James Watt says Christians must protect the environment

[quaoar]

Yes, that James Watt.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/20/AR2005052001333.html

Last December Moyers received an environmental award from Harvard University. About three paragraphs into the speech, after attacking the Bush administration, Moyers said: "James Watt told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said, 'After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back.' Beltway elites snickered. The press corps didn't know what he was talking about. But James Watt was serious. So were his compatriots out across the country. They are the people who believe the Bible is literally true -- one-third of the American electorate if a recent Gallup poll is accurate."

I never said it. Never believed it. Never even thought it. I know no Christian who believes or preaches such error. The Bible commands conservation -- that we as Christians be careful stewards of the land and resources entrusted to us by the Creator. Moyers then attacked the congressional leadership, some by name, saying that "we're not talking about a handful of fringe lawmakers who hold or are beholden to these beliefs. Nearly half the U.S. Congress before the recent election -- 231 legislators in total and more since the election -- are backed by the religious right."

Moyers is not without reinforcements. A liberal theologian and active participant in the National Council of Churches, Barbara R. Rossing of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, published a book titled "The Rapture Exposed." In it she attacks a large segment of the Christian community after attributing to me erroneous motives and beliefs on the basis of a fragment of a sentence taken out of context. Rossing contends that Christians who believe in the Rapture presume that there is no need for stewardship of natural resources because of the expected return of the Lord. She writes: "Watt told U.S. senators that we are living at the brink of the end-times and implied that this justifies clear-cutting the nation's forest and other unsustainable environmental policies. When he was asked about preserving the environment for future generations, Watt told his Senate confirmation hearing, 'I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns.' Watt's 'use it or lose it' view of the world's resources is a perspective shared by the Rapture proponents."

Rossing fictionalizes this whole scenario and neglects to finish the sentence, which was as follows: "I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns; whatever it is we have to manage with a skill to leave the resources needed for future generations."

[aquart]

1. Didn't we jail that piece of sludge?

Did he get religion up the river?

[Jack Rabbit]

2. I'm glad he thinks somebody ought to protect the environment

Watt dedicated his life to making sure the government won't. And the clients he and his law firm represented most certainly won't.

[kaygore]

3. I remember clearly when Watts actually said that

At the time I thought, "OMG." Little did I know that he was the first of an army of mindless Rature lemmings!

But, he did say it. I heard him say it at the time on the news.

[Tux]

4. No matter what

We're screwed by the rapture nuts. If Jesus won't return which he won't since he is dead, they'll go nuts and have Bush launch nukes. According to them, Jesus was supposed to land in 2000 then 2001. So far, Jesus Airlines hasn't appeared. Some believe a theocracy will bring Jesus back. Others think that killing gays, abortionists, and non-Christians will bring him back.

Al this over a man no one alive has met.

[kaygore]

5. The lying bastard

I just read the article and again I say, I remember when he said it.

BUT, note the phrase, "religious left." Is this some new framing?

What a lying bastard!!!! I hope that Jon Stewart picks this up and shows the tape of Watts actually saying, 'After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back,' and then juxtaposing it with this LIE.

What a lying bastard!

[Lefergus70]

7. Can't he be nailed on this one?

If someone at DU is a journalist and has access to Nexus, it should be possible to search and find Watts's exact statement. If it's out there, it would be a big help to Moyers right now.

[quaoar]

8. Apparently Watt did not make that statement

Moyers got the quote from an article in Grist.
Grist says it got the quote from a book written in 1990 and later published this correction:

http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2004/10/27/scherer-christian/index.html

*

But a scripture-based justification for anti-environmentalism -- when was the last time you heard a conservative politician talk about that?

Odds are it was in 1981, when President Reagan's first secretary of the interior, James Watt, told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. "God gave us these things to use. After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back," Watt said in public testimony that helped get him fired.

Today's Christian fundamentalist politicians are more politically savvy than Reagan's interior secretary was; you're unlikely to catch them overtly attributing public-policy decisions to private religious views. But their words and actions suggest that many share Watt's beliefs. Like him, many Christian fundamentalists feel that concern for the future of our planet is irrelevant, because it has no future.
In fact, Watt did not make such a statement to Congress. The quotation is attributed to Watt in the book Setting the Captives Free by Austin Miles, but Miles does not write that it was made before Congress. Grist regrets this reporting error and is aggressively looking into the accuracy of this quotation.]

[kaygore]

10. Watts made the statement

not before Congress but he made the statement. I remember clearly because I was dumbfounded at the time and could not understand why the news services didn't pick up on it. I knew he was referring to the Rapture and it left such an impression on me that when the "Christian" right (but wrong) started taking over everything, I had an aha and the Watts statement finally made sense.

[The Traveler]

6. He is a liar

I remember watching tape of that little speech back in the 80s. Perhaps he did not accurately express his beliefs, but Moyers accurately recounts what was actually said.

[kaygore]

11. The problem is that it wasn't widely reported or commented on at the time

In doing a search, (at least so far) I have not been able to come up with the original reference. Yet, like you, I clearly remember seeing the TV clip of him saying that because I was so dumbfounded.

[PurityOfEssence]

9. Well, yeah...from other Christians

So when IS that last tree going to fall?