Extremist Religious Groups Cross The Line With Hate-filled Speech

The worst mass extinction event of all time, the Permian Wipeout, extinguished 95% of all species on land and in the sea. Occurring some 251 million years ago, life nearly ceased to exist (When Life Nearly Died). It took 50 million years before the earth approached pre-extinction levels of biodiversity. Sixty-five million years ago, the earth’s biosphere took another hit – this time literally. A massive asteroid struck the Yucatan Peninsula possibly wiping out the dinosaurs and other groups of plants and animals. The earth has experienced at least three other mass extinction events, each wiping out more than half the world’s species.

Today we are living through the sixth great extinction, sometimes known as the Holocene extinction event. There are currently 3,071 “critically endangered” species in the world, according to the World Conservation Union (IUCN). More than 16,000 species of the world’s mammals, birds, plants and other organisms are at present officially regarded as threatened with extinction to one degree or another according to the IUCN’s Red List. In California alone there are 298 endangered plants and animals, fully 24% of all plants and animals on the federal Endangered Species List. Of the 40,168 species that the 10,000 scientists in the World Conservation Union have studied, one in four mammals, one in eight birds, and one in three amphibians are at risk of extinction. Perhaps as high as 51 per cent of reptiles, 52 per cent of insects, and 73 per cent of flowering plants are also on the brink.

The Green Dragon

But one species appears to be tenaciously hanging on. It’s called the Green Dragon. The Green Dragon is not a reptile as one would think by its name. It’s actually a crafty ape-like creature. An invasive and pernicious pest, its scientific name is Environmentalia deadleyi. Its primary habitat is the halls and offices of the monolithic and all powerful environmental movement that is “seducing your children in the classroom and in our popular culture”. The Cornwall Alliance has launched a heroic campaign to eradicate this existential threat to “society and the Church”. They are producing a new 12-part DVD series, “Resisting The Green Dragon”. A twelve minute video is intended to introduce their new awareness program. The little video is rife with sweet ironies and, of course, there are the obligatory pictures of young black children, the favorite prey of the Green Dragon. They say “the Green Dragon series is not simply about global warming” but “about understanding the times in which we live”.

Some memorable quotes:

“One of the greatest threats to society and the church today is the multifaceted environmentalist movement,”
- Dr. E. Calvin Beisner, Cornwall Alliance founder and national spokesman

“Environmentalists have a long history of believing and promoting exaggerations and myths”.
- Dr. Richard Land, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission,

“The fear mongering is simply a way of obtaining power. Whoever controls environmental regulations controls the economy, controls the population.”
- Dr. James Tonkowich, Senior Fellow Cornwall Alliance

“Resisting the Green Dragon takes it cue from James 4:7, ‘Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you’”
- the Resisting the Green Dragon Website

The inference of the last quote is that environmentalists, including many Christians, are in league with the devil. If this sounds extreme it’s because it is. Not satiated by their hatred for gays, public school teachers, college professors, scientists, and liberals the Extremist Right is now unleashing their venomous attacks on environmental advocates.

These are serious times that call for serious people. There is no place for hate speech, rabid and baseless hyperbole, and scapegoating. It’s time to start acting like adults. Here’s some timeless wisdom that we all might heed:

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

- First Corinthians 13:11

“If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities.”

- Voltaire

Today, we are in the midst of a great unraveling. Whole natural communities, vast assemblages of plants and animals, are being extinguished. The countless interconnections that exist in nature are being broken and the impacts are “cascading” throughout the web of life. Climate change is real and its consequences will touch all of us. We are facing a harsh new reality and we’ll need to learn to live with it.

The Cornwall Alliance’s tax-free dollars would be better spent on feeding the poor, comforting the battered, and healing the wounded. Raging against a mythical beast is just silly. Moreover, perpetrating mythologies, ossified science, and false narratives about climate change science is political not spiritual. Furthermore, doing the bidding of industrialists, free marketeers, moneychangers, and devotees of Ayn Rand is seemingly incongruous with the teachings of Christ.

Copyright 2011 Frank Schiavone