Don’t ever doubt that Climate Control is a new religion. We all have problems. Weather conditions can be devastating. We grieve the devastation wrought by Katrina and the devastation of Joplin. Mankind has been subjected to the variances in the weather for millennia. We are subjected to difficulties in life. Life brings on hardship. We live, we die, we are involved in accidents of various kinds, we work and receive our bread by the sweat of our brow. Sometimes our efforts do not achieve what we desire. Sometimes we fail in our commercial efforts. Sometimes we fail in our relationships. We are all in this life together. As a remedy to these trials we are told by God to love the Lord with all our hearts and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Some came to Jesus once and asked him how they should respond to such difficulties.
There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:1-5 ESV)
Jesus saw these events as gracious warnings for people to repent and believe. We will all die. Our goal is to seek a true solution to the problem of sin and difficulty in this life. Jesus said the solution is repentance and faith in him.
But the Climate Control faith has a new message. There is a better solution. According to Barbara Boxer, the solution is clean energy.
Well, let me tell you what’s cruel. What’s cruel is Hurricane Sandy. What’s cruel is the drought that is hurting our people so much. What’s cruel is all these impacts that are happening along the beaches and the erosion and to our way of life, and what we saw through the night when the Republicans just stayed away from us, what we saw through the night is that all across our great nation, whether it’s both coasts or it’s the South or it’s the Midwest, middle of the country, everybody is struggling. Whether it’s the problem with the fisheries in Washington State or in Maine, that’s what’s cruel. And Mitch McConnell is walking away from this in the face of 98% of the scientists who say climate change is real. Here’s the great news, the solution is, essentially, moving to clean energy. Many, many thousands of jobs that can’t be exported, good paying jobs, and the health of our people will improve, and if we put a price on carbon, we would use that revenues to make sure middle class families and the working poor families can pay that interim price, which will be a little higher for energy, but eventually go way down as we really look out into the future.
In clean energy we have the solution to what is cruel in our world and in our economic system. With central planning of the energy infrastructure we can create many thousands of jobs, eliminate droughts, improve our way of life, bring success to failing fisheries, improve health and rid ourselves of political dispute.
God has his answer to this kind of arrogance. It is called the tower of Babel.
Or maybe we just need to learn the lesson of humpty dumpty.