"The director of an Environmental Protection Agency energy program told a meeting of environmentalists Thursday (December 19, 2002) that the White House's faith-based initiative should include federal grants for religious groups that advocate green causes," reported CNSNews.com on December 20, 2002.
The article, "EPA Seeks Faith-Based Grants for Green Causes," provides advance warning of the further merging of eco-spirituality and government. Here we have documented an EPA administrator inviting radical eco-spiritual movements to manage government programs and to obtain government funds in the name of eco-religion.
Some thoughts regarding this invitation:
1) It is revealing that environmentalists attending a Worldwatch Institute symposium were openly recognized as "faith-based groups." The seminar's title was "Invoking the Spirit: Religion and Spirituality in the Quest for a Sustainable World." Indeed, radical environmentalism has again removed its false "science" mask and acknowledged that its positions are based upon spiritual beliefs rather than on empirical science or objective resource management. Incredibly, we have the Bush 43 administration inviting the Church of the Green to administer governmental environmental programs.
2) The article said EPA is "seeking 'ideas' regarding how religious groups who promote green causes like climate change and pollution controls, can qualify for White House faith-based funds." Thus government has announced that it desires religious groups with eco-spiritual beliefs to use government funds to further their eco-religion.
3) The EPA administrator acknowledged that government funds "can't be used to [directly] promote your religion," but asserted that "the money can be used to meet objectives that EPA has out there anyway, such as addressing climate change or water pollution." Thus, the government will favor religion whose message is the same as the government. Favored Religion that speaks consistent with the State will be endowed with money and prestige from the State. Favored Religion and State will thereby become one. Adherents of Unfavored Religion/Non religion, who fail to speak consistent with the State, will subsidize combined State/Favored Religion with their tax dollars.
4) Except for the most ministerial tasks, religious groups cannot objectively administer government environmental programs. If a government program involves only the ministerial task of picking up litter by the side of a river, a religious group could perform the task if religious beliefs were irrelevant to the task of picking up litter. (But, if the group is inefficient because it stops to apologize to Gaia or Mother Earth for each piece of litter, the group's religious beliefs could be relevant.)
When discretion is involved in the performance of tasks, religion and government more quickly merge. If the government program calls for monitoring and evaluating the impacts of litter by the side of a river, the eco-spiritualists' belief system will necessarily affect, or impeach, the integrity of their fact-finding and conclusions. After all, only people sharing the same belief system (the ecofaith-based group awarded the contract) will be documenting and evaluating facts. Instead of a group of government employees of various spiritual backgrounds whose conflicting beliefs tend to moderate and balance the group's view of facts, the view of only one religion will be reflected. Thus, eco-spiritualists will be more likely to conclude that man must be barred from access to the river, than will a balanced collection of government employees not committed to viewing their task through the lens of religion.
5) Five years ago Alston Chase wrote,
"It may be only a matter of time before America becomes a complete theocracy -- a place where in the name of environmentalism, science and religion fuse with civil authority to rule the populace."
Congress and the courts must block the "urge to merge" eco-religion and government that continues to build in the executive branch. As documented elsewhere on this site, the Clinton administration laid a radical foundation for the fusion of eco-religion and government. Bush 43, rather than dismantling this threat, is building upon the Clinton administration's foundation. The synergy of an official state eco-religion and an omnipresent Department of Homeland Security would be phenomenal. Nobody accuses Bush 43 of intending to create a totalitarian state. But it would be a serious error to ignore mistakes in the making, whether intentional or not. Civil rights organizations need to confront attempts to establish government eco-religion sooner rather than later.
Article address: http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=\Nation\archive\200212\NAT20021220b.html
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