Senator Inhofe is known for his denial of climate change by relying on an ever dwindling number of scientists who believe that our present global warming is part of a cyclical warming and cooling, and insist that human produced pollution has no affect on this cycle.   The important policy implications of this belief is that it paints efforts to curb and reduce such pollution as futile, and certainly not worth the economic hardship they may cost.   The fact that scientists overwhelmingly agree that human pollution is affecting climate change by warming the earth is not convincing to Sen. Inhofe.  When the great majority of scientists agree, generally you can believe them, but, of course, the Senator is right -scientists can be wrong.   Why anyone would want to go down in history as the one who was against reducing pollution is a bit beyond me but he is entitled to his opinion.   I disagree with Sen. Inhofe and the few scientists that he can still cite to support him, but where I know he is wrong is when he brings God into it.

In a video on C-Span, Sen. Inhofe attempts to calm what he clearly views as overly concerned environmentalists and hysterical politicians by graciously reminding us that “God is still up there.”  By this, I am sure, he means God is in heaven (up there) and that God is in control and we don’t have to worry about climate change because it’s out of our hands and safely in the hands of God.  But in his theologizing he is omitting the Christian proposition  that God can be in control even as we exercise our free will disobey God and to  sin against God and our fellow humans.   If one is to speak in theological terms about the environment then one should recognize that God gave humans the privilege and burden of stewardship of the earth and all its resources.   When we squander our resources, destroy the earth’s beauty, and jeopardize the health of God’s creation then we are sinning and the wages of sin are death. 

If Senator Inhofe is to truly acknowledge the God up there then he should be the first to get on his knees and join with the rest of us to repent of our recklessness with the environment.   It is not too late for us to act in a way that is worthy of the trust that God placed with humans to care for the world.  But time is running out, and so might God’s patience.  Yes, God is up there – and God is pissed.