Rant

I doubt God is a republican or a democrat, but I bet God is a "greeny".
It's just a hunch, but that's what I think.

I doubt God really gives a flying flip if we have to drive our cars less to care for creation more. Many christian friends of mine have adopted a "Live simply, so that others may simply live." attitude. I think they may be on to something. Regardless of where we should or should not drill for more stinking OIL, or who we may or may not have killed for it.... Isn't it remotely possible that maybe we are just a teensy bit out of control with our overall consumption? One might also call it greed or gluttony, but that's beside the point. Maybe the OIL problem is just the tip of the zit, so to speak? The real problem is underneath.......

I read somewhere that the line between good and evil does not run between us, it runs right down the middle of me and you. This is the painful part of growing up and learning about paradox and complexity and nuance. Things are not exactly black and white or Them and Us. I'm part of the problem, and so are you... and no GOVERNMENT is going to take care of it for us. God help us if we really think that. A Savior is not waiting in the wings to drill more oil for us or grow more corn for us or figure out how we can continue to consume more...
Quite to the contrary Jesus said something like "When you fast, keep your mouth shut about it." He assumed people fasted, but he pointed out that it's nothing to brag about.

Most, if not all faith traditions embrace some sort of aesthetic self denial. Most people, when pressed for the inner truth will agree that having everything we want is not good for our souls, though it may take some time to cut through the crap and get to that point. It took me a long time to fully recognize that and I suspect I still don't recognize it as much as I will in another 10 years.

These days, I think of sin less in terms of breaking the rules and more as something that harms or causes suffering for myself or others. In this light the idea of overconsumption becomes very uncomfortable for me personally. For instance, I have been thinking about the "deadly sin" called gluttony. I never understood how eating too much would be a sin. Though it is hard on the body, and obesity can lead to all kinds of disease, I used to think "What is the big deal?" Isn't that my problem, if I'm overweight or eat too much? The devil is in the details. When I require large amounts of food - or any other resource - I also want it to be cheap. I don't want to get poorer, I want to get richer. So, I need my food and my oil and my clothes to be cheap. How do we get cheap goods? You probably know what road I'm going down now... (especially if you read my post about chocolate and slavery) Someone out there has to work for very little or maybe even nothing so that I don't have to pay too much for my supper.

Who am I hurting when I eat too much habitually? Who am I hurting when I demand more cheap oil? Who am I hurting when I always require more? That bottomless pit of More.
Now, multiply this by the population of an entire culture that lives this way and the ripple effect is absolutely sickening. Deadly sin? I do think so.

So I guess if we asked God if we should drill for more oil - wherever - there might be some different questions asked of us than we might expect.

Just sayin....