Read article for context. I just wanted to comment a bit on this new Santorum stupidity.

“Obama’s agenda is “not about you. It’s not about your quality of life. It’s not about your jobs. It’s about some phony ideal.”

“The Earth is not the objective, man is the objective, and I think that a lot of radical environmentalists have it upside down… . We’re not here to serve the Earth. That is not the objective, man is the objective.” 

He calls Obama a radical (the idea that Obama is a radical on anything is laughable) environmentalist (or an environmentalist, seeing as how he’s at the top of the most destructive civilization on the planet) for not letting TransCanada have their Keystone XL pipeline right away (whether he’s still in office after this election or a Republican doesn’t matter, Congress is probably still going to approve the pipeline).

Obama’s agenda is “not about you. It’s not about your quality of life. It’s not about your jobs. It’s about some phony ideal.

>Implying valuing ecosystems and indigenous lands (environmentalism) over short-term dangerous industry (jobs) is bad. In other words, maintaining civilization’s addiction to oil and technology is more important than protecting the land that this civilization is built on. In other words, the economy is the objective, not the environment. In other words, rich white men like Santorum’s pockets are the objective, not the very lives of indigenous, nonhuman, and working class people that live on that land. In other words, the rich get richer (and live) and the poor beg for trickle-down money (and die off). All in all, killing ourselves is more important than protecting ourselves. That’s what Santorum’s twisted capitalist-morality-masked-as-theology can be reduced to: suicide. The reason he’s wrong is that environmentalism (not Obama’s) and anti-civilization resistance ARE about the people, their quality of life, and their jobs. There won’t even be any jobs left once civilization implodes on itself—that’s why working for long-term sustainability and equality is more important than short-term pathological “gains.” Politicians and mainstream media will always use the word “jobs” because doing so ignores the long-term consequences of these jobs; yes, people need jobs, but unfortunately there’s no profit in what this culture really needs—a new system. Anyways, on to his theological claims:

The Earth is not the objective, man is the objective … We’re not here to serve the Earth.

>Implying the two are totally separate. Not only do we depend on the Earth, we are a part of it. We are a part of Creation. Not “better” than Creation or “at the top of” it, but an important part of it. Dominion theology (Santorum’s) is a twisted anthropocentric misinterpretation of Genesis 1:28. It overstates humanity as made in G-d’s image and effectively replaces G-d with humans. It lets humans wrench G-d from His place as Creator and subdue everything in sight. Civilization is a bastardization of Creation. A 5-year-old could easily tell you that something putting humans in G-d’s place is in no uncertain terms, anti-Christian. So again Santorum’s claims are completely hypocritical (accusing any worldview beside his own as “phony theology” when in reality it is his worldview that is anti-Christian).

The real “objective” of Christianity is simply to live into a world of peace and freedom. Seeing humans as the sole objective will never do this and is inherently counter to this. Nobody has ever said caring about the Earth somehow means nonsentient life matters more than human life or that humans have to “serve” nonsentient life. Caring for Creation is caring for ourselves. I already know none of you reading this are going to vote for Santorum, but maybe this will give you some lines to use when arguing about him IRL.

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