[Vision2020] Church Urges Climate Change

Mon Mar 10 08:40:15 PDT 2008

Well, considering how often the Southern Baptists have gotten it wrong over the decades (support for segregation, insistence on male headship, ignoring poverty, stripping long-term church workers of their responsibilities over the infallibility issue), it appears that, in this at least, the tide has turned.  I'm grateful.  After a week of flag-dipping for Jesus, hyper-masculine boys playing action-hero Jesus, and other silliness, it's nice to hear of a Christian group allowing the Spirit to change its hearts and minds on an issue that the Church never should have been silent about in the first place.  I'm afraid Dobson and Colson have only solidified their intention to continue to look at the world through GOP-colored glasses.

And my thanks to Ted for his tireless work to educate us on environmental issues, and to Nick for the links that illustrate the Church's unfortunate Exercises In Missing The Point.  Concerning the latter, and addressed to my off-list pal who wonders why I support someone's demonstrating things that make Christianity look bad, I'll say this:  My steadfast hope is in Christ Jesus and the ability of those who know him to rise up against ecclesiastical bigotry and absurdity for the benefit of those who don't know him.  If uncomfortable news of our world upsets believers, they ought to repudiate the dumb and seek more of the Divine.   Shooting the messenger, my friend Prof. Gier, is the option of those who lack the guts to confront the absurdity within.

Anyway, good for the Southern Baptists!

Keely

> To: vision2020 at moscow.com
> From: thansen at moscow.com
> Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:36:24 +0000
> Subject: [Vision2020] Church Urges Climate Change
> 
> >From today's (March 10, 2008) Spokesman Review -
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------
> 
> 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."
> 
> -----------------
> 
> 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. 
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------
> 
> 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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>            http://www.fsr.com/
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> 

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