Is modern American Leftism a new, secular religion? Of course it is. Who could forget House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Grey Goose) giving thanks to her god for his salvific sacrifice: “Thank you, George Floyd, for sacrificing your life for justice”? Or New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D-Planned Parenthood) proclaiming that the unvaccinated “aren’t listening to God and what God wants.” And now the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which has long been a hollowed-out shell teaching social justice Leftism in vaguely Christian garb, has done its part for the sanctification of the contemporary Leftist agenda by publishing a new hymn, “The Climate is Changing.” The lyrics are far more ludicrous than the title might suggest.
Presbyterian News Service reported Friday that the hymn was prepared for the opening of the UN Climate Change Conference on Sunday in Glasgow. Apparently the assembled dignitaries, after working hard all day on strategies to compel the U.S. and Western Europe to commit economic suicide and hand global financial hegemony to China on a silver platter, will be in the mood to belt out a rousing hymn about saving Gaia. The pious Presbyterians were happy to oblige.
“The Climate is Changing” is helpfully written to a tune that many of the conference participants will find familiar: “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise,” an enduringly popular nineteenth-century hymn that begins: “Immortal, invisible, God only wise, in light inaccessible, hid from our eyes, most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days, almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.”
Now, this is the twenty-first century, and all that patriarchal business about a wise, omnipotent, glorious God is as dated as porkpie hats and the notion that there are only two genders. “The Climate is Changing,” which was written by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, co-pastor with her husband, Bruce, of First Presbyterian Union Church in Oswego, New York, is much more up-to-date. Here are the first two verses, in all their virtue-signaling pseudo-Christian glory:
The climate is changing! Creation cries out!
Your people face flooding and fire and drought.
We see the great heat waves and storms at their worst.
We pray for the poor, Lord — for they suffer first.We pray for the animals here in our midst
who cannot defend their own right to exist.
We pray for the mountains and forests and seas
that bear the harsh footprint of our human greed.
You get the idea. The lyrics do make a cursory nod toward the old religion: the fifth (yes) verse begins by reminding God: “You love this good Earth, and you sent us your Son!” If you don’t recall Jesus saying much about the necessity to reduce greenhouse emissions, but only in the West, while giving China a free hand to pollute as much as it wants while turning the world into its personal economic fiefdom, Bruce Gillette, the husband of the holy hymnographer, might want to have a few words with you. “We all need to be doing more to counter the crisis ASAP,” said Bruce, who is also (surprise!) vice-moderator of Presbyterians for Earth Care. “Prayer (spoken and sung) needs to be the basis for Christian action. We hope this new hymn helps churches in their worship and action.”
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It probably will, because the Gillettes are by no means alone in pretending that climate change, which rests upon numerous unproven and hysterical assumptions, is a foremost Gospel imperative. Just as the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was bequeathing “The Climate is Changing” to the world, Old Joe Biden was over in Rome chatting up Pope Francis; according to the White House, Old Joe “lauded Pope Francis’ leadership in fighting the climate crisis.” And with good reason: on Thursday, the Pontiff recorded a message for the BBC in which he made it clear that he wasn’t going to brook any dissent from his climate change agenda on the basis of the idea that maybe it’s not such a good idea, much less a Gospel imperative, to impoverish and weaken one’s own nation in favor of a predatory foe. “We can confront these crises by retreating into isolationism, protectionism and exploitation,” said the woke Popescold, “or we can see in them a real chance for change.”
Nor is Pope Francis by any means alone. Top-level clergy of virtually all Christian denominations, as well as numerous non-Christian religious leaders, have agreed that tackling climate change is our foremost duty in this age. And now we can sit around the campfire, roast up some marshmallows, and sing about it as well, thanks to Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. We need a few more hymns for our new religion, though. Maybe Gillette can give us “O Little Town of Climate Change” next, or “What A Friend We Have In Gaia.” In the meantime, maybe if we sing enough choruses of “The Climate is Changing” with sufficient heartfelt sincerity, Gaia will turn away Her wrath and once again smile upon us and accept our offerings.
But, of course, then we have all that systemic racism to atone for. Whatever form the Left’s new religion eventually takes, it is certain to be exhausting.
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