Today’s Theological Heresies on Race and Climate

If you have a Wall Street Journal subscription, don’t miss today’s Gerard Baker column, “The C-Suite Converts to the New Political Religion.” If you don’t have a subscription, here’s the key part:

The modern secularists who deride the hagridden mysticism of traditional religion are now the most devoted congregants in the First Church of Antiracism. Penitents line up to be shriven for their white privilege, bending the knee before the altar of justice and equity. They present pendants of the martyred St. George of Minneapolis for blessing from Hollywood prelates and Ivy League divines, solemnly chanting canticles from the Black Lives Matter breviary.

The men who run Major League Baseball, Delta Air Lines, Coca-Cola and other giants have been quick to mouth the required antiphony of the modern liturgy. After long careers in which they seemed happy to let their talents propel them to unimaginable wealth, they’ve now discovered that the society that elevated them was founded in evil.

But instead of doing the honorable thing, and stepping down in favor of some less-privileged underling, they demonstrate a commitment to the faith by denouncing others. Here you have the essence of the new faith and morals of the woke classes, the truly privileged people in our society: I’m not to blame, you understand; it’s all those other white folk.

My question is: when did corporate presidents become college presidents? It happened so slowly I hardly even noticed. . .

Speaking of theological heresies, the Cult of Climate Change has struck again. If you think climate change represents a potential apocalypse for the planet, you’d think we’d want to know as much as possible about every means of forestalling it, including what is known as “geoengineering” or “solar radiation management” (i.e., cool the planet by mimicking the effects of a volcano) The idea has been around for a while now, but the climatistas stoutly oppose it because the real purpose of the Cult of Climate Change is purging us of our sins of using hydrocarbon energy.

Thus the New York Times reports that an experiment to gather data by a Harvard geoengineering research project has been canceled:

A test flight for researching ways to cool Earth by blocking sunlight will not take place as planned in Sweden this June, following objections from environmentalists, scientists and Indigenous groups there. . .

Solar geoengineering has long been a subject of intense debate among scientists and policymakers, often seen as a desperate, potentially dangerous measure that could have unintended consequences for regional climates. Even conducting research on the subject has been viewed as harmful in that it could distract society from the goal of reducing emissions of planet-warming gases to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

But there is a growing view among some scientists that, with the world not making nearly enough progress in reducing emissions, research in geoengineering is needed to learn more about how and whether it would work if pressure grew to use the technology. Last month, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, an influential scientific advisory body, called on the United States to spend at least $100 million on research.

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