James Wood dissects his theology:
[W]hen Santorum says that we must be good stewards of the earth, there is religious zealotry behind the sweet words. He is proposing, in effect, that the earth is dispensable but that our souls are not; that we will all outlive the earth, whether in heaven or hell. The point is not that he is elevating man above the earth; it is that he is separating man and earth.
If President Obama really does elevate earth over man (accepting Santorum’s absurd premise for a moment), then at least he believes in keeping man and earth together. Santorum’s brand of elevation involves severing man from man’s earthly existence, which is why it is coherent only within a theological eschatology (a theology of the last days). And he may well believe that man cannot actually destroy the earth through such violence as global warming, for the perfectly orthodox theological reason that the earth will come to an end (or be renewed) only when Christ comes again to judge the living and the dead. In other words, global warming can’t exist because it is not in God’s providential plan: the Lord will decide when the earth expires.
It is also profoundly immune to Darwin's truths. Two core beliefs of Christian fundamentalism is both man's dominion over woman but also humankind's dominion over the earth. And for true fundamentalists, humankind must be seen as radically separate from the rest of creation – because of our capacity for self-consciousness or because of our souls – just as the difference between man and woman must be emphasized to insist on the primacy and hegemony of one over the other.
Yet we now know that all life – all of it – came from the same original goo; we know now how connected we are to the entire planet, as Saint Francis intuited, and as so many, once much more tied to the land than we are, understood in their bones. So dominion for a non-fundamentalist Christian is both care for the planet and thereby self-care. It blurs the distinction between man and beast, in humility not nihilism or denial of human specialness. In contrast, it seems to me, the rigid separation between humans and earth and the total hegemony of humans in the Christianist vision leads to a vision in which earth is to be used and exploited, rather than conserved or stewarded.
Hence, I think, the lack of even passing concern for the environmental consequences of, say, fracking, or even an acknowledgment of the damage our multi-national capitalism is doing to something far more morally vital: our divine planetary inheritance. Santorum, it must be said, is to the right of the Pope on this. Here's Pope Benedict's much more nuanced 2009 statement:
There exists a certain reciprocity: as we care for creation, we realize that God, through creation, cares for us. On the other hand, a correct understanding of the relationship between man and the environment will not end by absolutizing nature or by considering it more important than the human person.
Of course. That would be a false God. But man – if given free rein to do with the earth as he pleases – is a false God as well. Larison adds:
Santorum doesn’t understand the concept of stewardship very well. After all, the purpose of Christian stewardship isn’t simply to serve human needs (much less desires), but to preside over the natural world as God’s viceregents and to rule it in a manner pleasing to God, all of which is directed towards giving God glory and thanksgiving for the blessings He has bestowed upon us. We are to see creation as something entrusted to us by God, and as something that we are responsible for preserving and keeping as part of our obedience to Him. That necessarily involves limiting and restraining our desires so as not to exhaust or waste what has been entrusted to us.
More Catholic pushback against Santorum's enviro-radicalism here. He is best seen, it seems to me, as the articulate uber-Catholic veneer for an intellectually bereft evangelicalism. He provides the most reactionary Catholic arguments for their evangelical convictions. He gives their panic at modernity the balm of a 13th century natural law.
(Photo: Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum speaks at a news conference on February 17, 2012 in Columbus, Ohio. By Jay LaPrete/Getty Images)
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