Sen. Whitehouse rips colleague who said God won’t allow climate change

[kpete]

In a nearly 17-minute speech on Wednesday evening, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) blasted an unnamed senator for saying God would protect the Earth from climate change.

“I was recently at a Senate hearing where I heard a member of our Senate community say, ‘God won’t allow us to ruin our planet,’” he remarked on the Senate floor. “Maybe that is why we do nothing.”

Whitehouse said the senator and others who thought similarly were seeking “magical deliverance from our troubles, not divine guidance through our troubles.” He cited numerous biblical passages that contradicted the notion that God “cleaned up” for human’s thoughtless and misguided actions.


“We are warned in the Bible not to plow iniquity, not to eat the fruit of lies,” Whitehouse said. “Where in the Bible are we assured of safety if we do? I see no assurances of that.”

“So why then, when we ignore his plain, natural laws, when we ignore the obvious conclusions to be drawn by our God-given intellect and reason, why then would God, the tidy-up God, drop in and spare us?” he added. “Why would he allow an innocent child to burn its hand when it touches the hot stove but protect us from this lesson? Why would he allow a badly engineered bridge or building to fall, killing innocent people, but protect us from this mistake?”

more:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/08/sen-whitehouse-destroys-colleague-who-said-god-wont-allow-climate-change/

[marmar]

1. ‘God won’t allow us to ruin our planet,’

It's terrifying that someone who'd say that holds high elected office. Good on Sheldon Whitehouse for calling it out.

[JustAnotherGen]

2. I hope

He outs who that is. . .

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Oh I got my theory

Tom Coburn has said things along these lines on the record.

[annabanana]

3. kicking for Sheldon.. One of the greats. . . . . .. .n/t

[cynzke]

4. Remember right wing Christian TV preacher Jerry Falwell?

I watch his program ONCE. It relates to this topic oddly enough. Falwell stated that it DIDN'T MATTER if we exploited the planet because when Jesus comes back, he is going to gives us a better one where everything was shiney brand new.

[freshwest]

18. That is exactly the mentality Gore spoke against in his book 'Earth in the Balance.'

It's why they hated him, he was calling out their religion. He said their interpretation was destroying the planet for short sighted gain and greed. They didn't like it, not one bit. I call The Rapture© their 'Get Out of Hell Free' card. Do whatever they want but never have to clean up after themselves. A very immature, destructive way of behaving. Typical RWNJs.

[byeya]

5. James Watt, a Fundy, said to drill, dig, and despoil because jesus in coming back and it

won't matter.
Rhode Island is the most RC state in the union and that church does not share the evangelical protty disregard for the earth's health.

I am glad the Senator laid it on the line and I hope others pick up on this.

[Ilsa]

10. Yeah, 30 years ago he was predicting that.

Too bad he didn't hold his breath while waiting.

[byeya]

15. I think that there are a lot of people who would have liked to help Watt hold his breath!

[DhhD]

6. This reminds me of judgments that God gave to man. One was the judgment given to Adam. He had

to till and work the Earth for food. Some men have decided to till the Earth for oil and natural gas instead. They are destroying the soil, air and water too. Do officials in charge of government continue to deny the use of solar energy and other clean renewables?

Another judgment was to erase the face of the land with water; and another with salt. God promised never to use water again. So is heat His inferred warning and rising temperature our deed?

In my opinion, the Bible says God is about, tough love by way of Man's choices to promote his own destructive consequences.

The the Book of Job, God enjoyed swimming through the waters. In Genesis, God enjoyed walking through the Garden of Eden. In my book, He will walk and swim along after the Earth is healed, after we are removed from the surface.

[el_bryanto]

7. I have heard this argument as well

Often in conjection with the theory that the world is ending soon anyway.

Bryant

[SCVDem]

9. The Earth will survive!

It's the fragile carbon based life forms which will perish.

Tube worms at hot smokers will outlast us all.

Idiots!

[Octafish]

11. He's the kind of Senator the USA needs to see Sunday mornings on the tee vee.

But, then, a guest with intelligence might actually help democracy at the expense of the oil companies and billionaires of the world.

[Arugula Latte]

12. God allowed or caused the Holocaust, famine, plagues, disease and Carrot Top.

Clearly this God is one ginormous asshole.

[byeya]

16. Carrot Top was the game breaker for me. Nicely noted.

[hughee99]

13. If a Senator truly believes in such an active and involved god,

can someone ask them why that same god is fine with letting nutbags shoot up schools, killing factory workers, killing children with horrible diseases, wars, plagues, famine, etc...

I don't think the jury is still out on this, if there is a god, it's fine letting us fuck up and live with the consequences. In what way would this situation (climate change) be any different? Perhaps "gods plan" is for climate change to wipe US off the face of the earth, much like the flood did in the bible.

[freshwest]

19. An edition of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers quoted God as saying:

'I Am The Creator, Not The Repairman!'



Never missed a copy of it. Something to think about.

[hughee99]

20. When I was younger, my grandfather used to tell me

"God is the architect, not the janitor."

[freshwest]

21. Sounds good. I remember some older ranch neighbors who were against insecticides, etc. They said:

'Why remove them (insects, etc.) from God's Fields?'

It's good to have boundaries that show respect to people and other living things. That seems to have fallen by the wayside the last few decades and been replaced by slogans instead of compassion.

[Warren DeMontague]

14. because God Loves the petroleum industry.

he is heavily invested in Shell and Exxon Mobil and he is quite committed to the quarterly numbers.

[byeya]

17. He is the "magic" in the "magic of the marketplace". Selah!

[SidDithers]

22. Guess it would have been to much to hope he would have said...

"There is no God. We need to clean up our own mess".

Sid

[pacalo]

23. The elegance & wisdom of this speech is certainly on the same level as our founding fathers.

I've been an admirer of Sen. Whitehouse since he was first elected & I wish we could see & hear more of him.

And he went "there" -- he addressed the corruption that prevents Congress from doing the right thing:

We need to face up to the fact that there is only one leg on which climate denial stands: money. The polluters give & spend money to create false doubt. The polluters give & spend money to buy political influence. The polluters give & spend money to continue polluting. That's it. That's it. Not truth, not science, not economics, not safety, not policy, & certainly not religion nor morality. Nothing supports climate denial -- nothing -- except money.

But in Congress, in this temple, money rules. So here I stand in one of the last places on Earth that is still a haven to climate denial. In our arrogance, we here in Congress think that we can somehow ignore or trump Earth's natural laws -- laws of chemistry, laws of physics, laws of science -- with our own political lawmaking, with our own political influence.

But we're fools to think that. The laws of chemistry & the laws of physics neither know nor care what we say or do here. So we need to wake up. We need to walk not in the council of the wicked, nor sit in the seat of scoffers, but with due humility, awaken to our duty & get to work because here on Earth, God's work must truly be our own.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

26. Whitehouse for the White House.

How great it would be to vote FOR someone sane and smart.

K&R

[pacalo]

28. I agree -- you can't get better than this brilliant man.

[dembotoz]

24. takes balls to try to forecast god will or won't do

not brains

[rhett o rick]

30. It happens every day all around the world in churches. nm

[Cha]

25. "God" helps those who help themselves. Those who claim to speak for "God"..

are arrogant assholes. Whatever.. I'm not very good with religious dabblings.

thank you, Senator Whitehouse for taking on this claptrap.

[Rex]

27. So much for keeping religion and governemt appart.

It is scary to believe some fanatics in charge of US and our country, hold out that their Master will keep reality from going over a cliff!

Scary and wrong!

[RainDog]

29. How can someone who is so fucking stupid get elected?

How? Because other stupid people voted for the asshole.

[randr]

31. At the core of all conservative teabagger republican ideology is the lack of

personal responsibility for anything. Everything that pinches their panties is blamed on someone else. Any gains they have made in life are never the result of anyone else's efforts or kindness.
God is their go to good guy/bad guy for everything beyond their intellectual reasoning.
A complete lack of personal responsibility is the hallmark of conservative thinking, and I use the term "thinking" liberally.