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The Biden administration signed a deal with countries fully engaged with brutal child labor nearly a week before blocking a major Minnesota mining project as part of its “green” push.
On Thursday, the Biden administration announced it would prohibit mining in more than 200,000 acres of land for waterway protection, effectively canceling a major Minnesota mining project. But just one week prior, the administration agreed to a memorandum of understanding with Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, two countries known for mining rare metals of cobalt and copper and for using brutal child labor to mine these metals.
Are "values" seen as mere gimmicks for the Left?
Be informed, not misled.
Apparently, the Left's "green" push to save the planet, assigns little value to the life of poor and underprivileged black children living in some of the poorest countries on the planet.
The Biden administration's actions are offensive to me personally on several fronts.
I've spent a good deal of time in Africa in Christian missionary work. I have seen the poverty---and the abuses of the people in these countries. I've spent time with the people---in their humble little dirt floor huts they call home and I've been with them in their simple church buildings. I've prayed with them in their homes and worshipped God with them in their churches.
I'm profoundly offended by our president's recent actions. Particularly in the context of his constant personal claims of being a "devout Christian" (Catholic) faith.
Here's the deal---The Biden deal.
A new law prevents supplies from China for electric vehicles and other green energy products from entering the U.S., halting a Biden administration priority, the New York Times reported.
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act requires proof that any products coming from Xinjiang, one of the main sources of products crucial in making batteries, were free of forced labor, the NYT reported last summer.
To fuel his green gospel agenda the president and his people have now signed an agreement to take advantage of slaves in Africa, rather than slaves in China.
According to a State Department press release, the Memorandum of Understanding was signed to strengthen electric vehicle batteries. The administration, as you know, is fully committed to remaking our country, pushing for electric vehicles to replace traditional gas ones.
The Democratic Republic of Congo produces over 70% of the world’s cobalt, and Zambia is the world’s sixth-largest copper producer, according to the department press release. These metals are vital in making electric vehicle batteries as well as other devices like cell phones.
But the mines producing the metals for these electric vehicle batteries are run largely by child labor, according to the Department of Labor. In Congo, “Thousands of children also work in cobalt and copper mines in the southern Copperbelt region,” the Department says.
The ugly hypocrisy of secular progressivism.
As automakers gather at #CES2023 to proudly announce their newest models of EVs, I wonder how much time they will spend discussing that this is the kind of hellscape from which the cobalt in their batteries is mined?@StMartinsPress @Freedom_Fund @CNNFreedom pic.twitter.com/vDHvQozmem
— Siddharth Kara (@siddharthkara) January 5, 2023
“Prevalence of child labor is highest in the country’s artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector, which operates with minimal oversight. Child labor has been detected at one in four ASM sites, with informal or illegal ASM operations leaving children uniquely exposed to hazardous working conditions and, in some instances, to forced labor.”
The department also notes that, while the exact numbers are unknown, between 5,000 and 35,000 children work in artisanal cobalt mines.
Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior signed Public Land Order 7917, which blocked 225,504 acres of land from being mined in Minnesota. This effectively halted a major nickel-copper mining operation in the state causing Americans to lose their jobs while the United States turns to the use of African child slave labor to "make progress" in "saving the planet from carbon."
This is one example of how the secular Leftist operates: In their view, the end always justifies the means.
Takeaway
Dr. Mark J, Cherry is a professor of Applied Ethics at St. Edwards University in Austin, TX. He has written a number of papers---and books, on the subject. His writing is most often done in relation to medicine---but it applies universally to the difference between a secular progressive worldview and a biblical worldview.
He says this in an introduction to, "The Scandal of Secular Bioethics: What Happens When the Culture Acts as if there is No God?" written by H. Tristram Englehardt Jr.
Abstract
This article explores the limits of secular philosophy and philosophical reason. It argues that once one abandons God, the philosophical reason is unable to establish any particular bioethics or understanding of morality as canonical; that is, as definitively true and binding. Philosophy simply cannot secure the truth of any particular account of the right, the good, the just, or the virtuous. Once one abandons God, all is approached as if it were without ultimate meaning. Throughout, the article explores H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr’s arguments in After God: Morality and Bioethics in a Secular Age, which confronts this major intellectual and cultural crisis. As Engelhardt reminds us, traditional Christianity is not a lifestyle choice, much less another meta-narrative that one chooses and writes for oneself. It is an encounter with God, Who changes everything. Christian bioethics must be appreciated in terms of an encounter with and an authentic experience of God, Whose commands will routinely conflict with the moral dictates of secular morality.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Sober. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful. Be Bold.