Catholibertarian

While I disagree with Morning’s Minion’s assertion that Rick Santorum ascribes to a “phony theology” I am not going to go pointing fingers and say that Morning’s Minion has a belief in a false theology even though we disagree in a number of areas politically. I believe that he is wrong in his accusation. He seems to think that certain matters of prudential judgement which aren’t infallible teachings of the Church are nevertheless obligatory for all Catholics to believe. This is nonsense. He makes unfounded accusations without providing any proof to back up his allegations. He makes the claim that Rick Santorum doesn’t believe in solidarity but didn’t offer any actions or statements by Santorum to back up his assertions. That may be Morning Minion’s perception, but it is a false perception. The fact that he points out that Santorum believes in American exceptionalism to somehow bolster his point when it is irrelevant brings out his progressive worldview which believes that America is simply another country amongst other countries, thinking America is no different or better than any other country out there. The implication from his words which shows that he doesn’t see America as being special speaks volumes. The success of America is exceptional. The only reason America may be a less exceptional nation than it used to be is due to progressives wanting to take down American successes a notch or two.
Morning’s Minion’s piece, Santorum is the one with the “Phony Ideology”, shows a lack of charity and good will on his part. His words reek of judgmentalism. He gives more due deference and charity to a non-Catholic than a fellow faithful Catholic and attributes a false characterization to him in defense of a non-Catholic just because of political differences. That is wrong. As brothers and sisters in Christ we are not supposed to be accusing our fellow brethren of not being good Catholics without any legitimate evidence to back up our claims. Disagreeing on a matter of prudential judgement is not a legitimate qualifier to make a declaratory statement that Rick Santorum is not Catholic and is following a “phony theology” just because he doesn’t believe in anthropogenic global warming.

Since the writers at Vox Nova are known for reaching out in solidarity of faith in finding common ground ecumenically among people of other faiths as well as people of no faith you would think that these fellow Catholics would have some understanding for who Rick Santorum was addressing, in that he was using the Bible as a basis for finding common ground among people of various Christian denominations and Jews. That is no basis for accusing Santorum of being a Sola Scriptura Protestant – nothing but a grave deficiency of charity would see the use of scripture in speeches as anything but a confirmation of his Catholicism. It’s OUR BIBLE for crying out loud! In addition Mornings Minion did not take into account the type of time constraints that Santorum has when giving interviews or when speaking in public. It isn’t like he was giving some type of symposium which only focused on our Creator, creation, and climate change.

We must not put creation above humanity. We must not worship creation like it is a God. This can lead to the belief of pantheism which is a doctrine that identifies God with the universe or regards the universe as a manifestation of God. Pantheism believes that nature is sacred, not that God is sacred. During the period between the 4th and 15th centuries pantheism was considered a heresy. in his encyclical Caritas In Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI focused on neo-paganism — pantheism — and pointed out that nature was given to us by the Creator to in order to “till it and keep it.” Here is a section from Caritas In Veritate:

“Nature expresses a design of love and truth. It is prior to us, and it has been given to us by God as the setting for our life. Nature speaks to us of the Creator (cf. Rom 1:20) and his love for humanity. It is destined to be “recapitulated” in Christ at the end of time (cf. Eph 1:9-10; Col 1:19-20). Thus it too is a “vocation”[115]. Nature is at our disposal not as “a heap of scattered refuse”[116], but as a gift of the Creator who has given it an inbuilt order, enabling man to draw from it the principles needed in order “to till it and keep it” (Gen 2:15). But it should also be stressed that it is contrary to authentic development to view nature as something more important than the human person. This position leads to attitudes of neo-paganism or a new pantheism — human salvation cannot come from nature alone, understood in a purely naturalistic sense. This having been said, it is also necessary to reject the opposite position, which aims at total technical dominion over nature, because the natural environment is more than raw material to be manipulated at our pleasure; it is a wondrous work of the Creator containing a “grammar” which sets forth ends and criteria for its wise use, not its reckless exploitation. Today much harm is done to development precisely as a result of these distorted notions. Reducing nature merely to a collection of contingent data ends up doing violence to the environment and even encouraging activity that fails to respect human nature itself. Our nature, constituted not only by matter but also by spirit, and as such, endowed with transcendent meaning and aspirations, is also normative for culture. Human beings interpret and shape the natural environment through culture, which in turn is given direction by the responsible use of freedom, in accordance with the dictates of the moral law. Consequently, projects for integral human development cannot ignore coming generations, but need to be marked by solidarity and inter-generational justice, while taking into account a variety of contexts: ecological, juridical, economic, political and cultural[117].”

Morning’s Minion asserts that Santorum doesn’t believe in climate change. Hogwash. Conservatives believe in climate change. We just don’t buy into the political propagandist consensus among scientists that humans are the primary cause of global warming. In a speech in which I was present I heard Rick Santorum state that people are to be stewards of the earth. Morning’s Minion believes in the doctrine of man-made science where all faithful Catholics must cede their intellectual curiosity to a dubious consensus maintained by silencing legitimate voices of opposition. There has been no Catholic doctrine defining man-made global warming theory as truth or commanding that all Catholics must believe in this in order to be considered faithful Catholics. The Pope advocating for solidarity and taking care of creation does not add up to his announcing a dictat which states that all Catholics must believe in anthropogenic global warming or else. To think that believing that the earth has experienced climate changing temperatures for many, many centuries and this temperature change is a normal trend in climate change not affected by human activity makes one Protestant is absurd. In recent years more and more scientists have awoken from a political propagandist trance, done research to find out the conclusions rather than allow their conclusions be a pre-determined by deference to the sacred cow of consensus. As a result of their investigative work and data gathering some have dissented from this fallacious consensus. My husband recently wrote an article, called On The Dangerous Naivete of Uncritical Acceptance of the Scientific Consensus, where he pointed out that dissent from consensus has proved to be true in a great number of instances throughout history, proving the consensus to be false or at least partially untrue.

There needs to be balance between preserving creation and preserving persons means to support themselves and their families. It is not right to put creatures needs above man’s need to survive. As a Catholic conservative I do not believe in anthropogenic climate change but I do believe that as people of God we are called to be good stewards of his creation. Believe it or not before there was the “green” movement and the belief in anthropogenic climate change there was recycling, a recognition for the necessity to reduce pollution for health safety, Adopt A Highway programs to pick up litter from streets, advocacy to reduce litter and pollution in our waters. Efforts to advance and fulfill these initiatives have been around for quite a few years. When environmental extremist watermelon types impede the farmers ability to earn a living all to save a 2-inch fish called The Delta smelt – a fish unsuitable for eating – now that is an example of putting creation above humanity. This is pure insanity. These farmers have been put out of work for over two years because of environmental extremism. And, now Obama has vowed to veto the Sacramento-San Joaquin Water Reliability Act which was introduced by Rep. Nunez. We have a moral obligation to ensure the safety of our citizens. I applaud Erin Brokovich for taking action to stop a California power company from continuing to pollute the city’s water supply. Another example, is highlighted in the movie A Civil Action which was based on the book and a real case in which an industrial solvent named trichlorethylene was contaminating a local aquifer and caused fatal cases of leukemia and cancer, as well as other health problems, among the citizens of the town. A case was mounted against the company which allowed this to happen. I am absolutely supportive of holding companies accountable for dumping harmful toxins, chemicals and other materials from being dumped into water supplies, along with preventing these type of harmful actions from happening in the future.

Romans 1:18-32 tells us that the people who suppress the truth in exchange for wickedness experienced the wrath of God. “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.” The scripture passage mentions all the various ways that these people sinned against God and that it was God’s righteous decree that they receive due penalty for their error, that they deserved death.

Genesis 1:26-28 — And he said: Let us make man to our image and likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creature that moveth upon the earth. And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them. And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth.

In this scripture passage God says man will have dominion over the whole earth and every creature. This means we are supposed to be good stewards of the whole earth and every creature. This does not mean that humans should be subservient to creation. The belief in anthropogenic climate change can lead to the belief of Pantheism or even worse, believing that creation should be worshiped and given a higher priority than human needs. As you can see the scripture in Romans conveyed that God does not take kindly to people who put creation or any other object above him. Rick Santorum emphasized that we are to worship the Creator and not to make creation to be God-like or above the needs of all of humanity as some of the initiatives by the Left do. In Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict specifically states” …that it is contrary to authentic development to view nature as something more important than the human person.” This philosophy of nature is what Rick Santorum subscribes to, the belief that nature is not more important than either the human person or our Creator.

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