My latest in PJ Media:
Is modern American Leftism a new, secular religion? Of course it is. Who could forget House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Grey Goose) giving thanks to her god for his salvific sacrifice: “Thank you, George Floyd, for sacrificing your life for justice”? Or New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D-Planned Parenthood) proclaiming that the unvaccinated “aren’t listening to God and what God wants.” And now the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which has long been a hollowed-out shell teaching social justice Leftism in vaguely Christian garb, has done its part for the sanctification of the contemporary Leftist agenda by publishing a new hymn, “The Climate is Changing.” The lyrics are far more ludicrous than the title might suggest.
Presbyterian News Service reported Friday that the hymn was prepared for the opening of the UN Climate Change Conference on Sunday in Glasgow. Apparently the assembled dignitaries, after working hard all day on strategies to compel the U.S. and Western Europe to commit economic suicide and hand global financial hegemony to China on a silver platter, will be in the mood to belt out a rousing hymn about saving Gaia. The pious Presbyterians were happy to oblige.
“The Climate is Changing” is helpfully written to a tune that many of the conference participants will find familiar: “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise,” an enduringly popular nineteenth-century hymn that begins: “Immortal, invisible, God only wise, in light inaccessible, hid from our eyes, most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days, almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.”
Now, this is the twenty-first century, and all that patriarchal business about a wise, omnipotent, glorious God is as dated as porkpie hats and the notion that there are only two genders. “The Climate is Changing,” which was written by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, co-pastor with her husband, Bruce, of First Presbyterian Union Church in Oswego, New York, is much more up-to-date. Here are the first two verses, in all their virtue-signaling pseudo-Christian glory:
The climate is changing! Creation cries out!
Your people face flooding and fire and drought.
We see the great heat waves and storms at their worst.
We pray for the poor, Lord — for they suffer first.We pray for the animals here in our midst
who cannot defend their own right to exist.
We pray for the mountains and forests and seas
that bear the harsh footprint of our human greed.
You get the idea. The lyrics do make a cursory nod toward the old religion: the fifth (yes) verse begins by reminding God: “You love this good Earth, and you sent us your Son!” If you don’t recall Jesus saying much about the necessity to reduce greenhouse emissions, but only in the West, while giving China a free hand to pollute as much as it wants while turning the world into its personal economic fiefdom, Bruce Gillette, the husband of the holy hymnographer, might want to have a few words with you. “We all need to be doing more to counter the crisis ASAP,” said Bruce, who is also (surprise!) vice-moderator of Presbyterians for Earth Care. “Prayer (spoken and sung) needs to be the basis for Christian action. We hope this new hymn helps churches in their worship and action.”
There is more. Read the rest here.
Walter Sieruk says
That really no surprise when remembering that back in the late 1960’s the Presbyterian church that I attended ,for a time, had a minister , Rev. Wear, who didn’t preach the Bible or read from the Bible when speaking from the pulpit . That awful man on spoke vague statement ,without clear meaning. Wear didn’t really care about the teachings of Jesus. During his personal counselling with the church members he only spoke nonsense, falsehoods and outright lies .
The point being the with men such as him being minister in the Presbyterian church means that, in time, when those horrendous murderous jihad affronts occured on September 11, 2001 and then the “War of ideas ” which involves the doctrine and belief conflict between Christianity and Islam ,such men , as “Christian” pastors ,as Wear, are completely useless and worthless , at best, in this conflict of beliefs ,values , ideas and doctrines the “Christian church and the House of Islam”
At worst such ,minister, as Wear, only get in the way of this war of ideas and even give Christianity a bad name.
Infidel says
Wonder if this was what drove President Trump to re-classify himself as non-denominational Christian instead of Presbyterian? Or did the Presbyterian church itself distance itself from him in order to appease their woke congregation, causing him too to distance himself from them?
Alexander Pierce says
Not all Presbyterians have gone Woke. The Presbyterian Church in America is very different from the Presbyterian Church (USA) in spite of the similarity of their names.
Kesselman says
I cannot help but make similarities between the then National Socialists of Germany and the current woke epidemic eagerly supported by the Dems. The proto-fascists made a veiled low-profile agreement with the Protestant Church to make an overall society of consensus which, of course, had its exemptions.—But utopians always seek unanimous applause to their striving of hegemony.
somehistory says
My father was Presbyterian. I don’t think he would be today if he still lived.
These “preachers/pastors” might want to do a little repenting in dust and ashes before this Scripture is fulfilled upon them;
“New International Version
“’Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: In my wrath I will unleash a violent wind, and in my anger hailstones and torrents of rain will fall with destructive fury.”
Ezekiel 13:13
And…using a tune from another song….how thefty of them. They need a “sign” because this is some of the stupidest stuff yet.
They should be preaching Truth, but like the pope and many others who pretend to speak for God and pretend to shepherd His sheep, they only speak lies and try to use God’s Word to bolster their public appearance and their pocketbooks.
Kepha says
Speaking a someone who is Reformed/Presbyterian, I think we need to go back to singing metrical Pslams.
somehistory says
I have often wished I could hear King David sing the Psalms he wrote under inspiration.
James Lincoln says
somehistory,
I’m a little embarrassed. I never knew until just now that the Psalms were meant to be sung and not “just” read.
Thank you for that information.
Maybe there’s a CD out there that has them…
gravenimage says
James, Somehistory is right.
There have been attempts to set the Psalms to historically accurate music–here is one such:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M86lEfmVsEY&ab_channel=MichaelLevy
Music is *not* my field–I have no idea how plausible this might be, and of course there was no musical notation at the time, which was not developed until about a thousand years after the destruction of the Second Temple. Still, sounds like a worthy attempt. There are other examples, I’m sure.
James Lincoln says
Thanks, gravenimage.
You made my day!
gravenimage says
Thank you, James.
Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says
The tune is by the Welsh hymn-writing team Caniadeath y Cysegr. Here it is, so you can sing along:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd0FyrzVUCM
gravenimage says
Beautiful Mark–thank you for that link.
nicholas tesdorf says
Psalm 2: “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.”
gravenimage says
Yes, Leftism Is A Religion: Presbyterian Church Graces Us With Hymn to Climate Change
……………………….
Good grief…
Here’s this silly song with the new lyrics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCRHGhqYUT0&ab_channel=CaseyCarbone
One point is that those claiming climate change are so often wrong. For one thing, “global cooling” has been changed to “global warming”, and then the even vaguer “climate change”. That Al Gore was inspired to rant about global warming by seeing the sci-fi disaster movie “The Day After Tomorrow”–a fiction movie featuring absurdly fast-moving glaciation. Never mind that this makes no sense at all–not only was this fiction, but it predicted the exact opposite thing that Gore was claiming is going to happen.
And yes–this somehow only applies to the West. It also ignores more environmental damage being done not just in China but also in much of the third world with overuse of firewood.
Now, it is obvious that humans *can* have an effect on their immediate environment–indiscriminate clearcutting of trees can cause erosion; over pumping water can dangerously lower the water table, leading to water shortages or contamination; burning large quantities of matter can cause smog, etc. Many of these issues have been adequately addressed–in the West at least.
And the idea that poor people suffer more from “climate change” is pretty iffy–especially compared to how they are apt to suffer if Western technology and agriculture are shut down. This will lead to mass starvation.
The more decent of these silly people haven’t considered this–the worse ones simply don’t care.
Politicallyincorrectistruth says
You really need to do some research before you make such ignorant statements about climate change. I’m surprised how ignorant you are on this subject…..normally you do some research.
The statistics on how our earth is changing and why is freely available online as long as you stay away from religious sites. They don’t do the research, so why would you go there for the facts? You really think that “overburning” of firewood in third world countries is a problem of “environmental damage” worth mentioning? Have a wild guess how much coal China burns in a year, and then check here,
https://www.worldometers.info/coal/coal-consumption-by-country/
The problem is not all that destruction of coal as you might think, it is what it does to our atmosphere and how it warms our planet.
Here is just some of the evidence,
https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
And here,
https://www.edf.org/climate/how-climate-change-plunders-planet/climate-facts
You say, “Now, it is obvious that humans *can* have an effect on their immediate environment–indiscriminate clearcutting of trees can cause erosion; over pumping water can dangerously lower the water table, leading to water shortages or contamination; burning large quantities of matter can cause smog, etc. Many of these issues have been adequately addressed–in the West at least”.
Wow, ignorance is bliss! So you think that “smog” is the problem with burning large quantities of matter?
Either you did zero research before having you say or like many of the religious that frequent this site, you have let religious sites tell you what to think, and you will not even look at any evidence that goes against this religious nonsense. Like “somehistory” that lives in a deep delusional bubble of religious nonsense, where devils, satan and witches, goblins and his god do magic tricks every day(only seen by him) and absolutely any evidence to the contrary will not even be considered, even for a second. Reality not Religion!
gravenimage says
Politicallyincorrectistruth wrote:
You really need to do some research before you make such ignorant statements about climate change. I’m surprised how ignorant you are on this subject…..normally you do some research.
……………………..
Well, *that’s* a back-handed compliment!
More:
The statistics on how our earth is changing and why is freely available online as long as you stay away from religious sites. They don’t do the research, so why would you go there for the facts?
……………………..
Where did I say I went to religious sites for information on “climate change”? I didn’t, and I haven’t. (I don’t know if you mean Christian, Muslim, or Jewish sites here–I doubt it matters, in any case).
More:
You really think that “overburning” of firewood in third world countries is a problem of “environmental damage” worth mentioning?
……………………..
Actually, many who very much adhere to claims of “global climate change” do indeed cite burning firewood as an issue:
“Wood Smoke and Climate Change:
An Inconvenient Truth”
“They might be surprised to learn that to produce the same amount of heat or energy, burning wood releases more CO2 than coal.
To make matters worse, scientists have discovered that particles created by burning wood and other biomass—so called “black carbon”—are also a major contributor to climate change. The Nobel Prize-winning International Global Panel on Climate Change has stated that black carbon is a significant cause of global warming. Scientists estimate that the black carbon produced by wood burning is the second most significant contributor to global warming after CO2…”
https://www.familiesforcleanair.org/environment/environment5/
Rather surprised you have never run across such claims.
More:
Have a wild guess how much coal China burns in a year, and then check here,
https://www.worldometers.info/coal/coal-consumption-by-country/
The problem is not all that destruction of coal as you might think, it is what it does to our atmosphere and how it warms our planet.
……………………..
I am quite aware of China’s coal consumption–where did I say that I am not? Moreover, while the West has done a great deal to curb such consumption, China has not.
More:
Here is just some of the evidence,
https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
And here,
https://www.edf.org/climate/how-climate-change-plunders-planet/climate-facts
……………………..
I’ve seen this very strange NASA chart before. Note that it cites a 1950 level of Carbon Dioxide levels in the year 1625–even though this was well *before* the Industrial Revolution, generally cited as beginning in 1760. Almost as high was 1500–even longer ago. But then, levels for 1975–*well* into the industrial era, to put it mildly, and within the lifetimes of many of us here, including myself–were as low as in 1600–and, for that matter, in 1200 AD.
So linking this to human activity seems very odd.
Then, the main purpose of the Environmental Defense Fund is to raise money for this very stance. Now, this does not in and of itself cast doubt on their accuracy–but it hardly makes them objective, either. Any question about any of their claims means less money in their coffers.
More:
You say, “Now, it is obvious that humans *can* have an effect on their immediate environment–indiscriminate clearcutting of trees can cause erosion; over pumping water can dangerously lower the water table, leading to water shortages or contamination; burning large quantities of matter can cause smog, etc. Many of these issues have been adequately addressed–in the West at least”.
Wow, ignorance is bliss! So you think that “smog” is the problem with burning large quantities of matter?
……………………..
Politicallyincorrectistruth, you are mistaken in believing that careless clearcutting of trees, woodburning, and overuse of water cannot have negative impacts on the environment–they actually can. Air quality can indeed be worsened by burning wood and coal on a large scale–one small evidence of this is that so many people in China wear masks on a regular basis–and this, pre-Covid. I am asthmatic, and have a serious problem every fire season.
Then, erosion can indeed be caused by widespread clearcutting–this can be easily observed on the ground. And many societies have suffered from overuse of water–and not over centuries, but quite immediately.
And there have certainly been draughts, manmade or otherwise, that have led to starvation, dying of thirst, and agricultural collapse. It is believed that this was the fate of many cultures in Mexico and what is today the American SouthWest during the same period as the Medieval Warm Period.
I’m not sure why you are sneering at this.
More:
Either you did zero research before having you say or like many of the religious that frequent this site, you have let religious sites tell you what to think, and you will not even look at any evidence that goes against this religious nonsense. Like “somehistory” that lives in a deep delusional bubble of religious nonsense, where devils, satan and witches, goblins and his god do magic tricks every day(only seen by him) and absolutely any evidence to the contrary will not even be considered, even for a second. Reality not Religion!
……………………..
Truly strange. Again, I did not mention religion here one way or another. (By the way, Somehistory is not a he, but a she–just thought you might be interested).
Then, I note you do not say how my mentioning that Al Gore being inspired by a sci-fi movie about global cooling leads to being convinced that global warming is actually occuring is somehow about religion–it is not. Can you adress this? That you have not in your long reply seems quite telling. Seeing this link simply is not rational.
Then, there is nothing about embracing the meme of “Climate Change” that is “Politicallyincorrectistruth”. Now, of course, this in and of itself doesn’t speak to this being factual or not–but the fact is that there is *nothing* so polically correct right now as this meme.
John says
Isn’t Israel a big time believer in climate change also
gravenimage says
John, I have the greatest respect for Israel, but they are certainly not infallible.
Much of what has been done environmentally in Israel has a much firmer basis than “Climate Change”, such as the greening of the region through widespread tree planting, and development of reduction of water usage–certainly an important thing in a region subject to frequent droughts. They are also involved in desalination.
The amazing thing is that you can actually see Israel’s green zone *from outerspace*. Israel’s neighbors could have instituted a tree-planting campaign as well–it is not that expensive–but they never bothered.
https://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/greenline-image.htmlbut have never bothered.