In a prime example of group psychosis, students at Union Theological Seminary, at Columbia University in New York City, confessed their sins to plants. Potted plants. No word from the plants on whether they forgave the students.

The Psalmist declared that “Open confession is good for the soul”. And, it’s true. I don’t think David had empty, meaningless confessions to the Cult of Climate Change in mind.

Even NBC News is getting into the game. Yesterday, Victory Girls’ Nina wrote about the network setting up a page for sinners to confess their climate crimes. Read it here. Unfortunately for NBC News, as Nina wrote, most of the confessions were hilariously cynical.

In this same vein, the students at Union Theological Seminary set up a bunch of houseplants in a chapel and confessed their sins. From Breitbart.com:

“Today in chapel, we confessed to plants,” UTS tweeted, together with a picture of the ritual. “Together, we held our grief, joy, regret, hope, guilt and sorrow in prayer; offering them to the beings who sustain us but whose gift we too often fail to honor.”

“What do you confess to the plants in your life?”

I grow some of my own vegetables, mostly tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, carrots and green beans. I confess that I adore fresh, home grown vegetables. I am grateful to God above for the soil, sunshine and rain that cause them to grow. I try to be a good steward to the things I am given.

It would be very easy to do a post of drive-by snark mocking these people. That was my first thought, but then I read further. I realized how very dangerous and toxic this entire school is. Again, from Breitbart:

On Wednesday, after receiving a fair amount of derisive feedback, the seminary sent out a flurry of tweets defending its actions.

“When Robin Wall Kimmerer spoke at Union last year, she concluded her lecture by tasking us—and all faith communities—to develop new liturgies by which to mourn, grieve, heal and change in response to our climate emergency,” one UTS tweet said. “We couldn’t be prouder to participate in this work.”

And, from a Washington Post article by Veery Huleatt:

Union later explained on its website that the service was part of a class titled “Extractivism: A Ritual/Liturgical Response,” with liturgical responses to the state of the climate.

Extractivism, in brief, is taking the natural resources out of the Earth. The Jesuits, who used to be priests for Christ, are really big on the subject. You can read it here. This is the Jesuits religion and mission now. That is dangerous to man. And, that is the danger of Union Theological Seminary, too.

The Master of Divinity degree at the school is a three year program that costs $28,000 per year. Allegedly, these graduates would be going out to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. But, instead they are being taught the Cult of Climate Change and a “deep commitment to social justice“. Instead of learning to bring souls to Christ, they are asking a fern to forgive them their sins against it.

There is something so arrogant about this Cult. They know everything and have all the answers. There is also something very small and proud about this Cult. It made me think of C.S. Lewis:

“A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”

“As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on thing and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down you cannot see something that is above you.”

Finally, Christians should be filled with joy. God is so very good to us. We have every reason to dance and shout. There will always be sadness, illness and poverty in the material world. God does not want us to wallow in the sadness.

These students seem to have a poverty of spirit, and as they go out into the world, that is dangerous. They will spread their psychosis as they go.

Photo Credit: Pixabay.com/Pixabay License