But the landscape is changing. Many leading evangelicals have begun to voice concern. Caring for God’s creation is becoming a political issue, especially among younger evangelicals.
In Orlando I took part in a seminar on faith and the environment. The host was Joel Hunter, pastor of a mega-church. It holds 3,500 and they fill it five times on a Sunday. There, defying all prejudice, were the local Catholic bishop, imam and rabbi discovering common ground from their sacred texts about caring for God’s earth.
Evangelicals make up one of the largest voting blocs in the electorate and the Democrats know that they have to get a sizable slice of it if they’re to make it to the White House. All the Democratic candidates have signed up to the climate change agenda. Significantly, it is Mike Huckabee, the surprise candidate among the Republicans, who’s the first to register his interest in this issue.
On Super Tuesday when the voters go to the polls they’ll be sending some of the candidates into the political wilderness. However, it is the outcome of the election in November which will determine whether planet Earth will join them in the desert.
[i]The Climate Security Act going through Congress and the Bali negotiations bear witness to the resistance. The problem is that many Americans still dismiss the sustainability agenda as bad science,[/i]
Could it be becuase is IS? Just ask the 500 scientists who publically disagreed with the Bali convention (and were ignored by the media).
[i]Their fear is that if you factor in the environmental costs you’ll price America out of the market and export their jobs and factories to India and China. Or that the environmental agenda will be the trojan horse that will bring socialism to America and the country to its knees.[/i]
And they are right.
[i]Many leading evangelicals have begun to voice concern. Caring for God’s creation is becoming a political issue, especially among younger evangelicals.[/i]
Creation stewardship is an important issue but is — or should be — separate from the so called human-cause gorbal warming propagandistic hysteria.
It could be that this is just another form of protest against modernity. The other thing is that there are new corporations that are springing up and are making loads of $$$ exploiting the desire to be “green.” We shouldn’t be naive in our desire to be good stewards of the environment to now suddenly find new exploiters of a fast buck in the process. Behind the “green” is a lot of green. Just saying.
Now back to listening to my old John Denver CDs.
bb
Or perhaps these persons of faith really do believe that they have a divine mandate to care for this part of God’s creation that we humans share with the rest of God’s creatures. I am greatly encouraged to see so many of my evangelical brothers and sisters become leaders in this our common cause. Given the depth of sincerity and commitment that I have heard from many of my friends in the evangelical community who are also scientists, I believe that this movement will continue to grow and not be put off by naysayers and cynics.
Bob, did you miss the last sentence in my post above? Let’s approach creation stewardship from a biblical point of view as Christians, not following the latest fad science that is continually being challenged and the resultant anti-American political rhetoric.