EARTHKEEPING
NEWS
A NEWSLETTER
OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY
Volume Fourteen, Number Two
March/April 2005
Evangelicals and Environmentalists in the Same Pew?
On March 10 the front page of the New York Times had a small headline at the bottom of page one: "Christianity and the Climate. A core group of influential evangelical Christians has put its considerable political clout behind efforts to combat global warming." Intrigued, I turned to the first page of the National section to read the lead article.
It appears that the National Association for Evangelicals, a group claiming 45,000 churches with 30 million members, is embracing the call to stop global warming. Its leader, Rev. Ted Haggard, was converted by the damage he saw to coral reefs while skin diving. The NAE's Vice President of Governmental Affairs, Rev. Richard Cizik, states "I don't think God is going to ask us how he created the earth, but he will ask us what we did with what he created." As an expression of his environmental passion, Rev. Cizik bought a hybrid car, a Toyota Prius.
We have grown accustomed to bodies representing mainstream Protestant denominations issuing positive social statements. The 2002 United Methodist New York Annual Conference, for example, supported resolutions asking for the use of Fair Trade Coffee, calling for a repeal of parts of the USA Patriot Act, calling for a conference to renounce white privilege, encouraging clergy to visit prisons and jails, and long list of other socially progressive positions. And in February the National Council of Churches issued "God's Earth is Sacred: An Open Letter to Church and Society in the United States." (See related article in this issue.)
But we are less acquainted with such organizations as the Evangelical Environmental Network and Evangelicals for Social Action. While not new (both have been around for years), Americans are more accustomed to associating evangelicals with pro-life and traditional marriage concerns than with global warming and depleted coral reefs.
Will President Bush be swayed by this new found interest in global warming and environmental issues among his conservative religious base to re-think his position on the Kyoto Treaty? Stay tuned to this channel for further developments.
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