The Post has the best news I've heard in a long time for the future of the environment both at home and abroad: Christian evangelicals have finally made the connection between their faith and good stewardship of the Earth.
While the label "environmentalist" conjures up images of tree-worshipping liberals, the words "creation care" are beginning to resonate for many on the Christian right, including Focus on the Family's incredibly influential Dr. James Dobson.
I can't express what great news this is for environmental policy in America. It has often confounded me how liberals would so easily alienate our natural allies in environmental concerns, hunters and fishermen.
I live in an overdeveloped city and hardly ever get a chance to experience nature these days, and I vote for left-leaning candidates. Meanwhile, my previous boss is a hunter who takes a week off every few months to go out into the wilderness and bow hunt with friends, and he votes Republican. He's the guy that we should be reaching out to. I mean, for Christ's sake, if we on the left accept that having an abortion is a personal decision, we can certainly agree that the decision to eat meat is a personal choice that we can respect.
In point of fact, the best hope that America has for sound environmental policy is for conservatives, especially those of faith, to recognize that unrestrained poisoning of the air and water is immoral. Christian conservatives, unlike liberal environmentalists, sit on corporate boards for oil and energy companies. If their communities of faith begin educating them about the moral reasons for good stewardship, then the battle if half won already.
Can you imagine what would happen if the pastor of Tom DeLay's church began to preach on creation care? Let's hope that this really catches on, because it would represent the greatest influx of people into the environmental movement in a generation or more. More importantly, it would bring in a lot of people from suburban areas, who can help influence sane development strategies, and rural areas, whose homes and health are threatened by pollution that often originates hundreds of miles away.
Traditional environmentalists are caricatured by the right wing media and ignored by most people. If Christian conservatives begin talking about the dangers of global warming and sulfur emissions, Rush Limbaugh will have a hard time neutralizing their arguments. This is the best news for the environment, and the environmental movement, that I've heard in years.
2 comments:
Hi Sha, and welcome to the Newshog team. Thanks for this story, I wouldve hated to miss it.
From the article you cited:
"The environment is a values issue," said the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals. "There are significant and compelling theological reasons why it should be a banner issue for the Christian right."
In October, the association's leaders adopted an "Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility" that, for the first time, emphasized every Christian's duty to care for the planet and the role of government in safeguarding a sustainable environment.Bush and his big-oil cronies must feel like the other shoe is dropping reading this! I hope it makes a real impact.
Regards, Cernig.
Thanks, Cernig!
I hope that the article is both accurate and gives pause to the traditional alliance of Republicans and business, but the issue is so much larger than any one administration or even political parties. We're breaking things that it is beyond our capacities to fix, and sometimes we don't even know it until it's too late.
I would love for the "values voters" (do they find that term as condescending as I do?) to step towards the mainstream on the side of preserving and conserving resources, energy, and ultimately, our sanity.
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