The Right Reverend Al Gore, the preacher of the morality of environmentalism, is here today. Yes, here, at my place of business. He came to speak to a sold-out crowd at Gammage Auditorium at ASU. No, I didn't go see him. I didn't have the up to $300 that people were paying to get a seat. And I had to wonder exactly how descriptive "sold-out" was for that crowd. I mean ... was there a double meaning to that term?
Mr. Gore says that the problem isn't a scientific one; it is a moral one. That's the aim of his movie, An Inconvenient Truth -- to warn people of our moral problem. I have to wonder, having never seen the movie, exactly what "inconvenient truth" should be spotlighted. We could look at the fact that consensus does not make for good science despite his best objections. We could note that there is a large and growing number of scientists that are questioning the conclusion that America or even mankind is to blame for any possible warming of the planet. Or maybe it's more personal. Exactly how dedicated is Mr. Gore to his moral issue when his speaking fee here is reported to be $100,000 plus expenses. I mean, there are a lot of people who would be willing to claim a lot of things if you paid them that kind of money each time they said it. And isn't it odd that his contract includes the condition that the media be excluded? I mean, if your goal is to get out a worldwide cataclysmic warning, wouldn't you want the media around to help? Strange. Or how about the report that Mr. Gore's personal lifestyle doesn't seem to match his loud alarms (source). One might think that with speaking fees like that and a moral issue to which he's dedicated, he'd be able to afford to cut out a lot of the things he's calling on everyone else to cut out ... if he's really so dedicated to the issue. The problem isn't that he's not doing what he's telling us to do. The problem is that human beings always act on what they truly believe. If I tell you, "There's a bomb in the room" and I don't do anything, you can tell that I really don't believe it. His actions suggest that he really doesn't believe it.
Maybe the "inconvenient truth" lies elsewhere. He claims to be religious and favors abortion. He is a Southern Baptist without any of the trappings of being a Southern Baptist. In the 2000 campaign against George Bush, both candidates were asked leading questions at various times. George Bush was asked who his favorite philosopher was, to which he responded, "Jesus Christ." The uproar was loud. You'd think he had said that he planned to run the White House by asking, "What would Jesus do?" ... which was exactly what candidate Al Gore answered when asked how he would make his decisions in the White House if elected. The outcry against Mr. Gore was zip, zero, nothing. Why? Likely because no one actually believed that he held any real life-affecting religious views. Another "inconvenient truth"?
Where exactly is this "inconvenient truth"? Maybe it's in the fees he charges to sound the alarm that it is our moral duty to fix the Earth. Maybe it's in the disconnect between the alarm he sounds and the lifestyle he lives. Maybe it's in the gap between the religion he claims and the views he espouses. Maybe it's elsewhere.
I don't actually have an ax to grind with Mr. Gore. He's acting exactly as I would anticipate ... living what he really believes. But if you felt a twinge (or more) of outrage at what I said here, if you felt a rise of righteous indignation, what I'm hoping is that you'll use it to test yourself as I do myself. Are you as guilty as he? Am I one who claims to believe one thing and acts another way? Are you "sold out" for Christ ... as long as He gives you what you want? If love is the principle indicator of a Christian, is it a principle component of our lives? We are called to test ourselves to see if we're in the faith. Let this rise in emotion be an opportunity to do that for ourselves.
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