Ronnie W. Rogers, “Taking every thought captive…”

Patrick Moore, one of the founders of Greenpeace International, said in an interview in the New Scientist in December 1999, “the environmental movement abandoned science and logic somewhere in the mid-1980s…political activists were using environmental rhetoric to cover up agendas that had more to do with class warfare and anti-corporatism than with actual science…”¹

While there are some who are informed and genuinely concerned about the environment, most of the present debate and policy pursual is fueled by environmentalists that came out of the 1960s with an anti-Christian, anti-capitalism, pro-Marxist and pro-socialist agenda.  Simply put, they despise the biblical notions of “private property”, “if a man will not work then do not let him eat”, and that the earth and all that it produces is for man and under his domain (Genesis 1&2).  Of course these 60s radicals are now professors, politicians and their offspring are in education, politics, and virtually every facet of American life.

1. Environmental Stewardship in the Judeo-Christian Tradition, (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Acton Institute, 2007, p108 [↩]

Science’s emphasis upon “observation” sometimes leads the average person to believe that scientists make all of their conclusions based upon what they actually see with their own eyes, and some scientists, who seek to make scientific observation the only or best way of knowing, speak in ways that clearly encourage that misunderstanding. 

Consequently, some scientist classify belief in God as a fairy tale since He cannot presently be empirically observed.  In other words, belief in God is faith, but science follows observable evidence, and is therefore fact.  Well, not so quickly.  Actually, science makes conclusions and pronouncements based upon things that it cannot observe, and that is faith. 

At times, scientists do the same things that people who believe in God do.  We all see observable events and accept unobservable causes for them.  Therefore, truth be known, science really believes in many things that cannot be actually seen, but rather must be assumed by inference. ¹ (more…)

1. The following quotes are from Alister McGrath’s book, “The Reenchantment of Nature” [↩]

The Bible speaks of an existence prior to the creation of time and matter in which God alone existed.  Then, Genesis records God creating time and matter, in the words, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).  That singularity was the beginning of time and matter.  As Christians, we believe that by faith, which is not the same as saying there is no scientific or philosophical evidence for our belief that God created time and space; however, it is to say that since no one was there, regardless of one’s view of origins, it is a faith act.

Scientists speak of this event as a “singularity.”  The Big Bang would be a theory involving the beginning—singularity—before which there was nothing.  Now, when scientists speak of singularity, absolute beginning, they realize that this grants enormous credence to the idea of a creator. (more…)

The Scripture teaches that God is compassionate, “Nevertheless, in Your great compassion You did not make an end of them or forsake them, For You are a gracious and compassionate God.“(Nehemiah 9:31) He extols compassion and commands it in His people’s lives, “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.“(Colossians 3:12)

However, His compassion is upon the truly needy, “He will have compassion on the poor and needy, And the lives of the needy he will save.“(Psalm 72:13)  Moreover, the reception of compassion is based upon confession of wrongdoing, repenting, returning to the Lord, and righteous living, “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.” (Proverbs 28:13) “Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the Lord, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.“(Isaiah 55:7)

Today, secularists and liberals have turned compassion into evil.  For they have compassion on the professor who teaches anything contrary to godliness, but no compassion for the students who must endure it; little compassion for the victims but a cacophony of vociferous clamoring for the rights of criminals who brutally rape, mangle, and murder, and now even terrorists who have and will seek again to destroy us, but little compassion for victims and potential victims.  The pedophile is integrated back into the community where children play, all out of so-called compassion for the rehabilitated. Then when another child is molested, the therapists say the pedophile got sick again, probably from too much exposure to society. 

The lazy are rewarded by the fruit of the worker through government redistribution of wealth all in the name of compassion, when the Scripture says clearly, “… if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.“(2 Thessalonians 3:10) Under this new compassion, support is not for the hard worker, but for those who choose to live idle lives.  The scripture declares that “the compassion of the wicked is cruel.“(Proverbs 12:10)

Compassion should be upon the truly needy, students who need truth, victims and potential victims…but as the Scripture says, “You love evil more than good, Falsehood more than speaking what is right. Selah.“(Psalm 52:3)

True biblical compassion is upon the genuinely needy, calls for the wrongdoer to do right, protects the innocent and punishes the unrepentant evildoer. I am not aware of any meaningful way the government can be compassionate with other people’s resources!  Moreover, undermining true biblical compassion by undermining personal responsibility is evil and destructive to any society.

One of the most memorable American television images is a 1970s Ad Council² close-up of an old Indian³ shedding a tear when trash thrown from a passing car landed at his feet.⁴  It reflected what University of Wisconsin geographer William Denevan called “the pristine myth,” the view that America was essentially wilderness before Columbus and his European band landed in the Bahamas.⁵  It fit the perspective of American naturalist John Muir, who wrote; “Indians walked softly and hurt the landscape hardly more than the birds and squirrels …”⁶  But that view has been challenged in recent years, notably in Charles C. Mann’s book, 1491, which describes the vast amount of Native-American civil engineering in place before Columbus arrived in 1492. (more…)

1. The Kairos Journal [↩]
2. “The Ad Council is a private, non-profit organization that marshals volunteer talent from the advertising and communications industries, the facilities of the media, and the resources of the business and non-profit communities to deliver critical messages to the American public.” Among its public service announcements are Smokey Bear’s “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires,” McGruff the Crime Dog’s “Take A Bite Out of Crime,” “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk,” and the United Negro College Fund’s “A Mind is a Terrible Thing To Waste.” See “About Ad Council,” Ad Council Website, http://www.adcouncil.org/default.aspx?id=68 (accessed July 1, 2008). [↩]
3. Iron Eyes Cody [↩]
4. Warren Berger, “Source of Classic Images Now Struggles to Be Seen,” New York Times, November 20, 2000, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E2DD1F38F933A15752C1A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all (accessed July 1, 2008). [↩]
5. Charles C. Mann, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), 326. [↩]
6. Quoted in Gary Paul Nabhan, “Cultural Parallax in Viewing North American Habitats,” in Environmental Ethics: Divergence and Convergence, 2nd ed., ed. Richard G. Botzler and Susan J. Armstrong (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998), 265. [↩]

Ryan Polk, Associate Pastor at Trinity Baptist Church, has felt impressed by our Lord to start “The Wilberforce Initiative” which will provide a venue for Trinity as well as citizens from across the spectrum to seek to bring our Christian worldview to bear upon some of the most pressing social, moral, intellectual and spiritual issues of our day.  Using Wilberforce’s name emphasizes our desire for the same passion and “long view” Wilberforce had about the issues of his day.

Many are aware of William Wilberforce’s unstoppable effort to rid England of slavery, but they are often unaware or unwilling to acknowledge, much like the movie “Amazing Grace”, that what motivated him to fight so indefatigably was his Christian faith; moreover, Wilberforce was involved in fighting many other social ills as well. (more…)