Whether your impression is dominated by the whole or the holes will depend on your attitude to the project at hand. You might say that some see a jigsaw where others see a house of cards. Jigsaw types have in mind an overall picture and are open to bits being taken out, moved around or abandoned should they not fit. Those who see houses of cards think that if any piece is removed, the whole lot falls down.

When I read this quote I really dug it and didn’t know why until I realized the house-of-cards-ists reminded me of biblical literalists. But the article is about views on climate science between the scientists and deniers.

The defenders of the consensus tend to stress the general consilience of their efforts…the way that data, theory and modelling back each other up. Doubters see this as a thoroughgoing version of “confirmation bias”, the tendency people have to select the evidence that agrees with their original outlook. But although there is undoubtedly some degree of that (the errors in the IPCC, such as they are, all make the problem look worse, not better) there is still genuine power to the way different arguments and datasets in climate science tend to reinforce each other.

The doubters tend to focus on specific bits of empirical evidence, not on the whole picture. This is worthwhile…facts do need to be well grounded…but it can make the doubts seem more fundamental than they are. People often assume that data are simple, graspable and trustworthy, whereas theory is complex, recondite and slippery, and so give the former priority. In the case of climate change, as in much of science, the reverse is at least as fair a picture. Data are vexatious; theory is quite straightforward.

At least one person made the connection before me. Jonathan Hiskes from Grist made a similar observation in the ‘bonus point’ in his post on The Economist piece:

One reason why some people adopt the house-of-cards view is that they transfer the metaphor from fundamentalist religion. Fundamentalism requires that every single tenet of a holy scripture be true. If not, the whole apparatus topples. Hence the Biblical inerrancy view…the Bible is true not just as a whole, but in every single historical and scientific detail. Most Christians I know don’t have this literalist view of the Bible. And I’ll leave it to theologians to explain whether this view of scripture makes sense. But if your faith rides on such a belief, you’re likely to look at climate change in the same way.

It’s an intriguing observation concerning the overlap between (fundamentalist) evangelicals and global warming deniers. But I don’t know if it’s simply transfered from religion. That’s a chicken and egg scenario if I’ve ever seen one. House-of-cards tendencies can be found outside of religion and are probably deeply embedded in the human psyche. On the other hand, it might be reinforced through the conditioning of dogmatic teaching. My sense is that it has more to do with one’s circumstances in relationship to a given topic, whether it’s healthcare, economic injustice, LGBT issues, environmental policies … you get the idea. People can be house-of-cards types when it comes to the facts on one issue and jigsaw types on other issues.

At local town hall meetings around the country, opponents of climate and energy legislation are turning out in force along with opponents of health care reform in an orchestrated strategy to shout down congressmembers and intimidate them.

As senators head home for the August recess, we must step up our efforts to demonstrate faith community concern for this issue.

Here is what you can do to help push for climate legislation:

1. You can find more information about an upcoming town hall meeting near you by clicking on one of the orange markers on this map. Please attend an event near you, and peacefully display your support, as a person of faith, for a clean energy and climate bill. While we certainly do not want to imitate their angry mob tactics, it’s important that our senators hear a more accurate portrayal of public opinion at the meetings.
2. Visit our Action Center and send a letter to your senator saying that as a person of clean faith you support:

• increasing our competitiveness in a global clean-energy market that could reach nearly $2 trillion in the next decade.
• creating millions of new American jobs
• protecting God’s Creation for future generations
• protecting the most vulnerable members of our society from catastrophic climate change

If you are involved in some form of student ministry and you have done some kind of work in the environment, give us a call and share your ideas with others. I often hear from ministers who are looking for ideas. Call us at 678-590-BREW.

We mention a climate change bill, and I was actually in D.C. lobbying around the same time Ben was, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (HR 2454), that will significantly reduce carbon emissions in the U.S. It barely passed the House after being weakened significantly, and it is on the way to the Senate after the August recess. Stay tuned for updates from Homebrewed Christianity and watch for ways that you can help strengthen the bill and get it passed.

Praise for Green Revolution in the blogosphere:

RelevantMagazine.com, Review by Jonathan Merritt
DeepGreenConversation.org
Godspace.Wordpress.com, Review from Christine Sine

Which I did. But my trips to the mountains are always simultaneously joyful and mournful. The story I want to tell is about seeing the effects up close of the North American pine beetle outbreak. It’s devastating the Rocky Mountain forests in the U.S. and Canada and growing exponentially each year. The epidemic is occurring because our winters have not been cold enough to stop the beetles from multiplying. Bark beetles are good for the ecosystem, but not in this amount. The fall colors in our evergreen forests are telling us that global warming is no longer something our kids will face; it’s happening now. And it will accelerate if our forests disappear.

But as I mourned, I heard the voice of a man named Fr. Thomas Berry. No one explains our present environmental situation better (and plainer) than this:

The great work of our time, I would say, is moving the human community from its present situation as a destructive presence on the planet to a benign or a mutually enhancing presence. It’s that simple.

From the film Thomas Berry Speaks:

It is that simple. It’s not a political issue. It’s not about saving trees. It’s about our fragile interconnected relationship with other living things, including human beings in vulnerable communities around the world. We know what we need to do, and it comes down to making the decision to be a mutually enhancing presence rather than a destructive one.

My ears always perk up when I hear the Bible quoted on the House floor to argue against a bill I support. Today,  Rep. Mike Pence (R-Indiana) didn’t do as bad a job with Luke 11:46 as Shimkus did with his Bible quotes. The verse Pence quotes is one of Jesus’ three woes to the lawyers in Luke’s Gospel. Rep. Pence calls them ‘lawmakers’, which isn’t a good translation of the word nomikos in Luke, but neither is ‘lawyer’, the common translation. A nomikos in Luke seems to have authority to control people’s way of living Judaism. They are zealous for the Torah, and people consult them about how to follow the Law. Jesus’ woes to them in Luke 11 indicate that they have an obligation to help people follow the law and not just ‘burden’ them with things to do. The nomikoi in Luke joined the scribes and Pharisees as some of Jesus’ biggest opponents, as they had always been toward God’s prophets.

I suppose nomikoi could have made pronouncements which were legally binding, so in that sense they could be considered lawmakers. So let’s let him slide on his use of Luke 11:46. But what he says about the bill is completely wrong.

He says, ‘But there’s no dispute, the Democrat cap-and-trade bill will raise the cost of energy to every household in America, every small business, every family farm…’

Wrong. It’s going to lower our energy bills.

‘…and it will cost millions of American jobs.’

Wrong. It will create millions of jobs.

If you are going to talk about lawmakers putting a burden on people and not lifting a finger to help them, I’m sure we can find some examples, but this isn’t one of them.

By the way…

Whether you’re much of an activist or not, you can do something to help (if you’re reading this on June 25 or June 26). Congress is getting a lot of calls right now both for and against the American Clean Energy and Security Act. The vote will likely be tomorrow. Your call could tip the balance.

Here’s what to do:

Call the Congressional Switchboard and ask to be connected to your representative. If you do not know who your representative is, click here and enter your address.

House Switchboard: (202) 224-3121

What you can say…

Please pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act, HR 2454.  I am calling as a person of faith (and/or as a member of  ___________ congregation in _______). This bill will help launch a clean energy future and avert the worst impacts of climate change.

UPDATE: The bill passed! It was very close. It’s heading to the Senate next.

Is it evangelical theology or the high overlap between conservative politics and evangelicals that contributes most to these statistics?

I’m developing a hunch. Religious arguments against addressing global warming usually fall into the following basic categories:

1. ‘If you think it’s hot now, wait until Jesus comes back.’ Long before global warming gets serious, Jesus will come back on a white horse, judge us, destroy the wicked with flames, and take the righteous to heaven. Just wait until you see the carbon footprint of an angry God.
2. ‘You’re worshiping creation instead of the Creator.’ Caring for the Earth is a subtle form of paganism. Recycling leads to buying a fuel-efficient car, which leads to drum circles and neo-druid solstice rituals.
3. ‘The Great Commission has nothing to do with lowering GHG Emissions.’ Addressing the threat of global warming doesn’t help anyone accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. Therefore, anyone or any church involved in protecting the Earth is distracted from our calling to present the gospel so that people can be saved. Worse, these people are spreading this distraction to others. So this type of ‘ministry’ is actually causing countless unsaved people to go to hell, and the blood is on the hands of the global warming alarmist Christians.

I’ve been on the receiving-end of all of these statements, and I’m not at all exaggerating on the wording. Show me a Christian argument against global warming, and I will show you how it fits into one of these three categories. As we get closer to Earth Day, I’m going to be addressing each one, but I want to get back to the survey and my initial question.

The above responses aren’t at all concerned with whether an increase in CO2 from fossil fuels is causing the earth to warm at a rate that will cause the most vulnerable communities in the world to suffer from drought, hurricanes, floods, and other natural disasters. None of them addresses the scientific evidence.

My hunch is that the evangelical theology from deniers doesn’t cause people to doubt the existence of anthropogenic climate change; it causes them to think that concern about it leads Christians astray. Denial of human-caused global warming is usually aimed at the scientific claims, and sounds like, ‘The earth is actually getting cooler.’ Or, ‘Warming is a natural cycle caused by the sun.’ Or, ‘Methods of measuring historical CO2 levels are untrustworthy.’ These denials compliment arguments against climate legislation, such as capping emissions.

Maybe this is an obvious distinction, but I think it’s important when it comes to having productive conversations with our friends on the subject. When people make a theological argument against care for creation, it’s about their (sometimes) sincere belief in what work is important for Christians to be involved in. When the science is attacked, it’s often because of conservative political ideology. But often these groups overlap, as the survey demonstrates.

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The second verse comes from Matthew 24. ‘And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other.’ Man will not destroy this Earth.

UPDATE: Deacon Drew nails it!

In episode 40, the first episode of Homebrewed Christianity Season 2, we finally reveal the much anticipated ‘hypaliciousness’. Listen for the list of what is new this year for the podcast. The controversy over the new Emergent National Coordinator is settled, we share our plans for upcoming episodes, and tell our deacons about new ways to get involved.

The guest this week is very special to me, and not only because she founded the organization that employs me. The Rev. Canon Sally Bingham gives us hope that people of faith are starting to take climate change seriously. She founded Interfaith Power & Light convincing a handful of Episcopal churches in California to purchase wind energy.

Today, the organization represents 5,000 congregations in 29 states. Recently she received an honorary doctorate from Sewanee and was featured on The Weather Channel’s Forecast Earth Hot List, along with Google and T. Boone Pickens.

Visit InterfaithPowerandLight.org to:

• Pre-order Love God Heal Earth by the Rev. Canon Sally Bingham
• Sign the Interfaith Call for Climate Action Petition to Barack Obama
• Find out how to get involved locally
• Subscribe to the IPLog, the blog of the Interfaith Power & Light campaign.