Last week we saw how a political agenda…man’s politics…justified silence in the burning of thousands of acres of forest land. Even as the fire raged, billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, a California resident, sent dozens of tweets about everything from fruit pickers to new climate control measures. He never mentioned the fire because it would have implicated a sacred liberal icon…an illegal immigrant. The Sierra Nevadas burned, but America’s liberal environmental establishment pretended nothing had happened. God’s gift meant nothing when a political agenda…’man’s politics’… was involved.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the first time. Throughout the West, illegal immigrants have left a wake of environmental destruction. According to a report by the US Government Accountability Office…in today’s environment such reports can even be questionable…illegal immigrants caused 40% of the forest fires on the Arizona-Mexico border between 2006 and 2010. In many cases the fires were intentionally set to mislead Border Patrol agents. In other cases, the fires started because of campfires or gun fire. These fires caused millions in economic damages. They also destroyed habitat for endangered species, increased growth of non-native plant species, and caused erosion.
A 2011 Interior Department study found that the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona, home to the last two hundred endangered Sonoran pronghorn left in the United States, had been marred by more than eight thousand miles of vehicle tracks left by drug and human smugglers. The report noted that constant illegal traffic was having a damaging effect on the plants, animals, and soil quality of the refuge.
In California, gangs of Mexican nationals have opened industrial marijuana farming operations on protected land throughout the state. An account in the Los Angeles Times describes “filthy work camps with makeshift kitchens, latrines and trash dumps in areas designated as wilderness.” Pesticides and poisons used by the “farmers” is killing off wildlife.
What was the response from the ‘environmental establishment’ to these threats? As you might guess…demands for even more illegal immigration. Where in ‘God’s politics’ is such a response supported? In this case ‘man’s politics’ in the form of the administration in DC in 2017, responded as it should have and ended the DACA program, thus ending some of the incentive to enter ‘our home’ illegally. Even in the Bible, the sanctuary cities had walls around them. The border is our ‘wall’. And some say we do not have an emergency on our southern border!
The Environmental Defense Fund immediately issued a florid statement decrying the DACA decision. While cleaner air and water is supposedly their focus, they feared that both were put at risk “when public debate is consumed by fear…We will not ignore attacks on those who live around us. Their progress is ours.” GO FIGURE ! Earthjustice, an organization of environmental attorneys, agreed. This group called the repeal of DACA a “senseless and spiteful attack on the fundamental principles of freedom, opportunity, and success.” GO FIGURE ! Of course the Sierra Club had to wade in and took a similar position. Somehow “The immigrant rights”…DACA deals with illegal immigration…”and environmental movements’ concerns are intertwined.” GO FIGURE ! In their view “immigrants, communities of color, and women…are also most vulnerable to toxic pollution and climate change.” I had no idea that secure borders could cause such problems. But then, why worry about it? AOC says the world will end in twelve years unless we quit driving cars, flying airplanes, etc.
We must remember that God designed us in intimate and intricate detail. [Psalm 139:13-16]. He entrusted us with and instilled in us the goal and desire to work, which includes ruling and caring for the Earth and its creatures. [Genesis 1:26-28; 2:15]. No matter the work we do…in our job or leisure…God empowers and gives us what we need to work wholeheartedly for Him. It is an awesome responsibility and we can’t do one phase and forget the other. We must evaluate our every effort to ensure that one effort is not counter to another. Immigration in accordance with ‘Caesar’s rules’ is not counter to ‘God’s politics’ and maintaining God’s gifts to us is also within the realm of ‘man’s politics’. When man establishes conservation policies consistent with God’s desires both ‘politics’ are in agreement. Today ‘man’s politics’ seems to have become confused. We need to go back to this nation’s founding principles and let law and order so established be our guide. We can’t let our society destroy God’s gifts and at the same time try to protect the destroyers. Our laws need to be an orderly method to conduct a nation. If the laws are not adequate, our lawful representatives should correct them…we can only hope that voters can put people in office who know and respect God’s will for the nation. We should not violate laws unless they go against Constitutional principles. Sometimes it is necessary to take a stand. It is possible for a civilized nation to exercise both the ‘politics of God’ and ‘of man’ in such a way that they work together. This is the life on Earth as God intended.
Next week we will continue looking at man’s efforts to have environmental concerns and political agendas appeased and how it has become such a web of confusion.
– Bob Munsey
“One who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything” – Samuel Johnson
P.S. This is a bit off-subject for this week but if you get a chance you might want to see the movie “Unplanned“, the story of the abortion…infanticide…industry in the United States…’man’s politics’ gone wild. How these people can sleep at night is beyond me. They are not dealing with some poor animal, but with an unborn human being. May God have mercy on them. This is a subject certainly worthy of the pulpit.
Geezer Politics 