A Typical Friday in the Party for Personal Responsibility

Last Friday, May 26, Michigan congressman Tim Walberg (R - as if you couldn't guess) had this to say about climate change:

“Do I think that man has some impact? Yeah, of course,” he continued. “Can man change the entire universe? No. Why do I believe that? As a Christian, I believe that there is a creator, God, who’s much bigger than us. And I’m confident that, if there’s a real problem, he can take care of it.”

It's almost impossible to overstate how irresponsible this is.  For one thing, the United States obviously is not a theocracy.  We don't (or at any rate, most of us don't) vote to send someone to Congress so that they can make policy decisions based on their religious beliefs.

But even setting that aside, this is a cop-out of epic proportions.  How many people would find any of these similarly ridiculous statements acceptable?

• "Why yes, I DID hear a noise that sounded like my car running over something, and I saw a person lying on the street in agony in my rear view mirror.  I'm confident that if that pedestrian really needs medical attention, God will take care of it."
• "Sure my neighbor asked me to keep an eye on his house while he was out of town, and sure I heard breaking glass at 3:00 AM this morning.  It was sure tough to get back to sleep, too, what with his security alarm going off for the next 6 hours.  But that's what I did because after all, if there were a real problem, God would take care of it."
• "I did think it was strange that those guys wanted to learn how to take off and fly a plane, but had no interest in learning how to land one.  And it really surprised me when I found out what they did on September 11.  I really thought that if they posed any kind of threat, that God would take care of it."

If your position on any important issue is that "God will take care of it," then why did you bother running for Congress at all?  Surely we don't need Congress, or a government, right?  For that matter, we don't need jobs of any kind, or money, or food.  We can just sit around all day watching 'Duck Dynasty', because God will take care of meeting our needs and keeping us secure, right?

Walberg seems to be overlooking the obvious here.  Perhaps God really is taking care of the climate change problem, and the way God is handling it is by providing humanity with brains to think and institutions to act, and that God put Tim Walberg in a position of influence precisely so he could impartially review the climate change science and champion effective policies to keep America safe.  In other words, perhaps God gave Tim Walberg the opportunity to DO HIS JOB, and Walberg dropped the ball.