08 February 2006

Evangelical Leaders Urge Action on Climate Change

Evangelical Leaders Urge Action on Climate Change: "In an 'Evangelical Call to Action,' 86 leaders call on President Bush to take greater steps toward curbing global warming. The initiative is a bit of a political departure for a movement that is often closely aligned with the president and the Republican Party."

There is a group that is out there from what some would call conservative Christians that are calling for curbing global warming. However, if they are, they have broken ranks with some of the big leaders and I'm all for it. The reason? While I agree that the globe is warming; I think that there is more to it than just us as the media and some would say. However, as I have posted before, we do a poor job with taking care of the creation that God has given to us.

One of the leaders that is standing against the 86 for urging action against climate change(which includes Pastor Rick Warren, author of the Purpose Driven Life) thinks that:

...the Bible makes clear that God expects human beings to take care of the earth. But "human beings come first in God's created order," he adds. "And that primacy must be given to human beings and for human betterment. If that means that other parts of nature take a back seat, well, then they take a back seat."

The Bible also says this: 1 John 4:20-21(NASB), "If someone says , 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also." We all will be affected by global climate change, but the ones that will feel the affects the most will be the poor and oppressed, not to mention the generations to come. So which is more important, bettering humanity at the expense of nature, which will probably add to our consumerism mentality and continue oppressing the poor, or dealing with the pollution caused by our consumerism, taking care of the environment and thus better humanity? Things like this has come down to the story of Jesus healing the paralytic on the Sabbath in Mark. The question Jesus asked the Pharisees was which is better to do good or evil on the Sabbath? So the question that I raise is, which is better, to continue to pollute the environment to the detriment of future generations or to clean up the environment and so that we save God's creation (and in addition better the human race)?

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