In the past decade and one-half, I have attended two clergy conferences, eleven clergy workshops, received at least an annual letter from a bishop or other type of diocesan authority, and been lectured by my peers countless times, all about saving the rain forest and environmental sensitivity and the evils of progress and I don't know what else.
Lo, then I read this. In the New York Times, no less.
These new “secondary” forests are emerging in Latin America, Asia and other tropical regions at such a fast pace that the trend has set off a serious debate about whether saving primeval rain forest — an iconic environmental cause — may be less urgent than once thought.
So, in other words, globalization and economic progress in developing countries is actually doing more for the rain forest than are the feelings and concerns of well-meaning mainstream Protestants, especially as the "secondary" rain forest is better able to sequester atmospheric carbon.
Good Lord, do you know what this means? The politico-environmental ideology of the Church isn't always right! I'm dizzy in this moment of fear and trembling.
Maybe we should let scientists issue edicts about science and we'll take care of the spiritual stuff. After all, we aren't clergy because we're rocket surgeons. Then again, nah. We're not clergy unless we have an opinion about everything.
[Growing up in Cleveland, all I learned about the jungle was from Larry and his wife, Safari Jane, both of whom appeared weekly on the Captain Penny cartoon show. I guess nowadays he'd be called Rain Forest Larry.]