2019 is turning into a year that is constantly getting weirder. It started with the former head of BioLogos claiming that abortion was necessary for science, progressed to a pedophile publishing in a peer-reviewed journal in favor of his perversion, a claim that religion stunts child development, the postulation we live in a galactic zoo, Britain’s NHS again trying to murder a child, the lack of gay genes being misrepresented and has now progressed to a liberal seminary confessing their sins to plants. And no, you did not misread that. Union Theological Cemetary (er, Seminary) recently proudly announced on Twitter that they had taken time out of their chapel service to confess their sins to plants.
Union Theological Seminary, located in downtown New York City, can hardly even be considered a Christian school, though not just because they think plants can hear them. I had a look at their website. This is a direct quote from the “worship” tab on said website. “Groups also meet throughout the week in Lampman chapel for Zen meditation, sung vespers, prayer, spiritual direction, and many other opportunities for worship and spiritual formation.” Notice the free admission that they are incorporating elements of Zen Buddhism into their “worship”. One must ask what place pagan rituals have in Christian worship? Of course, Union also offers Islamic studies majors which it promotes as “discovering the beauty of Islam”. I fail to find any beauty in a religion whose prophet commanded the infidel to be killed and married a small child. Union openly calls itself a progressive Christian college and claims “Education at Union Theological Seminary is deeply rooted in a critical understanding of the breadth of Christian traditions yet significantly instructed by the insights of other faiths.” All this begs the question of exactly who or what Union students are worshiping in chapel?
It is hardly surprising that students at this cemetery masquerading as a seminary were instructed to confess their sins to plants. In their mission statement, they say “It makes connections between these traditions (religious) and the most profoundly challenging issues of our contemporary experience: the realities of suffering and injustice, world religious pluralism, the fragility of our planet, and discoveries of modern science.” Notice a few key leftist buzzwords in there. That sentence is an endorsement of social justice, one world religion, climate change, and evolution. Is it any surprise that students at this pseudo-Christian institution are being told to confess their sins to plants? Of course, this indoctrination center has a rich history of theological liberalism, given it split from the Presbyterian church when the church tried to remove a professor who claimed the Bible was not inspired as far back as 1893!
Of course, climate change as it is presented to the public is purely fallacious. Climates do change. However, confessing to plants implies that man is somehow responsible for damaging the world climate. There is no observable evidence that man is impacting the climate. Global temperatures appear to be on a cycle, rather than a continuous upward rise and CO<sub>2</sub> is not a major contributing factor to changes in temperature. The major greenhouse gas is water vapor. But none of that fits the narrative these liberal elites want to push so it is not presented to the public. Union is either ignorant of the facts, or simply does not care. Given their clear disregard for the commands of Scripture, the latter is not impossible.
So should we be confessing to plants? Absolutely not! The entire premise is absolutely absurd. Humanity has not always been the best steward of the planet, that is true. However, God granted man dominion over this earth back in the Garden of Eden. That means that man has the right to do with this earth as he chooses. God does constrain that dominion with stewardship and the understanding that the world belongs to God and we should thus view it as a temporary possession to be cared for, rather than abused. However, the needs of mankind are always a priority over the needs of the environment, something the climate change alarmists would do well to take note of. Union Seminary is not Christian, nor is it a seminary. It is a compromised institution with only the trappings of religion left to it.
In His Image 