by John Walsh

Ever since the religious right wing in the country has come to political power, their reign has been characterized it seems to me by a powerful disregard for environment. I found that difficult to understand. What exactly would motivate the politicians who have been elected by religious conservatives to continually assault such important mainstays to our environmental well being as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act to name just a few, And who keep ...Ever since the religious right wing in the country has come to political power, their reign has been characterized it seems to me by a powerful disregard for environment. I found that difficult to understand. What exactly would motivate the politicians who have been elected by religious conservatives to continually assault such important mainstays to our environmental well being as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act to name just a few, And who keep insisting on opening the Arctic (National) Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling and the Padre Island National seashore to increased drilling.

While I realized that weakening these and other legislative restraints against mis-using the environment would lead greater financial support from developers and industries who stand to profit from such actions, it still did not explain the vehemence that these people displayed when attacking the regulations that offered the only obstacles to further exploitation. I have recently been forwarded a column by Bill Moyers in which an explanation for this unseeming urge to open the floodgates to further exploitation of the environment by the Christian right is partially explained. Moyer's quotes an article on the web site Grist by journalist Glenn Scherer, "The Road to Environmental Acpocalypse" In the article Scherer maintains that "millions Christian Fundamentalist may believe that environmental destruction is not only to be disregarded but actually welcomed -- even hastened-- as a sign of the coming apocalypse." He points out further that in the 108th congress 231 legislators, nearly half of the total, earned 80 to 100 percent approval ratings from the three most influential Christian right advocacy groups. They are not just fringe members but include senate majority leader Bill First, Assistant Majority leader Mitch McConnell and House speaker Dennis Hastert. Another politician advocating the Christian rights attitude toward the environment would be President George W. Bush. The only Democrat to score 100 percent with the advocacy groups was Zell Miller of Georgia who on the Senate floor quoted the biblical book of Amos: "The day will come, sayeth the Lord God, that I will send famine to the land." Moyers says, "He seemed to be relishing the thought."