On The Flip Side

In "Strange Bedfellows," I described the elation I felt when I read of evangelical Christians pushing for environmental responsibility. But this weekend, in a back issue of Harper's Magazine (February 2005), I came across a more typical evangelical perspective.

America's Providential History, a book by Mark A. Beliles and Stephen K. McDowell, states that "You cannot understand history without understanding Divine Providence." It explains that "many modern educators deny the Providential view of history and would have us believe that their promotion of one of several 'secular' views of history is simply the recording of brute facts."

Beliles and McDowell explain that, over the course of my education, I've been a victim of several such "modern educators" (or deviants). I didn't realize, for example, that an omnipotent hand removed General Stonewall Jackson from the American Civil War in order to preserve the Union "of the United States as one whole people." Beliles and McDowell, thankfully, are reeducating us ignorant folk on that history. They also explain that Franklin Roosevelt, leader of a secular, socialist sect, set out to offend the Creator by designing the New Deal, an attempt to prove government more capable of providing for human beings than the good Lord.

Most importantly, though, I've been all wrong on issues of ecology. (I excerpt the following two paragraphs via the Harper's reprinting. I have not read the book.)

"A secular society lacks faith in God's Providence, and consequently men find fewer natural resources. The secular or socialist has a limited-resource mentality and views the world as a pie (there is only so much) that needs to be cut up so that everyone can have a piece. In contrast, the Christian knows that the potential in God is unlimited and that there is no shortage of resources in God's earth.

While many secularists view the world as over-populated, Christians know that God has made the earth sufficiently large, with plenty of resources to accommodate all the people He knew would come into existence. All the 5 billion people on earth could live in the state of Texas in single-family homes with front and back yards and be fed by production in the rest of the United States."

While I seriously doubt that all 6 billion of us could fit into Texas comfortably, especially if you're considering "single-family homes with front and back yards," I suppose I should go repent, just to be on the safe side!

Thank you, Mark and Steve, for lifting the veil and allowing me to see anew. Like "S. Beddo" – read the review they write at Amazon – I'm glad this excellent resource was brought to my attention. It must have been Providence.