A Confusing of Greed With Need

I have long appreciated Congressman (William E.) Dannemeyer’s willingness to take a positive stand on Christian moral issues like abortion and homosexuality, but I find nothing to applaud in his position on environmental protection. His statements at (the Feb. 25) gnatcatcher hearings (“Debate on Gnatcatcher Flares Anew at Hearing,” Feb. 26) reflect the very attitude that convinces the environmental protection community that Christianity is a basic cause of environmental degradation.

The congressman needs to sit down with his Bible for a while and review just exactly what it says. For instance, he contends that “listing the gnatcatcher would be like repealing Genesis, in which God places man above all other animals in the world.” Perhaps he has forgotten that the biblical statements about man’s dominion over the earth and its creatures are always tempered by the truth that the Earth is the Lord’s and that we are to serve, tend, guard, save and keep it. The Bible clearly declares that we are to be good stewards of the earth and its creatures.

Dannemeyer also said that “it is foolish to sacrifice the needs of people for the needs of an animal.” Jesus declared that the Earth can provide for the needs of people as well as the animals and the plants. God made it that way. It is man’s greed, not his need, that is the main issue here.

If Dannemeyer wants to see need, he should not be spending his time with wealthy developers. He needs to volunteer at a few soup kitchens. That’s need. To even think that new development in gnatcatcher habitat has anything whatsoever to do with need is ludicrous.

I personally resent the congressman’s passing off demonstrations for protection of the gnatcatcher as “an exhibition of people on the political left.” There are some conservative Republicans like me who believe it is time for someone within the party to have the guts to stand up and declare that the traditional Republican approach to both economics and the environment has some serious problems.

All this nit-picking about the gnatcatcher proves that Dannemeyer and the developers both fail to realize that the real issue is not the fate of the little bird, but the greater issue of unchecked human encroachment upon and abuse of the natural environment--our source of life and health.

DEAN OHLMAN, President, Christian Nature Federation, Fullerton