Joan King Response (8/26/08)

Joan King Response (8/26/08)

by Trevor Thomas

August 26, 2008

Whatever happened to the truth? Joan King, in her most recent column, without naming me, took issue with my views on the earth and radical environmentalists. This I don’t mind. However, in doing so she at least put words in my mouth, and at most, she lied. (Her column can be read here.)

In the second paragraph of her column she said I stated that, “the Earth [notice the capitalization of “Earth” which occurs throughout her column] was created for mankind [true] and therefore concern for the environment was unnecessary [not true].” Nowhere in my column to which she refers (It can be read here.) do I say that “concern for the environment is unnecessary.” I didn’t even imply this.

She continues in the same paragraph with, “No need to worry about the environment, he said [emphasis mine, and not true], because God has placed mankind above the Earth and its myriad life forms [true, though not exactly my words].”

Ms. King then goes on to accuse me of arrogance and implies that I have “little understanding of the interdependence of all life forms.” That may be (I’m not exactly sure what she means by that!), but it seems that Ms. King has little understanding of Scripture and the role of the Creator and the created.

For example, she said that, “From the beginning the Earth was infused with life…,” and adds that, “God created man out of the dust of the earth (Gen. 2:7).” Now to me, the implication here is that the “Earth” is the source of life. However, Scripture teaches that God spoke everything into existence.

Also, she left out the most important part of Genesis 2:7. In full it says, “Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (emphasis mine); and man became a living being (New American Standard).” In other words, God, not “Mother Earth” is the Giver of life.

In the last paragraph of my column I referred to “responsible energy stewardship.” I have written before of the importance of proper stewardship of all of creation. In 2007 (here) I wrote, “We should all remember that, ‘The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it’ (Ps. 24:1). We are merely managers of His property. However, in our stewardship we must focus on the Creator and not the created.”

If we get this out of order, we could become as those of whom the Apostle Paul wrote when they, “Exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator.”