Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite

Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite

Professor, Chicago Theological Seminary

Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite is professor of theology at Chicago Theological Seminary and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. She was president of CTS from 1998-2008. Her area of expertise is contextual theologies of liberation, specializing in issues of violence and violation. An ordained minister of the United Church of Christ since 1974, the “On Faith” panelist is the author or editor of thirteen books and has been a translator for two translations of the Bible. Her works include Casting Stones: Prostitution and Liberation in Asia and the United States (1996) and The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Translation (1995). She edited and contributed to Adam, Eve and the Genome: Theology in Dialogue with the Human Genome Project (2003). Close.

Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite

Professor, Chicago Theological Seminary

Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite is professor of theology at Chicago Theological Seminary and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. She was president of CTS from 1998-2008. more »

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And the Creation Cried, "OUCH!"

The Book of Revelation reveals an “Inconvenient Truth.” Hurt the planet and it will hurt you back.

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All Comments (21)

Dolores Lear:

BGONE.

I did not see your comment on Feb. 9, 2007.

The Earth was flat, and the land area was all in one place, with 1 mountain recorded, where the 4 main rivers formed.

During the year-long Flood, the fountains of the deep broke open, the earthquake activity, made the original strata into the ruined land we have today. The rain lasted for 5 months after the 40 days/nights of rain. This is how the Earth was flooded.

It took 5 months to drain down, and the tidal wave action set down all the debree and layers of mud mixed with rock that makes our top strata today.

Then Noah could step out of the Ark on the dry mountain top.

Today our Earth shows on flat maps that it is split into two parts, by the Atlantic Ocean.
The Myth of Atlantic also split into two part and sank also. Maybe the other splits are where the original 4 rivers were.

This was the same time in our past History. The Noah/Atlantis Society was a Society with High Tech Knowledge like we are today, and we are setting up the End Times Judgement Day Fire.

All our Pollution, Nuclear Waste, Oil Spills, etc. when they catch fire will burn up the whole planet, and Earth will look like Mars.

God does not do this, Fallen Humans do.

Anonymous:

BGONE.

I did not see your comment on Feb. 9, 2007.

The Earth was flat, and the land area was all in one place, with 1 mountain recorded, where the 4 main rivers formed.

During the year-long Flood, the fountains of the deep broke open, the earthquake activity, made the original strata into the ruined land we have today. The rain lasted for 5 months after the 40 days/nights of rain. This is how the Earth was flooded.

It took 5 months to drain down, and the tidal wave action set down all the debree and layers of mud mixed with rock that makes our top strata today.

Then Noah could step out of the Ark on the dry mountain top.

Today our Earth shows on flat maps that it is split into two parts, by the Atlantic Ocean.
The Myth of Atlantic also split into two part and sank also. Maybe the other splits are where the original 4 rivers were.

This was the same time in our past History. The Noah/Atlantis Society was a Society with High Tech Knowledge like we are today, and we are setting up the End Times Judgement Day Fire.

All our Pollution, Nuclear Waste, Oil Spills, etc. when they catch fire will burn up the whole planet, and Earth will look like Mars.

God does not do this, Fallen Humans do.

Anonymous:

BGONE.

I did not see your comment on Feb. 9, 2007.

The Earth was flat, and the land area was all in one place, with 1 mountain recorded, where the 4 main rivers formed.

During the year-long Flood, the fountains of the deep broke open, the earthquake activity, made the original strata into the ruined land we have today. The rain lasted for 5 months after the 40 days/nights of rain. This is how the Earth was flooded.

It took 5 months to drain down, and the tidal wave action set down all the debree and layers of mud mixed with rock that makes our top strata today.

Then Noah could step out of the Ark on the dry mountain top.

Today our Earth shows on flat maps that it is split into two parts, by the Atlantic Ocean.
The Myth of Atlantic also split into two part and sank also. Maybe the other splits are where the original 4 rivers were.

This was the same time in our past History. The Noah/Atlantis Society was a Society with High Tech Knowledge like we are today, and we are setting up the End Times Judgement Day Fire.

All our Pollution, Nuclear Waste, Oil Spills, etc. when they catch fire will burn up the whole planet, and Earth will look like Mars.

God does not do this, Fallen Humans do.

Google is the best search engine Google

Scientist:

There is NOT evidence to state that global warming is caused by humans or industrialized nations. Period.

Hard_NOx:

Dear Rev. Thistlethwaite,

Welcome back. I read you opening remark: The earth is hurting, wounded, though we hope not mortally, by human activity that has set in motion rapid and often destructive environmental changes.

and thought that Mother Earth would do just fine. She would just stop supporting our life is all. Once we are gone, she will return to a more hospitable nature, or life itself will adapt, perhaps to a silicon base. At any rate, you address that possibility very nicely. Thank you.
God Bless you and yours. amen. Please come back soon.

BGone:

David, Wiccan, you to together have the etrnal common thread, all things pass away one way or the other. Ins't that awful? No, it's normal and Wiccan I'm sure David agrees with us that natural causes is preferred. Trying to stop it is futile. Saying there is a place that never passes away is very popular.

Live, love, laugh and be happy for tommorow we pass away and nothing changes that, so far.

wiccan:

David-

"For this world will pass away, surely, but just as surely, another will take its place in the vast, amazing universe."

Very true, friend, but I would prefer that the Earth pass away from old age, not from being poisoned.

David:

We have hardly moved a step forward from aboriginal, tribal conceptions outlined in our myths, stories, and hugely, the historical fiction of the Bible genre. Because our environment appears random, capricious, benign one moment, destructive the next, we created, no other, WE created the concept of gods inflicting punishment or benevolence upon us. IT is not "new" that we would all speak of the environment, simply pick up a copy of the Old Testament and read how the troubles with the land, sea and sky, were the result of our "sin".
The most difficult and humbling thing for spiritualists and scientists alike is to admit that we know very little; relax then, enjoy the ride, witness the wonders and terrors of this phenomenal world and take comfort where one can. For this world will pass away, surely, but just as surely, another will take its place in the vast, amazing universe.

DW:

To understand the Creator God of the universe that is being referred to as detached, one has to consider the parallel of mankind's role to God's role. Loving, human parents never try to cram their overall ideaologies, likes and dislikes down the throat of their children. I think we can all agree that we are free moral agents. We have the opportunity to choose. Mankind, since Eden, which God created perfectly and instructed man to care for it, is the one who has become detached. And here is the correlation: a loving God stands back and lets his potential sons learn a lesson. And we certainly have, if we are honest with ourselves. Our earth is groaning for all the wrong that has and is being done on it. But the time will soon come that all of mankind, those who so choose, will be given the opportunity to learn the right way to do it all. And that will be the time when all on the earth will come know God's purpose for us. We are not accidents, just as the invention of the video camera, that somewhat mimics the human eye, was not an accident. Alot of thought, wisdom and understanding go into things that work in harmony, such as our earth and its potential. But our earth is not our mother of deity or goddess..they are physical and cannot be so. Amoeba, dirt, flora and fauna are not the creators...they are the created. Humans are certainly the ones that are detached and, unfortunately in many repects, learning lessons the hard way

Brambleton:

Warp10 writes, "You are a very nice lady....and I respect you personally for that." Wow. Susan Brooks writes a 1/2 page editorial. Which, in turn, somehow makes her a "nice" lady. Which, in turn, deserves our respect. Ladies and gentleman, I give you Exhibit One of the Dumbing Down of America.

I don't think anyone would argue that toxic waste and all the other pollutants are bad for the environment. But how much credibility do scientists get when they change their theory every decade? And doesn't the evidence suggest that warming and cooling of the earth is cyclical?

BGone:

Original picture writings telling of Atlantis are at: http://www.hoax-buster.org

The picture writing telling about Atlantis and labled is in one of the later chapters of the book. The "photograph" of the universe is on the first page with Atlantis labled Sheol, the Netherworld.

The great flood was not here on earth but in Sheol where the dead murdered in Pharaoh's name were presumed to be waiting for Pharaoh and their Egyptian killers. That's how the first Pharaoh cleansed heaven of sinners. Sinner - one who resists being robbed. Same thing going on at "your churches, temples, synagogues and mosques" today.

BGone:

DOLORES LEAR: It's not often one shows such a lack of just plain commons sense. Now tell me: was the entire earth under water after human life emerged? When the water is 15,000 feet deep at Mt Ararat it also 15,000 feet deep at Tokyo and New Yord City. Where did all the water come from and where did it go? The great flood is a LIE based upon a FLAT EARTH that was not very big and could concievably be flooded but even that is a long stretch.

The most likely source of Atlantis that has a known Egyptian origin is Greek philosophers that could not read hieroglyphic writings. They also expected symbolic writings that accompanied pictures of Atlantis to be captions when they were actually writings themselves, pix scripting. The ancient Egyptians conjured still another flat earth and another on and on indefinitely below this flat earth. Greeks mistook the first flat earth pictured as a land mass, continent that had sunk. It lays beneath the ocean's level and has/had people. The Greeks argued has and had people even.

The great flood was actually the usual religious lie to explain how Pharaoh got rid of his DEAD enemies. Pharaoh flooded Atlantis to kill all but his faithful dead. Pharaoh didn't have many friends at the time.

The original Egyptian pictures are at the infamous web site that I mention at great perial to me.

Dolores Lear:

Earth was Colonized 'in the beginning'. The 6 Days of Creation/Colonization is how our science today would Colonize a planet. The supernatural 'beings' that created/colonized Earth were our High Tech Science Human Ancestors, called Man Gods in religion. We 'are' in their image.
Today, we know how to Colonize a planet, but we are too busy building nuclear bombs with our resources. Earth is a spaceship with all the resources aboard, and the Crew should share Equally, like on a spaceship. And the Eco System must be kept in balance, and when we destroy our Ozone Canopy, Life as we know it cannot continue. Man was supposed to be the Caretaker Species, not the Killer Species.

Our High Tech Pure-bred Human Ancestors, or God and Angels, will return in the End Times to rescue those that remain and take them to a new planet they are Colonizing, like they did Earth. After the experience of the Killing Nature of Humans, when they are 'regenerated' to Pure-bred Bodies, they should be able to refrain from the sex act for reproduction, and Live Physically Forever, with their High Tech Science for Body corrections and with the technology to escape a planet, when their Sun dies.

The Bible, is the Code Book to Life on Earth, and should be translated with a High Tech Science understanding. Just as we have the High Tech Sciene to know how to Colonize a planet, we also know how to reproduce with High Tech Science.
We join the egg and sperm in a dish, remove some genetic diseases, and put the fetus in the female womb. We still have Birth defects and death to the female and the child. The sex act is not needed for Pure-bred procreation. Our planet has six and a half billion people, and the resources are running out.

Earth was Colonized by our High Tech Ancestors with a Balanced Eco System, and protective canopies. The last Canopy, the Ozone, that protects Life as we know it from the Suns ultraviolet rays, and is being destroyed by our pollution. Then Life as we know it cannot continue on Earth. We have enough nuclear bombs on land and sea, to blow up our planet. The End Time 'Arm'ageddon is possible today.
The Global Warming from our waste dump pollution, oil spills on land and sea, and our nuclear waste, will catch fire and cause the Planetary Judgement Day Fire, not God. Man is destroying their planet, not God.

The Bible needs to be translated with a High Tech understanding from Genesis to Revelation, and see that all the bad things on Earth is not from God, but from Fallen Man. The Pure-bred Perfect Adam and Eve Colony 'fell' from their Higher Nature of High Tech Science reproduction, called supernatural by Fallen Man. High Tech Science is the 'super'natural birth of Human reproduction.
Cain the first person made by Body Birth, became a Killer and Fallen Man has killed their Brothers/Sisters of Life and their Eco System ever since. In the beginning, Man was to be the Caretaker Species, not the Killers of all Life.

My web site: http://home.kc.rr.com/hightech/home.html

The Creation and Fall sections explain the Colonization and the Fall to Body Birth. We are back to the High Tech Science to understand this knowledge recorded in the Bible. The Christian
Bible is the Code Book of Life on Earth.

Peace.

Bill L:

In Revelations God is bringing destruction to the Earth because of mankinds sins not because what mankind is doing to the enviroment.
We need to be good stewards of the enviroment! It is a sin to neglect the Earth, but the greater sin is our neglect of each other. Where is the love?

Luke:

So, in 1975 scientists were warning of a potential mini-ice age, now I am to believe we are in danger of Global Warming and it is man's fault not anything natural?

Maybe, so, tell me as a Christian what would you like me to do? Should I believe that man has more control over the world than God? Should I support reactionary measures that could cause real - long lasting damage to society as we know it?

I am all for being respectful of the environment and I always have been but, I am not going to get upset by the same scientific society that not so long ago was predicting I would be living in a igloo today.

I will trust God every minute and require actual proof from humans.

BGone:

WARPID, jusdg not the group by the actions of the many within the group. With luck they'll find one of their own to second the motion made above.

The holy ghost talked to you? Every time something like reverand Haggard happens it starts talking to a lot of folks. They start doing what BH suggests in his page/scroll/chapter/book at http://www.hoax-buster.org/sex where reverand Haggard can find that he's actually fairly normal. I understand that he's now saying he's not really gay.

Warp10:

"It is a scandal that those sounding the loudest alarm on the devastating effects of global warming due to human activity are NOT primarily people of faith,"

You are a very nice lady....and I respect you personally for that.

However: How do you explain how the MAJORITY of conservative religious individuals don't care a hoot about the environment? Not to mention they are the group who have STRONGLY supported this corrupt lying President.

To me: Just one more proof there is no external intelligence out there directing religious folks. Conservative religious individuals were also the ones to be fooled by Ted Haggard. (I saw him before his fall and instantly thought he looked gay. ha ha The Holy Ghost must speak to me over the Holy Rollers. Of course a better explanation is my own observation, rationality, and logic.)

Athena:

Depends on which "people of faith" you're talking about. People involved in nature spirituality (Paganism, Native American and aboriginal beliefs, etc.) have been actively discussing environmental stewardship for a long time. The Abramic (sp?) religions are just now waking up to the problem. If you view life as being an interconnected web, and the Earth as your Mother, then you're much more aware of the environment than someone whose God is detached from the world, and who focuses more on the afterlife than our lives right now.

BGone:

Since you surely anticipate an evangelical audience then I won't notice your choice of analogy and say anything can be proved with the proper hoax. What you say make all the sense in the world without it anyhow. And, well said.

Ba'al:

Nicely said.

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