The real problem is waste and consumption. The Western world
bears most of the guilt but it must be admitted that they are not solely to
blame. The developing world is wasteful in other ways and certainly nations
like China are now playing their part as well, a part played by the West a
century ago. They have adopted the Western lifestyle and are now part of the
consumption carousel.
The danger here is that once lifestyle is identified as the
problem it gives the state a mandate to use its compulsory powers to effect
change. This means a restriction of personal liberties. The oft observed
American attitude which proclaims I have a right to use my property in the way
I want even if means abusing the people around me... which can range from the
large rumbling trucks and deafening motorcycles passing by one's house to the
rude and inconsiderate behaviour of one's neighbour... is destructive and will
ultimately come to end.
Of course this goes the other way too. The collective can
oppress and torment the individual driving people to keep their house a certain
way even if that means sacrificing one's family in order to make the wages
necessary to keep one's property to that standard. Of course there are other
examples of collective pressure at work in everything from school to clothes to
social behaviour and expectation.
As an interesting aside, the area in which I live is pretty
impoverished and people from posh middle class urban neighbourhoods are often
shocked by the state of dilapidation that exists in these rural Appalachian
hinterlands. Some will move into the area due to the cheap prices but then
complain, wishing that local authorities would start enforcing codes and
regulations and force people to fix their run down and derelict houses.
I always laugh at this. The poor have to live somewhere. They
can't live in your neighbourhoods so they live here and now these well-to-do
folks come here because they want a quaint rural retreat. They like the prices
here but can't seem to make the connection that the reason prices are so low is
because incomes are low and the available work is limited and often limiting.
This aside is merely to point out that there are myriad
contradictions in how these issues are approached and argued.
Of course one of my nearest neighbours takes consumption to
new heights. Appropriately referred to as a hog, he can only be described as wasteful
and destructive, a consumer par
excellence. He makes tremendous noise, cuts trees down out of boredom, has
huge bonfires, burns tires and plastics (at night of course) and generally
drives everyone mad who is unfortunate enough to live within a mile of him. He
runs an excavation company and his trucks and equipment roar by at all hours,
tearing up the roads, taking down phone lines and carving up people's yards
when they cut corners and take curves too sharp. Our house is constantly filled
with the smells of his fires and in the summer we have to 'pause' a video or
stop talking when one of his trucks drives by. They're big fat people who drive
around in big pickup trucks. They're loud and rude.
At one time his business was fairly small-scale but the
fracking boom lined his pockets and he tripled the size of his business.... and
the size of his footprint.
He is exactly the sort that leads to regulation and
restriction of liberty. He ruins it for everyone else. Sadly, the West and the
United States in particular is like my neighbour but on the global stage. The
reduction in resources is going to mean regulation and the number of those with
access to 'the lifestyle' is going to shrink.
People will wish their ancestors hadn't consumed so much and
had been more prudent in their choices.
There's much that could be said about population, strain and
the issues surrounding it but the Christian Right as well as the many
'ministries' like BreakPoint (and others even more blatantly corrupt) have no
interest in getting the truth out to their audiences. You'll hear all kinds of
absurd statistics that the whole world could easily fit in an area the size of
Texas. Even if statistically possible it ignores just what that means. Yes, there
are vast empty areas of land to be found but this ignores basic questions
concerning water, air and soil not to mention the problems generated by
lifestyle.
Sometimes it seems that the argument rests on the assumption
that we in the West can go on living as we do if the rest of the world would
just be content living in their huts watching their children die from the
noxious fumes we've created and the water we've poisoned.
But even this isn't possible. Even if it were a moral way to
reason, it's delusion to think others will be content to go on living that way
especially when they see how others live... the others who take their oil, cut
their forests and pollute their rivers when they tear up the earth.
Stonestreet's commentary in the end is a typical politicised
irresponsible and agenda driven piece of commentary. The deception that is
their ministry, in addition to ideologically and financially swindling their
audience, is a factory of spin and manipulation... all hiding under the cover of a so-called
Christian Worldview.
Like most Dominionists they proffer a pseudo/alternative
gospel of cultural transformation and in constructing their 'worldview' have
missed something essential to Christian cognition. We above all are people of
the Truth.
So what's the answer? How should a Christian respond to these
things? To be honest, there isn't an answer. Or to put it another way, the only
answer is Jesus Christ. We preach the gospel and the Holy Spirit changes
people. The world will hate us and persecute us and we will always be a tiny
minority... and one that likely shrinks as we near the time of Christ's
appearing.
Let the dead bury their dead. Let them create their safety
net programmes, let them engage in their propaganda. Let them have fewer
children. It doesn't matter. Compelling people to have more children will not
save them. Convert them to Christ and teach them to submit to Scripture and let
the Holy Spirit work. Let believers follow their consciences for on some of
these issues the Scriptures are not entirely clear.
We pay our taxes and live as strangers. If there are social
benefits like Social Security or access to a health system... use it, or not.
Use it as needed but weigh the ethics of every situation and don't be afraid to
turn away even if means social ostracisation. Expose the lies of the world
system, including the compromised world affirming system of Evangelicalism.
But don't be part of the system that's leading to war and
exploitation. This will mean rethinking your life and frustratingly you won't
be able to completely disentangle yourself from the system... but we should do
what we can. The world affirming ethos and power lust represented by the hosts
of Dominionist ministries will only lead to more death... for you, your family,
your soul and for your neighbour.