[Vision2020] Warming Affirmed as Moral Issue

Mon Mar 12 02:48:11 PDT 2007

keely-

In fact, to construe "dominium" as "stewardship" is a misuse of language:

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v
1.1)<http://dictionary.reference.com/help/luna.html>-
*Cite This Source*<http://dictionary.reference.com/cite.html?qh=dominium&ia=luna>
*do·min·i·um*
<https://secure.reference.com/premium/login.html?rd=2&u=http%3A%2F%2Fdictionary.reference.com%2Fbrowse%2Fdominium>
  /dəˈmɪniəm/ *Pronunciation Key* - *Show Spelled Pronunciation*[d*uh*-*min*
-ee-*uh*m] *Pronunciation Key* - *Show IPA Pronunciation* *–noun
**Law*.   complete
power to use, to enjoy, and to dispose of property at will.
 ------------------------------
[Origin: 1815–25; < L, equiv. to *domin*(*us*) lord, master + *-ium*
-ium<http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=-ium>]

Even my American Heritage Dictionary defines "dominion" as

1. Control or the exercise of control; rule, sovereignty: "The devil... has
their souls in his possession...and under his dominion." (Jonathan Edwards).

I do not think the language in the Bible in Genesis giving humans "dominium"
over life on Earth is as environmentally friendly a message as a spiritual
view that human life is integrated into and dependent upon all other life on
Earth.

Also, given that the ultimate eventual reality of Christians is not the
biosphere on Earth, but eternal life in heaven, it is perhaps hard to
convince many Christians that protecting the Earth's biosphere is as
absolutely important as seeking eternal life in a spiritual God defined
realm that exists somehow independent from Earth's biosphere.

I offer these comments not to engage in theological debate, but to point out
the obvious arguments that are common in the minds of many when it is
argued, as I would, that the Earth's biosphere and all life on it is our
ultimate reality, and that to destroy it is to destroy our very "spiritual"
being and means of survival as a species...

In other words, no heaven to bail you out!  If the Earth's bioshere is
destroyed, human existence is gone...unless we are living in space, etc.

Ted Moffett

On 3/11/07, keely emerinemix <kjajmix1 at msn.com> wrote:
>
> I like anything that begins "rebuffing Christian radio broadcaster James
> Dobson . . . " and I applaud the NAE for not bowing to the pressure
> exerted
> by the Focus on the Family types.
>
> Care for the environment should have captured the passion of evangelicals
> for generations.  Portraying oneself as a worshiper of the Giver while
> trouncing upon the gift seems more than a little incongruous, and the
> consequences have been a peril to all life.  How the "sanctity of life"
> got
> to be defined only in terms of fetal life and heterosexually-parented
> families is a study in the Scriptural, cultural, moral and personal
> obtuseness of many who claim the name of Christ.  Unfortunately, it seemed
> to be a requirement at the dawn and maturation of the media age to gain
> access to a microphone or printing press, and the tragedy is not only the
> trashing of the earth, but the degradation of the Gospel.
>
> Reagan administration Secretary of the Interior James Watt, an
> evangelical,
> once suggested that Christians get what they could out of mines and
> forests
> in the U.S., because when Jesus came back, he'd be furious at the
> opportunities wasted.  I'm not sure who Watt was expecting, but it sounds
> not at all like the God who delights in clothing the flowers of the field
> and providing for the birds of the air.  Our dominion of the earth is a
> call
> for stewardship, not plunder, and yet Watt and his successors seized the
> debate when Christians allowed themselves to become terrified of anything
> they described as "liberal."
>
> keely
>
> From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
> To: "Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
> Subject: [Vision2020] Warming Affirmed as Moral Issue
> Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2007 07:37:05 -0700
>
> >From today's (March 11, 2007) Spokesman Review -
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Warming affirmed as moral issue
>
> Alan Cooperman
> Washington Post
> March 11, 2007
>
> WASHINGTON - Rebuffing Christian radio commentator James Dobson, the board
> of directors of the National Association of Evangelicals reaffirmed its
> position that environmental protection, which it calls "creation care," is
> an important moral issue.
>
> Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, and two dozen other
> conservative
> Christian leaders, including Gary Bauer, Tony Perkins and Paul Weyrich,
> sent
> the board a letter this month denouncing the NAE's vice president, the
> Rev.
> Richard Cizik, for urging attention to global warming.
>
> The letter argued that evangelicals are divided on whether climate change
> is
> a real problem, and it said that "Cizik and others are using the global
> warming controversy to shift the emphasis away from the great moral issues
> of our time," such as abortion and same-sex marriage.
>
> If Cizik "cannot be trusted to articulate the views of American
> evangelicals
> on environmental issues, then we respectfully suggest that he be
> encouraged
> to resign his position with the NAE," the letter concluded.
>
> The NAE's president, the Rev. Leith Anderson, said Saturday the board did
> not respond to the letter during a two-day meeting that ended Friday in
> Minneapolis. But, he said, the board reaffirmed a 2004 position paper,
> "For
> the Health of the Nations," that outlined seven areas of civic
> responsibility for evangelicals, including creation care along with
> religious freedom, nurturing the family, sanctity of life, compassion for
> the poor, human rights and restraining violence.
>
> On Friday, the NAE's board approved a 12-page statement on terrorism and
> torture. Anderson said that Cizik gave a report to the board on his work
> in
> Washington as vice president for governmental affairs and that there was
> no
> effort to reprimand him. "I think there was a lot of support from me, from
> the executive committee and from the board for Rich Cizik," Anderson said.
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Seeya round town, Moscow.
>
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
> "As more and more heathens 'choose' to not have children the number of
> Godly
> souls will increase. If the number of Christian births out number the
> number
> of Islamic births the battle will be over in 3 or 4 generations."
>
> - Doug "No-Clue" Farris (March 10, 2007)
>
>
>
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