Church Says God Probably Doesn’t Like Fracking

Fracking is a highly controversial process by which natural gas is extracted from soil and rock. Environmentalists hate it, liberals hate it, and God probably hates it too, according to a British diocese.

The Church of England, Blackburn diocese, has issued a warning to Anglicans in Lancashire, where a major fracking project has been proposed. In a leaflet to the faithful, the diocese says that fracking threatens “God’s glorious creation,” and that parishioners must make “a choice between economic gain and a healthy environment.”

“Fracking causes a range of environmental problems,” the leaflet reads.

“The time we spend thinking, praying and acting now to protect our drinking water, and the rest of God’s glorious Creation cannot compare with the time succeeding generations could potentially spend trying to make good what will likely happen if we in the church remain uninformed and silent.”

It calls on parishioners to act as “stewards of the earth” (which is in the Bible) and says that the environmental concerns posed by fracking should eliminate the “temptation” of gaining personal profit by allowing companies to lease their land for the process.

A spokesman for the Blackburn diocese says that the leaflet was not meant to be read as an official political stance from the church on the issue. Rather, they wanted to inform their flock about the potential dangers of the new process.

“Whilst the Church of England does not have an official line in any of these particular aspects of the debate, it, together with other faith communities, does have an obligation, under God, to bring a different perspective into the debate,” he said.

“This stems from a sincere conviction to take seriously the challenges of caring for God’s fragile creation. To that end, the church believes it has a responsibility to inform its parishioners of these theological and ethical perspectives to enable them to reflect and respond accordingly.”

Do you think that God hates fracking?

[Image: Wikimedia Commons]