Trees are being burned in the Amazon. While this is tragic and one which we should focus our attention to, some people online have spun this to be about something totally different. I've attached a screenshot of the post. I didn't include the pictures as my phone isn't long enough to fit them. Take time to read and see how this poster has successfully diverted the issue from the Amazon to somehow blaming the church.
The burning of the Amazon is no joke. It's sad and should be given more attention. This poster however has somehow managed to make a connection between the burning of the Amazon and blaming it to the teaching of the Catholic church by jumping through numerous hoops. This is intellectual gymnastics at it's worst and what's more disturbing is that people are buying into this. I've seen this and similar posts being spread around by at least three different friends.
First of all, the burning of the church in Notre Dame was a separate issue and shouldn't be mixed up in this issue. Secondly, the burning of the Amazon forest doesn't seem like an accident like the forest fires you hear about in California. While it's true that there have been a spike in wild fires, one mustn't believe blindly that all these incidents were accidental. It may be the case that several people know that more forest fires occur in this month and so have been burning down portions of the forest for purposes like farming and ranching.
Another faulty conclusion derived by social media warriors is one where they blame the media for not covering the Amazon burning while the coverage of the Notre Dame church was almost instantaneous. The reason for this is quite simple. There are more people in the vicinity of the Notre Dame church than the Amazon so one would expect one even to naturally have more coverage than another. I doubt it's for nefarious reasons and I think it's more out of genuine ignorance.
This poster then makes another jump by saying that the Catholics of the world, many of which live in Latin America, donated the little they had to the rebuilding of the church. This person has very little knowledge on how the Catholic Church conducts its affairs. While I won't claim to be an expert, most churches raise their own funds, including the Notre Dame and the Vatican.
Unless the local churches decide to donate to another church (usually a poorer parish), all collections and donations go to that local church. Donations rarely cross national borders unless the congregation agrees to donate to a particular oversees parish. The more than $1B amount mentioned is simply the Notre Dame Church's funds which they received directly from donors.
The poster then claims that maybe religion separates itself from nature. He then proceeds to cite a Biblical verse, interpret it and then say that's how the Catholic church sees it. He (or she) chose to disregard what the church actually teaches on taking care of the environment.
It's posts like these that irk me and it's driven from a very emotional state which isn't always the best as it does drive a hateful view of an entity that has little to nothing to do with the actual issue. Before we react or share, analyze and see if the post contains dangerous assumptions and maybe we can stop these things from spreading.
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