When I was a kid, and this is going to date me, perhaps my most listened-to cassette (yep, cassette tapes) was a live album by John Denver. For a kid of ten-years-old or so, John Denver was cool. Very cool.
I went to one of his concerts, with an entire orchestra behind him, and loved every moment, memorizing many of the lyrics.
Yet words mean things. And this week, while driving in Pennsylvania on my way to an event, I heard John Denver again on the Sirius 70s channel and was able to listen to Rocky Mountain High with a new perspective.
Read the lyrics to the third verse:
Now his life is full of wonder but his heart still knows some fear
Of a simple thing he cannot comprehend
Why they try to tear the mountains down to bring in a couple more
More people, more scars upon the land
It doesn’t take much to realize Rocky Mountain High has a lot of allusions to the environment (and possibly a substance some enjoy smoking). These words, recorded in 1973, leapt out at me because they tell us all we need to know about much of the environmental movement.
Looking at the song, what is it that our friend “cannot comprehend?” Ahhh, those mean old Earth-haters are ripping down the mountains in the name of progress and make room for more people.
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To the radical environmentalist (not all, but the more zealous), another person makes for more “scars upon the land.” It is seen as a Zero Sum Game, where if people populate, the Earth loses. Period.
For the radicals—such as our current president and the nominee of a major political party—this Zero Sum Game means that every abortion is a good one, and if the taxpayers pay for it, all the better. The Earth wins, so we need to do our fair share to keep Earth safe from . . . people.
As an example, the other day that very nominee introduced environmental extremist Al Gore to a Miami audience, saying he will be her “top advisor” on environmental policy. No doubt, Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry rejoiced once again.
Back in John Denver’s 1973, the environmentalist movement was warning of a coming Global Cooling. Too many people, we were told, would run us out of oil and other energy—and soon. Thirty years later, the fear switched to Global Warming.
Today, something called “Data” stumps the radical environmentalists; they no longer know whether we are cooling or warming so the new mantra is “Climate Change.”
Whatever.
Yet all of this affects us in the Pregnancy Help Community. This thinking is working its way into our churches and as we talk about saving lives, some sitting in the congregations say silently, “Abortion is not good, but what are we to do if we have too many people in this world?”
If we want to know why the Church can be so silent on abortion, one of several reasons is the environmental movement. Every day, our media bombards us with messages; every disposable diaper is a destroyer of the environment, there is not enough of this or that resource for everyone, and our planet is almost hopelessly overpopulated.
There is no room for me to work through each of these myths in one column, so let’s deal with these succinctly: Hogwash. Bull Poo Poo. Buffalo Chips. Add your own to this list.
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But we must be ready, because many of those who might support our work are pummeled by these false messages daily; through news, movies, TV shows and more. At some point, they believe—even just a little. And when they do, abortion is no longer a tragedy; it is only a tough decision in a difficult world filled with shades of grey (another column for another day).
Those of us in the Pregnancy Help Community would be wise to read up on the myths of climate change, overpopulation and related issues. We don’t need to be experts; we simply need to be prepared. Because those who oppose us use these issues as a key component in arguing for abortion: “I don’t like abortion either, but we cannot destroy our planet!” You see? Zero Sum Game.
For the left, these two issues are inextricably linked. They attempt to capture the Christian community with environmental warnings of doom and as they do, more than a few who profess faith are falling into the trap of indifference to, or acceptance of, abortion as a “necessary evil.”
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Our job? Celebrate life like never before. Engage our churches with our message, with a loving yet confident response to the radical environmentalist ideology now working its way into the Christian community.
When it comes to the environment, we are—as noted earlier—to be good stewards of what God gave us. But when this thinking twists into a scenario where children are no longer welcome, let’s not give an inch.
Our message? There is hope for the environment and for this world; and hope begins with a culture where every life is valued and cherished. I’ll shout that from the top of every Rocky Mountain.
Kirk Walden is a senior writer with Pregnancy Help News, an Advancement Specialist with Heartbeat International and author of The Wall. He also blogs at www.KirkWalden.com. For banquet speaking engagements,
