The Pitfalls Of Mixing Mileage And Morality

Coming to a television station near you very soon will be the "What would Jesus drive?" campaign.

In my view, it's an absurd attempt at mixing mileage and morality.

This is not to say that the environment isn't an important issue. It is. After all, we all need air and water to live.

But "What would Jesus drive?" Choice of vehicle as a moral decision is a stretch for me.

The idea of the ad campaign is to get people to stop buying vehicles that burn too much gas, like sport utility vehicles.

The ads point out that Jesus wants us to be good stewards of the earth and SUVs don't fit in.

But sport utility vehicles are very popular. More and more Americans are buying them and as long as they remain popular, the automakers will keep churning them out.

It does seem a bit environmentally unfriendly to drive one of those big vehicles. I mean, some of them are huge. I realize that they afford a greater level of safety and comfort. But there is a cost to the environment for all that size, safety and comfort.

The more fuel burned, the more pollution released into the atmosphere.

(What really makes me chuckle is when I see a big SUV with an environmental license plate.)

Meanwhile, to complicate matters, the Bush administration is proposing an increase in the Combined Average Fuel Efficiency standard by 1.5 miles per gallon by 2007.

This is being met with disdain by the auto industry.

And public interest groups like the Competitive Enterprise Institute are quick to point out that every time the government toughens CAFE standards, more people die on the highways. "That program kills thousands of people each year by forcing vehicles to be downsized and therefore less crashworthy," their news release states.

But the WWJD campaign people are undeterred by that notion. They'd use the safety argument to help make their point. They think everybody should be driving a small, fuel-efficient car. Or taking the bus.

They think we need to be good stewards of the Earth and stop driving gas guzzlers.

And while there may be merit to that position, I really don't seen the merit in dragging Jesus into it.

The ads don't come right out and say it, but you certainly get the idea that they're trying to shame us into driving economical cars - like it's a sin to drive an SUV.

Let's push the argument for a moment.

What would Jesus use to mow his lawn? An electric mower? An old reel mower? A scythe? What would Jesus use to heat and cool his home? Solar and geothermal? What kind of boat would Jesus own? A sailboat, no doubt, when he isn't walking on water.

He probably wouldn't hang out at fast food joints either. Well, maybe Subway. And his clothes would be made from only natural fibers like wool and cotton. No acrylic, polyester or microfiber for him, I'm sure.

You get the picture. It seems silly, doesn't it?

But the theology of automotive ownership is pulling together some interesting political ideologies.

Religious people who care about the environment.

How unusual.

The national media are going to have to start referring to people in the evangelical environmental movement as members of the religious left.

They have been reporting for years about the religious right. Now they have the perfect opportunity to report about the religious left.

As a political issue, environmentalism has long been claimed by the left. Members of the left have accused conservatives of being hostile toward the environment for years.

At the same time, certain religious conservatives were labeled as far right or ultra-conservative.

Now, apparently, there has been a blending of the two. Welcome to the world of religious environmentalism.

Politics and religion aside, the technology to build a highly fuel-efficient car has been available for decades.

But no one in the automotive industry or the oil industry or the government, for that matter, was really all that excited about bringing that technology to market.

They all profit too much from things staying the way they are.

If we reduce consumption of gasoline, oil companies lose business.

Automakers would have to spend tons of money retooling.

And the government collects an untoward amount of taxes from the sale of gasoline.

So it's not likely that there will be a big push for electric or hybrid or high-efficiency or alternate-fuel vehicles anytime soon from those people.

I suppose the "What would Jesus drive?" campaign is designed to raise environmental awareness. And raising awareness about the environment and the automotive industry is a good thing.

I just think it's a little disingenuous to drag Jesus into it.

I mean, really, does driving an SUV make you a sinner?

Here's a question: What would Jesus do about people who invoke his name to further a cause?