Recently over on Facebook (where you can friend me if you like), I posted an item which stated:
Jimmy Akin would like the world to know that he has heard exhortations to “Go Green”/“Be Green”/“Save the Planet” so often that using any of these phrases drastically decreases the chance he will agree to the proposal in question—whatever it is.
I figured that this would generate a good bit of reaction, and it did. In less than a day there were over 100 responses. That was even more reaction than the item I posted about the spider in Madagascar that makes webs 82 feet across or the woman who fended off a bear by hitting it with a zucchini!
A big part of the reason the item got the reaction it did is that a lot of people feel the same way.
Here are some of the responses people posted:
Jimmy, it is so nice to know that I am not the only one.
Yeah. It’s like Chinese Water Torture. It has its merit, but do you have to beat us to death with it?
One trade association I belong to sends me a green e-mail every week like clockwork. It tells me that my clients want me to be green, and are more likely to do business with me if I’m green. I keep telling them that I’m not paying for that much body paint, but they keep sending me the e-mails anyway.
“Go green” and “reduce, reuse, recycle” is stuffed down kids’ throats every chance there is. It makes my kids groan and roll their eyes. How about “go chaste”??? A more-needed message for sure. Did you ever notice no one ever says, “oh kids will never recycle, so we might as well help them waste . . . “
Why did the “Go Green” message leave such a bitter taste on these people’s mouths?
Well, as one saying has it, there are “A Million Ways to Go Green!” And all of them are inconvenient.
Environmentalists have been so successful in pushing the “Go Green” sloganeering through our culture that we are now all continuously bombarded by environmental scolding that is vastly out of proportion what environmental problems exist, so far as the average person can tell.
As a result, environmental activists have acquired the reputation of annoying nattering nannies, of rigid killjoys out to spoil everybody else’s fun. Rather like the reputation Fundamentalists have. And in fact, many have noted that environmental activists treat environmentalism like a religion.
And it’s not the, “I’m comfortable with what I believe, and I’ll tell you why I believe it and also listen to you and we can have a mutually respectful dialog”-type of religion, like you get from the Vatican. Instead, it’s the “Convert or die!”-type of religion—in some cases literally, for certain environmentalist activists put spikes in trees with the deliberate intent of causing physical injury to loggers.
It should be pointed out in all fairness that most environmental activists don’t go to that extreme, but the movement is rapidly acquiring a reputation for being as heavy handed and disrespectful of others’ views as anyone disdained as a “Fundamentalist.”
In fact, now that the term “Fundamentalism” has mutated way beyond its original meaning (a group of theologically conservative Protestants associated with a set of 19th century books known as “The Fundamentals”), now that we have not only “Christian fundamentalists” and “Muslim fundamentalists” and “Hindu fundamentalists,” it might as well be time that we start referring to “environmental fundamentalists” as well.
This actually could be a help for those with legitimate environmental concerns.
I mean, it’s not as if one should be unconcerned with the environment. God gave mankind the mandate to serve as stewards of the natural world, and that concern is legitimate.
That’s why—in my Facebook item—I didn’t say that urging me to “Go Green” would stop me from adopting whatever proposal is under discussion. I have no desire to adopt a rigid contradict-environmentalists-no-matter-what-they-say position. That would be irrational—just like adopting an adhere-to-everything-environmentalists-claim position.
What is needed in this area, as in every area of life, is the ability to think critically, to “Test everything and hold fast to what is good,” in the words of St. Paul (though, of course, he was speaking in a different context).
Unfortunately, experience has shown that many of the claims made by environmentalists are bunk, and many of the recommendations made by them are equally bunk. They will little or nothing to help supposed environmental problems—and they may even hurt.
The reflexive, unthinking exhortations to “Go Green” and “Save the Planet” and thus serve as a kind of marker for unreliable, unproved, and usually unhelpful proposals.
That is why hearing any of these things makes it less likely I’ll agree to the proposal. The appearance of these slogans is a good indicator of the presence of ideology rather than reason, and ideology is a poor guide compared to reason.
Having a way to refer, collectively, to those who have become environmental ideologues—“environmental fundamentalists,” for example—thus could play a useful role in distinguishing legitimate environmental concerns from unthinking ideology.
Naming the problem is part of solving it.
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Eat less. Drive less. Kneel and pray more. That’s “green”.
“As a result, environmental activists have acquired the reputation of annoying nattering nannies, of rigid killjoys…”
Also, many of the “Go Green” exhortations lack substance.
“Save the world, drive a hybrid”- Ummm, those vehicles don’t grow on vines, they are made by extracting raw materials and processing with energy intensive industrial machinery.
“Go paperless”- So the electronic access of information is more green than paper? I would like to see the analysis as electronics are made from many types of raw materials using toxic chemicals and energy intensive processes. Also, online information is available 24/7 so that means there must be a power plant(s) running 24/7 so one can access a bank statement, newsletter, etc… I’m not convinced paperless is green if the whole supply chain/ecosystem is looked at.
And then there are the Hollywood and political elites who preach the green message yet live in mansions and jet-set about the globe. I recall one article about a Hollywood type, known for his environmental causes, that discussed how said actor’s second home in Colorado was designed to be green. What is “green” about a 2nd home? Mind you, it was a 4,500 sq ft home too.
There is a phoniness to the “Go Green” message from Hollywood and the media, so when I hear that message I mostly roll my eyes. So yes, “test and hold fast to what is true” is a valuable measure for a lot of the green messaging being hyped around us.
Ah, but scolding is fun. And how else can you get your daily dose of moral superiority without having to be kind to anyone or making any serious sacrifice? It’s been produced in the lab, actually; subjects given a chance to buy “enviromentally friendly” products are more like to lie and cheat at a game. (For money, no less.)
“Eat less. Drive less. Kneel and pray more. That’s “green”“
Quite right Virgil.
Funny thing is, modern environmentalism (now not the conservationism of, say, Teddy Roosevelt) has its roots in neopaganism. Many an environmentalist is also a practitioner of Wicca, Theosophy, Gnosticism, or other creation-worshiping group. “Go Green” is just the latest in buzz-words, preceded by “Mother Earth,” “The Goddess,” “Mother Nature,” “Gaia,” “Maiden, Mother, and Crone” and a whole host of other wind-color painter monikers.
And yet, I too have been assaulted (at work) with the constant barrage of “energy treasure hunt” (in which a bunch of busy-bodies decide that I don’t really need to see in the men’s room, that that fan is “just blowing hot air around” and that my dinosaur pc and its equally archaic equipment should be turned off if I step away for more than 30 minutes.
I’ve taken to ending my email signature with “In principio erat verbum” and other Latin Scripture passages now, in opposition to “save a tree, don’t print this!” We’ll see how long that goes unchecked.
What I got sick and tired of, were the bumper stickers that proclaimed “Love Your Mother”, with a photo of planet earth. I’m sorry, but the earth is not my “mother”. Ihave two mothers. My Heavenly Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and my earthly mother who passed away in 1995.
The environmental movement is more like a religion, and an earth based religion at that. It seems like another pagan religion to me. They give all the power over earth to man, and ignore or don’t believe that in the end, God is in charge.
I don’t remember who said it now, but I recall reading a while back where someone made a comparison of the environmental movement being a religion, and pointed out that they evenj have their own religious holiday. Earth Day.
I guess what has irked me for so many years among my conscious friends is that they want to “Save the world” or “Save the planet” when it’s already been saved by Christ. Of course, we have our individual and national duties to use resources responsibly, but the place is already saved, and we follow our Savior.
+J.M.J+
Though it’s tempting to just react against environmentalism by saying “the earth is not my mother!” the Bible does say that the earth is, in some sense, our mother:
“Great labour is created for all men, and a heavy yoke is upon the children of Adam, from the day of their coming out of their mother’s womb, until the day of their burial into the mother of all.” - Eccesiasticus (Sirach) 40:1
Perhaps it’s more in the natural order, insofar as our forefather Adam was created from the earth. The Blessed Virgin is our Mother in the supernatural order, though, which takes precidence for Christians.
I wouldn’t object to people calling the planet “mother earth” if they did so in the spirit of Saint Francis of Assisi, who called her “our sister, mother earth” in his “Canticle of Brother Sun.” I guess a lot of moderns don’t mean it that way, though.
The only thing “green” in the envirnomental movement is the color of the new money in the wallets of people like Al Gore who sell “Kool Aide” for people dumb enough to drink it!For some it has become their current “religion” as Jimmy Atkin here points out….even within our Church we have people who want to “mix” that elixer with our own e.g.
last Lent it was suggested in the Archdiocses of Washington, DC that penitents could fulfill their fast by reducing their carbon footprint!!!
As if salvation now depended upon how “green” is your practice of faith!
I think the worst problem with environmentalist dogma is that in trying to ‘save the planet’ their ideas generally tend to hurt people. They seem to be willing to trade human life and its sanctity for some Utopian ideal of environmental bliss. I like Mark Hall’s, of Casting Crowns, line about America in the song, While You Were Sleeping: “As we’re sung to sleep by philosophies that save the trees and kill the children.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
I agree with “dpt”. It is always the people with the most money (like entertainers-who want publicity) and those in ‘power’ who want to tell us (the average person) how to live and they, themselves never set the example. Obama said “don’t go to LasVegas and waste your money, yet he and his wife go on expensive vacations. Entertainers build 2 or 3 houses yet tell the average person to recycle, save energy, etc. As the writer said one gets tired of this “green” bit.
“nattering nannies”... HAHA!! LOVE IT!!! :)
I am not having a knee jerk reaction to the “earth is my mother” mantra of the environmentalists. When they speak of the earth as mother they do not mean it in a biblical sense. The environmentalists I have known and know have little or no Christian faith of any kind. Their faith is the worship of “mother earth”. Some have even expressed a desire for a catclysmic event that would destroy a high per centage of human life, and would leave a small remnant to care for and be stewards of “mother earth”. That remnant, in their minds are the environmentalists.
There is a Christian philosophy regarding taking care of the planet..it falls under the category of being good stewards of the gift of Creation…including the gift of life! The nabobs currently spouting the “green philosophy” are usually found among the Pro-choice crowd. What
part of that crowd is for life? Yes, life on their terms…which means zero population growth and death to the human population! You have a better chance of surviving on this planet if you are a member of the endangered zebra mussels species than if you are a human!
I am an environmentalist and a traditional Catholic Christian. I believe that as a Christian, I have no choice but to be a steward of Creation. We badly need more Christians involved in the movement, though, to counteract the anti human life attitudes common among many environmentalists. Though these attitudes are obviousy hypocritical in the context
of saving our environment, they are widely held by some and need to be rebuked.
I thought you were a bit whiny in this article, Jimmy.
As Christians our actions should be based on whether or not they are in accord with God’s wishes for us. We should not recycle because of pressure groups but because we worship and serve the Creator who has told us to tend His creation and recycling is a positive step toward that goal.
Green has become a religion to some. Whose fault is that? When was the last time you chatted with a Green and explained that the Darwinian view of the universe they hold to holds that the spoils go to the dominant species and that the only rational reason for protecting the environment is because it is the will of God who created it.
+J.M.J+
>>>I am not having a knee jerk reaction to the “earth is my mother” mantra of the environmentalists.
When you said earlier, “I’m sorry, but the earth is not my “mother”,” it did seem like a reaction against the “Love Your Mother” bumper stickers you had just mentioned. I just wanted to point out that there is a biblical basis for the idea. You’re certainly right that the environmentalists “do not mean it in a biblical sense.” Yet we Christians can acknowledge that the earth can, in some sense, be understood as our “mother.” Without worshiping it, of course - the same way we don’t worship the Blessed Virgin or our own earthly mothers, for that matter.
Sorry guys but I still think EXAMPLES have to be set. Generally speaking—-Entertainers always need a “cause”, mostly for exposure—the same with giving money to charity. That is not such a great thing—anyone of us would do it if we had that exorbitant amount of extra money—that is easy to do. Try volunteering in a nursing home—-now that is “giving”. Jesus directed us in this too—as well as Mother Theresa. Yes, Jesus tells us to “protect the earth” and we should but from the top down, President, leaders, teachers, churches, parents—we have to set good examples for our children. It is always best to say do as I do, not do as I say. You don’t tell you son to stop smoking while you are puffing on a cigarette.
At Medjugorje, I believe, the Blessed Mother said we have forgotten that the laws of nature could be suspended by the power of prayer. Your article brought this to mind Jimmy, because I agree with some of the other commentaries that the green movement is really a lack of faith. Following the faith, praying and trusting in God will make us as green as we need to be.
THE GREEN CAUSE IS GOOD. IT IS THE AD`S THAT STINK.
Sadly those who are so interested in having everyone “go green” ignore the obvious steps:
1) Stop taking birth control pills. The sheer volume of chemical hormones being dumped into our water supply by those who are on birth control pills is doing real damage to the environment - something that doesn’t get reported by main stream media because it doesn’t fit their agenda.
2) Abstinence until marriage, one man and one woman per marriage, fidelity for life. For those who are interested in reducing population, this is a sure winner. Those who practice this have fewer kids (and headaches!) than those who don’t - not to mention a lot easier time tracing their children’s genealogy.
3)Encourage your children to explore vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
4) Say no to in vitro fertilization, sperm donation, and egg harvesting. Aside from the fact that the whole in vitro fertilization process is against Catholic teaching, it’s also not any friend of those who are worried about bigger populations. Nor are the chemicals and equipment required for these processes any friend to the environment.
Brilliant Brandy. Just brilliant.
My son nags me to be more “green”. He points out that he has automatic adjustments for his thermostats in his 3800 square foot home, he also recycles all his plastic water bottles. He never slows down enough to notice that my home is smaller and that I get my water from the faucet.
To those who berate me with the “Go Green” slogan, I urge them to “Go Catholic!”. It’s the only way to live!
Some great posts there by Sue, Brandy Miller and Love Corapi. I couldn’t have put them better myself.
G.K. Chesterton has the following to say about the whole Mother Earth nonsense:
“Unfortunately, if you regard Nature as a mother, you discover that she is a step-mother. The main point of Christianity was this: that Nature is not our mother: Nature is our sister. We can be proud of her beauty, since we have the same father; but she has no authority over us; we have to admire, but not to imitate. This gives to the typically Christian pleasure in this earth a strange touch of lightness that is almost frivolity. Nature was a solemn mother to the worshippers of Isis and Cybele. Nature was a solemn mother to Wordsworth or to Emerson. But Nature is not solemn to Francis of Assisi or to George Herbert. To St. Francis, Nature is a sister, and even a younger sister: a little, dancing sister, to be laughed at as well as loved.” From Chesterton’s _Orthodoxy_
I’d much rather go red, as in the blood of Christ.
I agree that environmentalism has become more of a religion than science. Sure, there is evidence that we have not always been the greatest stewards of the earth, but there is even greater evidence that the environment is much more resilient than we give it credit for. I really hope and pray that fundamentalist environmentalists come around and see the damage they are doing to humanity and the planet.
I love the GO CHASTE slogan. I was wondering whatever happened to movies, books, education, etc. encouraging people to behave better and treat each other with respect and dignity. What happened to a good honest job being a thing of pride to do your best at even if you were a garbage man? People used to read and go to plays and movies to be lifted from the gutter not to go and idealize the gutter. The world has gone insane and is trying to take us with it. I say write letters on paper and save a postal workers job. Use paper bags instead of plastic to lower our depence on foreign petroleum. I’ll go green when the “greenies” start saving unborn children.
Isn’t it praiseworthy to exercise prudence and diligence in treating our natural resources responsibly, to eat sensibly and to get proper rest and exercise for our bodies, and to see that our children do as well, to maintain our homes and equipment in reasonably good condition, to order our finances so that we are able to provide for our own needs and assist our neighbor in need, and to attend well to our work so that our employer receives a fair day’s work for a fair day’s wage? Care and diligence in the natural order of things is something every Christian should exercise faithfully. . . . but the things of God should always take first priority and be our first area of attention.
First: Charity - love of God and of our neighbor
Afterwards: Care of material things, including our own health and those of our family members, our homes, our finances, and our natural resources.
P.S.
Should have added: To say, “I won’t pay attention to reasonable stewardship of our natural resources because the Greenies go overboard about it” makes about as much sense as to say, “I won’t watch my weight or take care of my body because those Hollywood nuts think of nothing else but their looks,” or “I won’t conscientiously produce at work, doing my fair share, because those Wall Street vampires are all about making money.” It’s important to be balanced in the Christian life.
Speaking of St Francis, has anyone noticed the not-too-infrequent hijacking/bowlderizing of that great and interesting saint in mainstream CATHOLIC publications?!?!?
Case in point: our parish just switched to Loyola Press’s Finding God/Christ our Life series for our PSR program and I couldn’t believe it when I saw the treatment of St Francis, for first graders’ very first lesson and then repeated later: apparently the most outstanding thing about St Francis is that he “made friends with a wolf”, “loved animals” and “cared for God’s creation”????
In fact, the rest of the curriculum is larded with excessive “go green”-style evangelical environmentalism. When will the Church learn that “using” secular idealogical crap is a major catechetical FAIL?!?!
Waste used to be a sin and thriftiness a virtue. Had we remembered that we wouldn’t have to deal with many of the environmental problems we have today.
“Ah, but scolding is fun. And how else can you get your daily dose of moral superiority without having to be kind to anyone or making any serious sacrifice?”
I cannot say I disagree with that substance of the article or any of the comments, but I would encourage all of us to consider the quote with respect to ourselves. Catholicism is above all the religion of Love, and not our own love but the Love of Jesus Christ. We are all sinful human beings, but God has graced some of us with more knowledge of the truth than others. This is a responsibility and a burden. All of us who have faith MUST first and foremost pray and sacrifice for those who are in error.
It is too easy to criticize others from our position of “moral superiority”, let us Love our neighbors and our enemies and pray that Our Lord have mercy on us all.
I am not sure why it is referred to as “Going Green”, rather than just “Being Responsible.”
I do think it has become a slogan rather than a viable movement, but obviously we do need to preserve and protect what is left of our natural resources.
People ask if I recycle, I say yes; since 1941 I’ve recycled tin cans, fat, cloth, metal fences, etc. We learned early -
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” Yes, I resent these current, non-reasoning folks thinking they have invented the wheel.
Kathleen makes an excellent point!! Modern ways of over-consumption have contributed heavily to the pollution of the environment…the throw-away generation, another apt phrase, describes our consumer habits to a T! It is thoughtless, wasteful and costly to the extreme. Abortion, the throwing away of new life, is an example of this brainless and immoral wastefulness in the extreme! We will pay the cost of this one way or another…Nature has its own way of attemting to “balance the scales”...we are wayyyyyy out of wack through our own selfish doing and it is going to take drastic measures to right this imbalance! We are beginning to see this in the increased numbers and severities of natural disasters to the elimination of whole generations needed to fill jobs, to support Social Security and other NEEDED entitled programs thus allowing massive illegal immigration which in turn creates its own huge mess.
I consider myself an environmentalist. To my in-laws, my husband and I may as well have called ourselves hippies or anarchists. Their hobby is shopping, literally.
I believe in care for all Creation, based on the writings of St. Francis. After all, God created Eden. I believe in responsible stewardship and respect for all life.
Yes, some of the tasks are quite impractical in this modern world.
The biggest thing anyone could do to help the environment is to use less. The American culture seems to be based on materialism. Just think about how many people celebrate Christmas. The focus is on how many gifts you received and how much you spent, not spending time with loved ones and showing reverence to Jesus’ birth.
We set limits on gift-giving and our celebrations have been so much more rewarding.
There are ramifications for purchases as well. I think about the people who made those products. I try to make ethical purchases, thinking about how everything is connected. We should also keep in mind how many products in the marketplace are really greenwashed and not really different from the conventional one except in a higher price.
I also do research. My choices and decisions were the result of objective research, examining both sides of the argument. In this situation, questioning is good. Many of my decisions which are tied to the environment are tied to health and avoiding illness.
As the saying goes, “Either make do or do without.” We don’t need so much stuff.
The Catholic church has or any church for that matter has no business in telling us that ‘Mother Earth’ must be saved, and that it is a matter of faith that we go green.
Boloney! No where in the bible is there any mention of the progressive socialist green movement. I am Catholic and the more I read about what the Archdioceses and Bishops promote politically bothers me.
The government has no business in the church & vice versa the church has no business in the government. Our founders of the Constitution warned us against people in power taking control social and economic power for the ‘greater good’. The genius of the Constitution was founded to control human nature, and not to control social or economic conditions, as a progressive government seeks to do.
The church has no business telling us what light bulbs to put on in our home, what toilet we must buy to conserve water everytime we flush, what setting to put our thermostat at home, stick to the teachings and principals of the bible. We are not going to church to be sold propaganda the Environmentalists in Washington DC want us to believe. We are not buying the propaganda Nancy Pelosi is telling the Catholic churches that they must rule from the pulpit and tell the people that Healthcare reform is for the greater good.
Catholicism should not be Socialism, Marxism, or Communism. Those are FAILED Experiments and all lead to Mass Death in every instance!
God has given us our unalienable rights, not the government. When the people in power get a ‘god complex’ the outcome is always horrific. Stand strong against progressive socialists, marxists, and communists that are infecting our religions. Speak to your priests, bishops or pastors that the stand with god and not the government.
Stick to the pricipals we firmly believe in God the Almighty Father Creater of Heaven and Earth. He give us our rights, not ‘mother earth’ man or government as they want you to believe. If man can give you rights than man can take those right from you. We are endowed by our Creator!
Believe in God, but limit goverment, be good stewards to each other and practice the 10 commandments - do not make environmentalism a religious cult. The truth will set you free, and the propaganda lies will burn in the burning bush. Ignore the propaganda the Socialists, Marxist, Communists are putting forward with global warming, climate change, or whatever ‘new’ phrase they come up with. They are all wolf in sheeps clothing.
We are guided by one shepard - God, do not be the sheep following the environmentalists and the wolf in sheeps clothing are the pastors, & priests claiming to be environmentalists to mother earth. They are progressive socialist radicals and that is not where our faith lies.
Hii,
I like this article its Very informative and useful for all of us.
Really the kids most know this thing. Keep it up.
I would like to share one more article which is based on “Go Green Kids”. So check on this link http://www.greenyatra.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=124&Itemid=214
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