Green Evangelicals

RELIGION IN THE NEWS

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.  This week’s item is from Religion News Service, September 29, 2007, with a headline:  “Some Evangelicals Go Green.”  The following are excerpts: “When Harry Jackson saw melting glaciers and devastated forests on a recent trip to Alaska, he decided global warming should be a higher priority on his list of key issues for evangelicals.  ‘I thought the globe was warming, but I thought there was a whole lot of hype attached and there were not a lot of practical solutions presented,’ said Jackson, pastor of a mega church in Beltsville, Maryland.  The trip to Alaska was a bit of a “Road to Damascus moment” for Jackson, a leading voice among conservative black pastors.  Earlier this year, he had gone on CNN to question environmentally-friendly evangelical leaders and joined a protest against Richard Cizik, the green-minded Vice President of the National Association of Evangelicals.  But now, after traveling with scientists and evangelicals on a week-long trip last month, sponsored by HarvardMedicalSchool and the NAE, Jackson is ready to work to bring evangelicals from the left and right together to address reducing carbon emissions and oil use.  ‘I believe we can kind of come to a working agreement on an environmental agenda,’ he said.  Jackson, though moved by the sight of an Eskimo village losing island homes to storm surge erosion, remains hesitant to embrace some energy-reducing recommendations.  But he admits he’s a changed man, who better understands the need for environmental justice.  ‘You’re not going to change this problem by turning lights off so many hours a day,’ said Jackson, who also flew over forests eaten up by spruce bark, beetles, whose reproductive rates have increased with warmer temperatures.  Other evangelical leaders are being outspoken in other ways.  Progressive evangelical pastor Rob Bell, who leads MarsHillBibleChurch in Grandville, Michigan, recently concluded a summer sermon series on ‘God is Green.’  Bell preached on the environment for five years, and made family life style changes such as downsizing from two cars to one, and swapping a clothes dryer for a clothes line.”

Tom:

Dave, it seems to me that, based on what I have read, based on what I observe, that indeed the world is going through, this earth is going through a warming phase.  But what I’ve read is, it does that periodically, maybe centuries apart, but that’s what happens.  The question is: why are we sort of mustering the troops thinking we can change this world and its environment by cutting back on emissions?  It’s not that some of this isn’t good, because you know you don’t want to live in a city that has smog, and so on.  But is this, Harry Jackson talks about a whole lot of hype.  But you know you used to think it was a lot of hype.  Well, it is a lot of hype.  But, what do we do about it?  And are there things we can do about it, or are we creating much ado about something that we honestly can't control?

Dave:

We're not the only country in the world.  We do use an awful lot of energy, an awful lot of petroleum, etc.  But, I remember being in the Soviet Union back in those days, and talk about smog, I mean, what they did to the environment was wicked.  At least we're not quite that bad.  I mean, you've got trucks belching black smoke everywhere, but—

Tom:

Well you might as well add China to that.

Dave:

Yes.

Tom:

Our Olympics are going to be an interesting, not our Olympics, but the Olympics are going to be interesting just from that basis.  Try to breathe there.

Dave:

I understand some athletes are backing out.  They don't want to kill themselves.  Well, I think just one volcano can send more contamination into this atmosphere—

Tom:

We weren't living in central Oregon when Mt.St. Helens blew.  I’ve talked to people that have.  Boy, that was tough!

Dave:

Yeah, but there are gases that are out there still, I presume.  They eventually disperse.  But, Tom, I have studied this in the past, and I must confess that I have not brushed up on it.  I didn't know we were going to have this news item.  But— 

Tom:

Well, you knew that Al Gore just got the Nobel Peace Prize for his work, his efforts to curb global warming.

Dave:

Yes.  Well, there are many scientists who disagree.  Very strongly disagree.  And they say exactly what you just said.  It goes through cycles.  And there are periods of warming and then there are, you know, could go into another ice cycle as well.  And the polar ice cap could build up tremendously in a short time.

Tom:

Dave, we've got an article about one scientist whose belief is, (I think he's a Russian scientist,) that he sees the same thing happening on the planet Mars, that they're going through the same warming trend.  So, obviously, you can't say that man is causing this.  Man's not causing what's going on on Mars.  He says it's because of the sun, things that are taking place on the sun.  Now, let's get back to, we just have a few minutes left here, but let's go to Rob Bell, since we've been talking about the EmergingChurch.  He's an EmergingChurch leader.  He says, "God is green."  What does that mean?

Dave:

Well, I guess God likes green things and he wants us to—

Tom:

Be environmentally—

Dave:

Right.  That's what they're talking about.  The Green Party, the Green movement.  So, but well, I believe in green things.  I like green things.  They're really good for you.  And I know there are a lot of problems, but, Tom, as you drive over the pass to Eugene—

Tom:

Here in Oregon.

Dave:

—Which you do now and then, I mean, you've got some forests that are being devastated, not by man, but by beetles or all kinds of—

Tom:

Natural critters.

Dave:

Right.  And we are bad, but I don't think we're the worst.  The environment has been suffering from other things for a long time.  I think that tsunami, wow, that did a whole lot more damage than man has done or could do in a lot of time.  So, I'm concerned.  I think we should be conservative, we should conserve energy, etc., but it's not the way Gore is misrepresenting it to get a little fame out of this.  I don't know what his ulterior motives may possibly be, but we have to think straight and there are some other scientists that we ought to listen to.