I prefer not to argue from the type of isolated unproved anecdotes you do.
I prefer:
Watching the president roll back Clintons environmentalism, whatching Bush's head of the EPA resign in disgust, as this a personal experience that can be had by all:
Republican Governorâs Book Blasts Bush And Karl Rove
By Gordon Bishop (01/20/05)
There she was, Christine Todd Whitman, standing next to former Democrat President Jimmy Carter behind a wreath framing the head of terrorist Yasser Arafat at his funeral
Whatever happened to Republican Christie Whitman?
Sheâs now a âDemocratâ â even possibly a âliberal!â
Whitman was a two-term Governor in the dominantly blue-state of New Jersey in the 1990s. She was the first female Governor of the Garden State.
Whitman was also the first to beat an incumbent Governor. Whitman knocked out Democrat Governor Jim Florio, who was a boxing champion in the Navy.
So how can such an ambitious woman who made history in New Jersey write a book trashing the George W. Bush Republican Party?
Easy. Whitman has crossed the line from conservative Republican lapdog of Bush to become a âmodestâ Republican.
So whatâs Whitmanâs problem?
She blames President Bush and his political strategist (Karl Rove) for failing to bring more âblue statesâ into the Republican column.
In her new book, âItâs My Party Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America,â Whitman accuses the Republican Party of failing to reach out to âmoderatesâ like herself.
Whitman writes that the Republican Party âat the national level is allowing itself to be dictated to by a coalition of ideological extremists â I call them social fundamentalists â groups that have claimed the mantle of conservatism and show no inclination to seek bipartisan consensus on anything.â
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"There can be no full conquest of the earth, and no real satisfaction to humanity, if large portions of the earth remain beyond his highest control," trumpeted Mormon hierarch and irrigator John Widtsoe-whose attitude was widely shared by other Christians and by the secular proponents of Manifest Destiny, the 19th-century's faith-tinged euphemism for conquest. Such invocations have led some environmentalists to cite biblical passages that seem to propound an anthropocentric worldview as grounds for dismissing Judeo-Christian religions. In doing so, they reflect the influence of the late historian Lynn White Jr.'s famous statement that "we shall continue to have a worsening ecologic crisis until we reject the Christian axiom that nature has no reason for existence save to serve man."
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There is little to suggest in recent elections that environmental concerns influenced the evangelical vote -- indeed, many members of Congress who receive 100 percent approval ratings from Christian advocacy groups get failing grades from environmental groups.
After the election last fall, leaders of the country's major environmental groups spent an entire day at a meeting in Washington trying to figure out how to talk to evangelicals, according to Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation. For decades, he said, environmentalists have failed to make that connection.
"There is a lot of suspicion," said Schweiger, who describes himself as a conservationist and a person of faith. "There are a lot of questions about what are our real intentions."
Green said the evangelicals' deep suspicion about environmentalists has theological roots.
"While evangelicals are open to being good stewards of God's creation, they believe people should only worship God, not creation," Green said. "This may sound like splitting hairs. But evangelicals don't see it that way. Their stereotype of environmentalists would be Druids who worship trees."
Another reason that evangelicals are suspicious of environmental groups is cultural and has its origins in how conservative Christians view themselves in American society, according to the Rev. Jim Ball, executive director of the Evangelical Environmental Network. The group made its name with the "What Would Jesus Drive?" campaign against gas-guzzling cars but recently shifted its focus to reducing global warming.
"Evangelicals feel besieged by the culture at large," Ball said. "They don't know many environmentalists, but they have the idea they are pretty weird -- with strange liberal, pantheist views."
Ball said that the way to bring large numbers of evangelicals on board as political players in environmental issues is to make persuasive arguments that, for instance, tie problems of global warming and mercury pollution to family health and the health of unborn children. He adds that evangelicals themselves -- not such groups as the Sierra Club or Friends of the Earth, with their liberal Democratic baggage -- are the only ones who can do the persuading.
"Environmental groups are always going to be viewed in a wary fashion," Ball said. "They just don't have a good enough feel for the evangelical community. There are landmines from the past, and they will hit them without knowing it."
Even for green activists within the evangelical movement, there are landmines. One faction in the movement, called dispensationalism, argues that the return of Jesus and the end of the world are near, so it is pointless to fret about environmental degradation.
Quote from hapaboy:
You call "watching the president" a "personal experience"? LOL!
I know it's difficult for you, but try to concentrate on the topic at hand: what "personal" experience do you have with the Sierra Club? "Watching" them doesn't count...
