A global split?
Religion & Liberty Online

A global split?

Mark Tooley in the Weekly Standard – “The Religious Left thinks that global warming is about to break-up the Religious Right.”

According to Wallis, “biblically-faithful Christians” are soon going to turn against the Religious Right and instead follow his Religious Left. Instead, it seems more likely that an easy acceptance of apocalyptic warnings about a burning planet will ultimately confirm, not overturn, the political leanings of conservative evangelicals.

It troubles me that Wallis seems to hope it does; confirms the fear of many that ecology is too devisive for the Church. But I don’t see average Christians looking at GW apocalyptically either. If there’s a CO2 problem, people will respond to it appropriately and expect things to get better when they do.

Christian folk fall into the same camps secular greens do, with progressives (main-line liberal denominations like the PCUSA, etc) taking a more activist line and conservatives (generally evangelicals) doing church-level stewardship like recycling cans.

I agree with Dobson and Colson:

“We are evangelicals and we care about God’s creation,” read the Dobson-Colson-Land letter. “However, we believe there should be room for Bible-believing evangelicals to disagree about the cause, severity, and solutions to the global warming issue.” The letter urged NAE to foster “unity” in the Christian community.

GW is a devisive issue from a completely human standpoint. But if the Church Universal depends on a God who made the world and who has not abandoned it, maybe we can agree to disagree and still keep fellowship with each other.

John Couretas

is a writer and editor based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.