At Catalyst (a major Christian conference) yesterday, Pastor and Alpha-Manly-Man Mark Driscoll made a comment that may have been intended as a joke but he wasn’t kidding about the core of the message:

“I know who made the environment and he’s coming back and going to burn it all up. So yes, I drive an SUV.”

In other words, screw the environment; Jesus is coming back to save us all in this lifetime so why worry about recycling and climate change and wasting gas…?

The line was confirmed by several attendees:

Driscoll followed that line with: “If you drive a minivan, you’re a mini man.” (Pastor Shock Jock is full of funny, isn’t he?)

This is anecdotal right now, but people online are saying that several attendees walked out on Driscoll during his talk, which wouldn’t be surprising since Christians could also argue that God gave us this world, so it’s our duty to preserve it.

Stuff Christian Culture Likes wrote years ago about how not saving the environment was a hallmark of Christian culture:

Go to a Christian’s house. Drink a can of coke and then say, “I don’t want to throw this away, where is your recycling?” A bit of tension might occur. If you detect some frostiness – or the opposite reaction, a casual “Oh, we don’t recycle, there’s the trash” – you may be in the presence of Christian culture. Ask the same person how much mileage their car gets. If they have no idea, or if they lament the cost of filling up their SUV, you may be dealing with someone in Christian culture.

I know a lot of Christians will urge everyone not to take Driscoll seriously, but the manly man has a huge following and the idea that saving the environment is something you can ignore because Christians will be saved isn’t exactly news in the evangelical world. They’ve all heard it before.

(via Christian Nightmares)



