Posted: 6/22/07
Senator asserts global warming divides,
distracts evangelicals from core issues
By Daniel Burke
Religion News Service
WASHINGTON—Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., criticized efforts to enlist evangelicals to fight global warming as a “brilliant idea to divide and conquer” and distract them from “core values issues.”
Inhofe, who has been highly critical of climate change “alarmists,” made his remarks during a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee dedicated to religious views on global warming.
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Global warming has become a hot topic among evangelicals and other religious conservatives, with old-line conservatives such as Focus on the Family founder James Dobson battling attempts by younger Christians to make it part of the agenda for the nation’s estimated 60 million evangelicals.
Inhofe, a Presbyterian, used the hearing to slam Richard Cizik, the environmentally minded vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals, as an “alarmist” who “does not represent the views of most evangelicals.” He also challenged recent surveys that report a growing number of evangelicals are concerned about the issue.
Inhofe claimed liberals have struck upon a “brilliant idea” to use global warming to “divide and conquer the evangelical community and get people (moving) away from the core values issues.”
The witnesses Inhofe called—Jim Tonkowich of the Institute on Religion and Democracy; Russell Moore, dean of the school of theology of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; and controversial author David Barton—all challenged the idea that evangelicals support government action on climate change.
But Jim Ball, president of the Evangelical Environmental Network, said recent polls suggest 70 percent of evangelicals think global warming poses a threat to future generations. Ball also pointed to the Evangelical Climate Initiative, signed by more than 100 senior and evangelical leaders “who believe that a vigorous response to global warming is a spiritual and moral imperative.”
“We’re engaged on this issue because we care about the poor,” who would be hardest hit by the effects of climate change, Ball said.
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