By a Refuse Fascism supporter |
Scott Pruit believes the Bible mandates attacking climate science! Going after him for “corruption” is like going after a caught-in-the-act naked serial killer for indecent exposure.
If you google “Scott Pruitt news” these days these are the kind of things you will find:
EPA chief Scott Pruitt met with lobbyist who rented him condo
Scott Pruitt Before the E.P.A.: Fancy Homes, a Shell Company and Friends With Money
Scott Pruitt is the target of no less than 10 federal investigations
“Scandal, scandal, corruption” they all cry – $3 million for a large security detail, $43,000 for a soundproof booth where he conducts his business, flying first-class instead of coach.One hundred and seventy Democrats and even some Republicans are calling for him to be removed from office.
But people, let’s get real. It is ironic and pathetic and dangerous how the media, the Democratic party leadership and too many liberals are now focusing everyone’s attention on Scott Pruitt’s expenses and petty scandals to discredit him. When we look at who Scott Pruitt really is, and what he’s really done, we can see that going after him this way is like catching a naked mass murderer right in the act and then charging him with indecent exposure. It is hugely dangerous because it mis-directs people away from the immense real danger represented by Pruitt.
So, again, who is Scott Pruitt, really?
We can start from wikipedia.org: “Pruitt represented Tulsa and Wagoner Counties in the Oklahoma Senate from 1998 until 2006. In 2010, Pruitt was elected Attorney General of Oklahoma. In that role, he opposed abortion rights, same-sex marriage, the Affordable Care Act, and environmental regulations as a self-described ‘leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda.’ In his campaigns for Oklahoma Attorney General, Pruitt received major corporate and employee campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry, taking in at least $215,574 between 2010 and 2014, even though he ran unopposed in the latter year. As Oklahoma’s Attorney General, Pruitt sued the Environmental Protection Agency at least 14 times regarding the agency’s actions.”
In 2005, Pruitt told a radio interviewer that there are not “sufficient scientific facts to establish the theory of evolution.”
Pruitt is a Hard Core Christian Fascist Playing a Key Role at the Core of the Trump/Pence regime.
For years Pruitt has been one of the most prominent right-wing attack dogs against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) when (during previous administrations before Trump/Pence) it was still in the main carrying out its stated mission of protecting the environment using science and scientific principles to monitor and assess the health of the environment.
He has been an open unapologetic lobbyist for energy firms for many years.
But more than this, Pruitt is a Christian fascist. He sits on the board of directors of the Southern Seminary, one of the largest seminaries in the world and the largest of the denomination’s (Southern Baptists) six seminaries. He is one of the main sponsors of the weekly cabinet-level biblical study group along with: Vice President Mike Pence, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, CIA Director (and now Secretary of State) Mike Pompeo and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.
This study group is run by Ralph Drollinger an infamous far-right extremist pastor who was disavowed by his own church for his bigoted ideology. His group also has similar study groups in the U.S. House and Senate and in 43 State assemblies. In a September 2015 interview, Drollinger described his mission as creating a “factory” to mass-produce politicians like Michele Bachmann, who is on the Capitol Ministries board. “She thinks Biblically,” Drollinger said. “She doesn’t need a whole lot of time to figure out how to vote because she sees the world through a scriptural lens. We need more men and women like her in office.” Drollinger has praised the new (Trump/Pence) administration for its power to “change the course of America in ways that are biblical.”
Let’s be very clear, I am not attacking religion or Christianity in general – there are many, many good-hearted progressive, even radical Christians – we should all unite with them and millions of others of all faiths (and no faiths) to drive out the Trump/Pence regime. And this is not against and not about people having their own private religious beliefs. We’re talking here about hard-core biblical literalist Christian fundamentalist fascism, a reactionary political movement pushing into the “public square” as they call it – pushing into the heart of political power as a core part of a consolidating the Trump/Pence fascist regime.
Christian Fascist views on the Environment, on Climate and Environmental Science – Right At the Heart of the Trump/Pence Regime
Bob Avakian (in his video talk “THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! In The Name of Humanity We REFUSE To Accept A Fascist America – A Better World IS Possible,” which I urge people to watch) points out how many in the Trump/Pence social base have been trained to believe that we’re in Armageddon end times and so people shouldn’t worry about climate change and environmental disaster or really care about fellow humans at all.
Another core element of these peoples’ view on the environment is called “dominionism.” This comes from the Bible where “God” tells his people: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28).
For example, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Al Mohler has said the secular-dominated environmental movement sees human beings as the problems to climate change. This worldview, he said, denies the purpose of creation, which was for humans to “take dominion over it.”
Closely related to this is the idea that God takes care of these things and that it is not “man’s place” to question God’s will on these things. On this basis, they attack scientists for having the hubris (presumption) to say they know about what is happening to the planet. So, people must just put their faith in God (and his earthly fascist representatives) when they say we don’t really know if climate change is real, or if it is whether human activity plays any role, etc. etc. This dovetails quite nicely with the overall attempt by global warming denialists to throw doubt on the overwhelming scientific consensus about climate change. Here’s a typical example of this attitude:
“As a Christian, I believe that there is a creator in God who is much bigger than us,” Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), a graduate of evangelical schools Taylor University and Wheaton College, said at a town hall last week in Coldwater, Mich. “And I’m confident that, if there’s a real problem, he can take care of it.”
Some believe they don’t have to worry about sea-level rise because “God promised Noah after the flood that he would never do that again.” Tell that to the people of Houston, New Orleans, Bangaldesh, Pacific Islands… and other parts of the world threatened by rising sea levels!
And then there is the crap Trump brays out that “climate change is a Chinese hoax” or a plot by “the elites” to destroy “our freedoms” – in this case freedom to exploit and ruin the resources of the planet – to do what has made America great in the past, including burning coal and oil. “Drill Baby Drill”. Many people have been trained to simply not trust scientists because they are “anti-Christian” and “out to get them”.
Another tactic climate change denying Christian fascists like to use is painting climate change as an alternate religion using language like “do you believe in global warming?” This is closely tied to attempts to confuse people about what scientists mean when they talk about scientific theory, saying about global warming (as they also do about evolution) “it’s just a theory.” This is one of the key places where the unfortunate prevalence of relativism – (the idea that there is no objective truth and so we can only talk about competing narratives) is being used by fascists to confuse people and turn them against science, particularly climate and environmental science.
In case you think I’m exaggerating, here’s Pruitt in his own words: In a February interview with the Christian Broadcast Network, Pruitt elaborated: “The biblical worldview with respect to these issues is that we have a responsibility to … harvest the natural resources that we’ve been blessed with, to truly bless our fellow mankind.”
This all folds together into a toxic package – to Make America Great Again, God has given us the resources of the whole world to plunder. And to hell with other humans, to hell with the environment, to hell with environmental and climate science.
What Has Scott Pruitt Really Done at the EPA?
Pruitt was hand-picked for all these reasons with a clear mandate to lead a hostile takeover and gut the EPA from within, dismantle many of its key regulations and to openly attack science and remove science and scientists from their previously key role in the agency, providing the “evidentiary basis for EPA policy.” The real thing that is clear (for those with eyes to see) is that the “scandalous” expenses flow from the fact that he has been implanted from the top into an agency full of scientists who deeply care about the environment, in a hostile takeover.
In this article there is just not space to do justice to just how much Pruitt has “accomplished” along these lines. But when you hear people say “Oh they haven’t accomplished very much” just think about what they’ve done on this front alone!
Here are some highlights. He pushed Trump:
- to exit the Paris Climate Accords
- to shelve the Clean Power Plan
- to roll back fuel efficiency targets for automakers
And, he wiped out all references to climate science on the EPA web site and made it almost impossible for scientists to access key EPA data sets documenting climate change globally!
Again, this only touches the surface! For a running list of how Trump/Pence regime is changing the environment, see “A Running List of How Trump Is Changing the Environment” in National Geographic.
All of this is taking place in the context of the nearly unanimous scientific consensus that our planet is rapidly facing a dire multi-faceted environmental crisis, with global warming being a key driver.
Finally … Back to the Democrats and their Scandals
Pruitt and the rest of the Christian fascist cabal now sit at the very center of power in the Trump/Pence regime, alongside a hard-core war cabinet. They will not stop unless they are stopped – by us.
Now Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic party leaders have fully codified this dangerous petty approach as the core “new strategy” (See “Democrats Look To Their Successful 2006 Messaging In Bid To Retake The House – Going after a GOP ‘culture of corruption’ worked then. Will it work now?”).
Wake up people! Don’t be led to focus and rely on petty things and strategies that lead to nowhere except leaving this dangerous regime in power. The needs of humanity and of life on this planet cannot abide this. This is a fascist regime being consolidated that we face, not just another electoral season. We truly need a mass movement unified and moving with determined and continuing mass non-violent protests with the demands:
This Nightmare Must End: The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!
In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America
In this direction lies our real hope.