WP: Evangelicals Will Not Take Stand on Global Warming

[DeepModem Mom]

Evangelicals Will Not Take Stand on Global Warming
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 2, 2006; Page A08


The National Association of Evangelicals said yesterday that it has been unable to reach a consensus on global climate change and will not take a stand on the issue, disappointing environmentalists who had hoped that evangelical Christians would prod the Bush administration to soften its position on global warming.

Over the past four years a growing number of evangelical groups have embraced environmental causes, urging Christians to engage in "Creation care" and campaigning against gas-guzzling SUVs with advertisements asking, "What would Jesus drive?"

In October 2004 the leadership of the NAE, which says it has 30 million members and is the nation's largest evangelical organization, declared that mankind has "a sacred responsibility to steward the Earth and not a license to abuse the creation of which we are a part." At about the same time, the umbrella group's president, the Rev. Ted Haggard of Colorado Springs, called the environment "a values issue."

But this fledgling movement -- dubbed the "greening of evangelicals" in a front-page Washington Post article a year ago -- has also met internal resistance. In a letter to Haggard last month, more than 20 evangelical leaders urged the NAE not to adopt "any official position" on global climate change because "Bible-believing evangelicals . . . disagree about the cause, severity and solutions to the global warming issue."

The letter's signers amounted to a Who's Who of politically powerful evangelicals, including Charles W. Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries; James C. Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family; the Rev. D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries; the Rev. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention; Richard Roberts, president of Oral Roberts University; Donald E. Wildmon, chairman of the American Family Association; and the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/01/AR2006020102132.html

[Erika]

1. Christ drew fish from the waters and fed to all

He must have considered fish valuable and a staple. I don't think He'd approve of them driven extinct.

The so called Christian fringe groups care about the money and not the environment. The pocketbook rules all. They are despicable.

[neoblues]

7. No problem... so long as there's still a couple left...

He'll just magically duplicate them for what may very well be the last fish dinner.

[wordpix2]

27. Christ drew fish and they weren't covered with black crude

[Southsideirish]

2. Pathetic, stupid people can't see the nose on their own faces. n/t

[reality based]

3. May they burn in their wicked state in hell or Texas, whichever is hotter.

[booksenkatz]

32. Hear, hear!

"If I possessed both Texas and Hell, I'd rent out Texas and live in Hell." -- Union Gen. Philip Henry Sheridan, May 1865

[saltpoint]

4. Evangelists' reluctance to speak resonantly and ethically against the

Bush administration's multiple atrocities -- including environmental transgressions and neglect -- is one of the most glaring moral failures of this generation.

[Dogmudgeon]

12. Yes -- and some are starting to realize it

--p!

[cliss]

15. There's something very sinister about this ---

in my office we have our very own little fundie. This is the office receptionist. This little girl with the Clouded Mind sits and reads from the bible, in the lunch room. Out Loud. Just in case, for us sinners.

One day, the issue of the environment and consertation came up. The Little Evangelist said, "oh, we should use it all up". I ignored her up to this point. Now I was paying attention.

What did she say? Yes, we should use the trees, you know, use it! Was her highly intellectual answer.

Alarmed, I checked with another co-worker. "Is she out of her mind?" I asked. No, was the answer. The Extremist Christians believe that we should use up all our natural resources. "WHY" I demanded, now pissed. "Well, you know...the Armageddon stuff....it'll happen when we cut the last tree....it's their belief, you know".

[saltpoint]

16. Yikes. That sounds like a pretty tense lunch room!

I am sorry you have to endure that kind of company. After work, my guess is you high-tail it out of there and hang out with people with a much, much more open view of humankind.

I'm a tree freak myself so I feel like pouring a 2-litre jug of Pepsi on your co-worker who wants to "use it all up."

Yuck.

[tinymontgomery]

21. You should buy a Koran

and read it out loud at lunch.

[cliss]

29. Yeah,, LOL

Wouldn't that be funny? I love the post above, too, which recommends pouring a Pepsi bottle on her!!!

[Uncle Joe]

34. I think it must have to do with them being afraid of dying alone,

so subconsciously if not consciously, they want lots of company.

[mitchum]

39. I always suspect that they are "cowardly" suicides

[Uncle Joe]

40. Now that you mention it, I think suicide is a sin. n/t

[Az_lefty]

37. I think you've hit it...the End Times nonsense...

these fundies think they can do as they please because they will be raptured out of here before the real trouble starts. If you think these fundies are nuts now, just wait until they realize they have to go through the tribulation with the rest of us. Should be a real joy.

[mitchum]

38. I would read pornography aloud in the lunch room...

I'm sure she would understand

[ladjf]

5. Why should they? They aren't scientists.

[bemildred]

6. Well, it's sort of like the Rapture(tm) but slower ...

And Jesus hasn't showed up yet ...
Better wait and see what develops.
(Oh, and send money while we wait.)

[neoblues]

8. Considering the worldview of most evangelicals...

From a speech given by Bill Moyers:

...Why care about the earth when the droughts, floods, famine and pestilence brought by ecological collapse are signs of the apocalypse foretold in the Bible? Why care about global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in the rapture? And why care about converting from oil to solar when the same God who performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes can whip up a few billion barrels of light crude with a word?"

Because these people believe that until Christ does return, the lord will provide. One of their texts is a high school history book, America's Providential History. You'll find there these words: "the secular or socialist has a limited resource mentality and views the world as a pie…that needs to be cut up so everyone can get a piece.' however, "he Christian knows that the potential in God is unlimited and that there is no shortage of resources in God's earth……while many secularists view the world as overpopulated, Christians know that God has made the earth sufficiently large with plenty of resources to accommodate all of the people."...

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1206-10.htm

[Erika]

9. That is simply a defense of the wealthy.

Pseudo Christians viewing the world through their pocket book with no self accountability to make life better for their own brothers.

These fundamentalist fringe groups are despicable.

[Lorien]

11. It's scary but true

I've talked to fundie co-workers who say the very same thing. :-(

[Demeter]

31. The Only Item In Unlimited Supply Is Fundamental Stupidity

that's why they hand it out for free.

[Dogmudgeon]

10. It's actually good news

They have usually rubber-stamped anything the Right told them to -- in the past.

But lately, there has been a lot of defection among the ranks, especially over scientific issues. A lot of Evangelicals actually think that the creation/ID/evolution controversy is not just IN vain, but is VAIN, period. And most of the grassroots Evangelicals have concerns about the environment.

Many Evangelicals also disapproved of the "Christmas Controversy". They saw nothing wrong with saying "Happy Holidays" and including Jews and African nationalists in the celebration.

When it comes to gays, a lot of Evangelicals have major difficulty accepting gay-bashing. They know it's wrong. They figure that if God doesn't like it, God will handle it, but until then, Jesus said to love everyone, and that's what they intend to do.

I know it's easy to stereotype Evangelicals, especially with the gross chicanery practiced by many of their leaders, but in reality, they are not quite the marching morons we like to describe them as being. Bush's "base" is cracking, and many of the Christians realize that the Temple and the Moneychangers don't mix.

My source of information? Many Evangelicals I've met, especially over the last year or so. Some friends of my family are Evangelicals originally from rural Virginia, and they still have family there, who frequently visit. They aren't all liberals, mind you, but nearly all of them have a lot of trouble with the Religious Right.

--p!

[Erika]

14. Yes, Evangelicals are losing steam

Our decades long rescue mission became, under W, more militant that you would have to pray to Christ before you could get a bed or a meal. Many homeless couldn't stomach that and stayed away even under freezing conditions.

The interfaith alliance, made up of non-evangelical churches, including Jewish, etc. set up a homeless shelter where they showed Christ's love through ministering to the needy, without prayer requirements or lectures. It is called "Sanctuary". It is doing great.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

13. In the end, just a buncha moral cowards.

Whoda thunk it.

[rpannier]

17. Remember what fundie nut James Watt had to say

"When Jesus comes back he's going to want to know why we didn't use the resources more wisely..." He meant Why we didn't use them all up. I'm not kidding about that either. He said that's what he meant.

[salin]

18. What a great guy to be Secretary of Interior

:eyes:

He is also the same guy who tried to stop the Beach Boys from playing on the National Mall for the annual Fouth of July celebration in DC in 1985 because the Beach Boys music wasn't.... family friendly. What a clown.

[ixion]

19. apparently, evangelicals can only reach a consensus when

there's killing or torturing to be done. They're all for that, hands down. :grr:

[Locrian]

20. Apocalypse: On the Psychology of Fundamentalism in America

Read the following book. It all ties in with their psychology. It proceeds like this: 1-traumatic or psych expericence which results in hating themselves, 2-transference or splitting (reborn) to be able to survive their psyche 3-total abandonment to a "saviour" (ironically selling their soul in the process) 4- the hate of their psyche transformed to HATE OF THE WORLD and desire for punishment (rapture apocalypse). This is necessary to maintain the split (keep their mind from exploding) So they really are hoping that they get to see the punishent of all us sinners - plus its kinda a death wish because its extreemely difficult to keep their own psyche at bay. So who cares if the world goes to hell? jeebus will come and take care of the "real" believers.

REALLY REALLY GOOD BOOK.

Apocalypse: On the Psychology of Fundamentalism in America (Hardcover)
by Charles B. Strozier

from Amazon...
Stozier, a psychoanalyst and a history professor at John Jay College, City University of New York, writes about those Christians who believe that God will remake the world in a firestorm of destruction and send Jesus back to rule for a millennium. The author spent five years attending services and interviewing Pentecostals, Baptists and Evangelicals in New York City. His 27 respondents--among them an ex-prostitute, a multimillionaire entrepreneur turned missionary, a fiery preacher and a Wall Street broker--regarded their past as sinful or worthless. Their born-again experiences, in Strozier's formulation, represent attempts to heal traumatized, fractured selves. The final chapters of this cogent, worthy study attempt to place Christian fundamentalism on a continuum of apocalyptic belief by contrasting it with Hopi Indians' myths of impending eco-catastrophe and with New Ager premonitions of a dawning Aquarian Age.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc

[ixion]

22. Thanks, I'll check it out. If you haven't seen the movie 'Saved'

you should do so sometime. It illustrates your point to a tee.

Thanks! :hi:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

25. Makes sense to me

My brothers had two friends (also brothers) were tranformed from ordinary Lutherans to big-time fundies after their mother died. One of them is now an attorney for fundie organizations like Concerned Women of America.

[rodeodance]

23. they take their cues from the 'leadership' in the WH. simple as that.

[hatrack]

24. Gosh, Dietrich Bonhoeffer would be so proud!

:puke:

[VegasWolf]

26. The friggin' idiots believe that some god will fix everything. nt

[Brooklyn Michael]

28. No surprise...Bill Moyer said it best

...when he accepted the Harvard Medical School's Global Environment Citizen Award.

"Drive across the country with your radio tuned to the more than 1,600 Christian radio stations or in the motel turn some of the 250 Christian TV stations and you can hear some of this end-time gospel. And you will come to understand why people under the spell of such potent prophecies cannot be expected, as Grist puts it, "to worry about the environment. Why care about the earth when the droughts, floods, famine and pestilence brought by ecological collapse are signs of the apocalypse foretold in the Bible? Why care about global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in the rapture? And why care about converting from oil to solar when the same God who performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes can whip up a few billion barrels of light crude with a word?"

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1206-10.htm

[Demeter]

30. They Are For It, Of Course

But since saying so is not smart, they don't. They just support the Shrub.

[Uncle Joe]

33. Does anyone know, how they feel about

the Earth revolving around the Sun? I was wondering if we should take these liberal ranters Copernicus and Galileo seriously or are they just activist scientists trying to re write God's law?

[54anickel]

35. First they took away the term Christian, now Evangelical. The "fundies"

continue to try push their extremism by misleading, misrepresenting or hi-jacking anything that is contrary and threatening to their control over religion in this country. They butt in everywhere, giving "believers in the teachings of Christ" a bad reputation among "non-believers".

So sad and it's sort of comparable to how the Democratic Party has been taken over by this supposedly "centrist" movement. We lost the center of balance a long time ago as the center continues to move further to the right.

[Az_lefty]

36. If these evangelicals really were Bible-believing...

they would understand the concept of stewardship. But alas, these
Wingers are only interested in the concept of political power. Meet the modern day Pharisees.
:puke:

[Lisa]

41. compare with "global warming is a mortal sin" (Anglicans)

http://www.anglicancommunion.org/ethics_technology/ACENstatementMay05.cfm
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/now-global-warming-is-a-mortal-sin/2005/07/01/1119724815830.html

"It is one matter to act out of ignorance, it is quite another to act out of willfulness. Willfully causing environmental degradation is a sin."


http://www.interfaithpower.org/MChronicle021805.htm
"The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have written a statement on climate change responding to Pope John Paul II's concerns that climate change will adversely affect his people. His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, leader of the Greek Orthodox Church, has declared environmental degradation a sin. The Franciscan order has called for action on global warming and the Anglican church is writing a response to climate change."

[EvolveOrConvolve]

42. I think that this shows

that the corporate-fascist wing of the republican party has priority over the religio-fascist republicans.

[hatrack]

43. Too busy trying to find out what total strangers do with their pee-pees

"Sorry about that whole 'uninhabitable planet' thing kids - we were just trying to keep you safe!"

[madmark]

44. what does global warming matter if you're going to rapture in a couple

years; for that matter what do deficits matter; spend now and rapture and leave the sinners to pay the bill.