Cold enough for ya?

Spent the weekend driving up and down the hills around LaCrosse doing house blessings and surviving, by God's grace, the cold temps. Right now (Monday morning) its warmed up to a balmy -15 below farenheit.

Ironic, isn't it that just after a group of scientists sponsored by the UN talk about global warming large sections of the US, and I've heard Russia as well, go very cold. A part of me is cynical when all these studies come out. I've long ago disabused myself of the notion that scientists are impartial and apolitical sorts who only seek the truth provided by empiricism. Quite frankly, large swathes of the academic world lean to the political left, incestuously relate to each other, and vigorously enforce thier orthodoxies. A Phd in climatological studies means absolutely zero outside of the small world of academics so toe the line or take your degree to McDonalds.

And do you really trust the UN to get anything right?

Some of us who are a little older remember the panic in the seventies about the coming "global ice age." Those who are a little older yet remember the hysteria about the "population bomb" and how the world would soon be overrun by billions of people and we'd all be reduced to eating grass in a global desert. Various other scientists have predicted all sorts of doomsday scenarios with the fervor of Hal Lindsey all of which have the fact they were wrong in common.

The Psalmist told us long ago to not put our trust in princes or in the sons of men because all humans are fleeting and all our ambitions and fears die with us. We know, as well, that all history is in God's hands as is the very creation itself. So we need not give in to panic, and should face all attempts to create the same whether they come from crazed preachers, politicians seeking power, or scientists caught up in academic fads, with discernment and without fear. Our faith gives us perspective and allows us to stand back from the ever changing winds of time and see the world in a remarkably different, even eternal way.

As Christians we've always known we are caretakers, and not owners of creation. Our faith tells us to exist without extravagance, share our wealth, and live with a minimum impact on what God has made for our sustenance and pleasure. So we need no one to panic us to live with an eye on conservation and care for the Earth. In fact, Christian faith is very much more attuned to the rythm of season and time and nature then much of what science has developed, as helpful as that can be, and if the world needs an ecological handbook they might just try dusting off that Bible in the library.

So who knows what the weather will be like next year? The truth is no one for sure. But come what storms or pleasant breezes our trust in God will carry us through. And to the extent we practice the care of creation in the fullness of the Christian tradition we will always be the gardener priests we were meant to be and our blue island in the depths of space will be preserved.