Now available on Amazon Kindle: A Very Convenient Truth

Now available on AMAZON KINDLE US$3.99

If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people;

If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

-- 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 (KJV)

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Former Vice-President Al Gore recently held a 24-hour TV event about the current state of global warming/climate change, and his former boss, Bill Clinton, told a gathering in New York City in September that “green” industries need billions of dollars of investment in order to succeed and, presumably, save the planet.

News about global warming/climate change is invariably bad, whether it’s coming from the scientists warning us that things keep getting worse and governments aren’t doing or spending enough to fight it, or from those who deny there’s a problem, who say the economy will tank if the measures the environmentalists demand are adopted. A Very Convenient Truth – now available on Amazon Kindle -- sets out to break us out of the cycle of Doomspeak, personal attacks and confusion. 

A Very Convenient Truth takes the position that Christians – in fact, anyone who believes in the One True God of Israel – hold a significant trump card, which makes all that Doomspeak and the worry and fear that goes with it an absolute non-starter. The Word of God, after all, is nothing but good news: you just have to look for it. The book neither denies the issue nor takes the position of the True Believer, but as you consider God’s promise about “the land”, you realize that God has already given us the answers. Anyone can pursue them, they don’t cost a cent and they don’t involve serving the creature rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25).

Part of this “very convenient truth” is that there is an original environmental sin that a lot of us have a hard time recognizing, largely for the same reason that people have a hard time recognizing any sin as their own; also because the world has made the effects of that sin appear to be insurmountable. But for someone who’s in Christ, there is also another Truth: just as with any other sin, Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary allows us to repent, have that sin wiped off the books, and get on the right track.  
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There’s no question that something is going on. While “natural disasters” have always been around, there is an unusual intensity in their force and frequency. There have been unusually severe storms and some of the worst in recent years have had little or no warning. Seasons seem to be out of place: summers in some areas have been hotter and drier than normal, while other areas – like Vancouver, BC, where I live – have experienced harsher-than-usual winters (except during the Winter Olympics – go figure). Forest fires have become increasingly destructive, pushed along by unusually strong winds, coming from an unexpected direction. A variety of scientific predictions has missed the mark – from salmon runs to “surprise” heat waves.

But is this a man-made situation with man-made solutions?  And why is “climate change” dominating the headlines?  Have you ever stopped to wonder why, with so many undeniable environmental issues to deal with like air and water pollution, loss of farmland, soil degradation and nuclear waste, the one with the shakiest foundations and greatest potential for controversy gets the majority of the attention?

            This is one of many signs that Satan is driving this issue. Remember, all worldly battles may appear to be flesh-and-blood struggles, but are in fact, as the Apostle Paul tells us, wars in the spirit realm with the sole purpose of distracting our attention away from God. It’s important to recognize this in the environmental issue, particularly with what passes for debate over climate change/global warming: Satan has absolutely no interest in preserving God’s creation; he will do whatever it takes to keep us at one another’s throats and take our attention away from God. 

-- from A Very Convenient Truth

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A Very Convenient Truth also reminds us that things that are attributed to “global warming” have actually been foretold for thousands of years and that trying to fight against these signs puts us in opposition to God’s Will – very dangerous territory, indeed. 

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            “So ...” you ask, “are we supposed to pray our way through climate change?”

            Yep. 

            It may not seem like Dynamic Action or accords in Kyoto, Copenhagen, Rio de Janeiro or any of the myriad political agreements to Do Something About It, but those things are only soul-satisfying “feel good” exercises that give the impression of action while scoring political points. 

            Scripture tells us that Dynamic Action is highly over-rated. Consider Peter, the poster boy for Dynamic But Ineffectual Action. When he vowed to come against any attempt to kill Jesus, Jesus responded, “get thee behind me, Satan”: Peter, however well-intentioned, was trying to stand in the way of God’s plan. When Peter did take action and pulled his sword on the soldiers at Gethsemane, he missed and only got the ear. 

-- from A Very Convenient Truth

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For Christians, the book contains a challenge; God’s promises are always yea and Amen: do you believe that when it comes to the environment, too? For environmentalists, the challenge is, are you broad-minded enough to consider a different approach?

A Very Convenient Truth is a re-working of a book I self-published in 2008. This version is considerably different from the original with a completely different tone, attitude and revelations from Scripture. It's available for US$3.99 on Amazon Kindle -- go to www.amazon.com, click on Kindle, then "Kindle Books" and type "A Very Convenient Truth" into the "search" field.

Where to Go in Vancouver

Vandals have broken into Scotland Yard and smashed all the toilets. Police say they have nothing to go on.
-- The Two Ronnies

One of the "causes du jour" in my day job as media relations guy for the BC Electric Railway Company is the desire for public restrooms at transit stations. I won't go into the entire debate here, but it leads to a broader issue: public restrooms in general. The City of Vancouver has again approached us at Gospel Mission about keeping The Lord's Rain open in the evenings, seven nights a week, to give people a place to go. We sent them a budget; we're waiting for their response. (A similar overture in 2009 came up short for lack of funding.)

I don't mind saying: if a politician were to add "public restrooms" to his or her platform, I think they'd be surprised at how that might turn the election. They'd get my vote, anyway. The heck with the current mayor's obsession on making Vancouver "the greenest city" or "wiping out homelessness by 2015" (as if!): providing a clean, safe place where someone can go to the bathroom is symbolic of actually caring about someone's comfort and well-being.

"Going green" more often than not implies giving up something: the car, creature comforts, warmth in the winter -- even a job in resource-based industries. I think people are getting tired of being told to give something up. Besides: I promise you that the majority of people on the Downtown East Side don't give a hang about being eco-friendly when they're living in substandard conditions, surrounded by drugs, crime and poverty. But turn the "greenest city" efforts towards providing said clean, safe place to go to the bathroom, and people will actually see that someone truly cares.

(How about a 21st-Century take on 1st Corinthians 13, from - ahem - my book A Very Convenient Truth, soon to be e-published?)

Though I speak with words of tolerance and use inoffensive terms for racial and gender descriptions, and have not love, I am like a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.

And though I understand all the implications of my carbon footprint and recycle diligently and use public transit and eschew my private auto for the sake of creating a greener city; and have not love, I am nothing.

And though I devote my spare time to fighting for social and ecological justice and quit my job even when I can’t afford to because I believe my employer does not use proper environmental practices, and have not love, it profits me nothing.

At any rate, we get so hung up on being "friendly". "Bike-friendly," "car-friendly," "business-friendly," or "family friendly", but the simple pledge to provide something as basic as a place to relieve oneself can put the city on track to something I haven't heard much lately:

People friendly.