US Rep. Tim Walberg from Michigan, Climate, and the Christian Calling
Ahead of today's announcement by President Trump this article graced the front page of the publication USA Today: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/06/01/tim-walberg-climate-change-trump-paris-agreement/102389286/. Its not ironic, but rather potentially providential that I spent this morning at Bible study, and of all the books to be studying this morning, we were studying the Gospel of Matthew. Its in the beginning of Chapter 4, that as a Christian, I'm asking Representative Walberg, and anyone else of his thinking, to reflect on.
For your ease, and his, here is the verses to which I refer:
"The Temptation of Jesus
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'" Then the devil took him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will give his angels charge of you,'and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'" Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'" Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Begone, Satan! for it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'" Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him." Matthew 4: 1-11, Revised Standard Version
I don't know Representative Walberg, other than to know that he said this, as recorded in the above article, "I believe there’s climate change. I believe there’s been climate change since the beginning of time. I think there are cycles. Do I think man has some impact? Yeah, of course. Can man change the entire universe? No.” “Why do I believe that? Well, as a Christian, I believe that there is a creator in God who is much bigger than us. And I’m confident that, if there’s a real problem, he can take care of it.”
In response to him I'll quote Jesus quoting scripture and the words from God, "Don't put the Lord your God to the test."
One of the themes of the last few years in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (the denomination and christian polity to which I belong), has been "Gods Work, Our Hands". The fatalism demonstrated in Rep. Walberg's thinking is diametrically opposed to this theme and the scriptural witness. He also, gets it entirely wrong that we can't effect the universe, that is if he takes his claims of Christian belief seriously. From the beginning of Genesis, where God tells Adam and Eve to be stewards of all of creation, through the Psalms where David and Israel lament and recognize their failure to take care of the things they are first given, gifts from the creator, to St. Paul and his depiction of every part of creation being a part of God the I AM, there is a call for our active, helpful dominion of this planet. We aren't to sit idly by and wait for God to do it for us, we are God's very instruments to take care of this "our common home" to quote Laudato Si.
We've all heard the parable of the flood victim waiting to be rescued. You know the one where their home is flooded so bad they are on the roof praying to God for help. A boat comes by and the occupants say they thy have room, but the victim says, "No God will save me." Then a helicopter comes by, and they drop a rope, but the victim pushes it away yelling "No thanks, God will save me." Then a large surge comes, the victim is washed away and dies, and upon arriving before God, he asks "God why didn't you save me?" And God replies, "Didn't you see the boat that came to you to rescue you? And the helicopter with a rope?" "Yes Lord, I did" they reply. "Well that was me acting through others, so sad you didn't recognize me when I was so near." While potentially apocryphal, this parable rings very true to this situation. God acts through the Universe and we are a part of that Universe. We are given life boats from time to time, and we are shown the way on what we are to do to take action and avoid the sin of inaction.
Rep. Walberg is encouraging sin of inaction, unlike Isaiah who was calling Israel to repent of their ways. Their unfaithfulness to God by not taking seriously their duties to care for the widow, the orphan, the creation around them, valuing personal wealth and comfort and thinking they owned the things gifted to them, resulted in exile to Babylon. In this climate crisis, there is no Babylon to be exiled to. One definition of sin, as recorded in scripture, is to give into our baser impulses, and God will let us do that to our demise. We've had warnings, we have the God given gift of knowledge and ability to reason, and our best minds are in widespread agreement: we need to act and act now before its too late, lest our greed gets the best of us.
So, Rep. Walberg, if you are the Christian you claim to be, the answer isn't to ignore the call to action that among other people, many a prophet has been telling us to heed. Stop putting God to the test, stop worshiping mammon, and get on with being the faithful stewards we've been called to be.
