We Are Destroying This Planet
by
John J. Dunphy
(Originally published in the 10/5/19 edition of The Telegraph of Alton, IL)
Who would use the Bible to ridicule a child? A Texas megachurch pastor who also happens to be one of President Donald Trump’s closest “spiritual advisers.”
Robert Jeffress, senior pastor at the 14,000-member First Baptist Church in Dallas, was interviewed by Fox Nation’s Todd Starnes last month. Jeffress used the occasion to praise Trump and disparage 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg. This pastor told Starnes, “The only thing more fun than listening to him [Trump] is listening to the liberals whine that he had the audacity to skip the climate summit. I tell people all the time, ‘This president is brilliant.’ “
As though proclaiming that Trump is “brilliant” wasn’t mind-boggling enough, Jeffress then proclaimed, “God said He created the environment to serve us, not for us to serve the environment. This Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old, she was warning today about the mass extinction of humanity. Somebody needs to read poor Greta Genesis chapter 9 and tell her the next time she worries about global warming, just look at a rainbow. That’s God promise that the polar ice caps aren’t going to melt and flood the world again.”
Jeffress’ assertion that God “created the environment to serve us” is probably based on his interpretation of Genesis 1:28, which depicts God as telling the first humans to “subdue” the earth and have “dominion” over all the earth’s life forms. Jeffress obviously thinks this means God gave humans the green light to ruthlessly exploit our planet, presumably in pursuit of the kind of corporate profits that keep stockholders happy and allow CEOs to rake in seven or eight-figure annual incomes.
In her book “Total Truth,” Nancy Pearcey wrote that “ ‘subdue the earth’ means to harness the natural world: plant crops, build bridges, design computers, and compose music….our original purpose was to create cultures, build civilizations — nothing less.” In other words, subduing the earth doesn’t mean stripping our planet bare of its resources and driving species into extinction.
Jeffress’ suggestion that someone needs to read the ninth chapter of Genesis to Greta Thunberg is curious. Does he think that this sixteen-year-old is illiterate? This chapter of the Bible’s first book records God’s promise to Noah after he and the other inhabitants of the ark reestablished themselves on dry land following the great flood. Verse 11 reads: “And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.” God then notes that the rainbow is a sign of this covenant.
The Texas megachurch pastor argued that these words in Genesis comprise “God’s promise that the polar ice caps aren’t going to melt and flood the world again.” Jeffress is by no means alone in holding such an opinion. Congressman John Shimkus, an Illinois Republican, quoted Genesis 9 during a congressional hearing in 2009 to bolster his argument that limiting carbon emissions isn’t necessary to protect our planet. “The Earth will end only when God declares it’s time to be over,” Shimkus exclaimed. “Man will not destroy this Earth. The Earth will not be destroyed by a flood.”
Trump stated in 2018 that, rather than melting, the ice caps are “setting records.” Emma Boland, a physical oceanographer in the Polar Oceans group, countered by noting that “the ice caps are indeed setting records, but not in the way President Trump is implying.” The Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets, as well as the Arctic sea ice, are melting. According to the World Wildlife Federation, “the Greenland ice sheet is disappearing four times faster than in 2003 and already contributes 20% of current sea level rise.”
Humankind doesn’t need God’s assistance in destroying this planet. We’re doing a swell job with no divine help whatsoever.
****
John J. Dunphy’s books include Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois and Unsung Heroes of the Dachau Trials: The Investigative Work of the U.S. Army 7708 War Crimes Group, 1945–1947.