Every so often you come across a piece of writing so extraordinary that you cannot help but share it. One such piece is a sermon on global warming by American pastor John MacArthur. Full of beautifully constructed rhetorical flourishes, it is forcefully delivered by an experienced and impassioned preacher to a large and appreciative audience.
For me, as a man of science, it is the most complete compilation of unsound arguments, factual errors and misleading analogies as I have seen in discussions of this subject. But it’s important because climate change is a big election issue this November in the US, where there is a growing movement of evangelical Christians who deny its existence, while Joe Biden promises a “clean air revolution”.
The minister of the COVID-denying, law-defying Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California – which has encouraged worshippers to congregate as normal despite state COVID-19 restrictions – MacArthur is an impressive figure whose Study Bible has sold almost 2 million copies.
He regards the infallibility of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, as essential to his faith, […]
One of the tragedies of the western world is the development of Christianity from its original Gnostic origins because they promote a denial of the sanctity of nature. “Mother Earth” is replaced by a warrior sky god with no mercy for anyone who has not “surrendered” to him. The development of “heaven” as the reward for “believing” and hell for any one else was effective in cementing the authoritarian power of the Church. The obsession with the “rapture” where “believers” will be beamed up to heaven while everyone else is left on a doomed Earth is a continuation of that theme. And it is a true tragedy, because this theology is absolutely destructive and inappropriate for the world we now live in.
“Hope now lies in moving beyond our past in order to build together a sustainable future for all the interwoven and interdependent life on our planet, including the human element. We will have to evolve now into a truly compassionate and tolerant world – because for the first time since the little tribes of humanity’s infancy, everyone’s well being is once again linked with cooperation for survival.”
Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad, The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power 8