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Cursor.orgMediaTransparency.org sponsor More stories by Bill Berkowitz PERC receives Templeton Freedom Award for promoting 'enviropreneurs' Media Transparency writersAndrew J. Weaver FundometerEvaluate any page on the World Wide Web against our databases of people, recipients, and funders of the conservative movement. |
ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz The Evangelical Climate Initiative: A small crack in the conservative movementOne environmentalist called it a "historic tipping point." Some progressives are calling it an "evangelical mutiny" and a crack in the Christian Right's "junta." The Fox News Channel's Neil Cavuto wondered whether "this religious sect...has gone kooky with Hollywood." The New York Times' John Tierney mocked it and characterized it as wrongheaded. And some Religious Right leaders think that the scientific evidence still isn't conclusive and any remedial action would be premature. Although the newly formed coalition concerned about the ramifications of climate change may not be rooted in traditional environmentalism, members of the Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI) nonetheless consider themselves good stewards of the earth. As good stewards they have come to understand that global warming is a clear and present danger. On February 8, 2006, at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, members of ECI -- made up of megachurch pastors, Christian college presidents and theologians -- announced an initiative that would educate their constituents about the seriousness of global warming, as well as call on the U.S. government "to pass legislation establishing limits on carbon dioxide emissions--widely believed to be the primary cause of human-induced global warming," Christianity Today recently reported. Organized by the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN), the newly formed coalition's statement, Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action, signed onto by 86 evangelical Christian leaders, emphatically affirms that "human-induced climate change is real." The statement makes four claims:
"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. "Millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors. Christians must care about climate change, because we love God the Creator and Jesus our Lord, through whom and for whom the creation was made. This is God's world, and any damage that we do to God's world is an offense against God himself." "This is not a political statement being made," Jim Ball, executive director of EEN, the group known for its 2002 "What Would Jesus Drive?" campaign, told Christianity Today. "We are trying to be faithful to the lordship of Christ. It's my commitment to Christ that's driving me. He's said: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart' and 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Global warming is going to affect millions in this century, and we feel we just can't stand by. We have to do something about it." A number of high-profile evangelicals were among the signatories including, Rick Warren, author of the best-selling book, Purpose-Driven Life, and the founder of the Lake Forest, Ca.-based Saddleback Church, a megachurch that draws some 20,000 to 25,000 attendees weekly; Rich Stearns, the president of World Vision; Todd Bassett, the Salvation Army national commander, David Neff and Timothy George; the editor and executive editors respectively of Christianity Today; Duane Litfin, the president of Wheaton College; and Leith Anderson, the former president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) . Thirty-four signers of the document are members of the NAE's board or executive committee, Christianity Today reported. Several prominent Black religious leaders such as Bishop Charles E. Blake Sr. of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles, the Rev. Floyd Flake of the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral in New York City, and Bishop Wellington Boone of the Father's House and Wellington Boone Ministries in Norcross, Georgia.; as well as Hispanic leaders like the Rev. Jesse Miranda, president of AMEN in Costa Mesa, Calif., are also onboard. "It's a very centrist evangelical list, and that was intentional," said Ball. "When people look at the names, they're going to say, this is a real solid group here. These leaders are not flighty, going after the latest cause. And they know they're probably going to take a little flak." Stewardship or Dominion?Not every evangelical religious leader sees the threat from global warming. Last month, some of the nation's most visible evangelical leaders -- Focus on the Family's Dr. James Dobson, Prison Fellowship Ministries' Chuck Colson, and Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Traditional Values Coalition's Lou Sheldon and the American Family Association's Donald Wildmon, signed a letter addressed to the NAE -- an organization that represents more than 50 denominations and millions of Christians -- which maintained that "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." "In response to the critics," the New York Times reported, "the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, the Rev. Ted Haggard, did not join the 86 leaders in the statement on global warming, even though he had been in the forefront of the issue a year ago." In a telephone interview with the New York Times, Haggard acknowledged that he had no doubts "that climate change is happening, and there is no doubt about it that it would be wise for us to stop doing the foolish things we're doing that could potentially be causing this. In my mind there is no downside to being cautious." Christian leaders allied with the Bush administration have their own group called the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance (ISA). According to its website, "The Interfaith Stewardship Alliance (ISA) is a coalition of religious leaders, clergy, theologians, scientists, academics, and other policy experts committed to bringing a proper and balanced Biblical view of stewardship to the critical issues of environment and development." The blog Batholomew's notes on religion recently pointed out that "The Interfaith Stewardship Alliance may be new, but it's basically a re-launch of the now-defunct Interfaith Council for Environmental Stewardship (ICES)...which was founded by the Ayn Randian Roman Catholic priest Robert Sirico back in 1999; many of the same people are involved." In a 2000 profile of ICES I wrote: In October 1999, 25 economists, environmental scientists, and policy experts convened in West Cornwall, Connecticut, and hammered out the Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship. The Cornwall Declaration, the founding document of ICES, was the first major pronouncement on environmental issues by a coalition of conservative religious groups. The Declaration prioritizes the needs of humans over nature, advocates the unleashing of free-market forces to resolve environmental problems, and denounces the environmental movement for embracing faulty science and a gloom-and-doom approach. ...The Declaration's signers are a veritable Who's Who of the Religious Right. Among them: Focus on the Family president James Dobson; Campus Crusade for Christ founder Bill Bright; Prison Fellowship Ministries' head Charles Colson; the Rev. Donald Wildmon, president of the American Family Association; Rabbi Daniel Lapin of Toward Tradition; and [Fr Robert] Sirico. ... Dr. [James] Kennedy, a leader in the anti-gay movement and an outspoken denier of separation of church and state, says, "if ever an issue needed sound Biblical Doctrine brought to bear upon it, it's the environment, and the Interfaith Council for Environmental Stewardship, through its Cornwall Declaration accomplishes this." In its statement, the ISA said that "the science is not settled on global warming" and, according to the Associated Press, they argued "that most U.S. evangelicals do not back the call for regulating greenhouse emissions." According to Christianity Today, the Environmental Climate Initiative's campaign revolves around an extensive advertising and publicity campaign which began with full-page ads in Roll Call and the New York Times on February 9, 2006, and will be followed-up with a spot on the Fox News Channel, radio spots on Salem Radio Network, and an ad in Christianity Today. Jim Ball said the group is also planning television advertisements on local channels in states such as Kansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and South Dakota, "areas where we know there is good evangelical interest and concern." To help get the Evangelical Climate Initiative off the ground, the National Religious Partnership for the Environment gave them $500,000, and the group also reports that it has also received financial support from the Hewlett Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and Pew Charitable Trusts. Cracks in the Conservative Movement?Some on the left are speculating -- and no doubt hoping -- that the ECI is indicative of better days ahead for progressives. In a piece for TomPaine,.com, Paul Waldman, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America and the author of the soon-to-be-published "Being Right is Not Enough: What Progressives Can Learn From Conservative Success," maintained that progressives should "be celebrating...the split this issue has revealed within the evangelical community." "Progressives should be on the lookout for divisions among religious conservatives, and between religious conservatives and other conservatives, to find wedges that can be driven home to crack the conservative movement to pieces," Waldman wrote. There is no question that the ECI is an important development and worth paying close attention to. As is the recent attention some evangelicals are giving to the global fight against AIDS. While there are differences amongst factions on the Christian right, nothing that has yet happened indicates that the coalition is broken. The partnership between various segments on the right has always been about accommodation. Until some in the movement indicate that they will not cotton to any initiatives around global warming or combating AIDS, there will be no irreparable break. After all, we are not talking about support for abortion or same-sex marriage, two issues that would cause internecine warfare. There is, however, a new evangelism loosed on the political landscape; a kinder, gentler, and more socially attuned evangelism. While the haters -- including Dr. Dobson, the Reverends Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, Rev. Wildmon and Lou Sheldon--will be with us for a long time to come, there is a new batch of more media and marketing savvy pastors who understand their mission goes beyond name calling and scapegoating, and that they can best represent by refining their methodologies. While progressives should pay attention to any fissures that might develop in the future, those fissures are no guarantees of success for a progressive movement. Unless, and until, the progressive movement develops a positive agenda that resonates with the American people, it will continue to be seen as a bunch of angry naysayers or--in the words of President Richard Nixon's disgraced vice president, Spiro Agnew -- twenty-first century "nattering naybobs of negativism." Practically speaking, however, while the ECI may begin to raise awareness about global warming within the evangelical community, it is doubtful that it will result in any immediate change in the Bush Administration's course of action. As William F. Buckley pointed out in the National Review, while "Senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman have endorsed a bill that would set for the United States a goal, by the year 2010, of a reduction in emissions to the level of 2000, President Bush has refused to sign on to any schedule whatever that would mandate national goals, or would restrict normal impulses." "Activists banking on a quick shift in President Bush's environmental policies will be disappointed -- support from just any evangelical figure won't do," wrote Associated Press religion reporter Rachel Zoll. "Evangelical activism on AIDS in Africa, the civil war in Sudan, and sex trafficking has deeply influenced the Bush administration. But environmental causes don't yet store the same kind of passion among conservative Christians." Nevertheless, the publicity generated by the Evangelical Climate Initiative indicates that the times may be changing regarding global warming. "If you were to ask me how the tide will turn in red states, the religious, the business, and the agriculture communities are going to come together to change the dynamics," Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, told the Christian Science Monitor. sign in, or register to email stories or comment on them.
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MORE ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz PERC receives Templeton Freedom Award for promoting 'enviropreneurs'Right Wing foundation-funded anti-environmental think tank grabbing a wider audience for 'free market environmentalism' On the 15th anniversary of Terry Anderson and Donald Leal's book "Free Market Environmentalism" -- the seminal book on the subject -- Anderson, the Executive Director of the Bozeman, Montana-based Property and Environment Research Center (PERC - formerly known as the Political Economy Research Center) spoke in late-January at an event sponsored by Squaw Valley Institute at the Resort at Squaw Creek in California. While it may have been just another opportunity to speak on "free market environmentalism" and not the kickoff of a "victory tour," nevertheless it comes at a time when PERC's ideas are taking root.
Bill Berkowitz Neil Bush of Saudi ArabiaDuring recent visit, President’s brother describes the country as a 'kind of tribal democracy' In late February, only a few days after Saudi Arabia beheaded four Sri Lankan robbers and then left their headless bodies on public display in the capital of Riyadh, Neil Bush, for the fourth time in the past six years, showed up for the country's Jeddah Economic Forum. The Guardian reported that Human Rights Watch "said the four men had no lawyers during their trial and sentencing, and were denied other basic legal rights." In an interview with Arab News, the Saudi English language paper, Bush described the country as "a kind of tribal democracy."
Bill Berkowitz Newt Gingrich's back door to the White HouseAmerican Enterprise Institute "Scholar" and former House Speaker blames media for poll showing 64 percent of the American people wouldn't vote for him under any circumstances Whatever it is that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has come to represent in American politics, the guy is nothing less than fascinating. One day he's espousing populist rhetoric about the need to cut the costs of college tuition and the next day he's talking World War III. One day he's claiming that the "war on terror" may force the abridgement of fundamental first amendment rights and the next he's advancing a twenty-first century version of his Contract with America. At the same time he's publicly proclaiming how "stupid" it is that the race for the presidency has already started you know that he's trying to figure out how to out finesse Rudy, McCain and Romney for the nomination. And last week, when Fox News' Chris Wallace cited a poll showing that 64 percent of the public would never vote for him, he was quick to blame those results on how unfairly he was treated by the mainstream media back in the day.
Bill Berkowitz American Enterprise Institute takes lead in agitating against IranDespite wrongheaded predictions about the war on Iraq, neocons are on the frontlines advocating military conflict with Iran After doing such a bang up job with their advice and predictions about the outcome of the war on Iraq, would it surprise you to learn that America's neoconservatives are still in business? While at this time we are not yet seeing the same intense neocon invasion of our living rooms -- via cable television's news networks -- that we saw during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, nevertheless, a host of policy analysts at conservative think tanks -- most notably the American Enterprise Institute -- are being heeded on Iran by those who count - folks inside the Bush Administration.
Bill Berkowitz After six years, opposition gaining on George W. Bush's Faith Based InitiativeUnmentioned in the president's State of the Union speech, the program nevertheless continues to recruit religious participants and hand out taxpayer money to religious groups With several domestic policy proposals unceremoniously folded into President Bush's recent State of the Union address, two pretty significant items failed to make the cut. Despite the president's egregiously tardy response to the event itself, it was nevertheless surprising that he didn't even mention Hurricane Katrina: He didn't offer up a progress report, words of hope to the victims, or come up with a proposal for moving the sluggish rebuilding effort forward. There were no "armies of compassion" ready to be unleashed, although it should be said that many in the religious community responded to the disaster much quicker than the Bush Administration. In the State of the Union address, however, there was no "compassionate conservatism" for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Bill Berkowitz Frank Luntz calls Republican leadership in Washington 'One giant whining windbag'On the outs with the GOP, legendary degrader of discourse is moving to California He doesn't make great art; nothing he does elevates the human spirit; he doesn't illuminate, he bamboozles. He has become expert in subterfuge, hidden meanings, word play and manipulation. Frank Luntz has been so good at what he does that those paying close attention gave it its own name: "Luntzspeak."
Bill Berkowitz Spooked by MoveOn.org, conservative movement seeks to emulate liberal powerhouseFueled with Silicon Valley money, TheVanguard.org will have Richard Poe, former editor of David Horowitz's FrontPage magazine as its editorial and creative director As Paul Weyrich, a founding father of the modern conservative movement and still a prominent actor in it, likes to say, he learned a great deal about movement building by closely observing what liberals were up to in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Bill Berkowitz Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action jihadFounder and Chair of the American Civil Rights Institute scouting five to nine states for new anti-affirmative action initiatives Fresh from his most recent victory -- in Michigan this past November -- Ward Connerly, the Black California-based maven of anti-affirmative action initiatives, appears to be preparing to take his jihad on the road. According to a mid-December report in the San Francisco Chronicle, Connerly said that he was "exploring moves into nine other states."
Bill Berkowitz Tom Tancredo's missionThe Republican congressman from Colorado will try to woo GOP voters with anti-immigration rhetoric and a boatload of Christian right politics These days, probably the most recognizable name in anti-immigration politics is Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo. Over the past year, Tancredo has gone from a little known congressman to a highly visible anti-immigration spokesperson. "Tancredo has thoroughly enmeshed himself in the anti-immigration movement and with the help of CNN talk show host Lou Dobbs, he has been given a national megaphone," Devin Burghart, the program director of the Building Democracy Initiative at the Center for New Community, a Chicago-based civil rights group, told Media Transparency.
Bill Berkowitz Institute on Religion and Democracy slams 'Leftist' National Council of ChurchesNew report from conservative foundation-funded IRD charges the NCC with being a political surrogate for MoveOn.org, People for the American Way and other liberal organizations If you prefer your religious battles sprinkled with demagoguery, sanctimoniousness, and simplistic attacks, the Institute on Religion and Democracy's (IRD) latest broadside against the National Council of Churches (NCC) certainly fits the bill.
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