God forgives, but the earth doesn’t

"God always forgives, but the earth does not" - according to Pope Francis.

What does this mean?

Does this mean he believes that God "prevents" the earth from forgiving?
Or maybe that God doesn't have control over the earth, and it won't "forgive" even if God wants it to?

Don't get me wrong - there's a lot to like about Pope Francis.  And in the context of what he was talking about, he had a good message.  And we'll get into that.  

But how will people interpret this statement?

We'll get into that as well.

Here's a little more about what the Pope said, from MSN News.  (Sorry - this article is apparently no longer available)

"God always forgives, but the earth does not," the Argentine pope told the Second International Conference on Nutrition (CIN2) in Rome, a three-day meeting aimed at tackling malnutrition, a global scourge which afflicts poor and rich alike.

"Take care of the earth so it does not respond with destruction," he warned representatives from 190 countries gathered for the conference organised by the UN food agency (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) in the Italian capital.

Even MSN called Pope Francis the "Doomsday Pope" in their heading: Doomsday pope warns man's greed will destroy world.

Undernourishment

As for man's greed destroying the world - it's entirely possible.  The malnutrition across the globe - the word "possible" isn't the right one - because it's happening.  The article says the number of undernourished people has been cut in half over the past 20 years, about 805 million people are still affected.

Two points here.  First - 20 years is a really long time.  If you were one of the undernourished who just got out of that category this past year - even that means 19 years of hunger.  And what of the people that died during those 20 years from hunger?  In a perverse way, they drop the number of "undernourished" - because dead people aren't hungry.  Not to be gruesome here, but it's surprising to see a liberal news organization make this number of 805 million sound sort of like a "good" thing.  It's nothing to be proud of.

I applaud the Pope for what he's doing.  Bringing attention to the problem.  

In an appropriately condemning statement, Pope Francis says -

"It is also painful to see the struggle against hunger and malnutrition hindered by 'market priorities', the 'primacy of profit', which reduce foodstuffs to a commodity like any other, subject to speculation and financial speculation in particular," Francis said.

That would be things like using food staples, such as corn, for energy.  Why?  Yes, using it for energy instead of food gives higher profits to the corn growers, the companies making the fuel and selling it.  The problem, on the other side of the chain - when the price of corn goes up to supply the fuel demands, it doesn't leave the price of corn for food alone.  That price goes up as well.  Speculation through commodity markets puts it even higher.  

And guess what?  People buying ethanol gas for their cars (the people in the world who can afford cars, that is) are willing to pay a whole more for that corn than the many people who eat that corn as a staple of their diet are able to pay.

But even though it's a morally indefensible position - we do it.  For money.  And in some cases, for the environment, because some people seem to consider the earth more important than people.

So - yes - I applaud the Pope for bringing this up.   And I pray he doesn't leave it alone.

Unforgiving earth?

But what about the unforgiving earth part?  I think - I hope - this isn't what Pope Francis really meant.

To say that God doesn't have full control over the earth and everything else in creation couldn't possibly be what he meant, as we see in Jeremiah -

Jer 32:17 “Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.

This might be a case where Pope Francis is maybe being too politically correct?  Let's face it, people don't like to hear that God brings drought, famine, and other natural catastrophes to the earth.  Yes, clearly the Bible says He did that in the Old Testament.  It also talks about how He brings healing with rains and plentiful crops.  And yes, it was very much dependent on whether His chosen people followed Him or sinned against Him.  However - it also does not say that every instance of natural disaster is because of God.  There is this other character in the Bible - one we also don't like to talk about - named Satan.  Death and destruction comes from him as well.