Contrast this with the Santa Claus of that song.

"You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town..."

This Santa Claus rewards and punishes, giving to those who perform as he desires, withholding from those who don't. The punishments extend beyond good and evil, and include undesired feelings. Those who express sadness or anger are also likely to lose out.

"He's making a list
And checking it twice;
Gonna find out Who's naughty and nice
Santa Claus is coming to town."

"He sees you when you're sleeping

He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!
O! You better watch out!
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town"

There is no escape from this all-seeing eye. Can't sleep? He's got a little list, and you might be on that.

Contrast the Bible's picture of God:

God commends his love to us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

Regardless of what you or I have done, or will do, God still loves us and his gift is still there.

This seems to me to be much better than the evil Santa of that cheery song.