Evangelical Leaders Join Global Warming Initiative

In what has to be considered a strange turn of events, dozens of evangelical Christian leaders have broken from religious right dogma and are backing a major initiative to fight global warming. Saying in their letter, "millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors."

Laurie Goldstein of the New York Times writes:

Among signers of the statement, which will be released in Washington on Wednesday, are the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges, leaders of aid groups and churches, like the Salvation Army, and pastors of megachurches, including Rick Warren, author of the best seller "The Purpose-Driven Life."

"For most of us, until recently this has not been treated as a pressing issue or major priority," the statement said. "Indeed, many of us have required considerable convincing before becoming persuaded that climate change is a real problem and that it ought to matter to us as Christians. But now we have seen and heard enough."

The statement calls for federal legislation that would require reductions in carbon dioxide emissions through "cost-effective, market-based mechanisms" — a phrase lifted from a Senate resolution last year and one that could appeal to evangelicals, who tend to be pro-business. The statement, to be announced in Washington, is only the first stage of an "Evangelical Climate Initiative" including television and radio spots in states with influential legislators, informational campaigns in churches, and educational events at Christian colleges.

"We have not paid as much attention to climate change as we should, and that's why I'm willing to step up," said Duane Litfin, president of Wheaton College, an influential evangelical institution in Illinois. "The evangelical community is quite capable of having some blind spots, and my take is this has fallen into that category."

Unfortunately, this does not come forward without the usual right wing rhetoric.

Some of the nation's most high-profile evangelical leaders, however, have tried to derail such action. Twenty-two of them signed a letter in January declaring, "Global warming is not a consensus issue." Among the signers were Charles W. Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries; James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family; and Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Their letter was addressed to the National Association of Evangelicals, an umbrella group of churches and ministries, which last year had started to move in the direction of taking a stand on global warming. The letter from the 22 leaders asked the National Association of Evangelicals not to issue any statement on global warming or to allow its officers or staff members to take a position.

E. Calvin Beisner, associate professor of historical theology at Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., helped organize the opposition into a group called the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance. He said Tuesday that "the science is not settled" on whether global warming was actually a problem or even that human beings were causing it. And he said that the solutions advocated by global warming opponents would only cause the cost of energy to rise, with the burden falling most heavily on the poor.

We need a majorinitiativee like the one put forward earlier to ban misstatements and deliberate falsehoods in government science work. Maybe with the proper legislation, people like George C. Deutsch would have never had the ability to alter NASA's Science into incorrect statements.

Now that we have more on the bandwagon, we have a larger chance to get out and sway public opinion. We need to tell people the truth. We need to let people know that their Government has been intentionally giving them misleading and false information just so the corporations that bribed them can make more money.

The entire article can be found here:
Evangelical Leaders Join Global Warming Initiative

Technorati tags: Global Warming, Evangelical, Christian, Climate