The Bible and Earth Day

Last year, on Tuesday, February 13, 2007, I wrote the following post:

The Bible and Global Warming

People who say politicians do not know their Bible are not aware of all the biblical quotations we find in speeches published by the distinguished men and women who serve in Congress. At times, politicians like to act like preachers. Politicians like to quote the Bible to prove their argument is solid.

Take the case of the Honorable Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California and the Speaker of the House. In a speech before the House Science and Technology Committee Hearing, she spoke on the pressing issue of global warming.

Speaker Pelosi said that the future of our children and grandchildren is in our hands. She spoke about the need to act now in order to save our planet. To prove her point, that government needs to act now and tackle "humanity's greatest challenge," she quoted the Bible. She said:

The Bible tells us in the Old Testament, "To minister to the needs of God's creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us."

These are touching words. This biblical admonition is very important and highly relevant to the pressing issue of global warming.

Too bad this biblical admonition is not in the Old Testament.

According to CNSNews, today, “Earth Day,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invoked God and the Bible in her Earth Day Declaration. According to the CNSNews news report:

Pelosi explained what the “New Direction” Democrats are doing to fix the problem, then concluded by quoting from the Bible:

"The Bible tells us in the Old Testament, 'To minister to the needs of God's creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us.' On this Earth Day, and every day, let us honor the earth and our future generations with a commitment to fight climate change."

This is the same quote she used before and I have to say, her quote is still not in the Old Testament.

Joe Osborne at House of Leoj did a Google search on Nancy Pelosi’s use of the Old Testament and here is what Joe wrote:

So I searched Google for the direct quotation. It turns out that this is not the first time she has used this "quote". The Pelosi Op-ed on Dr. Martin Luther King Day contains the same words. I also found it in an October 2007 interview with Tavis Smiley. (No, I am not making that name up!) She even used the same quote in her Earth Day 2007 statement, the budget bill in 2005 debate and, evidently, her Christmas 2005 statement.

It seems that when people do not have much to say, they recycle their words over and over again as Nancy Pelosi has done. It is easy to make up what the Bible says when you don't know what the Bible says. Pelosi’s words say a lot about her knowledge of the Old Testament.

Somebody should tell the Speaker that her words of wisdom from the Bible are not in the Bible.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Earth Day, Nancy Pelosi