Maggie says:
A year ago on m-pyre, I asked the question Have We Underestimated Evangelicals? I pointed to some online chatter about a growing fundamentalist concern for the environment and hypothesized on the unlikely pairing of mainstream environmentalists and the Christian right. It seemed like nothing more than a far-off possibility at the time (and as Erik pointed out in comments, potentially explosive at that), and I put it out of my head until... last night.
Imagine my surprise when I was watching the news and Brian Williams began reporting about the new Evangelical Climate Initiative, a group of 86 evangelical leaders who have split with Bush to call for the passage of national CO2-emission reductions. Backed up by scripture, of course.
The same love for God and neighbor that compels us to preach salvation through Jesus Christ, protect the unborn, preserve the family and the sanctity of marriage, and take the whole Gospel to a hurting world, also compels us to recognize that human-induced climate change is a serious Christian issue requiring action now.
...Poor nations and poor individuals have fewer resources available to cope with major challenges and threats. The consequences of global warming will therefore hit the poor the hardest, in part because those areas likely to be significantly affected first are in the poorest regions of the world. Millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors.
"An Evangelical Call to Action" contains four main claims:
- Claim 1: Human-Induced Climate Change is Real
- Claim 2: The Consequences of Climate Change will be Significant, and it will Hit the Poor Hardest
- Claim 3: Christian Moral Convictions Demand our Response to the Climate Change Problem
- Claim 4: The Need to Act Now is Urgent. Governments, businesses, churches, and individuals all have a role to play in addressing climate changestarting now.
Make no mistake; for evangelicals, these "claims" are nothing short of revolutionary. What seems obvious to us is nothing short of groundbreaking for them. Fittingly, the primary organized evangelical force in America, the National Association of Evangelicals, is not endorsing the Evangelical Climate Initiative. That means that this move represents not just a break with Bush&Co, but a chasm within the right as well.
As the right continues to crumble in the face of what they see as Bush's betrayals (big spending, big government, lackluster policies), this split could represent a potential watershed moment in modern politics.
Continuing my no-more-politics-as-usual rant (heated up by a feisty political debate at Milton's of all places the other morning), I say, bring it on.
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