need site with quote about environment and second coming

[Hamlette]

Bill Moyers said: James Watt "had told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony, said, 'After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back.'"

Apparently that is not true. "The quotation is attributed to Watt in the book Setting the Captives Free by Austin Miles." according to http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2004/10/27/scherer-christian/#correction

but I've seen a web site with a quote much like that. It's a site with pictures of republicans and right wing religious leaders and silly quotes they have made.

anyone remember where it is? I'd like to find out if they attribute it to someone else. (I've googled what I can remember and can't find it.)

[alphafemale]

1. Here's a couple quotes.

http://en.thinkexist.com/quotation/we_don-t_have_to_protect_the_environment-the/184072.html

[mzteris]

2. I found these, though

Testifying before Congress, Watt was asked if he agreed that natural resources should be preserved for future generations. His response:
"I do not know how many future generations we can count of before the Lord returns." --James Watt, February 5, 1981


other quotes:
"We will mine more, drill more, cut more timber."
--Secretary of the Interior James Watt

"A left-wing cult dedicated to bringing down the type of government I believe in."
--James Watt describing environmentalists

"A tree's a tree. How many more do you need to look at?"
--Ronald Reagan

***

The Ecotheology of James Watt by Susan Bratton

. . . In his article, "Ours Is the Earth,"13 and numerous articles since 1981, he made clear that he viewed earth as "merely a temporary way station on the road to eternal life...The earth was put here by the Lord for His people to subdue and to use for profitable purposes on their way to the hereafter."14 Christian ethicist, Susan Bratton, herself an evangelical, countered Watt’s article, pointing to the Bible’s proclamation, "The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains."15 Bratton concluded that "his philosophy of management stems largely from economic and political considerations"16 and that "his economic and political views also greatly influence his ecotheology."17 Watt’s beliefs and actions complicated the Christian apologetic response to outside critics because they seemed to validate White’s claim against Christians. Thus apologists have had to remind critics within Christendom that the earth and everything in it is the Lord’s and that the earth has other purposes than merely serving human needs.18
(13James Watt, "Ours Is the Earth," Saturday Evening Post (January/February 1982), 74-75)
http://www.equip.org/free/DE403.htm


other information about Mr. Watt:

"While in the Reagan administration, Secretary of Interior Watt was
indicted on 41 felony charges for using his HUD connections to help
his clients seek federal funds for housing projects in Maryland, New
Jersey, Massachusetts, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Watt
conceded that he had received $500,000 from clients who were granted
very favorable housing contracts after he intervened. He also was
given $100,000 for a project in Puerto Rico. Testifying before a
House committee Watt said, "That's what they offered, and it sounded
like a lot of money to me, and we settled on it." After over ten
years of investigation, Watt was sentenced to five years of probation and 500 hours of community service for withholding documents from a grand jury which investigated HUD in March 1996. "


****

"However, it was not Watts' stance on environmental issues that compelled the Reagan administration to eventually force his resignation. It was the fallout from the following comment he made to a group of lobbyists regarding the makeup of his coal-leasing commission:

"We have every kind of mix you can have. I have a black, I have a woman, two Jews and a cripple." --James Watt, September 21, 1983

[mzteris]

3. here's another

My responsibility is to follow the Scriptures which call upon us to occupy the land until Jesus returns.
--James Watt, The Washington Post, May 24, 1981

[Hamlette]

4. I don't think Watt said it, I think it was someone else, and not the exact

quote.

But thanks for these.

[mzteris]

7. Here's the post ref in their archives

James Watt & the Puritan Ethic
The Washington Post (1974-Current file). Washington, D.C.: May 24, 1981. pg. L5, 1 pgs

Document types: article
Section: STYLE People Fashion
ISSN/ISBN: 01908286
Text Word Count 889
Document URL:

Abstract (Document Summary)
Jesus may or may not be returning any day now, but either way James Gaius Watt, the secretary of interior, is comporting himself in pious watchfulness. He is quoted recently in The Wall Street Journal saying, that, "My responsibility is to follow the Scriptures which call upon us to occupy the land until Jesus returns."


http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/132181312.html?did=132181312&FMT=ABS&FMTS=AI&date=May+24%2C+1981&author=&desc=James+Watt+%26+the+Puritan+Ethic

[mzteris]

5. Here's a doozy of a Watt quote......

don't know how accurate these are, but:

"I never use the words Democrats and Republicans. It's liberals and Americans." -- James G. Watt, 1982

****

"Remember James Watt? In the early 1980s, as Secretary of the Interior in the Reagan administration, he stirred up enormous controversy by linking his faith and his environmental policies.

He wrote that he viewed the earth as "merely a temporary way station on the road to eternal life...The earth was put here by the Lord for His people to subdue and to use for profitable purposes on their way to the hereafter." There was no need for long-range management of oil reserves or forests because "we don't know how much time we have before Jesus returns."

Mr. Watt provided a remarkable convergence of an extreme theology, an influential political position, and a lack of judgement about when to speak up. But his statements express -- both then and now -- the beliefs of a substantial number of people, including many movers and shakers in government and business. "
http://www.eco-justice.org/E-020726.asp



*****



Armageddon Theology and Presidential Decision-Making:
Religious Leaders' Concern

Transcript of a Press Conference for RELIGIOUS ISSUES '84,
in Association with Conference on the Fate of the Earth
and Washington Research Center
October 24, 1984, 10:00 am, at San Francisco Press Club

". . .Secretary of the Interior James Watt, while in office, said that the government might as well mine federal lands because the world is about to come to an end anyway. News reports emphasized that he was not joking. In March 1982, in a nuclear war simulation inside the White House, Secretary James Watt made the final decision to move to an all-out nuclear war with the Soviet Union. "

http://www.rumormillnews.com/ARMAGEDDON%20THEOLOGY.htm

[mzteris]

6. evidently here's what Watt really said....

"That is the delicate balance the Secretary of the Interior must have: to be steward for the natural resources for this generation as well as future generations. I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns; whatever it is we have to manage with a skill to leave the resources needed for future generations." -- James G. Watt, testimony before the House Interior Committee, February 1981


I don't think it's all that different, myself.