The Ottery
“If an otter can’t have fun doing something, it just simply won’t do it.”

And also much cattle: Evangelicals take a stand against global warming

February 8th, 2006

I heard a story on NPR this morning that made my cynical little heart a bit more otter-like for the day. According to the report, 86 evangelical Christian leaders have signed The Evangelical Climate Initiative (pdf), a document calling for immediate governmental and individual action to halt global warming. Prominent signatories are as diverse as Rick Warren, Ron Sider, and Duane Litfin, President of Wheaton College (hardly a poster child for social activism).

One of the things that impressed me was how both the document and the NPR report about it stressed the evangelicals’ dual concern for human and nonhuman inhabitants of creation. It’s not an either-or issue. NPR described Leith Anderson’s view that “global warming is a social justice issue because, he says, it is the poor who feel the brunt of famine or flooding that may come from climate changes.” Whoa! The evangelical pastor of a megachurch defends environmentalism by saying it’s a social justice issue. Not so long ago, “social justice” was a no-no word in evangelical lingo. Thank you, Bono, for helping it become acceptable.

Of course, the report also quoted Christians who oppose the Evangelical Climate Initiative, namely Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Land argued that “human beings come first in God’s created order” 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.” Land obviously didn’t read the Initiative document, and I do find myself asking how closely he’s read the Bible (not that I necessarily read it any better).

The NPR story itself was impressive in that it drew attention to diversity of opinion within the evangelical community, refusing to simply conflate the terms “evangelical” and “religious right,” as often happens in the media and, even more sadly, in our churches.

The otters of the world raise their webbed paws and clap for the Evangelical Climate Initiative. And this Otter also applauds NPR for its well balanced and timely story.

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