If you want to understand the absurdity of evangelical complementarian young earth reality denial, look at this one tweet from James White July 17 and the dozens of comments it elicited.
White, a Calvinist apologist and pastor from Arizona, is no stranger to controversial statements. In fact, he traffics in them. His nemesis is another controversial figure, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
Conservative evangelical men love to hate Omar because she is (a) a woman; (b) a liberal Democrat; (c) smart; and (d) a refugee from Somalia.
On Monday, Omar tweeted: “The earth just broke the record for the hottest day in 120,000 years. In fact, we broke (it) on three separate days. National climate emergency now.”
White, who goes by the Twitter pseudonym White Beard, retweeted Omar’s post with this comment: “This may be the stupidest tweet ever posted. You have to be ignorant on an astounding level to post such drivel, and even more dull to believe it.”
His arrogant tweet drew 38,000 views and dozens of comments, including one from East Texas Baptist pastor Tom Buck, who said of Omar’s tweet: “It’s the dumbest tweet posted in the last 120,000 years.”
Other gems:
- “Someone did a lot of research going back through all those records.”
- “There are so many layers of falsehood in Omar’s tweet it’s almost hard to know where to start. These people are evil and love to lie.”
- “The only true global warming is a nuclear WW3.”
- “This was the hottest day on earth: Malachi 3:2 — But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.”
- “That’s the Muslim education system for women. Trouble is, this what get when your foundation is not on the Word of God. Course, this is not just Muslim, a lot of people believe this nonsense. 120,000 yrs??, I would say the earth not been around for at least 7,000 yrs, this never!!”
- “She is only a Muslim woman enamored with Western power. It’s not like she’s a Christian or anything.”
These people are ostensibly Christians, although Christians who have a different understanding of truth and fiction, science and fantasy, kindness and bullying. They are, to a person, bullies.
That last comment, about Omar being a “Muslim woman enamored with Western power” may be the cruelest of all — and the most telling. It reeks of white Christian nationalism because it locates Christianity as the only source of truth, devalues people of other faiths and glorifies “Western power.” All while denying science.
It’s hard to imagine Jesus uttering those same words. WWJD, you know.
Modern conservative American Calvinists are just downright mean. They are, in fact, some of the meanest people I know. WWJD once more.
This series of tweets and responses illustrates for all who are willing to see, what happens when you base your entire reality on spurious theology masquerading as science and world history.
It also illustrates how Christian people quickly echo the talking points they hear on Fox News and from other political conservative they follow. The same content presented by White and his commentators was dished out — almost word for word — by former members of the Trump administration, conservative Republican officials and aspiring Republican presidential candidates.
Seems there really is nothing new under the sun.
The only flaw in Omar’s tweet is the implicit assumption that we know what the temperature on earth was 120,000 years ago. Obviously, there are no written records for that. But scientists who study climate do know that earth’s last ice age occurred about 100,000 years ago and the planet has been heating up ever since — but especially lately.
“The bigger problem for these religious conservatives is they don’t believe the earth existed 120,000 years ago.”
The bigger problem for these religious conservatives is they don’t believe the earth existed 120,000 years ago. They continue to hold to the widely debunked notion that the earth is only about 6,000 years old — based on a literal reading of the Bible.
Thus, the jab at Omar is a snarky way to advance their own theology and history of the world. Which is ironic coming from people who believe they can all but pinpoint the exact date and hour of creation.
The greatest truth of Omar’s tweet is the very thing these conservative Christians and politicians won’t admit: We are facing a climate emergency.
Right on schedule, Jeremy Redfern, spokesperson for Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, said Omar’s “national climate emergency” language is an excuse to do “a bunch of left-wing stuff.”
Anyone with eyes to see and skin to feel should be able to tell we are experiencing increasing temperatures and extreme weather events. Whether you want to call it a national emergency or not doesn’t change the reality of what’s happening to the earth. Mother Nature doesn’t care about your politics.
We were warned this was coming. But political and religious conservatives — feeding at the trough of Big Oil — have blocked every effort to take climate change seriously. It’s like we’re living in a bad Sci-Fi movie. Now we’re out of time.
Here’s the reality: Earth is currently experiencing its hottest months in modern history. This is undeniable truth.
- Phoenix just broke a 49-year-old record with 19 consecutive days of temperatures above 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In the Middle East, the heat index reached 152 degrees Fahrenheit at the Persian Gulf International Airport in Iran last weekend.
- Yesterday was the 27th day this year Beijing has recorded temperatures above 95 degrees Fahrenheit, also a new record.
- I’m writing this in Dallas, where the temperature today was 107 and it still feels like 92 at midnight. We broke 100 degrees before noon today.
Rather than making fun of politicians who are actually concerned about the future of the planet, Christians ought to be at the forefront of those seeking to care for God’s good creation.
If we truly believe the Bible, we’ll take seriously God’s command to care for our neighbors and the whole world and not turn life-and-death reality into denialism. Sadly, we’ve been there before quite recently with COVID.
Now, the same people who wanted you to go to in-person worship and cough on your neighbor want you to believe climate change is a liberal fabrication.
That may be the dumbest thing said in the last 120,000 years.
Mark Wingfield
Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global. He is the author of the new book Honestly: Telling the Truth About the Bible and Ourselves.
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Just what we needed: Another pompous declaration from the conservative Calvinist evangelicals | Opinion by Mark Wingfield