Musing 17

One of the things that has baffled me is how Christians have permitted themselves to a priori reject the notion of man made climate change because of political affiliations.

While I understand the beliefs of those who say “look, it could be God’s just judgement on us, in which case the only solution is spiritual not material”, since this position is ultimately spiritual. But even for those who acknowledge “yes, man made climate change fits many of the patterns of God’s judgement upon sin in the past, but because the main voices are politically different (or outright opposed to me), I will not even consider the veracity of such claims and assume them false”.

For the purposes of this musing, the veracity of climate change is irrelevant in and of itself. Instead it’s use is in exposing the idolatrous thought processes often masquerading as Christian.

Instead of asking, “hey, what’s the truth of these claims?” it is often “well, Democrats are saying it’s true, Democrats would lie about the color of the sky, and therefore this isn’t true.” Setting aside the implicit idolatry of making mere man the arbiters of truth, this attitude shuts down the very attitude Jesus tells us to have in the face of disaster.

When Jesus was questioned about how to respond to disaster (either in the case of the man born blind or the tower of Siloam’s collapse or the Jews whose blood had been mixed into the sacrifices) it wasn’t to ascribe sin to anyone. In the case of the man born blind, it was to showcase God’s glory. But in the other cases? His response is telling – He tells us that “unless you repent, you too will perish.” (Luke 13:5)

Yet in the face of disaster, it feels rare for us to exhort one another to examine ourselves to see if there is sin we ought to repent of. And when we seek to ascribe sin in those situations, we often shut down the introspection for ourselves, or what is probably more likely, become like the Pharisee looking down on the tax collector.

Instead, what should our response be? First it’s to examine ourselves for sin, understand what the sin is and repent.

With climate change specifically, I fear for the hearts of many people because many of the judgements in Revelation are climatological in nature, and a not infrequent comment on the results of these judgements is that man “would not repent”. Ignoring that God’s judgement often comes in the form of the consequences of our actions, it should strike terror in us that the response of many is “well, my political opponents say I am doing something wrong, but I will not even consider examining myself to see if I need to repent”.