How do people who think they are Christians also end up thinking they are goofy "environmentalists"? I know that at least half of the major-media brainwashed population is already burning with holy rage that the word "goofy" was used to modify "environmentalist." But I suspect that most of those people will never read this anyway, so on we go to consider:

Before I "cut loose" here, let me say that I think God’s green earth is a wonderful place. It is worth keeping clean and liveable. But there are two very different approaches to doing that. One involves blind ideology and a disregard for what we really know about our world. This way also attempts to solve environmental problems with the methods of socialism, or its close cousin fascism. This is why I have labeled this version of environmentalism "goofy." That said, we can wade into the quagmire that is goofy environmentalists, noticing how they are trying to suck Christians into their psychoses.

Picture this, if you will:

"Thanks to the Rev. Leroy Hedman, the parishioners at Georgetown Gospel Chapel take their baptismal waters cold. The preacher has unplugged the electricity-guzzling heater in the immersion baptism tank behind his pulpit. He has also installed energy-saving fluorescent light bulbs throughout the church and has placed water barrels beneath its gutter pipes -- using runoff to irrigate the congregation's all-organic gardens."

While there is nothing wrong with doing any of these things - other than the fact that it might cut down on baptisms in the colder months of the year - the unpleasant fact is that the Rev. mentioned here can’t just do these things and keep his big mouth shut about them. And here is little suggestion for the Rev. - you can save even more energy if you turn out those fluorescent lights, and do everything by daylight - or light a candle at night. But let’s face it: goofy environmentalists never want to carry their own principle to its logical conclusion. Logic, in fact, has very little to do with some environmentalism. But on we go.

Clearly, the Rev. has a good marketing department. But are fluorescent light bulbs, water barrels under the gutter pipes, and all-organic gardens really the way to love Jesus? And by the way, Rev., the term "creation care" does drive this Christian at least a little crazy. Of course, most people think I’m close already.

It seems that the goofy environmentalists would like to have more allies, and they hope to find them in the ranks of "the Christian right." They already have "the Christian left" - but I suppose that is not enough for the environmentalists.

One of the many reasons I don’t want to be labeled an "evangelical" is that someone might think the nutty National Association of Evangelicals speaks for me. The problem comes in mindlessly linking "a Christian’s duty" with "the role of government." When it comes to the environment, many problems are created by governments.

For example, consider the case of DDT. This often vilified substance was once used to control mosquitoes and the malaria they often carry. But in the mid-twentieth century, the environmentalist propaganda mill began to claim that DDT was killing animal life and would eventually threaten humans. If you research the facts you will find that there is no good evidence that DDT ever harmed any animal, let alone any humans. But that didn’t stop governments from banning it. And since it has been banned, malaria has killed millions of human beings. To get a bit of perspective on this, you need to know that World Health Organization estimates in 2003 put the number of people in Africa dying from malaria annually equal to the number of AIDS’ deaths over the last 15 years combined. This sort of information, however, never shakes the faith of goofy environmentalists.

But the issue on which the goofy environmentalists would like to enlist more Christian support just now is that of "global warming."

This is just the kind of stupidity disguised as reasoning that should make thinking Christians think twice about listening to goofy environmentalists. Besides being a kind of happy hour for the weather channel, what exactly is the significance of four hurricanes making landfall in Florida? And even if glaciers are melting, why should this shock or surprise any sane person? I would be a lot more worried if glaciers were expanding. But knowing the way many environmentalists think, perhaps they would prefer another ice age.

As one writer so nicely put it, "The Earth has been warming ever since the last Ice Age. You better hope it continues to enjoy its current cycle of moderate weather because another Ice Age, predicted in the 1970s by the very same Greens advocating a catastrophic global warming today, will make the Earth a cold place on which to live."

A United Nations report from 1996 stated that "global warming" was a fact. But before the report was released, two key paragraphs were deleted from the final draft. Those two paragraphs, written by the scientists who did the actual scientific analysis, said:

1. "[N]one of the studies cited above has shown clear evidence that we can attribute the observed climate changes to increases in greenhouse gases."

2. "[N]o study to date has positively attributed all or part of the climate change to…man-made causes."

Christians who have doubts about all this should study up on the facts, and not be swayed by the unfounded fears of the uninformed - or worse yet, those with an axe to grind in this matter. The facts, as reported by Dr. Sallie Baliunas, Senior Scientist at George C. Marshall Institute, are these: "the surface records show early 20th-century warming, mid-20th-century cooling, and late 20th-century warming."

Unfortunately, we can expect more from so-called Christian "leaders" like the 2004 Christianity Today editorial "Heatstroke" (9-16-04) which ignores the testimony of scientists in this field in favor of the pronouncements of N.E.A. officials and selected politicians.

Prominent experts like climatologist Patrick J. Michaels and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Richard Lindzen have both compared belief in fears of catastrophic global warming to an irrational "religion."

It’s a religion alright, and it is much more akin to the religion of Baal than to the religion of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

But that kind of thought has never occurred to people like the Rev. Jim Ball, executive director of the Evangelical Environmental Network. His group made its name with the catchy slogan "What Would Jesus Drive?" Comment here could probably add nothing of importance! But it is worth noting that this Rev. and his E.E.N. has recently shifted their focus from the driving preferences of Jesus to global warming. The good Rev. is worried that Christians might misunderstand environmentalists. In his words, Christians "don't know many environmentalists, but they have the idea they are pretty weird -- with strange liberal, pantheist views."

Rev. Jim would like us to think this isn’t the case. So to wrap up, let us return to Leroy Hedman, the Rev. with whom we began this article. In a recent sermon, Rev. Leroy is reported to have said, "The Earth is God's body. God wants us to look after it."

The earth is God’s body? Sounds just a wee bit pantheistic to me. But then again, I’m not a goofy environmentalist.