Conservatism and Climate Change

— Thursday, August 6th, 2009 —

Interesting article by Bill McKibben in the latest issue of Orion on conservatives and climate change. McKibben notes the distinct difference between conservatism in its traditional form and libertarianism. He draws out the implications for the climate change debate.

McKibben writes: “I’m not a libertarian, because I think they’ve conflated ‘human nature’—their sense of the individual über alles—with the effects of the last couple hundred years of consumer society. I think humans are at their best when they’re social creatures; that’s why I’m a Methodist, not a Randian.”

Fascinating piece with implications, I think, beyond environmental ethics, whatever one might think of the climate change debate.

Tags: , , ,

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 5:03 pm and is filedunder Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “Conservatism and Climate Change”

  1. Gwyn Kilbourne August 7th, 2009 at 10:17 pm

    I just watched your sermon, “Dead Man Washing”. I want to tell you that I agree with almost everything you said, but I have a couple questions for you if that is ok.
    First of all, I am curious why you never said that baptism is the washing away of sins,as we are so clearly told in Acts 22:16 And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’
    Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
    Mark 1:4 John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
    Luke 3:3
    That leads me to my 2nd question. You said that it is possible for someone to be saved w/out being baptized? How? Baptism washes away our sins, so if our sins are never washed away how could we possibly be saved? You mentioned the thief on the cross, but we must remember that the church had not been established at that time. Jesus was at that moment sacrificing himself so that the church could be established. That is why Apollos beginning in Acts 18:24-19:1-7 was taken aside by Priscilla & Aquilla & taught the word more accurately. He knew only the baptism of John. Then we see in vs 5-7 that these 12 men were taken & re-baptized in the name of Jesus. You see they had not been baptized in the name of Jesus but only w/John’s baptism. After Jesus’s death on the cross, they needed to be baptized again in His name.
    I am interested in your thoughts on this when you have the time.
    Thanks so much.
    Gwyn Kilbourne