Regarding climate change, Pope Francis recently said:
It is an urgent challenge, it cannot be postponed, it concerns everyone. Let us protect our common home.
In the same speech, Pope Francis called for the world to stop using fossil fuels, and stated that he has made protection of the planet a cornerstone of his pontificate.
I have two observations. First, if he considers the Earth to be our “common home,” perhaps he should do a bit more pontificating about the afterlife. “Home” is generally a place where we feel the most familiar and comfortable. I expect to have more of both in Heaven than I currently have on Earth. In fact, Christians often refer to our passage to Heaven as being “called home.” To the faithful, the Earth is little more than a giant bed and breakfast, upon which we spend an infinitesimally small portion of our life. Shouldn’t our heavenly home be of more concern in the Pope’s pontificate than our current temporal residence?
Second, Pope Francis’ plea to “protect our common home” is not a suggestion that we be conscientious in the use of Earth’s resources. It’s a demand that we subscribe to the unproven theory of anthropogenic climate change. He wants us to stop using fossil fuels. He should re-read the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30). According to the parable, a master gave talents (units of gold) to three of his servants for management in his absence. Two of the servants used their talents to earn a profit for their master. One buried his talent for safe keeping. Upon the master’s return, he had great praise for the servants who had turned a profit for him, and great disdain for the servant who had merely saved his talent.
The parable is universally interpreted to mean that we are to use our God-given gifts in service to the Almighty. Those with the gift of oration should preach, those with the gift of music should sing of him, and so on. But we have received many gifts from God besides our personal skills. Isn’t the Earth itself one of those gifts? Does God want us – whom he created in his image – to serve the Earth, or did he provide the Earth to give us sustenance? Does he want us to use it, or save it like a buried talent?
There’s a Boy Scout saying that we should always leave a campsite the way we found it (or better). That appears to be the mantra of the climate change cult: leave the planet as we found it – as if we were never here. But does God want us to return the same number of talents (gifts) as we were given – as if we were never here? Or does he want more? If so, what would more look like? Would it look like more trees and glaciers, but fewer and more miserable people? Or would it look like a planet filled with joyous followers? Should we presume that he wants us to be the servant who buried his talent, or the servants who used the Earth and all its resources to build a thriving civilization in his honor?
Fortunately, God told us what his expectation is. In Genesis 1:28 he commanded Adam and Eve to:
Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.
God didn’t command us to save the Earth. He commanded us to use it. His will is for us to multiply and prosper for his glory.
How does any of that square with the demands of the climate change cult? They want to sacrifice our prosperity to reduce greenhouse gases because an unproven climate theory says our temporal residence might be at risk – though their predictions have all been wrong to date. They want to reduce our population to minimize our human footprint – to “save the planet.” Some even want to move humans into orbital factory/cities to return the Earth to a pristine Garden of Eden like condition – thus leaving the campsite as we found it. Followers in the cult of climate change want humans to sacrifice for the planet. Doesn’t that sound a bit like putting the Earth ahead of God – a violation of the 1st commandment?
Obviously, our gifts should not be wasted, nor should our earthly natural resources be squandered. That would be poor stewardship. But anthropogenic climate change believers – including Pope Francis – aren’t demanding thoughtful use of our resources. They’re demanding no use of our resources. They wish our resources to remain below ground, just as the talent of the offending servant was.
While God commanded us to use our gifts to prosper, the “green new deal” and its variants would drive us to fewer people, more destitution, and less freedom. That is the opposite of being good stewards of God’s gifts.
When our time on Earth is finished and we return to our real “common home,” do we wish to stand before our master as the servant who returns a soulless ball of rock and water to him just as he bequeathed it to us? Or do we wish to be the servants who used the Earth’s resources to fill the planet with a prosperous civilization, and reached for the stars to carry his word forth?
Author Bio: John Green is a political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho. He has written for American Thinker, and American Free News Network. He can be followed on Facebook or reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.
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Well said. You answered the question. We are to subdue the earth and have dominion over it. We are to put it to use to serve him and our fellow man. As you said, not wasteful, but not to bury it and hide it either.