The Most Inconvenient Truth

My coworkers and I have great conversations.

On Friday we got into a discussion about Al Gore, global warming, and faith.

It was prompted by the announcement that Al Gore had won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to promote awareness of global warming and impending catastrophe.

My coworkers wanted to know why I was so down on Gore because I told them I thought it was almost comical that he should win a prize that should be prestigious and be given to someone who really does promote true peace and good.

I told them I don’t buy into Al Gore’s version of global warming because I don’t trust the messenger. I think that Mr. Gore has grave problems with his understanding of life, faith, and philosophy, and that anything he espouses as true must be analyzed closely and not believed naively.

Why do I have such an opinion of Mr. Gore? Simple: He says that he is a Christian and yet he supports abortion and many other evil things.

I don’t know what denomination of Christianity he is a member of. I remember well, however, in 2000, when he was running for President, and he was answering a question in a debate. He said something to the effect of “In my faith tradition, the book of Matthew says…”.

Leaving aside the politically correct phrase “faith tradition”, he clearly claims to be a Christian. And at one point in time, as a legislator in the U.S. House, he voted pro-life a good bit of the time. Eventually, however, as his star rose in the Democratic party, he realized that he had better change his beliefs to conform to the party line, and so he did.

For an account of his pro-life voting, a matter of public record, which he later denied publicly, see this account.

Gore claims to follow Jesus Christ, and yet he believes it is okay to kill an unborn baby. You can’t have it both ways. Either the unborn baby is a person, or they are not, and thus, either it is murder, or it is not.

In 1984, he voted in favor of a bill’s amendment that said that the “term ‘person’ shall include unborn children from the moment of conception”, and yet he decided that it is okay to kill a person, defending abortion at every turn once he realized his political career depended on it.

Now, we all make mistakes. I myself have done things I am now thoroughly ashamed of. I chose to do them; they were wrong; I am sorry for them and have apologized to those I hurt, and asked for forgiveness from God for them.

However, I also now strive to “go and sin no more”, as Jesus told the adulterous woman. We as Christians are not required to be perfect always and to never do any evil, but rather, when we do commit an evil act, we are required to repent, ask for forgiveness from God and the person we hurt, and do penance (like, returning the money you stole).

Mr. Gore is not repentant for his actions and firmly held positions that run contrary to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to the Church He established, and to the 2,000 years of constant belief and teaching that the Church has made known to him.

Do I think that Mr. Gore is maliciously diabolical in the error in which he lives his life? No. I think that he is has been tempted and has fallen into the evil of letting his conscience be changed by the shifting winds of our culture for his own worldly gain.

This temptation must have been strong for him as a rising political star. I do not know how hard it was for him, but he caved and gave up the Gospel for a lie, one that destroys human beings’ lives and hurts their mothers. That is the most inconvenient truth.

So when he makes a movie about global warming and impending catastrophe, I am not rushing to jump on his bandwagon. Should we be good stewards of the environment? Yes. How are people convicted of that fact? Many ways, the most powerful being a strong faith in Christ, leading to a belief that our Father created all things very good, to be respected and stewarded with care.

If Mr. Gore is concerned about the way that someone such as me is living, he is welcome here in my home and can see our compost pile, garden, chickens, and bee hive–all on 0.17 acres of God’s green earth–along with our one-car-family, ultra-low emissions Honda Civic, and my workplace that is but a mile from our home.

But if Mr. Gore does come over, I will press him to give an answer for how he reconciles being pro-abortion while following Jesus Christ.  (And just so you know that this is not a partisan judgment, I would make the same demand of Catholic Republican Rudy Giuliani).