Pope Francis has become a prominent environmental advocate. A recent article from the Associated Press quoted him saying, “I don’t know if (human activity) is the only cause, but mostly, in great part, it is man who has slapped nature in the face. We have in a sense taken over nature.”

Despite renowned world leaders reiterating scientific consensus on human-caused climate change, Congress’s inability to reach common ground on the issue has been well documented. A Jan. 21 article from ThinkProgress.org points out that there are 169 members of Congress who have denied, on the record, the science behind human-caused climate change. According to the article, “35 of those members of Congress are self-identifying Catholics, 12 of whom have used the tenets of Catholicism to justify certain positions.”

This cafeteria Catholicism has no place in politics and it’s imperative that the voters realize the real decision making reasons for these politicians. Money trumps faith.
Take Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the Republican vice presidential nominee in the 2012 election. ThinkProgress quotes him telling Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) while trying to push immigration reform, “You’re a Catholic, I’m a Catholic; we cannot have a permanent underclass of Americans exploited in America.” Ryan has a history of justifying decisions based on Catholic values. In addition to immigration reform, Ryan has attributed the importance of “subsidiarity” — the principle that problems are best handled from the ground up — as a main driver behind the ideology of his fiscal plan.

This past October when asked if climate change was being caused by humans he responded, “I don’t know the answer to that question. I don’t think science does either.”

This type of response has been reoccurring among political human-caused climate change deniers. President Barack Obama has heavily criticized these cop-outs, and Republicans are taking it personally.

At his State of the Union speech, Obama said, “I’ve heard some folks try to dodge the evidence by saying they’re not scientists; that we don’t have enough information to act. Well, I’m not a scientist, either. But you know what — I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA and NOAA and at our major universities.”

It is also particularly disturbing to see that the official website for the House Republicans has posted a version of the State of the Union address which omits parts of the speech, in which the president is critical of the Republican discourse on climate change.

There is something sickening with our current political system and our environment is paying the price. It does not matter what a politician actually believes, rather, the real question is what are his or her motives.

A simple way to find out is to follow the money. A 2014 Grist.org article relays information from the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that keeps track of money in politics. During the 2013–14-election cycle, 87 percent of the $51 million spent by the oil and gas industry went to Republicans. It’s no coincidence that the party benefiting from these donations is the one voting to protect these environmentally destructive industries.

Quick recap: Catholic values are being selectively marketed to win votes, keeping the same politicians in office who deny scientific consensus and actively work to prevent action on what the Pentagon says “poses immediate risk to our national security.” At the same time they are feeding edited versions of the State of the Union to their constituents, when the real remarks highlight their money-fueled intentions.

Read that again.

In politics, religion is a powerful tool and politicians know it. It is up to the voters to decide what is doing the talking: the values or the money. This type of cafeteria Catholicism is manipulative, deceitful and all too easy to see through.

Azor Cole is a junior public relations major and geography minor. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at azcole@syr.edu and followed on Twitter at @azor_cole.

Published on January 29, 2015 at 12:15 am