www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Hooray !!! Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize !!!

Agreed, although Alan Keyes seems to have a hard time keeping his cool.

Huckabee looks quite interesting...

Gordo

We really need to form an openly Christian political party (a la the Christian Democrats of Europe). Alan Keyes would probably accept the nomination of such a group. There is also the option of "Christian Monarchism", but who would become our Tsar?

The more election cycles I endure, the more I agree that Christians who refuse to separate their beliefs from politics need an explicitly Christian party if we are to have candidates for whom we can vote without feeling as if we are choosing the lesser among the various evils.

Ryan

The thing that really gets me about this (aside from the blatant political angle of it all) is that this was given to Gore for his work on the issue of global climate change.

Now ... Here are my issues with this. Assuming for a moment that so-called global warming is a real threat and that it is totally man made (and not a natural phenomenon) and that we can actually do something to alleviate or ameliorate the threat:

* He was awarded the prize jointly with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I postulate that the IPCC did all of the real work all Gore did was spew non-sense and parrot the words of the UN panel.

* He constantly parrots and promotes the UN as something approaching the level of holy writ. Everything the UN says he proclaims as gospel.

* Except for one thing. The UN issued a paper stating that the farming of animals for food is more harmful to global climate (re: greenhouse gas production) than the driving of SUVs. The implication of this paper of the UN is that adopting a vegetarian diet is the largest single step that an individual can make to minimize their carbon footprint.

* Al Gore eats meat. In spite of the fact that groups like PeTA have been after him to adopt a vegetarian diet (in compliance with the opinion of his god and in support of his pet cause). They've even offered to supply him with a personal chef to prepare his vegetarian meals to ease his transition. Yet still he eats meat.

So he is just a huge hypocrite that talks the talk but won't walk the walk.

You want to give a Nobel Peace Prize to someone for working on global climate change? Seems stupid to me, but okay, do it. But pick someone who is actually doing something other than talking. How about John Robbins or Ed Begley, Jr. I mean I can't stand the guy's politics. But he's as green as they come. Strict vegetarian, drives a Prius ...

What has Gore done? Other than own several houses, multiple cars and I use a private jet to promote his movie about global warming.

Here's an interesting article [tennesseepolicy.org] on that very topic.


And that is just for his home in Nashville, Tennessee. That doesn't include his home in Virginia or his other home in Tennessee.

Oh and he has a "zero carbon footprint" because he has enough money to buy carbon credits. But he's going to tell me I shouldn't use my dryer in order to conserve energy? My electric usage, in the only house I own, is 1/20th his usage in one of three houses.

It's hard to take a hypocrite seriously.

Almost as hard as it is to take a "Peace Prize" that has been awarded to people like Arafat and Gorbechov seriously.

I do think that the square footage in today's American houses (over 3000 square feet) is ridiculous and obscene. I have seen more extensions go onto old houses of 'only' 2500 square feet, that are larger than most houses that people around the world live in and than most Americans lived in a few decades ago. So much for Americans conserving energy, and I would be very surprised if any of Al Gore's (or any other politician's) houses were under 'a mere' 3000 square feet.

Alice

The Ecumenical Patriarch (nicknamed the Green Patriarch many years ago) has been in the forefront of bringing awareness to Ecology long before Al Gore, but sadly, he has been ignored for any of these awards or world recognition--because who cares about a Christian Patriarch of a little known faith talking about ecology from a spiritual perspective?!?

Alice

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0724/p17s01-lire.html

But, the Patriarch approaches these questions from the standpoint of Christian stewardship. This is anathema to the Pantheists ("a human being is just another animal, and we are all God, anyway") and Crypto-Bolsheviks who comprise the current "Green" movement.

In Christ,
Dn. Robert

Alice, thanks for posting this.

I do take Patriarch Bartholomew seriously. We who are Byantine Christians, Catholic and Orthodox, have a wonderful theology of Creation. We believe that when Christ was baptized in the Jordan he sanctified water, and recreated the world. The Incarnation is an indication of God's consecration of Creation.

It is unfortunately true that we are ignored because much of the secular press, government and academia is dismissive of the Church.

We can help by being good disciples of Christ; by living simply, by walking more (getting exercise), eating lower on the food chain (less red meat) sharing with the poor, and support eco-friendly modes of production.

To a certain extent, we do not even have to decide which side is correct on global warming- there still serious problems with our mode of production and energy use. Even if Global Warming is not true, we would be far better off to conserve energy and find renewable energy sources, in terms of our health, the environment, oil supply, middle east wars; and we would be a good witness to the rest of the world, with a comprehensive sacramental and creation theology to underpin our actions.

Gah, in the end, who cares about the Nobel Peace Prize? We have a better prize - Heaven! :p

Something everyone can agree on!

AMEN!

I knew this thread would descend, in a matter of speaking, into Bush and the war in Iraq.

Fr. Serge, respectfully, you can dispute the 2000 election results all you want. If there were a recount held in every state, and the illegal aliens and the dead were disqualified, Bush would have won the so-called "popular vote" by a large margin. California gives drivers' licenses to people with tourist visas. With a drivers' license, one can vote in California.

Al Gore is a duplicitous man, who as far as I am concerned, isn't nearly as bright as many think. Gore didn't know who the busts of Washington and Jefferson were when he was in Monticello. Gore was into it up to his neck in illegal campaign fund raising. Gore should have walked away with the 2000 election, as there was no war anyone was aware of and the economy was still doing fine. The fact that he couldn't win his "home" state shows what Tennesseans thought of him.

Some will interpret this as an endorsement of Bush. Hardly so. I'm a conservative and Bush is no conservative. As for his record on the death penalty while Governor of Texas, I am not one to equate the death penalty with abortion. The death penalty does not compare in any way with the evil of abortion. Bush has allowed for an expansion of federal government growth (note the Medicare Part D prescription drug program and No Child Left Behind) and increased deficit spending. the Administration's treatment or lack thereof of concern for the Chaldean Catholics makes my blood boil. Only Rick Santorum seemed genuinely concerned about them and the grayhairs and old union fogeys in Pennsylvania elected Chuckie Schumer's lackey Bobby Casey to the Senate, where he has nothing else to do but sign a letter condemning Limbaugh.

The War in Iraq? I was, at first, a reluctant supporter. I didn't serve and I am never anxious to send American troops in harm's way. Not only did the Administration tell us of the weapons they believed Hussein to have, a majority of the opposition party spoke out in favor of the invasion of Iraq.

My humble opinion - I never saw Iraq as much of a threat as Iran, and Iran has grown as a more serious threat since. Iraq may have had the means to produce chemical weapons, but Iran and Syria have built Hezbollah into a worldwide terrorist organization. Pacifist one may be, there will be war with Iran one day in the not too distant future. Putin and his friend Mahmoud the Whacko seem bent on building the bomb for Iran, and this cannot be allowed to happen.

There will never be a "Christian" party in the United States. A parliamentary system found in Europe and Canada will never be accepted here. If one wants a political party to represent his or her views, one must find others of like mind and work from within. The Democrat Party has been taken over by the radical homosexuals, the radical enviornmentalists, the teacher unions, Planned Parenthood, NARAL and the lawyers. The GOP is full of limp-wristed girly men with no backbone, deathy afraid of criticism from Chris Matthews, the Washington Post and CNN.

Sometimes, I think, if I knew the language and had the capital to do it, I would start a business in Poland (I'd spend the winters in Florida, of course). Catholic culture, Catholic traditions, and a lot of people who, while they will take EU money, won't let the EU tell them what to do.

Oh, and Alexandr - a fellow yunzer here - if you want Russia to take over, there is myself and a lot of people of Polish descent who won't take too kindly to that - at all.

Dear Mr. Clean:

Assuming that we are both American citizens, which appears to be the case, each of us has the right to cast his vote for whomever he pleases, for whatever reason moves him to do so. That we seem to differ on the specifics of the forthcoming election is not unusual at all - that's why there are elections.

I would gldly vote for a presidential candidate who would clearly and unequivocally advocate and pedge himself to work for a Constitutional amendment banning abortion in no uncertain terms. But no such candidate is likely to emerge in either of the two major parties, nor is a credible third-part likely to emerge on such a basis. I regret this, but that is how it is.

Since Al Gore has repeatedly declared that he is not a candidate this time around, I'm probably not going to make up my mind until we know who the candidates are.

As for the Nobel Peace Prize, remembering certain people who have won it in the past, it doesn't overly impress me, I fear!

Fr. Serge

Amen.

Perhaps on that note this thread can now be closed?

-- John

Well, one might add the words of Saint Paul to the effect that Christ is the peace between us!

Fr. Serge