Since these comments are generally written at G+ and posted on the fly, you can expect to see some addenda and clean up of articles as time allows, after they are posted to Blogger.
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As a few people here at G+ know, I was raised in an apocalyptic sect (or some would say, "cult") - namely, the Jehovah's Witnesses - and this gives me considerable insight into the mind of those who hearken wholesale to such dogma, particularly in regard to what they see as their "responsibility" towards the earth and the rest of humanity (which we shall hold in contrast to those who rightly believe that all our problems, be they social or environmental, are ours and ours alone to solve, without divine intervention.)
I have studied other apocalyptic sects, and will make a nod to them as necessary.
First of all, a "doomsday" cult does not necessarily prophesy the end of the world. More commonly, they prophesy something along the lines of a Messianic return ("Christ's second coming") whereupon the wicked will be exterminated (and all the birds of heaven come to the "great feast" - Revelation 19:17)). In the context of JW beliefs, the "wicked" comprise those who, after having their doors knocked upon, reject the message. In other words, JWs basically see everyone they meet who is not a JW as crow bait. The job of the faithful, then, in knocking upon doors, is to separate the "sheep from the goats," the sheep being those who are willing, indeed eager, to be led. The "goats" are those who "rely on their own understanding," rather than relying on holy scripture, as interpreted by a body of old men in a room at JW headquarters in Brooklyn, NY, and duly handed down as "heavenly food" in the form of JW's copious publications.
The JWs refer to this proselytization as "the great work." When this great work is completed, and all human beings everywhere have had their doors knocked upon and have either accepted or rejected the message, "then the end will come." The goats will be exterminated by a heavenly army of angels led by Christ; the sheep will be saved. After the battle is over, the birds will pick the bones clean and remaining humans will assist in the cleanup. Meanwhile, Satan and his fallen angels (demons), who are ultimately responsible for all this mayhem, will be chained in "the abyss" for 1000 years, during which time the survivors of the war, and those legions from bygone days who were worthy of being resurrected from the dead, will begin the work of turning the Earth into a paradise. At the end of the 1000 years, the devil will be loosed for "a short time" to give the faithful a final temptation. All those who resist temptation will then live forever on a paradise earth; meanwhile, the devil will be utterly destroyed with his demons and those who succumbed to his wiles during the "final test."
All of this is background, so we can make sense of the question: what do JWs feel is their responsibility towards society and towards the environment? Other than the rule that they must be "lawful" within the context of secular law (except where it violates God's law), they adhere to their spiritual hope. In short, they are law abiding and peaceful, but they look to God and not to man to solve the problems of humankind. What does mean for them, as far as the environment is concerned? They give lip service to the idea that we are meant to protect the earth, or perhaps more accurately to "husband" it well, and they often refer to the scripture ("God will ruin those ruining the earth" - Revelation 11:18). But in terms of being socially active to try to mitigate something like greenhouse warming, or acid rain, etc. - they are not. They would never join an org like Greenpeace or the Sierrra Club or WWF and become active in such groups, protesting, writing letters, etc. Here's why (and this is important):
- Because of their "spiritual hope," they do not involved themselves in "earthly affairs," e.g., politics, voting, military service, secular groups/clubs, etc.
- Fighting for environmental causes would be seen as taking time away from the real work of spreading the news of the impending apocalypse. Their "great work" is the real way to save the earth.
- Becoming a militant environmentalist could be seen almost as an abrogation of faith. If there is greenhouse warming, God will fix it.
Another apocalyptic sect are the 7th Day Adventists, who interestingly enough, are a splinter group* off the same original 19th century religious movement "The Millerites." led by William Miller (1782-1849). If the dogma of both religions are compared, there are significant similarities and differences. No need to go into them here; it would be prohibitive. Suffice it to say that they both hold that there will be a "final battle" to decide things in the future, ergo, Armageddon.
There are other "apocalyptic sects." These are two large, well-established ones, but neither do they have much political influence, because the JWs are prohibited from engaging in civic and political affairs - even playing sports in school, school government, etc., is discouraged, as are all holidays, both civic and religious. The 7th day Adventists do vote, but are discouraged from becoming involved in politics for the same reasons as JWs.
There is one more element I must speak of here, because it's probably the most important, the most pertinent, in regard to this discussion (all of the former discussion has been to show how profoundly a certain dogma may alter the individual's perception of engagement in "social mitigation" of environmental problems), The element I refer to are "fundamentalist Christians," often called "fundies" or "born-againers." I refer not to a "classical" sort of fundamentalism, here, but to a specific movement whose philosophical underpinnings were laid down around the 1830s and became noteworthy within the U.S. by the early 1900s. But rather than becoming the foundation a single church in its own right, the essential dogma was, rather, _distributed across a whole range of Christian sects._
The dogma I refer to is "The Rapture," the idea that as earth enters into this time of tribulation (Armageddon) all faithful Christians will be instantly transported to heaven. Bingo, the guy in front of you just goes - poof, he's gone. The unfaithful "riff-raff," and in particular the Jews (who rejected the Messiah), will be left behind. This idea, as noted, has been weaving its way into the dogma of existing churches since the 1870s, but it got a major boost in the 1970s, becoming a sort of pop-phenomenon with the release of Hal Lindsey's book The Late, Great Planet Earth:
"a treatment of literalist, premillennial, dispensational eschatology. As such, it compared end-time prophecies in the Bible with then-current events in an attempt to broadly predict future scenarios leading to the rapture of believers before the tribulation and Second Coming of Christ to establish his thousand-year (i.e. millennial) Kingdom on Earth."
...It became a bestseller, "... the first Christian prophecy book to be picked up by a secular publisher (Bantam, 1973) and sell many copies.... "Also:
" ...Despite some dated content, 28 million copies had sold by 1990. The film, The Late Great Planet Earth, narrated by Orson Welles, was one of the top grossing domestic movies in 1979..."This presented the ideas of the Rapture anew, in a modern context, along with apocalyptic prophecies. Suddenly, being a fundie was sort of cool, and I won't even guess how many were "born again" after seeing this movie and reading the book.
To cut this short, many of these individuals incorporated this into their worldviews, regardless of their Christian sect; others formed new sects. Heralding from sects not having proscriptions on being politically active, they indulged in matters of civic and political import, carrying their Rapture beliefs into political office, but not necessarily expounding on them from their political pulpit.
Point (and this is the conclusion): If you're a self-proclaimed "fundie"or "born-againer" in a political office today, I submit that you have been exposed to, and quite likely hold to, the dogma of the Rapture.* Thus, a philosophy which holds that we are in the end times,when all the Jews and Atheists and Dirty Commies, et al, will be "plowed under" while the good Christians disappear in the blink of an eye, Raptured up into heaven.
How strong an impetus is there, then, to take on the issue of global warming as a problem to be solved by people, for people, when you're sold on the Rapture? Wouldn't the Rapture underpin your whole worldview?
Sources:
*Some hold that the Jehovah's Witnesses are not a "splinter group," per se, off of Millerism, but rather had "strong Adventist influences." I think this may simply be a matter of quibbling, and that "splintering" versus "influences" is simply a matter of semantics - the chief source of the "influences" interpretation itself comes from early JW literature, and having been a member of this sect, I know they are highly selective in their interpretations of practically everything, so as to cast themselves in the best possible light, rather than suggesting that the "expression of God's Kingdom on Earth" (as they believe they are) could in any way be fickle or flawed. Indeed, regarding the infamous 1975 "end of the world" prediction, their official position in church literature was that no such prediction had ever been made, and that those who sold their houses, etc., had simply misinterpreted what was said in regard to 1975. Highly "revisionist, rather Orwellian.
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