This interesting article from last Friday's Wall Street Journal mentions the Grand Rapids-based Acton Institute as well as the Christian Reformed Church.
When I moved back to Holland in 2001, I was a Christian but didn't regularly attend church. My wife grew up in the Reformed Church in America and her parents and many family members still attend that denomination, the oldest Protestant denomination in America.
It didn't take me too long after joining an RCA church in Holland to realize that much of what this article discusses was of primary concern to this denomination - social justice, environmental wackoism, etc.
When we departed, my letter to the consistory basically stated that churches should be about carrying out Christ's Great Commission, not worrying about whether or not global warming and CO2 emissions are killing trees. How many trees equal the value of one soul? At what temperature does a condemned soul combust? Does that burning soul generate greenhouse gasses?
I mean, come on, in 2 Peter 3:10 we learn that everything, every element, will be destroyed by fire. How dare Christ do such environmental damage! Whom does He think He is, the Creator or something?
My hope is that these politically and theologically-liberal church bodies will one day return to the great heritage from which they seem to have boldly departed.
Bono and Rick Warren, both mentioned in the article, are cut from the same cloth - two men depending upon a works-based righteousness to save them, when truly it is by grace we are saved, not works.
[Queue Sountrack] We are the world...we are the children...
Churches are free to get involved in whatever social action they see fit, but they can do it without my tithes and offerings.
R.J.
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