The Reverend Jerry Falwell, former head of the ‘Moral Majority‘ Christian political lobbying group, has stepped up to offer the world some holy reassurance on fears that we might be in the grip of a global climate crisis. In his sermon on February 25th Falwell described global warming as “a myth” and that “the Church must quickly get serious about denouncing the accelerating effort to promote the alleged catastrophic human-caused global warming.”
Speaking to his faithful baptist congregation in Lynchburg, Virginia, Falwell said that the growing environmental awareness among Christians and “naive Christian leaders” is “Satan’s attempt to redirect the church’s primary focus from evangelism to environmentalism.”
“The problem is global warming has become a trendy issue of limousine liberals and Hollywood elitists, and the media are promoting it as virtual, if not substantive, fact.” Said Falwell.
His recent sermon isn’t the first time he’s spoken on the subject of global warming or environmentalism. He’s been dismissing all science about the subject for many years and has called it a “myth” on a number of previous occasions.
On CNN’s ‘Inside Politics‘ show in November 2002, Falwell dismissed global warming as “created to destroy America’s free enterprise system and our economic stability.” Frequently interrupting the shows other guest whose views opposed his, Falwell went on to say “I urge everyone to go out and buy an SUV today.”
Falwell believes Jesus Christ will soon return to earth and a violent apocalyptic battle will take place and therefore there is little need for Christians or anyone to worry about any perceived threat of an impending climactic catastrophe.
Of course, it’s hard to take the so-called “Christian leader” seriously when he seems so adept at regularly spewing the ill considered hateful garbage he so often does. In 2002 he angered Muslims by calling Islam’s prophet Mohammed a “terrorist” as well as “a demon-possessed pedophile.” Indeed, just two days after the 9/11 attacks on America Falwell infamously said on Pat Robinson’s ‘700 Club’ TV show that the attacks were God’s judgment on America for “throwing God out of the public square”
Falwell did say in his sermon that he believes Christians should give the environment some consideration but they should not become “first-class nuts.” As yet the reverend has not given any solid direction on how a Christian might become environmentally aware, and it seems unlikely that there will be a follow up sermon offering practical Falwell endorsed eco-friendly hints and tips.
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Jerry Falwell Ministries
Falwell : Global warming is [still] a myth
[MP3] Falwell talks… well, crap in 2006.
Fallwell to get Jesus a Hummer
Biblely stuff about the environment
Falwell foolishly blames gays, lesbians, the ACLU and others for 9/11
Falwell sheepishly falls back from his original 9/11 position
Wrote the following comment on Feb 28, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Once again… he has outdone himself. Did you know that Falwell has purchased a huge chunk of land in Lynchburg to build a new “Christian Theme Park” (a la Jim Bakker and Heritage USA in the 80’s)!? Yeah. My family is from that area. I was just in Lynchburg this summer. *sigh*
Even if you don’t know what (whom) to believe… you just have to seriously question a man who believes that building a Christian theme park is closer to the heart of God than caring well for the planet that every human being lives on. Methinks the Almighty Dollar resides more dearly in the heart of someone who is more desperately concerned about, “America’s free enterprise system and our economic stability” than on the very planet we live on.
Thank God that not all Christians are like this… http://www.letstendthegarden.org
That’s just infuriating, Simon. UGH.
Wrote the following comment on Feb 28, 2007 at 8:57 pm
The thing that makes me mad though, and I suppose this is the medias fault maybe, is the fact that idiots like Falwell and Robinson get so much airtime in which to say inflammatory shit like this. The news networks like to put these idiots in the ring with people because it makes far more interesting and sensational TV than getting two intelligent people to discuss a subject like educated adults. Heaven forbid we should put something like that on American network news!
The Jerry Falwell and Ann Coulters of this world are given disproportionately large credit for being the mouthpiece of groups they hardly represent.
Wrote the following comment on Mar 1, 2007 at 1:40 am
I completely agree. Completely.
Hey. I was just wondering if it is kosher to post a link in a reply on someone else’s blog. If I have offended with my lack of blog etiquette (blogtiquette?)… please excuse me.
Would it be more appropriate to discuss my bunny suit fetish????
*fans self*
Wrote the following comment on Mar 1, 2007 at 1:46 am
LOL! Shae in a bunny suit and you swooning! I’m still amused by that! :-)
As for posting links. Oh heck I do that all the time. In fact I did that on Shae’s blog just today. So who knows, maybe I am the rudest blogger of all? I’m the most sexist if you’re to believe some of the comments of Reece’s blog.
Wrote the following comment on Mar 1, 2007 at 6:29 am
Being a Christian I acknowledge Falwell as a brother in Christ, but dammnnn he is one brother that is hard to embrace! His soul winning-free market gospel irks that crap out of me. I mean he gets way under my skin, such that when I see him I find myself often asking God for help to love my brother (and not hate him) knowing that there is bound to be many ways in which I too misrepresent Christ, and hold opinions and/or beliefs that are just in error.
Wrote the following comment on Mar 1, 2007 at 7:22 am
I’m with you Anthony!
Christians in general – and that includes myself first and foremost – need to remember that Christ brooked no stupidity and nonsense from the Religious “Elite” (aka ‘Pharisees’) in his day. Most of Jesus’ closest friends and the real movers and shakers of the world were very flawed, ordinary men with not a lot going for them. So who am I to judge really?
We ARE called to be stewards of the earth and that means we don’t OWN it – we CARE for it. We borrow the earth from our children not strip it to make our lives more “user-friendly” like mr Falwell would suggest in some of his comments.
The man is an idiot and I am trying hard to say that respectfully but can’t really! He may be a child of God – (we all are actually whether we like to believe in God or not) – oh but crumbs! I would dearly love to kick him up the arse for being so STUPID!
*sigh*
I don’t know. Being a Christian totally sucks sometimes – especially with this kind of propaganda on ones “side”. :/
Wrote the following comment on Mar 1, 2007 at 10:34 am
Religious crackpots interest me. I think I find the whole thing fasinating in that they are able to sit in influential and often times afluent positions which seem in complete contrast to the things they would teach. Yet they, and their loyal followers can’t see this.
The entire sphere of religion and what drives people to become religious is very interesting to me. I have a post coming up in the future (I’ve yet to really compile it yet) in which I explore the subject of what makes us look for God.
Wrote the following comment on Mar 1, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Looking back over this post it struck me that if we are going to make a guess as to Satan’s strategy, wouldn’t it make scriptural sense that Satan would want to see the destruction of God’s creation, since it is an expression of God’s glory?
I suppose Falwell would say that the issue is that the Church is getting it priorities disordered, but I don’t think that enviromentalism and evangelism have to be competing issues.
I think that Falwell’s flawed thinking was well identified by Jessica in pointing out the flawed priority that God would be more concerned with building a Xian theme park than with the very planet that the theme park would be located upon.
I wonder if there is a little Mammon leaven in Fallwell’s American Gospel.
Wrote the following comment on Mar 2, 2007 at 5:27 pm
I dont understand why all the nutty Christians get all the publicity…its making the rest of us look bad. but anyways, thats lame telling his church to go nuy SUVs, and that they shouldnt worry b/c jesus will be returning. he’s got it all backwards. If you trust God then you dont have to worry about anything that happenes, b/c if you trust him , then you kno that he’s in control and knows whats going on and no matter what he’ll take care of you. if you believe that then you dont need to worry about global warming or anything for that matter. but still eveyone needs to be enviormentally safe and take care of the world we live on, b/c its about taking care of the world that god gave us to take care of.
Wrote the following comment on Mar 3, 2007 at 3:28 am
Not going to talk about Falwell (not sure he has actually read the New Testament), but I do want to make a comment on the hysteria around global warming…
https://www.nature.com/news/2005/050516/full/050516-10.html
It has been proven that Antartica (home to 90% of worlds ice) is actually GAINING ice mass.
So, the Oscar winning documentary where the world is flooded is far from the truth…
I just want to point out that the Earth is an immensely complicated system. And ‘truth’ and ‘fact’ portrayed about what will happen in 50 years is extremely.
Again, I’m not a global warming non-believer, but I am also not going to swallow 2 year-old predictions that have been proven false within 1 year!
Why would I believe predictions 50 years out?
Wrote the following comment on Mar 3, 2007 at 4:37 am
Darion, I can’t agree with that thinking because you have free will to do a whole host of bad things. If I sin is that God’s will? Or is it only Go’s will when I do good things?
My point is that you most certainly DO need to concern yourself with climate change and responsible living, if for no other reason than you are commanded as a Christian to “love thy neighbor” and by simply looking after your own selfish needs without giving thought to how you actions impact the lives of others is absolutely not loving your neighbor is it?
In answer to your comment Mike, I have seen a whole host of news and scientific research than debunks that link you included in your comment, but it matters little. Arguing over the minor details is a fruitless endevour. If someone decides that they will not believe an international panel of climate scientists who reported in Feb that there is an overwhelming probability that human activities are warming the planet at a dangerous rate, with consequences that could soon take decades or centuries to reverse, then sobeit. But that’s not the point.
The point is that oil will run out at some point and we need to start really taking advantage of the renewable sources of energy that we can tap into and develop today.
I saw a TV show the other night that showed some of the amazing ways in which recycling can be utilized. Pretty much everything we toss in the trash can be recycled, it was quite incredible. However, we use very little of those resources in reality.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of hundreds of scientists from 113 countries, said that based on new research over the last six years, it is 90 percent certain that human-generated greenhouse gases account for most of the global rise in temperatures over the past half-century.
That’s not good news – But no matter if you choose to believe such a weighty mountain of evidence or not plays little part in the fact that just living ‘greener’ makes better sense any which way you spin it.
It’s perhaps no surprise that I’ve long been a supporter of “green issues” but unlike some environmentalists I have seriously disliked the fact that so-called “green issues” are often seen as something only loony lefties are serious about as if being conservative or republican must be the opposite.
As far as I see it, “green-issues” effect us all, and aligning them to the “loony lefties” has allowed us to ignore the reality of our global recklessness for far too long.
Lets hope that the futile ‘debate’ over global warming is set aside very soon to make way for some sensble thinking about how we head into the future.
Wrote the following comment on Mar 5, 2007 at 4:05 am
There’s a difference between being a good steward of the planet and buying into the junk science that so heavily touted by the Global Warming heros. As you know, it would be a FAR stretch to call me a looney lefty. :-) But, I fully agree with the notion of finding alternative fuels and recycling etc.
Contrary to what you may expect my opinion to be, it’s not that I am opposed to entertaining global warming as a THEORY. I’m opposed to entertaining global warming as an absolute fact. In some well written (in my opinion) writings on the other side, is some pretty convincing evidence that the so-called evidence presented by the Gore-acle is not as settled as he would have you believe.
When science closes the book on a chapter without tolerating or even acknowledging the possibility of merit in an opposing argument, I smell agenda. But really what could a former politician turned pied piper for the earth have to gain by putting on this circus?
Wrote the following comment on Mar 5, 2007 at 12:43 pm
I don’t think science has closed the chapter though. But it’s foolish to argue too hard against the overwhelming majority of scientists from all over the world who have concluded that based on new research over the last six years, they’re 90 percent certain that human-generated greenhouse gases account for most of the global rise in temperatures over the past half-century.
For this reason I simply don’t debate the issue with the nay-sayers. People who waste time arguing that we’re not responsible are missing the point as it seems you agree Topher. The point is that old is running out and that we are clever enough these days to know how to live better, so why don’t we do that?
Claiming that Antarctica is actually increasing, or that global warming at current rates is well within the natural balance is an interesting conversation to have in some respects. But if it’s being used as an excuse not to explore and exploit renewable energy sources, recycling, and environmentally sound living, then it’s just a foolish diversion.
It’s encouraging to see how many people are now prepared to be a little more ‘green’ in their daily lives, but it’s big business that needs to drive the changes. Car makers need to start offering us eco-friendlier cars, electronics manufacturers need to give us more energy efficient devices, a change in the way we live our lives needs to be accompanied by the ability to make better choices.
Wrote the following comment on Mar 5, 2007 at 9:41 pm
Now you’re beginning to hit on the issue. I will concede that the oil companies are profitting enormously from the consumers hungry for their Hummers and the like. But in their defense, many of them are beginning to utilize some of their profits to explore greener alternatives. But I think you hit on a major culprit that most Goreacle followers pretend doesn’t exist… the automakers. More specifically, the American automakers. Foreign cars have long been superior in quality and fuel economy. The american automakers have held their head in the sand, building bigger and bigger, ignoring demand for greater efficiency.
Why? Creating cars with greater efficiency would cost them more money, and when business is hit in the pocketbook, that effects jobs, and who controls the jobs at automakers? Unions! Who places HUGE finances into democratic pockets? Unions.
It’s a lot easier to just lob the responsibility on “Big” oil. Oilmen usually vote republican. Just a thought.
Wrote the following comment on Mar 5, 2007 at 9:52 pm
You know what Topher, you should check out the movie ‘Who killed the electric car?’ I just saw it. Very interesting, and somewhat depressing.
With regard to oil companies using a small margin of profits to explore renewable energy… well of course they are! But this isn’t because they want to be nice. When we’ve used all oil and are powered by wind/solar/hydro/whatever you can get that BP, Exxon, Shell and the others will be right there providing that power to those who bring us todays power.
They will simply buy up the companies who have developed economic business providing renewable energy. They have the money to buy these companies and take todays small margin eco-power supplies and move them into tomorrows ‘new oil.’ Some might object to that, I don’t. We need power. I’d like to think that ethical companies will be tomorrow big players, but as much of a dreamer as I sometimes am, I am also a realist and where the money goes the suits will follow.