Some Evangelicals Finally Organize To Stop Global Warming

[☆ TexasFreethinker ☆]

Finally some fundamentalist christian leaders are standing up and being counted in the effort to stop global warming. I don't know why it took so long, but I'm glad they're finally coming around...

 

"Climate changes in terms of famine, in terms of the inability to grow crops, in terms of the flooding of islands, most affects the poor," he says. "So we here in America probably can do many things to exempt ourselves from the immediate consequences, but the front edge of disaster is most going to affect those who have the least."

 

Anderson, who leads a mega-church of 5,000 worshippers, is one of 86 evangelical leaders who are challenging the Bush administration on global warming. Their "Evangelical Call to Action" argues that there's no real scientific debate about the dangers of climate change -- an assertion that many balk at. The group is calling on the government to act urgently, by, among other things, passing a federal law to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

 

Many fundamentalists are opposed to this effort, tho. The leader of the Southern Baptists (those Baptists who supported slavery) says the environment has to take a back seat to economic growth because humans are first in god's created order....

 

But the names of other evangelical heavyweights are conspicuously absent.

 

"I don't see James Dobson. Is there a more influential evangelican than James Dobson?" observes Richard Land, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. "I don't see Chuck Coleson. I don't see Franklin Graham. So these are obviously prominent evangelicans and I -- please don't in any way think that I am denigrating anyone who's on this list -- but it is not an exhaustive list of evangelical leaders, let's put it that way."

 

Land, along with Colson and Dobson, wrote a letter opposing the Evangelical Call to Action because, he says, there is not consensus about climate change among evangelicals. Land says the Bible makes clear that God expects human beings to take care of the earth. But "human beings come first in God's created order," he adds. "And that primacy must be given to human beings and for human betterment. If that means that other parts of nature take a back seat, well, then they take a back seat,

 

Land argues that slowing economic growth and development by overly strict environmental controls will harm human beings.

 

Quotes from here

[SBeeland]

Xtians will never raise a finger to help the environment in any way. They just don't care because the planet doesn't matter to them. They've never done anything to help and never will. They're useless.

[woodsmoke]

Xtians will never raise a finger to help the environment in any way. They just don't care because the planet doesn't matter to them. They've never done anything to help and never will. They're useless.

 

If you're referring to Christian fundamentalists (and their leaders), or the Christian theological system, I agree with you whole-heartedly.

 

However, I personally know dozens of Christian farmers, outdoorsmen, etc. who do more to protect the environment and further the causes of conservation and responsible wilderness/wildlife management every year than most folks will do in their entire lives. I know dozens more who aren't particularly interested in outdoor recreation themselves but realize that conservation is not a bad thing, and thus do their best to "take only pictures, leave only footprints" on the occasion they do go into the wilderness.

 

Reckless fundamentalists and their leaders =/= all of Christianity. There are a great many Christians out there who do care, have helped and will continue to do so, and are far from useless. Blanket statements to that effect do both of you a disservice.

[SBeeland]

Xtians will never raise a finger to help the environment in any way. They just don't care because the planet doesn't matter to them. They've never done anything to help and never will. They're useless.

 

If you're referring to Christian fundamentalists (and their leaders), or the Christian theological system, I agree with you whole-heartedly.

 

However, I personally know dozens of Christian farmers, outdoorsmen, etc. who do more to protect the environment and further the causes of conservation and responsible wilderness/wildlife management every year than most folks will do in their entire lives. I know dozens more who aren't particularly interested in outdoor recreation themselves but realize that conservation is not a bad thing, and thus do their best to "take only pictures, leave only footprints" on the occasion they do go into the wilderness.

 

Reckless fundamentalists and their leaders =/= all of Christianity. There are a great many Christians out there who do care, have helped and will continue to do so, and are far from useless. Blanket statements to that effect do both of you a disservice.

 

Yeah I know. The things that effect wildlife issues are about the only thing that I'll speak on without thinking first, as nothing else really matters to me. I just wish the christians that do care would or could seperate themselves from those I see everyday on tv and in the media that just always seem to be siding with those who just don't seem to see any value in an animal or where they live.

[woodsmoke]

Yeah I know. The things that effect wildlife issues are about the only thing that I'll speak on without thinking first, as nothing else really matters to me. I just wish the christians that do care would or could seperate themselves from those I see everyday on tv and in the media that just always seem to be siding with those who just don't seem to see any value in an animal or where they live.

 

I can certainly understand and relate there. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that's tackling a completely different beast. The blame for this can be laid pretty well solely at the feet of the media and their "sensationalistic," anything-for-ratings approach to journalism.

 

I'll never understand why so many people seem to need a daily anxiety fix from the evening news. As if there weren't enough crap to worry about in life as it is.