Pastors Taking Political Stands on Something About Which They Know Nothing

I don't like to see pastors messing around in political issues unless there's some indication that they know what they're talking about. It looks to me like some pastors have been "converted" to the bogus cause of "global warming":

Despite opposition from some of their colleagues, 86 evangelical Christian leaders have decided to back a major initiative to fight global warming, saying "millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors."

Among signers of the statement, which will be released in Washington on Wednesday, are the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges, leaders of aid groups and churches, like the Salvation Army, and pastors of megachurches, including Rick Warren, author of the best seller "The Purpose-Driven Life."

"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."

The statement calls for federal legislation that would require reductions in carbon dioxide emissions through "cost-effective, market-based mechanisms" — a phrase lifted from a Senate resolution last year and one that could appeal to evangelicals, who tend to be pro-business. The statement, to be announced in Washington, is only the first stage of an "Evangelical Climate Initiative" including television and radio spots in states with influential legislators, informational campaigns in churches, and educational events at Christian colleges.

If I hadn't already left Saddleback Church, this would have finished it off for me. There's probably less scientific evidence for human-caused global warming than there is for evolution, and yet these same pastors oppose the teaching of evolution in school. I don't know who they're listening to, but I don't think they know what they're talking about and have no right to paint all evangelicals as believing this nonsense by christening this program with the title "Evangelical Climate Initiative". This evangelical doesn't agree.

As the article indicates, the view taken by these 86 pastors is not universally accepted among their ministerial brethren either:

Some of the nation's most high-profile evangelical leaders, however, have tried to derail such action. Twenty-two of them signed a letter in January declaring, "Global warming is not a consensus issue." Among the signers were Charles W. Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries; James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family; and Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Their letter was addressed to the National Association of Evangelicals, an umbrella group of churches and ministries, which last year had started to move in the direction of taking a stand on global warming. The letter from the 22 leaders asked the National Association of Evangelicals not to issue any statement on global warming or to allow its officers or staff members to take a position.

E. Calvin Beisner, associate professor of historical theology at Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., helped organize the opposition into a group called the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance. He said Tuesday that "the science is not settled" on whether global warming was actually a problem or even that human beings were causing it. And he said that the solutions advocated by global warming opponents would only cause the cost of energy to rise, with the burden falling most heavily on the poor.

It's ironic that this story should appear on the same day as a prediction of a coming mini ice age:

A Russian astronomer has predicted that Earth will experience a "mini Ice Age" in the middle of this century, caused by low solar activity.

Khabibullo Abdusamatov of the Pulkovo Astronomic Observatory in St. Petersburg said Monday that temperatures will begin falling six or seven years from now, when global warming caused by increased solar activity in the 20th century reaches its peak, RIA Novosti reported.

The coldest period will occur 15 to 20 years after a major solar output decline between 2035 and 2045, Abdusamatov said.

Dramatic changes in the earth's surface temperatures are an ordinary phenomenon, not an anomaly, he said, and result from variations in the sun's energy output and ultraviolet radiation.

The Northern Hemisphere's most recent cool-down period occurred between 1645 and 1705. The resulting period, known as the Little Ice Age, left canals in the Netherlands frozen solid and forced people in Greenland to abandon their houses to glaciers, the scientist said.

But the Russian scientist is not an evangelical, so I guess I'm not supposed to pay attention to him.

UPDATE: What really bugs me about this whole thing, besides the bad science, is the fact that the media will now present this "Evangelical Climate Initiative" as representing the majority of evangelicals, which I don't believe it does at all. To me, it makes about as much sense as a group of pastors releasing an "Evangelical Pro-Choice Initiative". And of course, the media will also use this as another excuse to beat up the Bush Adminstration and will paint this is a rift between the president and some of his most ardent supporters.

This was a bad idea all the way around.

UPDATE 2: Did I call it or what? The headline on AOL on 2/9/06: Evangelicals Split With Bush. Also featured, a big photo of Rick Warren. It's the "evangelicals" versus the president on global warming. Thanks, guys, for pitting us all against the administration.

UPDATE 3: Here's a follow-up post to this one.

Tags: Evangelical, Evangelical Climate Initiative, Global Warming