Evangelicals and Global Warming

[Ryan O'Dine]

Conservative Christian leaders are looking to quash efforts by a fellow Evangelical to bring global warming into the fold of the Evangelical agenda.

From the Washington Post:

Focus on the Family founder James C. Dobson and other conservative Christian leaders are calling for the National Association of Evangelicals to silence or fire an official who has urged evangelicals to take global warming seriously.

In a letter this week to the board of the NAE, which claims 30 million members, Dobson and his two dozen co-signers said the Rev. Richard Cizik, the NAE's vice president for government relations, has waged a "relentless campaign" that is "dividing and demoralizing" evangelicals.

Cizik has been a leader in efforts to broaden evangelicals' political agenda beyond abortion and same-sex marriage. He says Christians have a biblical imperative to protect the environment, which he calls "creation care."

And from a Wikipedia article on Cizik:

Cizik has been criticized for his environmentalism by fellow evangelicals and conservatives.[3] He has responded to some of these critics by asking whether his critics are possibly being influenced by their close ties to the conservative movement or oil and gas companies.[3]

James Dobson is the leader of “Focus on the Family,” which has been called the successor to the “Moral Majority.” It appears he’s not just not interested in global warming, but positively wants to stop Evangelicals from taking up the issue.

Frankly, I’m not sure I buy the explanations in the above articles. Are the Evangelicals really capable of focusing on only two topics at once? Granted, they seem to be absent from poverty issues, Darfur, refugees, human trafficking and everything else that doesn’t have to do with the private sex lives of law-abiding citizens. But is this a lack of attention span (as the Washington Post suggests)?

And as for Dobson being in bed with big oil or the Republicans, it seems to me he’s much more the dog wagging the tail than he is the one being wagged.

So frankly, I don’t get why they should be so against global warming initiatives. Anyone have an opinion, comments?

 

[Tanstaafl]

I wonder that myself sometimes. Maybe they consider any environmental activism a sign of lack of faith that Jesus will come soon to fix everything?

Strange, you would think conservation would be a core value for conservatives.

 

[CapelDodger]

So frankly, I don’t get why they should be so against global warming initiatives. Anyone have an opinion, comments?

Like Tanstaafl, I think you have to factor in the Rapture and these End Days we're going through, oh yes, hallelujah.

There could also be a tribal knee-jerk reaction, environmentalism is very much an "out" characteristic for a certain fundie tribe, and considered an attribute of hippie-commie-faggots who hate us for our freedom and guns and religion.

I imagine that tribe is an embarrassment to a lot of evangelicals so Rev Cizik bears watching. The conditions for a rational Christian backlash are in place, I think. And with the primaries already under way, and Bush Minor under water, there'll never be a better time to have real influence.

 

[c4ts]

Maybe global warming doesn't fit with their loose apocalyptic predictions. Or it does and they don't want to interfere with their perceived happy time...

 

[Darth Rotor]

Like Tanstaafl, I think you have to factor in the Rapture and these End Days we're going through, oh yes, hallelujah.

There could also be a tribal knee-jerk reaction, environmentalism is very much an "out" characteristic for a certain fundie tribe, and considered an attribute of hippie-commie-faggots who hate us for our freedom and guns and religion.

I imagine that tribe is an embarrassment to a lot of evangelicals so Rev Cizik bears watching. The conditions for a rational Christian backlash are in place, I think. And with the primaries already under way, and Bush Minor under water, there'll never be a better time to have real influence.

Maybe the Rapture can't happen until the surface of the Earth reaches a certain average tempurature. If that is the case, Mr Dobson wants global warming to continue, nay accelerate, so that he can enjoy the rapture.

A guess, but as good a one as I have seen yet.

DR

 

[Ryan O'Dine]

Maybe the Rapture can't happen until the surface of the Earth reaches a certain average tempurature. If that is the case, Mr Dobson wants global warming to continue, nay accelerate, so that he can enjoy the rapture.

A guess, but as good a one as I have seen yet.

DR

If you're not purely joking, do you have a Biblical reference in mind?

In any event, I found this on the Focus on the Family website. Emphasis their own:

Despite the uncertainly, some evangelical leaders have insisted global warming should be prioritized as the most important social issue that confronts us today. Focus on the Family firmly disagrees. For some evangelicals to position the theory of global warming above the reality of the ongoing attacks against the family and a Christian worlview is perplexing and troubling.

That suggests the "limited ability to focus" theory.

More of what Cizik has to say, from an NPR show:

Five years ago, Cizik would never have been seen lobbying a Democratic senator on environmental issues. Like many evangelicals, he saw the environment as a "liberal" cause that prioritized the needs of plants and animals over those of human beings. But after attending an environmental conference at Oxford University in 2002, Cizik says he had a revelation.

"I came away absolutely convinced not only of the science but that I should do my part in this, in helping to persuade other evangelicals of their rightful role," Cizik says.

Cizik believes in literal creationism, so I have to wonder how much the science convinced him. In fact, he later says it’s a “sanctity-of-life-issue,” so maybe science had little to do with it. I’m thinking more like public opinion, and a desire to wrest some control out of Dobson’s hands. Or is that my cynicism talking?

A nice piece about Focus on the Family can be heard on Fresh Air. The more I learn of Dobson, the creepier he sounds. Power + Evangelical =

 

[a_unique_person]

I wonder that myself sometimes. Maybe they consider any environmental activism a sign of lack of faith that Jesus will come soon to fix everything?

Strange, you would think conservation would be a core value for conservatives.

It does say in the bible that we are granted dominion, or something, over everything on the earth, so we can do what we want to the place.

Also, the end times happen when everything is screwed up, so helping to screw things up a little just helps the rapture along.

Finally, it's just the commie pinkos who are hatching this plot, and want to deprive them of their wealth.