Climate change has split the Evangelical Christian world asunder. On one side, a minority say that the biblical edict to look out for the poor and be good stewards of God’s creation makes them natural allies of those who would limit human emissions of greenhouse gases.
On the other, a far larger group argues that climate change is a fairy tale that progressives tell their children to scare them into being good little humanists, and environmentalism is a “false gospel” that threatens to co-opt the teachings of Christ himself.
• A new 12-disc (!) DVD series on the threat of the “Green Dragon” (environmentalism) is about 240 times more material than you need to get a grip on this movement, which is nicely summed up in this three-minute highlight reel assembled by Right Wing Watch. (via Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones)
• “From Captain Planet to Avatar: The Seduction of Our Youth” is the totally-not-made-up title of one of the discs in the series, notes OneNewsNow.
• This is about the conflation of politics and economics with religion, not some theological debate. Climate change is hokum and humans aren’t really the problem, argues Calvin Beisner, founder of the Cornwall Alliance for Stewardship of Creation, which produced the series. Beisner’s brand of disinformation, which is popular with America’s most visible conspiracy theorist, is mostly of the secular/paranoid variety:
[The Cancun climate conference] “isn’t about climate change,” says Beisner. “It’s about redistributing the world’s wealth and taking further steps toward global governance … its aims are both unjust and dangerous.”
• Evangelical environmentalists do exist. The “creation care” movement has grown considerably since 2006 and finds itself at a critical juncture as it debates how best to wield its influence with Republicans in Congress, reports Wen Stephenson in Slate. Evangelical environmentalists exist, and they’re lovely people. It’s too bad that they’ve been largely shunned by the wider movement for their “radical” views, reports Wen Stephenson in Slate. [Editor’s note: Apologies to Stephenson for the original mischaracterization of his article.] Grist also did a definitive, 12-part series on evangelicals and the environment in 2006.
• Because we are masochists, we transcribed the entire video. Here are a few standout quotations:
Around the world environmentalism has become a radical movement. Something we call the Green Dragon. And it is deadly. Deadly to human prosperity, deadly to human life, deadly to human freedom. And deadly to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Its lust for political power now extends to the highest global levels. And its twisted view of the world elevates nature above the needs of people, of even the poorest and the most helpless.
As a former pastor, I’m always on the alert to threats to the Christian faith. And make no mistake about it, environmentalism is exactly that. It is its own religion.
Environmental science simply does not have a good track record — not at all. Their false assertions are based more on their own morbid, pessimistic fears, not on any good science.
And scaring little children to achieve your political ends is reprehensible.
• Full transcript:
Announcer:
In what has become one of the greatest deceptions of our day, radical environmentalism is striving to put America, and the world, under its destructive control.
This so-called “Green Dragon” is seducing your children in our classrooms and popular culture. [Screen flashes images of Al Gore pointing at a hurricane and the headline “climate change” on a newspaper.]
Its lust for political power now extends to the highest global levels. And its twisted view of the world elevates nature above the needs of people, of even the poorest and the most helpless. With millions falling prey to its spiritual deception, the time is now to stand and resist.
Around the world environmentalism has become a radical movement. Something we call the Green Dragon. And it is deadly. Deadly to human prosperity, deadly to human life, deadly to human freedom. And deadly to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Make no mistake about it, environmentalism is no longer your friend: It is your enemy.
And the battle is not primarily political or material: It is spiritual.
Ryan Fischer, Director, Issue Analysis for Government and Public Policy, American Family Association:
As a former pastor, I’m always on the alert to threats to the Christian faith. And make no mistake about it, environmentalism is exactly that. It is its own religion.
Dr. E. Caivin Beisner, Founer, Cornwall Alliance:
The environmental movement, has actually become what I call the “cult of the Green Dragon,” and we need to be prepared as Christians to rescue people from that cult.
Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council:
Increasingly I believe Bible-believing Christians are becoming aware and as a result more concerned about the underlying philosophy of the radical environmental agenda, and how it’s pointing people away from God and into Humanism.
Dr. Richard Land, President, Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Southern Baptist Convention:
Environmentalists have a long history of believing and promoting exaggerations and myths.
David Barton, Founder, WallBuilders:
Environmental science simply does not have a good track record — not at all. Their false assertions are based more on their own morbid, pessimistic fears, not on any good science.
Bryan Fischer, again:
Exaggerations, myths and outright lies are commonplace in the environmental movement.
Tom Minnery, Sr. Vice President of Public Policy, Focus on the Family:
When we think about science, we think about the truth. Yet in so-called “global warming science,” we’ve gotten a lot less than the truth many times.
Wendy Wright, President, Concerned Women for America:
And yet the policies that environmental groups and even these evangelical groups got behind were ones that would consign the poorest of people around the world to grinding poverty, to disease, to premature death.
Bishop Harry Jackson, Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church:
Folks, this shouldn’t happen — we need to stop the war on the poor.
[Unidentified speaker]:
And scaring little children to achieve your political ends is reprehensible.
Announcer:
As Christians, we must actively trust God and obey his word. So when it comes to environmental stewardship, we must reject the false worldview, the faulty science and the counterfeit gospel that threatens to corrupt society and the church.
We must exercise wise dominion over the magnificent planet God has entrusted to us.
