Another Conservative Camel

This essay, like the previous, is adapted from one that will appear on my science website.

In the previous essay, I wrote about how conservatives, such as Oklahoma state representative Sally Kern, are straining out gnats and swallowing camels, to use the same wonderful imagery that Jesus used in criticizing the conservatives of his day. In that essay, I explained that the gnat that the conservatives were straining out was gay rights. They claim, totally without evidence, that homosexuals will bring about the collapse of America. Meanwhile, they ignore the clear dangers posed by our destruction of the environment, dangers that are severe enough to cause our downfall. Conservatives supposedly believe that the environment is God’s Creation, but they seem to not believe this very passionately. And the Bible has identified one particular environmental problem—the loss of topsoil, resulting from the failure to let the fields rest from agriculture—as one of the principal reasons that the Kingdom of Judah fell to the Babylonians.

There is another major theme that conservatives ignore. While they scream about homosexuals, they ignore the problem of poverty. I know that some conservatives (among them Sally Kern) make a show of working in soup kitchens, but they staunchly and zealously support the economic structure that reinforces poverty. They want what they call a “free market” in which the rich can get richer by oppressing the poor. For example, they believe that banks should have unlimited rights to do whatever they want to their poor creditors, such as charging usurious interest rates that not only force the poor to remain poor but drive them further into poverty and prevent them from ever repaying their debts. (At the same time, conservatives utterly reject a free market approach to solving the marijuana problem.) The burden of debt is so heavy, and the bank CEOs are getting so rich from it, that most Americans (the middle class, not just the poor) feel utterly crushed by it. But conservatives want to maintain this system. The freedom of the free market is enjoyed only by the very wealthy. Judging from its actions, the Republican Party would rather have America collapse than to have the taxes on millionaires raised even slightly.

This situation brings to mind some things that the Old Testament prophets said. The second prophet who went by the name Isaiah (chapter 40, verse 1) spoke words that have been immortalized in the music, played each Christmas, by George Frideric Handel: Comfort ye my people, cry unto them that their warfare is accomplished. How can I express the feeling of relief that comes from this music and these words? You can just feel the burdens of a nation sliding off of our shoulders. But how is this to be accomplished? Not by the free market. According to the third verse, a voice cries in the wilderness. And what does this voice say? The fourth verse says, “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low.” The meaning of this passage is clear to everyone except conservatives. The rich and powerful will be humbled, and the poor shall be raised up. Not just given some food in a soup kitchen, but actually lifted out of grinding poverty. The only way that our nation, like ancient Israel, can experience relief from our burdens is by making our social relationships more equitable. This is not a call for socialism or communism; there will always be some people who are richer than others, often but not always because they deserve to be. But the extreme disparity between rich and poor in America—which is greater than any other nation in the industrial world and greater than any time in the last hundred years—has to end. The laws and policies that enforce this disparity have to change. As the first Isaiah said (chapter 3, verse 15), God opposes those who “grind the faces of the poor into the dust.”

The solution to our environmental problems also depends on bringing relief to the poor. If people are desperate, they will do whatever they need to do in order to survive. For example, they will try to raise food in marginal soil, which will erode away and cause deserts to spread. There is no hope for our Earth, just as there is no hope for our society, unless the valleys are exalted and the mountains humbled.

Conservatives consider themselves defenders of Biblical religion. But the only thing some of them talk about is how evil homosexuals are. And their solution is that these evil people need to come to their churches and donate money. Conservative churches cannot make money off of denouncing the rich or defending the Earth. On the issues that the Biblical prophets considered most important, conservatives are eerily silent.

Announcement: I want to ask again if anyone wants to submit comments on what you would like to discuss. Unfortunately, at the moment, Blogger is malfunctioning and I cannot read your comments. I hope I can fix that problem soon.

Conservatives: Straining Out a Gnat and Swallowing a Camel

I have adapted this essay from one that will appear on my website soon, but have changed it to expand upon the religious message for this blog. My website is devoted to science, not to religion.

Conservatives are missing the point not only of what is important in the world but even what Jesus said. They are focusing their attention on things that are not important and are ignoring major problems that will destroy our nation and world if left unsolved. I focus on the first of these “camels” in this essay.

In Jesus’ day the Pharisees were a religious group that closely resembled the conservatives of today. They focused their righteous zeal on obeying minor Biblical laws in exquisite detail, while ignoring the important things. For example, they figured out intricate rules for how to tithe not just their income but also the herbs that grew in their gardens. Jesus denounced them in one of the angriest speeches in recorded history, preserved in the twenty-third chapter of the gospel of Matthew. He said to them, “You tithe mint and dill and cumin, while ignoring the weightier matters of the law.” He summarized their brand of religion by saying that they were “straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.” Besides being a masterful bit of humor, this statement made it clear that religious conservatives, then as now, pay attention to small things that are not a problem—you could eat quite a few gnats without noticing them—and ignore major problems. Nor did they do so at random; conservatives, then as now, gave the most attention to the rules that would give their religious hierarchy the most power, and ignored all the principles that would empower and bless the poor and downtrodden, and save the Earth.

One example of modern conservatives straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel is the crusade of Sally Kern, an Oklahoma state representative, against gay rights. She gave a speech that was secretly recorded and a few minutes of which have spread around the internet, in which she compared gays to a spreading cancer and said that they were more dangerous than terrorists. It is not my intention to criticize her in detail, because I am no expert on the issue of gay rights.

The point I want to make here is that Sally Kern was straining out a gnat. There is no evidence that gays and lesbians are ruining society. Sally Kern, like anybody else, has the right to consider their actions to be wrong, but that is not the same thing as saying that they are destroying the country. I know some gay men, and they have never tried to recruit me to their ranks. They consider themselves to be born gay, and therefore they do not believe in recruitment. They just want people to leave them alone and give them the rights of American citizens. Did homosexuality cause Mesopotamia to fall? Persia? Rome? The British Empire?

Meanwhile, conservatives like Sally Kern are swallowing a camel. Gay rights will not destroy America, but our ecological problems may destroy us. Take, for example, the loss of our topsoil through wind and water erosion. This is a problem conservatives ignore. But it will, not many decades from now, undermine our ability to raise food.

Moreover, the sin of ruining the environment was one of the principal reasons, according to the Bible, that the kingdoms of Israel and Judah fell to the Assyrians and Babylonians. In the laws of Moses, the Israelites were commanded to let their land lie fallow every seven years, and to recover from the strain of agriculture. This law has been known as the Sabbath of the Fields. There is no evidence that the Israelites ever obeyed this law. According to tradition, the Israelite nation persisted for 490 years; therefore they owed the land 70 years. Near the end of the second book of Chronicles, the writer drew a clear connection between Judah’s failure to keep the Sabbath of the Fields and their downfall. The writer said, “And so the land enjoyed its rest.” The Israelite homeland lay fallow for 70 years.

The Bible clearly indicates that failure to take care of the land can cause a country to collapse, just as an individual can be hurt if a camel sits on him. There is no such statement about homosexuality—the gnat in the cup—causing a nation to fall. Why don’t modern conservatives decry the way America is destroying God’s creation, instead of spending all their time attacking gays?

I have started tweeting. Follow me on Twitter, @StanEvolve.

Requesting Your Input

As we begin the third year of this blog, I will continue to post essays that I have written based upon news items, books I have read, and selections from my books. I am a scientist, but my essays will not be limited to science. For example, in early 2010, I wrote about agnostic ideas found in the Bible and in works of music such as Carmina Burana and Die Winterreise.

But starting this year I would like to actively request ideas from my readers. You have always had the comment box, but I would now like to invite you to use it to suggest ideas and share your own insights, not just to respond to what I have written. What topics, related to religion and science and life, would you like to discuss? I think our small blog community could benefit from your insights. Our community is small, because I have not advertised this site on my other outlets. I am a professional with regard to evolution and ecology, and their political and religious connections, but I am an amateur with regard to many of the things I write in this blog. Amateur is not a bad word; in its Latin roots, it means “one who loves.” I love to discuss topics on which I am not an authority. Which is why it will be particularly interesting to draw in your insights.

Some readers find it difficult to post comments, since Google requires you to have an account with them in order to post your comment. If it is easier for you, feel free to send your comments to abutilongr@aol.com.

Let me know what you are thinking, by writing in the comment box. Also, feel free to send the link to other people you know who would be interested in the discussions on this blog.

I have also started tweeting. Follow me on Twitter, @StanEvolve.