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Eighty-Six evangelical Christian leaders have backed an initiative to fight global warming, saying "millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors."
Among signers of the statement are the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges, leaders of aid groups and churches, like the Salvation Army, and pastors of megachurches, including Rick Warren, author of the best seller "The Purpose-Driven Life."
The major knock on Evangelicals is that they often behave like brain dead cavemen who never deviate from the backwards party line. However, recent actions by Warren (such as supporting AIDS patients) are showing that some major Evangelical leaders are prepared to think independently and respect sound science. Warren and others should be applauded, especially because their actions are taking criticism from the usual suspects. According to the New York Times:
Some of the nation's most high-profile evangelical leaders, however, have tried to derail such action. Twenty-two of them signed a letter in January declaring, "Global warming is not a consensus issue." Among the signers were Charles W. Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries; James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family; and Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.
What I find most encouraging is that some evangelical leaders, such as Warren, are addressing real issues instead of the useless culture war crap that does nothing for families, except divide them. I would hope that he and others would unequivocally state that homosexuality isn't sin. However, they are doing the next best thing, which is focusing on love, rather than hot-button issues that serve no purpose other than fundraising.
Congratulations to the Evangelicals who did the right thing for a change, rather than the right wing thing. I look forward to seeing more such inspired work from Warren and others. You know, it is nice to be able to praise them for a change.
3 Comments:
Here is something to think about. Even though you will probably disagree with Rick Warren's ideas about homosexuality (I certainly do), his book about organizational effectiveness, The Purpose-Driven Church, makes some remarkably good points and has some excellent plans for helping revive organizations that may have fallen into stagnation or decline. I read Warren's book as part of a church "revisioning" process about 10 years ago, but have been able to transfer many of his points and lessons to other groups, including political groups, in which I'm active. If you can see past or around or through the explicitly Christian message in his book, I would strongly recommend the Purpose-Driven Church to anyone who is trying to make a group or organization more effective, competent and forceful.
Rick Warren's book is great, but there are some other evangelical conservative Christians who disagree with certain stances he's taking, specifically that of his spoken support of "the emerging church"...that seems to have a connotation of a new interpretation of God's word vs. that of the Bible.
posted by Anonymous, at
2/09/2006 5:21 PM
Would it be possible for those who choose to make comments to this page ever comment without gross generalities, i.e."evangelicals..often behave like braindead cavemen and never deviate from the backwards party line." There may be some braindead evangelicals just as there are some braindead scientists, doctors, writers, actors, etc. Hoping that Rick Warren and others will state "unequivocally" that homosexuality is not sin" indicates that the author of that statement cannot read,and of course that makes me one of those braindead evangelicals that read the Bible. No matter if 6 billion people state that homosexuality is not a sin, God said it is.I choose to align my thinking with the Bible and if that makes me 'braindead' that's cool.
posted by Anonymous, at
8/01/2006 6:00 PM
