Thoughts on the Evangelical Climate Initiative

Today, in Washington, a group eighty-six evangelical Christian leaders, including the commander of the Salvation Army, the president of Wheaton College, and Pastor Rick Warren, have released a statement in which they affirm the existence of global warming and call for government action to reduce the carbon monoxide emissions which causes it. The New York Times reports, quoting the statement:

"For most of us, until recently this has not been treated as a pressing issue or major priority," the statement said. "Indeed, many of us have required considerable convincing before becoming persuaded that climate change is a real problem and that it ought to matter to us as Christians. But now we have seen and heard enough."

A commerical to back what's being called The Evangelical Climate Initiative has been produced. The Times explains:

The television spot links images of drought, starvation and Hurricane Katrina to global warming. In it, the Rev. Joel Hunter, pastor of a megachurch in Longwood, Fla., says: "As Christians, our faith in Jesus Christ compels us to love our neighbors and to be stewards of God's creation. The good news is that with God's help, we can stop global warming, for our kids, our world and for the Lord."

Stewardship, a term for the care of God's gifts and of all life, is a common theme in the Bible. There, Christians believe, God has called us to use gifts--including all of life, our possessions, the Earth, and even our sexuality--appropriately, in ways that honor God.

But another Biblical theme is at play in the leaders' statement: The call to pursue justice.

It's significant that these leaders, considered to be in the conservative wing of the Christian family, not only accept the scientific research indicating that the deterioration of the ozone layer is causing global warming and increasing the risk to human life, but that they also are willing to undertake political action on the issue. In spite of the recent rise of the Religious Right and the long-time existence of a Religious Left within the Christian fellowship, most evangelicals and most Christians generally, have believed that Christian involvement in politics should be rare. This is because most Christians feel that few issues debated in the political arena have clear, unambiguous, Biblical answers.

But most Christian leaders these days, whatever their philosophical stripe, do believe that there are circumstances under which the Church must speak out, especially on issues of justice.

Micah, a book in the Old Testament, excoriates God's people, Israel, for willingly accepting God's grace and blessings, but showing no concern for the injustices to which others are subjected. A concern for justice is part of the believer's response of gratitude to God for His love. Micah quotes God as telling His people:

He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8, The New International Version)

It's a concern for justice, whether you agree with them or not, that animates the activism of Roman Catholics and evangelicals on the abortion issue. They see unborn children as the victims of injustice.

It's concern for justice that has animated recent evangelical activism on the AIDS issue, calling for greater support for African nations in combating the disease, which has so surprised and delighted Bono.

A concern for justice also animates this Evangelical Climate Initiative, a concern that millions of people are being unjustly subjected to unnecessary risks and death because of environmental heedlessness.

One fact that today's announcement makes clear is that the Christian family is far more diverse and variegated than the often-monochromatic picture of it that might be gleaned from mass media.

This was underscored for me just this morning during a conversation with an Epicopal colleague. I have many differences of opinion with the Epicopalians, regarded as one of the more liberal Christian denominations. But my colleague, a liberal himself, said something that would probably surprise those who believe caricatures more than facts.

Once, he said, he included a line in his sermon about abortion. His belief is that while there may be exceptional circumstances when abortion is an option--such as when a mother's life is endangered or when rape or incest has happened and it may be deemed unjust to force a woman to carry such a pregnancy to term--every abortion is a tragedy. Every abortion ends a life. Every abortion leaves a woman with a bundle of unresolved issues. This is what my colleague said and it all strikes me as being self-evidently true.

Yet, after worship, one person approached him and condemned his words. "How dare you suggest that a woman not have the right to choose?" In fact, he hadn't even talked about that aspect of the abortion issue. He simply lamented the tragedy of it.

Hopefully, the environmental activism of conservative Christians will begin to change the stereotypes of Christianity that have been fostered by people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Fallwell and lend legitimacy to justice as a goal for the activity and proclamation of the Church.