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by Karissa Clark
with
Benjamin Tertin

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Global Warming Debate
Divides Evangelicals

Are planes, trains and automobiles causing the planet's temperature to rise?
-- Dale Grauman, photo

Desperate cartoon polar bears cling to melting glaciers before drowning in a swollen ocean. That scene, an introduction to a recent Oscar-winning documentary, presents a grim look at the world's future ecology. The film's claim: Human beings are responsible for global warming.

The film represents a rapidly escalating political, and now religious, debate.

Evangelicals agree that God created the world and has control over it, including human activity. But when they integrate theology with science and ecology, divisions grow over the nature of global warming, especially concerning the human responsibility.

Many scientists blame the rising global temperature during the past 50 years on rising levels of carbon dioxide, a byproduct from fossil fuel consumption. Some meteorological models predict that widespread drought and raised sea levels will result from the increased atmospheric temperatures.

Dr. Calvin Beisner, professor at Knox Theological Seminary in Florida, is a board member of the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance. This organization contests statements that blame human activity for global warming.

"We believe that this climate change is natural," Dr. Beisner said. "It cannot be mitigated."

Citing Genesis 1:22-28, he said, "The [Bible] is saying the earth will not cease; it will continue to function." He said attempts to alter natural, cyclical processes of the earth are unnecessary. "I'm convinced," Dr. Beisner said, "that the cost to humanity of suppressing carbon dioxide emissions would not be worth it."

Christians on the other side of the debate believe that legitimate scientific evidence supports a human-caused model of global climate change, and therefore encourage fellow believers to regard their impact on nature as a matter of environmental stewardship.

Dr. Jim Ball, author of "Planting a Tree this Afternoon: Global Warming, Public Theology, and Public Policy" and executive director of the Evangelical Environmental Network, works as an evangelical activist for ethical and environmental change.

"When you're trying to make conclusions for society, you need the best data available," he said. "We have to look at what the world's leading scientists have been saying."

Dr. Paul Metzger, director of New Wine, New Wineskins, said, "For a growing number of evangelicals, the question is not does global warming exist, but what are the causes, human or non-human? What are the long-term risks if global warming continues unabated?"

Evangelical leader Dr. James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family, worked with 24 other evangelical leaders to write a letter to the National Association of Evangelicals, dated March 1, 2007.

The letter said that the science behind global warming remains inconclusive and stated: "We have observed that [NAE vice president Dr. Richard] Cizik and others are using the global warming controversy to shift the emphasis away from the great moral issues of our time, notably the sanctity of human life, the integrity of marriage and the teaching of sexual abstinence and morality to our children."

In 2004, more than 100 pastors and church leaders, including World Vision president Richard Stearns and Dr. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church, signed the Environmental Climate Initiative. This statement encourages Christians to care for the environment -- to be good stewards -- more than it addresses the specific scientific issues of global warming.

Dr. Ball said, "As individuals, there are things we can do to be stewards of God's creation: We've done the 'fill and subdue' command, but we are also to tend and keep the garden."

Dr. Metzger said: "I just had a conversation with someone the other day who is skeptical of the science -- in terms of human-caused global warming. But he does want to be a good steward. When people claim to be lords over creation, they are taking on the role of God. But God alone is Lord over all creation, and we are accountable to Him."

Dr. Beisner said he rejects the idea that the earth is a fragile system suddenly affected by human activity during the industrial era. This would require that God created an unbalanced world, he said, one where destructive human actions are more powerful than nature itself. "We recognize that God's created system is good and has both positive and negative [factors]," Dr. Beisner said.

Dr. Beisner said that evangelicals should not start wasting billions in an attempt to solve "mythological problems."

The United Nations disagrees. Its members recently constructed a treaty at the Kyoto Global Warming Summit that demanded significant reduction of fossil-fuel emissions. Already, five U.S. governors have enacted state regulations in accordance with the treaty. Both presidents Clinton and Bush refused to sign it.

Dr. Beisner said, "If we adopt the Kyoto [Summit's rules], we are adopting policies that hurt the poor -- all those developing countries that need fossil-fuel production for basic industry and health."

Dr. Ball said, "As Christians we don't say that we won't behave morally until you do -- you don't have any credibility if you don't follow what you recommend. We need to get our house in order."

The debate continues as evangelicals split along theological lines. Dr. Metzger said that New Wine, New Wineskins will work toward opening dialogue on this topic between evangelicals. The New Wine conference in October is devoted to the issue.

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