According to a CNSNews.com article, in her Earth Day news release, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) attributed this quote to the Old Testament: "To minister to the needs of God's creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us."However, many biblical scholars cite a problem with that quotation: it doesn't exist in the Bible.
It was not the first time Pelosi has used this alleged biblical passage. The California Democrat has used it on several different occasions, and has even attributed the passage to the Old Testament Book of Isaiah.
Dr. Raymond Bohlin is president of Probe Ministries, a non-profit apologetics ministry. He offers his findings. "You're just not going to find that kind of statement anywhere in Isaiah, let alone anywhere directly in scripture at all -- Old Testament or New Testament," says Bohlin. "So, you know, it's hard to know where something like that gets started. But it's unfortunate that she's referring to it as a scripture quotation because it's not."
Although Bohlin agrees that Christians need to be good stewards of the environment, he believes Pelosi and others share a twisted view of that biblical principle. "[Sometimes] they may put ... a sort of Christian caring and compassionate view to things," he notes. "But ultimately, down deep, I think they're operating within the context of a naturalistic worldview that's looking to be concerned for all of life, and for all of earth -- and that becomes the primary value." As a result, he concludes, "what happens to human beings becomes a secondary value."
Speaker Pelosi has used the quote while defending her stance on issues from the environment to the budget.
No comments:
Post a Comment