[Vision2020] Church Urges Climate Change

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (March 10, 2008) Spokesman Review -

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Church urges climate action 
Southern Baptists vow to fight warming

NEW YORK – In a major shift, a group of Southern Baptist leaders said 
their denomination has been "too timid" on environmental issues and has a 
biblical duty to stop global warming.

The declaration, signed by the president of the Southern Baptist 
Convention, among others, and released today, shows a growing urgency 
about climate change even within groups that once dismissed claims of an 
overheating planet as a liberal ruse. The conservative denomination has 
16.3 million members and is the largest Protestant group in the U.S.

The signers of "A Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and 
Climate Change" acknowledged that not all Christians accept the science 
behind global warming. They said they do not expect fellow believers to 
back any proposed solutions that would violate Scripture, such as 
advocating population control through abortion.

However, the leaders said that current evidence of global warming 
is "substantial," and that the threat is too grave to wait for perfect 
knowledge about whether, or how much, people contribute to the trend.

"We believe our current denominational resolutions and engagement with 
these issues have often been too timid," according to the statement. "Our 
cautious response to these issues in the face of mounting evidence may be 
seen by the world as uncaring, reckless and ill-informed. We can do 
better."

No one speaks on behalf of all Southern Baptists, who leave decision-
making to local churches. Yet, the signatories represent some of the top 
figures in the convention.

Among them are the denomination's president, the Rev. Frank Page of South 
Carolina; two former presidents, the Rev. James Merritt of Georgia and the 
Rev. Jack Graham of Texas; and the Rev. Ronnie Floyd of Arkansas, who 
helped conservatives solidify control of the denomination in the 1970s and 
1980s.

Also backing the effort are presidents of three prominent Baptist-
affiliated schools: David Dockery of Union University in Tennessee; 
Timothy George of Samford University's Beeson Divinity School in Alabama; 
and Danny Akin of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in North 
Carolina. More than 35 people signed the statement.

Supporters plan to collect more signatures for the declaration through 
baptistcreationcare.org and encourage congregations to advocate for 
environmental protection.

Even before Monday's statement, religious activism on climate change had 
broadened beyond just liberal-leaning churches. The 1993 "Evangelical 
Declaration on the Care of Creation" became a guiding document for the 
Evangelical Environmental Network. The Rev. Rich Cizik, Washington 
director of the National Association of Evangelicals, became a prominent 
environmental advocate, trying to persuade conservative Christians that 
global warming is real. Polls of younger evangelicals found they 
considered environmental protection a priority.

But many of the most conservative Christians, including some Southern 
Baptist leaders, remained skeptical, and vigorously challenged evangelical 
environmentalists.

The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, backed by James 
Dobson of Focus on the Family and Charles Colson, founder of Prison 
Fellowship ministries, among others, said that while conservation is 
important, some environmental concerns "are without foundation or greatly 
exaggerated." Last year, Dobson and other Christian conservatives 
unsuccessfully pressured the National Association of Evangelicals to 
silence Cizik on the issue.

The last Southern Baptist statement on global warming came at the 
denomination's 2007 annual meeting, which approved a statement questioning 
the belief that humans are largely to blame for climate change and warning 
that increased regulation of greenhouse gases will hurt the poor.

Even so, Jonathan Merritt, a student at Southeastern Baptist Theological 
Seminary, began rallying denominational leaders to take a different 
approach. Merritt, 25, son of former convention president James Merritt, 
said a theology class had inspired him.

His professor had compared destroying God's creation to "tearing a page 
out of the Bible."

"That struck me. It broke me," the younger Merritt said in an 
interview, "and that was the impetus that began … a shift of perspective 
for me."

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By the Numbers . . .

1845 - Southern Baptist Convention Founded in Augusta, Ga.

16 million members

42,000 - Churches in the United States. 

5,000 - Home missionaries serving in the United States, Canada, Guam and 
the Caribbean

53 - Nations where missionaries serve. 

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"People who ridicule others while hiding behind anonymous monikers in chat-
room forums are neither brave nor clever." 

- Latah County Sheriff Wayne Rausch (August 21,
2007)

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