Media Transparency

Regular html version with links

Bill Berkowitz
February 21, 2006

The Evangelical Climate Initiative: A small crack in the conservative movement

One 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.