Posted on 12/18/2012 8:05:31 AM PST by Cronos
'Might our religion be killing us?' That's what a Baptist minister was asking recently in an editorial in USA Today.
Rev. Oliver "Buzz" Thomas writes:
Be fruitful and multiply," says the book of Genesis, and Lord knows we have. To the tune of more than 300 million at home and more than 6 billion abroad. But as we go about the heavenly task of multiplying, a poignant question arises: Might our religion be killing us?Insert the deep dark foreboding music.
We all remember the Aztecs. Some say their religion, with its penchant for violence and human sacrifice, played a critical role in the destruction of their civilization. We moderns are far more sophisticated, of course, but if we persist with some of our religious practices, we could be heading down the same disastrous dog trot. Sort of a reverse Noah story. Noah is credited with saving humanity during the big flood. We could be the ones who get blamed for destroying it.Now " Reverend Buzz" doesn't understand that he just hit on the most truth he's going to find in this piece. By comparing America to the Aztecs who destroyed themselves with violence and human sacrifice he actually hit on the truth of America today. But he's after a different kind of truth, you know the kind that doesn't make any sense to anyone not named "Reverend Buzz."
Of course, much of our environmental problem is due to overpopulation. There are simply too many people for the planet to sustain — at least the way we expect to be sustained. Each new person requires more food, water and oxygen. At the same time, each is producing more carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane (the big culprits of global warming). For each additional human, planet Earth (and the rest of us) pays a price.Your baby is just a methane producing machine! Stop them now!
Now, consider the Roman Catholic Church's continued opposition to modern birth control or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' (i.e. Mormons) encouragement of large families. This might not alarm you unless you realize that nearly one in every five humans on the planet is Roman Catholic and that the Latter-day Saints belong to one of the fastest-growing religions in the Western Hemisphere. Many Orthodox Jews and some Muslims also eschew birth control.Additional divine revelation...from someone named Buzz, maybe? So much for sola scriptura.
In the interest of preserving our planet and our species, shouldn't religious organizations be encouraging smaller families? Do our spiritual leaders need additional divine revelation to realize that our current doctrines — which threaten to take the entire world down with us — have become ethically and theologically questionable?
Population growth hits hardest in the poorest nations, and as poverty increases, public health declines. I am quite certain that God is not the author of human misery, but by preaching against birth control at the same time we are preaching against abortion, it seems that we're making God out as cruel, a buffoon, or both.Oh come on. You knew it was coming. First it was global warming, then it was poverty. You knew women being ordained was next right? What? It follows.
I recognize that religious organizations tend to be conservative institutions. Their continued resistance to equal rights for women and gays is a good example. A woman may be president of Harvard or speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, but in the largest religious organization on the planet, women still can't get ordained as parish priests. It's even worse for gays and lesbians.
How should people of faith respond to this gathering environmental storm?Is he out of his mind. Doesn't he read? The reproduction rates of mainly Christian nations in Europe are currently sub-replacement levels. The United States hovers just at replacement rate with 2.07 births per woman. Ireland is 1.87, New Zealand 1.79, Australia 1.76. But Canada's fertility rate is down to 1.5, well below replacement rate; Germany and Austria are at 1.3, the brink of the death spiral; Russia and Italy are at 1.2; Spain 1.1, about half replacement rate. That's to say, Spain's population is halving every generation.
First, we must stop having so many children. Clergy should consider voicing the difficult truth that having more than two children during such a time is selfish. Dare we say sinful? The average American might not listen to his elected representatives, but he darn sure listens to his pastor. Every week. This will be a hard message for pastors to preach and parishioners to hear, but without it we court disaster.
In addition, Americans should be having important policy debates as we anticipate a hotter, more hostile natural environment. Instead of providing tax breaks for having more children, shouldn't Congress be providing incentives for having fewer?
When Aztec society was threatened by disease and military defeat, their religious leaders appear to have let them down. Most likely, these leaders encouraged even more human sacrifice to appease the gods, thereby further weakening the society and ultimately facilitating its collapse.Well, if he's making a list I can point to at least one religious leader who's letting people down.
Let's hope we can learn from their mistakes.
The entire world population can be fed 5 times over if all the land used for alcohol were used for food.
I thought it was Spanish soldiers, with their superior weapons and tactics, plus the smallpox virus that destroyed the Aztec civilization.
Who is “they” to whom you refer?
Some of them (FR Protestants) appear to be doing just that. I don't recall ever seeing other FR Protestants rebuking them, either.
Back in the 1970's, there was a "Baptist" book store in El Monte, Calif., whose owner was a self-styled Nazi. Most of the materials sold in the store were about Nazi ideology and there was virtually no devotional literature or books on Christianity or Baptist theology.
The Catholic church
As for the supposed "guilt" thing ...
I observe that in general folks who make a big deal about it, who appear to think that "guilt" is a big part of being Catholic ... are not Catholic. They speak from a position of ignorance.
FWIW.
YMMV.
I don’t know who those two are, but if they were burned for being Roman Catholics, I repudiate that.
I repeat, the Reformation was not about Protestants having blind hatred for Roman Catholics. The persecution was waged by the Pope and many Cardinals and Bishops and supporting Kings and Queens, particularly Bloody Mary; not by Protestants. That doesn’t mean no Protestants ever did anything wrong.
But to characterize the Reformation as some sort of persecution of the RC church by Protestants is nonsense.
He’s a minister of the culture of death. There’s plenty of them.
We can only hope the insane minions that constitute his “congregation” take his advice and do not reproduce themselves into the future of God’s creation. They should have a suicide offering to their Mayan god.
I really don’t know if guilt is a big thing for Catholics or not, but if the church says not to use contraceptives and married people want to have sex but not anymore children, then they tend to use contraceptives and have guilt. If you want certain behavior, then guilt is a strong motivator to help achieve it, don’t you think?
“Some of them (FR Protestants) appear to be doing just that. I don’t recall ever seeing other FR Protestants rebuking them, either. “
I certainly have.
I don’t blame Baptists for the “Westborough Church.” I don’t blame Reverends for the “Reverend Jesse Jackson.” I don’t blame RCs for the pro abortion nuns or the homosexual communion services. I will say that I’d like to see the RC church use more of its authority structure to reprimand and repudiate those who claim to be RC but teach and behave differently. The Baptists don’t have an authority structure outside of their local church so don’t have the ability.
I’ve defended RCs as being rank and file appalled at the homosexual abuse coverups, and defended the RC church as having done a lot more good for kids with charity like orphanages, education, plain old money, shelter, and medical care than harm through the pedophile coverups - as horrible as they have been. I have noted that public schools have a worse coverup record.
And I am definitely a Protestant. I don’t have Roman Catholics. I see some serious problems with their doctrine and I won’t repaint the bad parts of their history, any more than I’ll ignore the good parts.
I find that “guilt” is more than a bit overstated as a motivator ... particularly when the folks doing the overstating are doing so in the third person.
We had a Religious Freedom Rally here in my town 6 months ago, and it was a huge Baptist-Catholic success. I'd like to do this on a regular basis!
We have a burden to be free of; a lesson of love to learn; a Master to serve; a world to win.
If by that you mean that you have done some "rebuking" ... thank you.
he said ok
“If I may direct a look of concern to the two of you: stop wrangling, will you?”
My dear Mrs. Don-O, I do not mean to wrangle, and always try to keep a civil tongue in my head. I hold no hatred for Roman Catholics, appreciate their real contributions, and particularly have enjoyed working alongside them in pro-life causes.
I feel a sense of responsibility to defend the innocence of the martyrs who came before me, though, I can’t bear to have them accused of persecution, their blood cries out. I don’t blame any current RCs for their death, but I can’t sit quietly and have them labelled as some sort of aggressors.
It’s sort of like listening to someone blame the Jews for the Holocaust. There were some “bad” Jews who did wrong things, like persecuted and turned in their own people, but they were a handful over and against millions, and I can’t be quiet were they to be blamed for their aggression during WW2, either. History must be remembered honestly, even if painful.
I am for example of German extraction, but do not hesitate to call the country of Germany to account for its horrible behavior in the 1930s/40s, while still acknowledging all the positive contributions of Germans and Germany. I also remember there were serious and faithful Germans who, at great risk to themselves, worked against the evil of the day. Not all the Germans were “bad.”
I have no interested in sparring with anybody, I just want to speak up for those who no longer can.
“If by that you mean that you have done some “rebuking” ... thank you. “
I do mean that, and you’re welcome. I don’t think any progress gets made when we are tarring and feathering each other with giant brushes.
One could say that the real problem is that the producers are having too few children, and the moochers too many.
But saying that in public will get you strung up.
Peter the Aleut was an Orthodox fur-hunter purportedly killed by Catholics somewhere on the Pacfic Coast of North America in ca. 1815; Andrew Bobola a Polish Jesuit missionary reportedly killed by Orthodox Cossacks in Belarus in 1657. They are portrayed together in Heaven, where Love is.
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