Carbon Fasting.....Really?

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onel0126

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The Archdiocese of Washington DC has within its ranks an “Enviornmental Reasearch Council.” They are promoting carbon fasting for Lent. Does this make anyone elses skin crawl that enviornmental issues are being tied to Lent–they even have gone so far as to create a special Lenten calendar to guide our thoughts. See links below and please feel free to leave comments to the blog.

Blog here------------>blog.adw.org/2011/03/10421/

Enviornmental Lenten Calendar attached.
 
onel0126 said:
Does this make anyone elses skin crawl that enviornmental issues are being tied to Lent
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Nope, I have no problem with the Church encouraging us to be good stewards of creation.

Sam, the Neon Orange Knight
 
The first one was for me to run my A/C more. 🙂

This is very disturbing. Lent is supposed to be a time of reparation of our sins through penance and time of connecting with Christ, not a time of reparation of our sins against Gaia and a time of connecting with Gaia.
 
I am not disturbed by this at all.
Can’t see anything particularly wrong with it.

Peace
James
 
Why does this bother you? As Catholics, we are also supposed to take good care of the Earth, and not waste resources.

Most of the things listed are just common sense. I am no environmental wacko (I can’t stand them), but I do a lot of those things regularly.

We wash most clothing on cold. We never use the "dry cycle’ with our dishwasher. We do dry our clothes in a dryer, because both my wife and I are unable to hang clothes on a line.

We would all do better to use less energy, to husband resources, etc.

I find it amazing that you would see something like this as threatening.
 
white_sheep said:
The first one was for me to run my A/C more. 🙂

This is very disturbing. Lent is supposed to be a time of reparation of our sins through penance and time of connecting with Christ, not a time of reparation of our sins against Gaia and a time of connecting with Gaia.
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I thought that hearth was a gift from God to mankind and that we have to treat with reverence. Is it more important to believe in false gods in order to criticize a bishop than expressing our sorrow to God and repenting for our poor stewardship?
 
I find nothing really wrong with the content per se; these are all good suggestions.

What I object to is making this a “Lenten” exercise, which it is not, and should never be. Environmental stewardship is NOT what Lent is about. Lent should be Lent, and I mean, Lent: fast and abstinence (REAL fast and abstinence), spiritual and Scripture reading, prayer, the Stations of the Cross and Confession.
 
This is just eco-green-you should do this anyway stuff.

Now, if you turn your hot water heater off for a day or don’t use the heat pump at all, that’s lenten sacrifice.

Or, make a donation to turn someone’s power back on, something like that, that’s virtuous.
 
I wonder if enough people “carbon fasting” will offset just the fire at the oil refinery in Japan… It is such a ricdiculous concept to think that one not driving around as much during lent is somehow saving the great goddess earth. much less the idea of God creation able to be destroyed by man…
Of course we owe it to our children and ourselves to not excessively pollute but the "carbon guilt’ that people have is misplaced and ignorant of what real pollution is.
and how little just living a normal life really pollutes. How about donating some money to send aid to Japan, or does the extra airplanes in the sky to deliver aid take moral precedence.:rolleyes:
 
onel0126 said:
The Archdiocese of Washington DC has within its ranks an “Enviornmental Reasearch Council.” They are promoting carbon fasting for Lent. Does this make anyone elses skin crawl that enviornmental issues are being tied to Lent
Click to expand...
No, I think it is perfectly sensible and certainly fits within Franciscan spirituality, which values a stewardship of the Earth.

I can understand if it doesn’t speak to you. But “make your skin crawl” seems a bit extreme. :o
 
Perhaps I could just use nuclear power only for the remainder of Lent.
 
We have far more important things to think of and do for Lent than “carbon fasting”.

The very concept is skewed. The “climate change” fantasy assumes that people cause climate change through producing “carbon”. In fact the product of misplaced concern is carbon dioxide which is essential for good plant growth, not carbon particulates in the atmosphere which are now well controlled in developed countries.

Climate change is produced by sunspots over which we have no control.

We all have the obligation to be prudent, thrifty and temperate in consumption, and in the manner of disposal of waste, and to live within our means.

Penance is a virtue and penitential fasting for Lent is directed to preparing for Easter, reparation for sin, subduing our tendency to sin, and to works of charity.

A large part of the chaos in the world today is due to Catholic neglect of reason, faith and morals, for the distractions of relativism and secularism.
 
I find the ideas entirely in keeping with Lenten sacrifice and hope that after 40 days of doing such, it will become habit.
Did not God give us dominion? Dominion denotes responsibility.
 
Why is this troubling? If the idea does not suit your idea of a Lenten fast, than don’t do it. I like the idea of using Lent, a time of penance, to ask people to make certain sacrifices that help the Earth and which they may not have considered otherwise. If the only fast you are doing is taking shorter showers, well, you may have missed the point. But if you make this a part of your penance, how is that a bad thing?
 
It can become troubling if people decide to do this instead of the usual requirements, that is, fasting (from food) on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and abstinence from meat on all Lenten Fridays. I don’t believe this concern is unfounded because even the title itself Carbon “Fast” carries that implication.

Moreover, the essence of Lenten penitential practices have always been fasting, abstinence, and almsgiving, and offering this eco-calendar distorts the penitential spirit of Lent and does not sufficiently call for self-(that is, ME)-denial. I’m not even convinced it fits into almsgiving and you can count on a few fingers those days that contain anything vaguely resembling self-denial.

Again, this is all good stuff and doesn’t smack of any Greenpeace-type extremism that I so abhore. But this is not the proper exercise for Lent. For Lent, take cold showers (environmentally friendly but definitely self-denying), give up something, perform acts of charity and do the Stations of the Cross. Lent has venerable practices that have timeless value and ought not to be “enhanced” by eco-whatevers.
 
As an aside, I’m pretty certain that the eco-whatever arm of the Archdiocese subscribes to the usual “climate change” myth, so I can’t help but be a bit cynical.
 
onel0126 said:
The Archdiocese of Washington DC has within its ranks an “Enviornmental Reasearch Council.” They are promoting carbon fasting for Lent. Does this make anyone elses skin crawl that enviornmental issues are being tied to Lent–they even have gone so far as to create a special Lenten calendar to guide our thoughts. See links below and please feel free to leave comments to the blog.

Blog here------------>blog.adw.org/2011/03/10421/

Enviornmental Lenten Calendar attached.
Click to expand...
No, it doens’t bother me at all, because God gave us stewardship over the earth, and we’re all not doing a very good job appreciating that gift. Even if you don’t believe that our environment isn’t caustic enough… being frugal is never a sin. And taking steps to conserve energy and money was never something to be frowned upon. This is a good teaching opportunity for the archdiocese and it would make a nice addition to someone’s Lenten experience. Not everyone can afford to leave lights on, and unused elecronics. Some people are desparate for every penny…making thinking about that during this Lent might be beneficial to some?
 
Maybe it makes your skin crawl because this Archdiocese sounds like it’s trying to be trendy or something. There is something uncomfortable with the Church getting on the ‘Green Team’ and rah-rah-ing for Mother Earth. While the environment is important and we should all cut down on wasteful habits, there are more important things to be focusing on this Lent. Saving our souls and our neighbors’ souls is paramount.
 
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