Earth Day - Confessions of an Environmentalist

In honor of Earth Day I have to tell you about a witnessing encounter I had a little while back. Really I didn't get to witness to him, we just gave him a gospel tract while Donnie, Ronnie & I were at the park one Wednesday. I don't even remember what the guy looks like, we must have given it to him as he walked or ran by on the Maryville Greenbelt. Later that evening he emailed us since we had a contact address on the tract. Unfortunately I lost my last responce to him. But this is most of the correspondence we had together. It should give you an interesting perspective on the mindset of the environmentalist cult:

from:Matt

" Does your church recycle? I was handed a 'Million Dollar Question' bill this evening while at the greenbelt presunably by a member of your church as they had www.gmcog.com stamped on them and at the least they could have said is "Please recycle this". Or you can have printed with "Please Recycle" on it somewhere. Any thing we can do to save the planet God has given us... "

my reply:

" I am glad you contacted us. We have found that the most favorable way to recycle those bills is to: a. Read the message. B. Obey what you read. C. Pass it on to someone else. Just one of those bills can go a long way when that happens.
thank you for your interest,
faithfully,
Kevin "

from Matt:

" Well, that is a nice thought but not always one that comes to the random people that you are handing these out to. Which shows that you either missed the point of my note or that your church is umwilling to accept responsibility for the fact that it could be contributing to waste and trash. What percentage of the people that you hand these to actually read them and take anything away from this message? What percentage read them and then crumple it up and toss it somewhere? I guess a small percentage might actually carry to a trash can to dispose of it, I bet a very small percentage think of recycling it with their scrap paper or passing it on to someone else.

And how sincere is it ti hand out to strangers as you pass by a clever attention getting fake million dollar bill with some rhetoric to make someone feel guilty or scared, threatened with hell for the life they've lived. My God is about Love, not fear and guilt. I'm not sure why I felt the need to write you more on this subject, it is very unlike me but something really bothers me about it. But I wish you well and just hope you think through your actions as a group. Have a good weekend.

Matt "

my reply:

" Who is your God? "

from Matt:

" My God is the one who sent Jesus to be a teacher among us. He's also the one who inspired Buddha, and is the basis for many of the world's religion's. I believe that God had to appear to different peoples in different ways so that they might understand hin better. I think that for someone (such as Robert J Pruitt) to say that "...there is only one true religion..." to bring his sheep into "...one body - one fold, one Church." is a very dangerous and narrowminded thought. Hitler thought that there was only one true race, and the few radical Muslim terrorists believe that their God is better that ours and their religion will prevail. Dangerous narrowminded thoughts in my opinion. I don't know exactly who your God is, but I don't care much for your religion. Please don't be offended, I'm just sharing my opinion, and you are absolutely welcome to yours.

Funny, you still don't seem to answer my simple question about the issue of recycling the flyers you hand out? My God wants us all to take better care of our planet.

Thanks again for your time. This has been interesting.

Matt "
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I lost my last response! Can you believe it? I am sure it was dynamic words of wisdom. The best I can remember, here is how it went:

" Let me ask you something, if I did not recycle & conserve what would happen? Would it be bad? Should I be scared? Should I feel guilty? Environmentalist use this arguement & it is a legitamate arguement. But, if we should be concerned about what may happen to us on this world which is temporal, how much more should we be concerned about what is eternal?

faithfully,
Kevin "

Hell is bad. If we love people we will warn them about it.

The god Matt is talking about does not exist. He has made up a god in his mind that likes what he likes and hates what he hates. If you don't want to feel guilty you try to make up a god that wont hold you accountable, then you won't feel guilty about your sins. Did you notice when he said, "...something really bothers me about it."? When he read the tract & the Commandments were brought before him the Holy Spirit used them to convict him of his sin. That is what bothered him.