One of the interesting movements that come out of Genesis 1 is the Dominionism movement. Made popular/trendy by Doug Phillips in the last decade, it became a jumble of command and prophesy. It was said to be implying that somehow people needed to once again plant their christian flags on parcels of dirt, pray over them, and somehow metaphysically claim them for their religion and God. The more devoted DP fan believed along with their rockstar that America was the new promised land, taking parts of the book of Romans and changing "Israel" to "America." Others simply saw where they were as the best place to start and envisioned acres of the nearby land as belonging to their children, grandchildren, and extended family, slowly taking over the city, county, and state.
Others merely took it to mean that the earth itself and all the creatures in it were theirs to steward, care for, and dedicate their lives to.... at least I hope some did, because I sure didnt know them!!!
Most "regular" people, like my dad (and therefore his whole family, cause he was the HEAD) assumed that it meant that man was over earth when it came to totem poles. As a person who thought this, he used the bounty of the earth often without giving it another thought and simply assuming that it would continue to provide for man as long as man ruled it.
THEN CAME AL GORE.
*cue thunder, wolves howling, screams.....
The Ozone Layer, Climate Change, Global Warming, Melting Ice Caps, the Polar Vortex.... all of these climate trends were fundie-splained away to me as a child. Even my High School Science textbook (Exploring Creation with Physical Science, by Wyle) had an explanation as to why the hole in the ozone layer was too remote to hurt any PEOPLE, and that it was overblown in an attempt to control human behavior (which I guess would inevitably lead to burning and throwing Christians to the lions and making them criminals.... because persecution complex).
The earth was somehow magically made to support any and all godly human life (thus the disasters being punishment for teh gays), making it impossible for the land to sink under water, get too close to the sun and burn, or not be able to support our atmosphere. Dominion qualified anything and everything from animal slaughter to corporate decisions like polluting and fracking. We have dominion over this water, so we are free to frack with it. Dominion gives us this shelter full of unwanted animals, we are free to kill them all. Dominion gave us the beasts of the field, so eating meat is not only godly, but vegetarianism might even be sinful!!!
Into all this comes a wonderful example in the from of Heidi St. John, aka The Busy Mom.
You may remember her choosing to shut someone down for asking for her help with child abuse during her "busiest season of the year," or you may remember her making light of a picture of obvious violence and using it as a positive example.
Recently, she posted a "lifehacks" meme and told a story about how in a similar situation her husband threw a stuffed animal of one of the children out the window.
When a conscientious mother comments.... Well you read it!
This is something that I could see my father saying. Like Heidi took a page right out of his book.
The environment can take care of itself. One bear wont hurt it, and besides; MESSAGE!
Environment loses when it comes to people, my dad would say that all the time. People (souls) are more important than not driving to the mountains to witness to them because of the effects of the gas burned while traveling. The good deeds outweighed any negative, according to him.
The thing is, the Environment loses to religion,
The Environment loses to teaching your kids a lasting lesson
The Environment loses to lost souls,
The Environment loses to taking dominion...
If it keeps losing eventually something will happen.
Dear daddy, and dear Heidi: We do NOT live in a magic world that will sustain human life forever no matter what. Your obvious flippancy with the world at large and the places where you have tread all add up. Like the kids book: If Everybody Did. Maybe you live your daily life differently, but for every exception you make, everyone else might have made one as well.
Can you not see how devastating that might be to a real, flesh-and-blood planet?
You can keep on keeping on and then someday take dominion over this charred, waterless husk of a crust. And enjoy it. I'll bet even your religion will outlast the planet.... unfortunately.
**I have refrained in this post from discussing the despicable act of ruining and throwing out a child's special toy in lieu of looking at how the larger effect of "the environment is gonna be fine" can be severely damaging when taught, propagated, and said so flippantly.
No comments:
Post a Comment