NBC news doing a good segment on the Enviromenatl Christian Evangelicals.

[rodeodance]

[riverwalker]

1. saw it

It was pretty good. The one preacher dismissing environmental concerns as "this global warming business is honoring the creation more than the creator" (??)

[HereSince1628]

2. Environmental ethics and Environmental law are both

dependent on the ancient notion Christians call the Golden Rule...Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

It seems plainly obvious that no one would wish others to expose them to harmful pollutants or lose opportunities for a healthful and productive life because others have degraded the environment to the point it cannot be safe or supportive.

[AnnInLa]

3. There's a great read on one of the Lib blogs about

the evangelical movement being ripped apart over the "new guys" who want to expand the evangelical movement to include social issues, such as helping the poor, fighting AIDS, and global warming. Of course, the "old guard" want the movement (?) to stick with opposition to gay marriage, and anti-choice. The old guard also thinks and SAYS BLUNTLY that evangelicals should be active in conservative politics. Here's hoping the "new guys" take over that ignorant, decidedly unchristian movement. I'll see if I can find that article.

[AnnInLa]

4. Here's the article in the LA Times, via Huffpo:....(Great read)

Evangelicals battle over agenda, environment

Global warming and other causes stray too far from battles on abortion, gay rights and similar 'great moral issues,' some leaders say.
By Stephanie Simon, Times Staff Writer
March 10, 2007


- Evangelical leader steps down amid allegations
A struggle for control of the evangelical agenda intensified this week, with some leaders declaring that the focus has strayed too far from their signature battles against abortion and gay rights.

Those issues defined the evangelical movement for more than two decades — and cemented ties with the Republican Party. But in a caustic letter, leaders of the religious right warned that these "great moral issues of our time" were being displaced by a "divisive and dangerous" alignment with the left on global warming.

A new generation of pastors has expanded the definition of moral issues to include not only global warming, but an array of causes. Quoting Scripture and invoking Jesus, they're calling for citizenship for illegal immigrants, universal healthcare and caps on carbon emissions.

The best-known champion of such causes, the Rev. Jim Wallis, this week challenged conservative crusader James C. Dobson, the chairman of Focus on the Family, to a debate on evangelical priorities.

"Are the only really 'great moral issues' those concerning abortion, gay marriage and the teaching of sexual abstinence?" Wallis asked in his challenge. "How about the reality of 3 billion of God's children living on less than $2 per day? … What about pandemics like HIV/AIDS … disastrous wars like Iraq?"

A Focus on the Family vice president, Tom Minnery, said he would be happy to take up that debate. Dobson himself, Minnery said, is busy writing a book on child rearing.

"Without question," Minnery said, "issues like the right to life for an unborn child concern evangelicals far more broadly."

The public dispute began with the release of a letter signed by several men who helped transform the religious right into a political force, including Dobson, Don Wildmon of the American Family Assn. and Paul Weyrich of American Values.

The signatories — most of them activists, not theologians — expressed dismay that an evangelical emphasis on global warming was "contributing to growing confusion about the very term 'evangelical.' "

In religious terms, an evangelical is a Christian who has been born again, seeks a personal relationship with Christ, and considers the Bible the word of God, to be faithfully obeyed.

But Dobson and his fellow letter-writers suggested that evangelical should also signify "conservative views on politics, economics and biblical morality."

The letter took particular aim at the Rev. Richard Cizik, a prominent evangelical lobbyist who has promoted environmental protection as a moral imperative. Citing the creation story in the Book of Genesis, he has called the fight against global warming a directive "straight from the word of God … no doubt about it."

The letter accused Cizik of "dividing and demoralizing" Christians by pushing this agenda and called on his employer, the National Assn. of Evangelicals, to silence him or to demand his resignation.

"This is, in some ways, a defining moment," said Randall Balmer, a professor of religion at Columbia University in New York. "It's the old guard trying to hold on."

The renewed debate on moral priorities came as the National Assn. of Evangelicals — which represents 45,000 churches and 30 million Christians — gathered for a board meeting Friday in Eden Prairie, Minn.

The board declined to censure or silence Cizik. Moreover, it appeared to embrace a broad view of the evangelical agenda, endorsing a sweeping human rights declaration.

The board also reaffirmed its support for a 2004 Call to Civic Responsibility that urged evangelical engagement on seven key issues, including religious freedom, the sanctity of life, justice for the poor, and environmental protection.

Those advocating a broader agenda insist that they're not trying to downplay — much less back away from — traditional evangelical positions on abortion and sexual morality.

White evangelicals are more united against abortion than any other religious group, including Catholics, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. A 2005 poll found 15% in support of a total ban on abortion and 53% in favor of only narrow exceptions. By contrast, global warming is deemed a "very serious" problem by less than 30% of white evangelicals, according to a 2006 Pew Forum poll. Less than 40% accept the scientific consensus that human activity, such as burning coal for energy, is responsible for the Earth's rising temperatures.

"It's a mistake to think that we're all becoming liberal Democrats. That's not true," Wallis said.

((sorry for going over the 4 paragraphs...maybe the mods won't notice))

much more at: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-evangelicals10mar10,1,5976802.story?coll=la-news-politics-national

[Raine]

5. Those anti-environmental "Christians"

are so unbelievably ignorant. :-(

EDIT: spelling