NYT: Evangelical’s Focus on Climate Draws Fire of Christian Right

[DeepModem Mom]

Evangelical’s Focus on Climate Draws Fire of Christian Right
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: March 3, 2007

Leaders of several conservative Christian groups have sent a letter urging the National Association of Evangelicals to force its policy director in Washington to stop speaking out on global warming.

The conservative leaders say they are not convinced that global warming is human-induced or that human intervention can prevent it. And they accuse the director, the Rev. Richard Cizik, the association’s vice president for government affairs, of diverting the evangelical movement from what they deem more important issues, like abortion and homosexuality.

The letter underlines a struggle between established conservative Christian leaders, whose priority has long been sexual morality, and challengers who are pushing to expand the evangelical movement’s agenda to include issues like climate change and human rights....

***

The letter, dated Thursday, is signed by leaders like James C. Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family; Gary L. Bauer, once a Republican presidential candidate and now president of Coalitions for America; Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; and Paul Weyrich, a longtime political strategist who is chairman of American Values.

They acknowledge in the letter that none of their groups belong to the National Association of Evangelicals, a broad coalition that represents 30 million Christians in hundreds of denominations, organizations and academic institutions. But, they say, if Mr. Cizik “cannot be trusted to articulate the views of American evangelicals,” then he should be encouraged to resign....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/03/us/03evangelical.html

[Connie_Corleone]

1. Stopping gay people from getting married is more important

than saving the fucking planet. :eyes: :mad: :wtf:

[madeline_con]

4. Don't forget, women making their own decisions! Horrors! eom

[Proud2BAmurkin]

33. yup...gay marriage and embryos more important than human extinction

scumbags

[Cobalt-60]

2. Well, I'm certainly impressed with the credentials

of a mob of Repbulicon mouthpieces regarding the Earth's climate.
Dobson's leash is clearly visible all the way back to Republicon HQ.

[IndianaGreen]

5. None of them belong to the National Association of Evangelicals

and their letter exposes them as GOP political hacks doing the bidding of the big polluters.

[Erika]

3. The right wing fringe needs to know no one cares about their hate issues

anymore. We owe responsibility of our environment for our kids sake. We need to feed the needy and meet heath care needs here.

[IndianaGreen]

6. They could have easily addressed their letter to Jesus

After all, Jesus spoke a lot about justice for the poor and taking care of the widows and the orphans, causes that are not in the Christian Right agenda.

[jamesinca]

11. yes he did speak of that

James 1:27- Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in distress.

James 2:17-19 - faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that- and shudder.

Then there is Matthew 25:31-46 What ever you do for the least of you, you do for me.

The right wingnuts don't want to talk about that, they want to talk about being hateful and how that is the mission of God. They want to talk about peace through war and how that is the mission of God. They want to talk about vengeance not being just for the Lord alone, everybody should enjoy the death penalty.

[TygrBright]

7. Waitaminnit.... none of them BELONG to the NAE, but...

...they're trying to dictate policy and leadership directions for the NAE?

Put that one in the round file, please, Miss Jones.

Amazing.

appreciatively,
Bright

[Beartracks]

10. Right...

So, none of their organizations are members of the NAE, and yet they still have the nerve to claim they know the views of these 30 million American evangelicals with which they have no affiliation? By the way, how can ANY Christian organization dismiss the importance of human rights?

[Hekate]

8. I'll be very interested to know what the NAE replies to these NON-members!

Let's hope it's a polite Christian version of "take a flying leap." :eyes:

Hekate

[B3Nut]

20. "Verily we say unto thee, Dr. Dobson,

that thou mayest violently sexually intercourse thyself upon thee, and then thou mayest perish, as thou art worthless, yea, and stupid." :D

One can wish, anyway...hehehehe

Todd in Cheesecurdistan

[rodeodance]

9. of course it is the Dobson gang leading this!

......The letter, dated Thursday, is signed by leaders like James C. Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family; Gary L. Bauer, once a Republican presidential candidate and now president of Coalitions for America; Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; and Paul Weyrich, a longtime political strategist who is chairman of American Values.

[Dulcinea]

12. No money in that.

Abortion & homosexuality get the fundies in a lather & makes them pony up BIG to their churches. "Stop abortion! Stop gay marriage! We need money to fight this!" And they bite every time. Climate change just doesn't have that visceral of a response. Nor does helping the poor.

As always, follow the money.

[fidgeting wildly]

13. but...but...but...

Wasn't Ted Haggard the president of the National Association of Evangelicals? And wasn't Dobson one of the idiots trying to distance himself from the NAE after the Haggard story broke? What's he doing trying to influence policy there now?

Dobson is the worst kind of hypocrite.

[Occulus]

14. This religion needs to wither and die...

.... ASAP.

[Ilsa]

15. Bringing on armageddon, through war or global warming,

is what these FoF, NAE, AFA knuckleheads are all about. They need a catastrophe to promote their doomsday messages have something to blame on the gays, liberals, and feminists.

[fladonkey]

16. A little background...

after the former president of this organization stepped down (remember this was the man that denied he had a gay lover...) the pastor of my late mother's church was considered as a candidate for the position. He is pastor of Northland Church in Casselberry, Florida. Northland is non-denomination but is pretty conservative. That said they are also very involved in many fairly progressive causes here in Central Florida. The pastor is also very pro-environment. To make a long story short, his candidacy was found unacceptable because Northland has such a strong anti-poverty program and an environmental program. They have a very active recycling program and do all their printing on recycled paper that sort of thing. Also, a lot of their senior staff are women.

[dkofos]

18. Wow, how can people not see thru this evil??

[hatrack]

38. Because if you belong to the Rapture Death Cult, you don't want to

It might make you uncomfortable or (horror of horrors!) cause you to think, and that's just TOO FUCKING PAINFUL to allow.

[Ilsa]

19. Taking care of the poor and God's planet and treating women

as equals is too much for some people I guess.

[Harper_is_Bush]

17. K&R. This is so bizarro....is it just me or has a frantic flurry of Global Warming denial

from these Christian rightwing foot-soldiers and media groups (Sun Media particularily in Canada)
cropped up in the last month or two?

Since the IPCC report they've been going ballistic. It's very disheartening, but I think the most of the public has become educated enough to see past the bullshit this time.

[Uncle Joe]

22. It's not you, they recognize, they're on the wrong side of this vital issue,

both morally and politically, and they're trying to stop the hemorrhage.

[hatrack]

39. What really made me giggle is that the fundie churches are deeply worried . . .

. . . about losing young people once they come of age (there was an interesting article posted here about a month ago).

Huh, I wonder why they're losing young people . . .

:eyes:

[Uncle Joe]

40. Yes hatrack and what did Jesus Christ say

"Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth", so why would they preach against the very people who would take care of this inheritance? Maybe if they actually stuck to teaching his lessons, they wouldn't lose so many young people.

One thing you can say for sure, they are consistent because they treat his "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God" the same way.

[Kolesar]

24. Bill Moyers did a program on this on the US Public Broadcasting System TV network last year

You can find it at www.pbs.org -- Search for a program called "Is God Green?". You can download the whole program in four parts.

That is when I became acutely aware of this. Those right wing churches are taking money from the oil industry through a front group called "The Action Institute".

[rman]

36. I just saw it - recommended viewing

[sarcasmo]

21. No Dinosaurs and no Global Warming the Earth is Flat the Earth is Flat.

[knitter4democracy]

23. Ever heard of Dobson, Bauer, Perkins? Yes. Morons!

Sorry, I couldn't resist a Princess Bride reference. :)

Dobson jumped the shark ages ago.

[donheld]

34. I wish the god damned shark would have bitten his fool head off n/t

[Maraya1969]

25. Dobson even took the time to get out of Ted's bed to sign.

[struggle4progress]

26. James D did this last year, too:

A Letter to the National Association of Evangelicals on the Issue of Global Warming

... Global warming is not a consensus issue, and our love for the Creator and respect for His creation does not require us to take a position ...

Dr. James C. Dobson, Founder and Chairman
Focus on the Family
<& other loony tunes>
<pdf file:> http://www.interfaithstewardship.org/pdf/NAE-appeal%20letter.pdf

And Gary B has a similar history of demonstrating his Christian concern for the planet:

June 7, 2002 ...

Dear President Bush,

We write to share our concerns with Climate Action Report 2002, which your administration recently transmitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and released to the public by posting on the EPA web site ... Climate Action Report 2002 is largely a compilation and summary of junk science ... Climate Action Report 2002 undermines your position on the Kyoto Protocol ... We therefore also urge you to dismiss or re-assign all administration employees who are not pursuing your agenda, just as you have done in several similar instances ... We stand ready to work with you and your administration on pro-consumer, pro-taxpayer policies.

Yours sincerely,

... Gary L. Bauer
American Values ...
<& other loony tunes>

http://www.cei.org/utils/printer.cfm?AID=3051

[HannibalBarca]

27. Simple Logic

:wtf::argh:

If there's no suitable climate, no people, no abortion, no marriage gay or otherwise. Are these people missing the logic centres of their brains???or have just managed to suppress them through years of wilfull ignorance.

[dogfacedboy]

29. They have given over their free will to a mythical "god". n/t

[dogfacedboy]

28. The radical-christian right is a small minority that works against reality.

Who cares, other than themselves, what they have to say?

[sakabatou]

30. But what about the GAYS?!

x(

[cosmicdot]

31. Dobson, Bauer, Perkins, Weyrich = CNP

not members of the National Associaton of Evangelicals ... but
they're all part of that secretive Council for National Policy organized as a tax exempt 'charity' organization


"We are no longer working to preserve the status quo. We are radicals, working to overturn the present power structure in this country." Paul Weyrich http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/22/155525/061


http://www.seekgod.ca/cnp.d.htm#dobson
http://www.seekgod.ca/cnp.b.htm#bauer
http://www.seekgod.ca/cnp.pe-q.htm#perkins
http://www.seekgod.ca/cnp.w.htm#pweyrich


http://www.seekgod.ca/topiccnp.htm

[DarkTirade]

32. I.E., they're pissed off that christians are coming out against real problems

instead of letting the sheep get distracted by the fake ones they make up.

[Miss Chybil]

35. These people are sex addicts. They can't focus on anything else. nt

[Vogon_Glory]

37. Questions For Caribbean Evangelical Missionaries re Climate Change

The question I've been wanting to ask evangelical missionaries in the Caribbean as well as the devout locals is whether they've paid any attention to what guys like Dobson, Bauer, Perkins, and Cal Thomas have said concerning man-made global warming? Have the folk in the Caribbean ever paused to wonder what the consequences of rising sea levels might be for them? Have they ever wondered if their dear North American friends would let them migrate to the US if the waters rose over their homelands, or if Dobson, Perkins, and Co. would instead choose to pander to US xenophobes to keep them out of the US and away from safety?

In my opinion, Evangelical Christianity, particularly the right-wing strain of it, has acquired some considerable political baggage that needs addressing not just by potential converts, but also by those who already devoutly believe.

[VegasWolf]

41. Christians don't worry about global warming because they believe God made this rock of a planet

just a few thousand years ago and if anything is wrong then God will just snap his fingers and fix it.

[Megahurtz]

42. Keep Your Stupid Cult Religion Out Of Politics!

Idiots!:grr:

I have so much had it with hearing about these people!