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This article just set me off today. Just a warning. I am really getting sick of the “going green” cr*p. Anyone else out there with me? Okay, I understand God told us to take care of the earth He gave us & I’m all for that. We actually do a lot of the things suggested to keep the environment clean – we use fluorescent bulbs to keep down the electric bill, we have our water heater on a timer for the same reason. We don’t eat out much, I think long & hard before driving places, we’ve planted plenty of trees on our property (for aesthetic purposes), the kids wear gently used clothes, I make use of our clothes line, we have a timer on our heater keeping it pretty low in the winter (we wear layers rather than crank up the heat) & don’t use the AC much, we even use one-ply TP – why? Cheaper!
If you are one of those who seriously thinks America needs help in this department, have you ever seen Asia?!!! For crying out loud! They are belching out the black smoke & air pollutants left & right! We are downright pristine here! Coming home after Seoul was like Heaven air quality wise. It is asinine to think our putting new light bulbs, etc. would change the atmosphere so much for the good after taking a stroll down one of those city streets. Seriously, folks.
I truly see this whole environmental wave as a total worship nature campaign. I mean, first we are led to believe we are harming the planet by driving big cars, etc. So, they are trying lay guilt trips to pass all these laws to force us to change our lifestyle. Now they are talking about limiting family size & how less children would be better for our planet! I thought we got over that stupid argument years ago! Haven’t we yet learned that the earth was made for US, not the other way around? Look at the fix China’s in now because of that mentality (too many elderly with not enough youngsters working to support them, baby girls abandoned all over the place, etc.). I swear, if people in the U.S. start talking that nonsense now in the name of our environment, well, honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised. Because that’s where all this is headed, folks.
These environmentalists are not going to stop at trying to tell us what car & light bulb & how much toilet paper to use. NO. They want “evil America” to go down because we use oil & chop down trees. So, if enough people listen to them (& it looks like more are all the time), we are going to continue this nonsense about having gas prices skyrocket & more people throwing their money at these silly “carbon credit ” companies (just like indulgences in the dark ages!). Meanwhile, the Middle East has control of the oil, Asia will continue to not give a hoot & keep polluting (Do you think they are going to slow down progress in the name of saving the planet? Heck, no! They’re not stupid!) And we are going to whittle our families down to nothing in a matter of a couple generations while everybody else takes over.
It’s not beyond the realm of possibility, people. I’m just sayin’. Ancient Romans never thought Rome could go down either, but fall they did. America is not immune.
O-o-o-o, this is so good. Callie was studying China at the end of the year & of course, we talked about the Buddha. When we came to these lessons with Nate a few years back, my first thought was that I really didn’t want to be talking to my little guy about false gods. But Keith helped me to see how it could be used to talk more about how our True God, Jehovah, is so very different from other gods, & pray for those in China & other countries who don’t know our God but instead follow after the Buddha even now. That is what we’ve been doing.
This article is a great one for others trying to do the same thing. Jon Bloom, the author from Desiring God Ministries, does a great job of boiling down the essence of Buddhism & how it’s different than following Jesus. Here’s a little teaser to get you over to read the whole article…
What struck (Gautama, aka the Buddha) was the impermanence of the world—nothing lasted. In spite of this, people were attached to impermanent things. They desired to hold on to life, health, possessions, and each other. But life, health, possessions and people pass away. This, he reasoned, was the cause of human suffering. Therefore, he concluded that if he could kill desire his suffering would cease and he would be happy.
But the Buddha did desire something: lasting happiness. Ironically, it was this great desire that fueled his philosophy of killing desire.
There is a vacuous absence of God in the Buddha’s pursuit of desire-less joy…
How different are Jesus’ answers from the Buddha’s. When a rich young man, not so different from the rich young Gautama, sought out Jesus’ direction for eternal happiness, Jesus replied,
You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me. (Mark 10:21).
Note that Jesus did instruct the man to become detached from his possessions, but he did not mean a Buddhist detachment. The Buddha taught that nothing lasts, so be attached to nothing. Jesus taught that One Thing lasts, so at all cost, be attached to that!
