{"id":611,"date":"2007-03-02T16:18:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-02T16:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godspolitics\/2007\/03\/jim-wallis-dobson-and-friends-get.html"},"modified":"2007-03-02T16:18:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-02T16:18:00","slug":"jim-wallis-dobson-and-friends-get","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/03\/jim-wallis-dobson-and-friends-get.html","title":{"rendered":"Jim Wallis: Dobson and Friends, Outside the Mainstream, Get Personal on Global Warming"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once again, the hard-core Religious Right has gone on the attack, orchestrating a new campaign to advance their Far Right political views. In a letter to the chairman of the National Evangelical Association Board<\/a>, James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer, and their cohorts claim that \u201cThe existence of global warming and its implications for mankind is a subject of heated controversy throughout the world.\u201d And even more bizarre, there was another report this morning that in his sermon last Sunday, Jerry Falwell claimed the debate over global warming is a tool of Satan being used to distract churches<\/a> from their primary focus of preaching the gospel. Falwell, Dobson, and their friends are wrong, and this time their attack shows just how far outside the evangelical mainstream<\/a> the Religious Right’s views have become.<\/p>\n

The truth, which almost everyone except them acknowledges, is there is little reasonable doubt left about the threat posed to the earth by climate change. There is an international consensus among scientists, religious leaders, business leaders, and economists that we must act, and act now<\/a>, to preserve a world for our children. Just a month ago, the leading international network of climate change scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, concluded for the first time that global warming is “unequivocal” and that it is with 90% certainty due to human activity. The <\/em>New York Times<\/em> called the report <\/a>\u201ca bleak and powerful assessment of the future of the planet….\u201d You can read the full report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the Religious Right is also now personally targeting the NAE\u2019s vice president for governmental affairs, Rich Cizik. They claim that Cizik is \u201cdividing and demoralizing the NAE\u201d by orchestrating a \u201crelentless campaign\u201d opposing global warming. And they end by suggesting that \u201che be encouraged to resign his position with the NAE.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cizik, far from dividing evangelicals, is part of a broad evangelical consensus<\/a> on global warming. He is a respected evangelical leader who is bringing Christians together to address the growing danger of climate change, and is literally a hero to a new generation of evangelical students and pastors. That new generation has made \u201ccreation care\u201d a mainstream evangelical issue. A statement last year by the Evangelical Climate Initiative<\/a>, signed by 86 national evangelical leaders, including 39 Christian college presidents, noted that \u201cwe are convinced that evangelicals must engage this issue without any further lingering over the basic reality of the problem or humanity’s responsibility to address it.\u201d The statement added: \u201cLove of God, love of neighbor, and the demands of stewardship are more than enough reason for evangelical Christians to respond to the climate change problem with moral passion and concrete action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. John McCain, in an op-ed with Sen. Joe Lieberman,<\/a> recently declared: \u201cThe debate has ended over whether global warming is a problem caused by human activity. \u2026 There is now a broad consensus in this country, and indeed in the world, that global warming is happening, that it is a serious problem, and that humans are causing it.\u201d In a powerful commentary in this morning’s Washington Post<\/em>, “The Climate Change Precipice<\/a>“, David Ignatius wrote, “The scientific debate about whether there is a global warming problem is pretty much over. … Skeptical researchers will continue to question the data, but this isn’t a ‘call both sides for comment\u2019 issue anymore. For mainstream science, it’s settled.”<\/p>\n

But the Religious Right is so used to being able to veto debates by their proclamations that when they see they are losing, they go on the attack. So if they think the debate is not over, let\u2019s have a debate. We will respond; stay tuned next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once again, the hard-core Religious Right has gone on the attack, orchestrating a new campaign to advance their Far Right political views. In a letter to the chairman of the National Evangelical Association Board, James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer, and their cohorts claim that \u201cThe existence of global warming and its implications for mankind…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":379,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-global-warming"],"yoast_head":"\nJim Wallis: Dobson and Friends, Outside the Mainstream, Get Personal on Global Warming - God's Politics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/03\/jim-wallis-dobson-and-friends-get.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jim Wallis: Dobson and Friends, Outside the Mainstream, Get Personal on Global Warming - God's Politics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Once again, the hard-core Religious Right has gone on the attack, orchestrating a new campaign to advance their Far Right political views. 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