True conservatives would be in favor of conserving

Re “You can have any type of gun? Can I sell my daughter?” letter by Hartmut Fege.

I absolutely loved Pastor Fege’s commentary and others where he took folks on the Far Out Right to task for their literal allegiance to the U.S. Constitution by comparing such folly with literal allegiance to Holy Scripture. His points were excellently made.

From the time they were written, there have been constant abuses of the constitution and Bill of Rights by those in power.

“All men are created equal” comes to mind. That didn’t work so well for Native Americans back then – and women were an afterthought. Centuries later they are still fighting for equality. The same can be said about the Bible, written so long ago and translated from ancient dialects.

“Thou shalt not kill” comes to mind. Wow. Thousands of years of abuse of that timeless principle - from the age of sticks and stones to the age of automatic weapons. But there are still folks who cling to principles expressed in these writings to label our nation, political party or themselves as “Constitutional Fundamentalists” or Christians.

Over the years, I have heard more than one preacher espouse, “You cannot pick and choose what part of the Bible you want to believe in or follow.”

Well, begging their pardon – and in the behalf of brevity, I should like to dwell on just one subject from the holy book: Taking care of Mother Earth.

I am not a biblical scholar, but I do talk with the Lord regularly, and His holy bible is full of references to His wishes for us to be good stewards of all creation. The books of Genesis, Job, Proverbs, Psalms, John, Luke and Matthew all bear witness to the fact that God was the first environmentalist.

If we are a “Christian nation,” as so many conservatives describe, we should most certainly heed these Biblical passages which are so prevalent in the good book. Those of us who claim to be “conservatives” should, most certainly, also be “conservationists.”

We have all done a really crappy job at that – and now we are facing so many perils as a result. What we do from here will most surely determine how much of an environmental debt that our grandchildren will be stuck with to go along with the massive monetary debt that prior generations so greedily established.

The health and existence of our species is being threatened – and all we seem to be able to do is argue and kill each other. What kind of example are we setting for those grandchildren? What will they take from that to apply to their adult lives?

This story was originally published September 13, 2016 at 9:38 AM with the headline "True conservatives would be in favor of conserving."