Group: Evangelicals Misrepresented on Global Warming Issue
A group formed by evangelicals is arguing that they are being misrepresented by the new evangelical-scientist coalition as united on the climate change issue, when they are not.
The Interfaith Stewardship Alliance, a group formed in opposition to last year’s “Evangelical Climate Change Initiative,” said it is troubled by the Coalition’s media advisory which said the National Associations of Evangelicals endorsed the group’s statement.
Dr. E. Calvin Beisner, ISA spokesman and social ethics professor at Knox Theological Seminary in Florida, said that he received information directly from an NAE board member that said the board has not taken official action on the issue, ISA reported.
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A panel of 12 leading evangelicals and scientists gathered on Wednesday to release a joint statement in “one voice” urging changes in values, lifestyle, and public policies to address climate change problems.
The coalition was formed out of a shared vision between the Rev. Rich Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, and Eric Chivian, Nobel laureate and director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School.
Although the NAE officially states that Christians have a responsibility to care for God’s creation, it does not endorse a political stance on the issue, ISA claimed.
When questioned on Wednesday about the NAE’s board support for the initiative, Cizik had responded, “The NAE board has endorsed this dialogue. I think that is really important because it indicates that we acknowledge as the NAE that there are evangelicals who are not yet with us on this and we understand it.”
ISA believes in caring for the environment but differs with Cizik and some evangelicals by believing that “global warming” is caused naturally and not by human activities.
“It is largely, if not entirely, caused by natural factors, especially changes in solar energy and solar wind output,” said Beisner, according to OneNewsNow.
He argues that efforts to reduce carbon dioxide would require reduction in fossil fuels resulting in increase energy prices and length of time poor people in the world live without electricity.
Evangelical astronomer, Dr. Hugh Ross, founder/president of the ministry Reasons to Believe, also believes other factors contribute to global warming other than fossil fuel burnings. In an interview in December with The Christian Post, he said the natural warming of the earth due to alternations in the Earth’s orbit, breeding and domestication of cows and cultivation of rice contribute more to the warming of the Earth than fossil fuel burnings.
Beisner, however, acknowledged that, “The coalition that is being formed at this point may very well be able to do some good things,” according to OneNewsNow. But he emphasized that there is no “growing consensus” among evangelicals about global warming.
