Beisner: EPA Promoting 'The Lorax' Violates the Separation of Church and State

[meegbear]

Back in 2010, the Cornwall Alliance released a 12-part DVD series entitled "Resisting the Green Dragon" featuring a who's who of Religious Right leaders attacking environmentalism and warning that it represents a dire threat to Christianity:

Calvin Beisner, the founder of the Cornwall Alliance, has become the Religious Right's favorite "expert" in fighting any environmental effort and a regular guest on Bryan Fischer's radio program, despite the fact that his scientific credentials appear to be limited to possessing a Ph.D. in Scottish History.

Beisner is now complaining that the Environmental Protection Agency is one of many partners involved in promoting the upcoming film "The Lorax" and that, by doing so, the agency is in "violation of the separation of church and state" because Beisner believes that environmentalism is a religion:

The film adaptation of Dr. Seuss' The Lorax features a tiny, but tenacious creature who "speaks for the trees" and fights industrialism. Cal Beisner, national spokesman for the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, says this is just one of many films geared toward children to spread such a message.

...

(W)hat really concerns Beisner is the fact that the Environmental Protection Agency is among nearly 70 partners with Universal in promoting the film.

"What you've got there is the mixing of taxpayer dollars into the promotion of a clear ideology that has a particular religious flavor to it," the Cornwall Alliance spokesman concludes. "And frankly, I think that this is a violation of the separation of church and state."

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/beisner-epa-promoting-lorax-violates-separation-church-and-state

[xchrom]

1. oy. nt

[qb]

2. Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation?

I supposed their goal is to have all of creation destroyed just in time for the rapture.

[handmade34]

3. truly frightening...

those are the lunatics today

in contrast...

[NC_Nurse]

4. Sure, why not? Let's divorce everything from scientific evidence and fact. That way

bullshit religious zealotry doesn't look any crazier than anything else. You gotta give them credit, this is how they manage to bamboozle a lot of folks.

Too bad that living in your own fantasy world doesn't change reality to match. We all get to pay for their refusal to let go of their delusions. Sigh.

[handmade34]

9. the problem as I see it...

there have always been a few on the fringe... those few have been multipling and it seems to have become more acceptable to espouse nonsensical thoughts and words... you are correct... we are all paying a dear price for this

[The Doctor.]

5. That's the problem... These people see everything as a 'competing religion'.

They don't understand science. They just think it's another 'faith'.

You see it all the time from the AGW deniers when they talk about the 'acolytes of Gore', or 'global warming dogma'. Go on any 'skeptic' site and do a search on religious terms like those and you'll see a theme emerge.

We have to survive this era of fucking stupidity. Hopefully, there will be laws against the idiots having a say in policy decisions.

[JVS]

18. Come on, the Lorax claimed to speak for the trees! The book totally promotes animism.

[JDPriestly]

20. Fundamentalist homeschooling insures another generation of fools.

[eShirl]

6. nutty.

[izquierdista]

7. Sounds more like a cornhole alliance

Almost made it to the minute mark before teh stupid overwhelmed me.

[baldguy]

8. What? The new foreign religion we have to fear is Seussianism?

"There is no God but Geisel and The Cat In The Hat is his prophet."

[Amaril]

17. Now that's a God / Prophet........

......I could believe in!

[Aerows]

10. Wow

These nut jobs can make a religious issue of a children's movie. This is like Jerry Falwell's ridiculous crusade against the Tele-Tubbies.

Is there anything they won't turn into a religious issue? Next thing you know, it's going to be "a violation of the separation of church and state" because math is taught in schools and we all know what happens when too much logic gets involved.

[Loudmxr]

11. My friend is Winnie The Pooh! You, Lorax. are no Pooh Bear!!

This is soooo silly ... they are cartoon characters.

Lorax is good but Pooh has a Zen.

And several other thing that I thought about at breakfast... but I can't remember them now.

Oh bother... I suppose I will have to go eat breakfast again and remember them again.

(Shhh I really know Jim Cummings, the voice of Pooh. And he really IS!!....Pooh. I love him sooo)

&feature=related

It takes a little time but I never get tired of this song.

[Viking12]

12. The nutters tried that in court a few years back in northern MN & EPICALLY FAILED

They filed suit to block restrictions on timber harvest, claiming that such restrictions were based on "religion" and were a violation of the separation clause. The court threw the argument out almost instantly.

I'll see if I can track the case down...

[Arkansas Granny]

13. It really puzzles me that they view scientific facts as theory,

but they consider their book of mythology, written nearly 2000 years ago, as being the sole source of truth.

[Initech]

14. Once again the Christian right proves themselves a black hole for logic and reason.

Yeah a guy with a Ph.D in Scottish History is somehow an environmental genius.

[BR_Parkway]

15. Their recognition of that separation is as cherry picked as the Old Testament

They sure don't want it mentioned when they want to force us all to see the 10 commandments in a courthouse or school or any of those other 'causes' they get themselves so worked up about.

But a fictional character, in a fictional movie, made from a children's book is now a religious figure? Holy Muppets Batman, the crazy is strong with that one for sure

[Amaril]

16. I never knew that the leadership......

......over at the EPA were Druids. Good to know.

What's that you say? They AREN'T druids? Well, of course they are..........otherwise his likening of their support for a story that teaches kids the importance of preserving our natural resources and the effect that wholesale exploitation of same has on innumerable lifeforms (ourselves included) to a "religion" is just.....well.......silly.

(said with a beatific smile whilst sipping from my Lorax coffee mug)

[Quantess]

19. RWers have dreadful fashion sense.

I haven't even watched the video yet but first I must comment on her outfit. If this were the mid-1990s, I would begrudgingly give it a pass...but it was 2010.

An ill-fitting powder blue jacket with a black blouse never looked good on anyone.

[raouldukelives]

21. They do truly fear environmentalism

Being puppets for the wealthy they are doing all they can to shift public opinion towards them from what will be ever increasing news stories about the effects of climate change. They are now busy laying the groundwork of denial labeling prognosticators and journalists as Satan's puppets of the liberal media.
Sadly for them this issue knows no party bounds. I have been able to speak to people who years ago belittled any kind of environmentalism as "crazy hippies" but who now clearly see the loss of salmon, the trees dying at an ever increasing rate, the decreasing amounts of fresh water. They see this and they don't want it to get worse. The Masters of the Universe fear this thinking for in it they only see loss of profits.
I keep hoping at some point my party will start to aggressively pursue supporting the environment over personal wealth. I believe it will happen, has to happen, soon. If we want to remember things like redwood forests as more than just pictures on an electronic screen.

[Blue_Tires]

22. ttt