I was speaking with a friend of mine recently and I was expressing my fear for the future of my grandchildren and all children. My friend surprised me saying she was not worried about global warming and the consequences for the earth, because such a debacle would bring her closer to “the rapture.”
I did not say anything because I was dumbfounded. I thought I knew rapture on a few occasions, like seeing a mountain lion, or a magnificent sunset, or being in the arms of an adored companion. So, I thought maybe her notion of rapture was different from mine. I went on the Internet and looked it up. Apparently “the rapture” means that when the destruction of man is imminent, God will swoop up the true believers and keep them safe until the kingdom is ready for them. The sooner the planet ends, the sooner the kingdom begins. It seems to me that this is the opposite of the example that Jesus set: He sacrificed himself to save mankind; she wants to sacrifice mankind in order to save herself.
Others do not relish “the end,” but argue, reasonably, that it is natural for the climate to warm. However, they deny or ignore the fact that warming has accelerated apocalyptically since the Industrial Revolution.
To these folks I say: If we act as if global warming is a threat and we turn out to be wrong, the worse that will happen is that we will have a less polluted planet. On the other hand, if global warming poses a true threat, then we could be threatening the very existence of ourselves and our posterity.
A U.S. Senator once said of the Cherokee Nation, “They must change their mode of life, or they must die!” Now Senators must say, “We must change our mode of life, or we must die.”
Nelson Strasser
Lakeport
