For my birthday, I wanted Al Gore‘s book and DVD, An Inconvenient Truth. I told Wendy that if she didn’t get it for me, we would just go out and purchase it so she got me something else and it was going to be something that we just picked up together. From the Reimers, I was given a gift certificate for McNally Robinson which fit in perfectly with my plans to get the book and DVD. Wendy called over and had the last copy of each set aside and I dropped over and bought them. She also called around town to most of the DVD outlets that sold the DVD and it was sold out all over the city.Dobson , the founder of Focus on the Family, and two dozen other conservative Christian leaders, including Gary L. Bauer, Tony Perkins and Paul M. Weyrich , sent the board a letter this month denouncing the association’s vice president, the Rev. Richard Cizik, for urging attention to global warming.The letter argued that evangelicals are divided on whether climate change is a real problem, and it said that “Cizik and others are using the global warming controversy to shift the emphasis away from the great moral issues of our time,” such as abortion and same-sex marriage.
If Cizik “cannot be trusted to articulate the views of American evangelicals on environmental issues, then we respectfully suggest that he be encouraged to resign his position with the NAE,” the letter concluded.
The Rev. Leith Anderson , the association’s president, said yesterday that the board did not respond to the letter during a two-day meeting that ended Friday in Minneapolis. But, he said, the board reaffirmed a 2004 position paper, “For the Health of the Nations,” that outlined seven areas of civic responsibility for evangelicals, including creation care along with religious freedom, nurturing the family, sanctity of life, compassion for the poor, human rights and restraining violence.
What had Cizik really done? Why would Dobson, arguably the most powerful evangelical in politics, care about the statements of a tree hugger? Beltway evangelicals have a few ideas. First, Cizik has started to publicly embrace solutions to the environmental crisis more commonly associated with the left than the right. In other words, he’s thought to be a Democratic sympathizer, and in an election season, displays of evangelical unity are critical. Second, and related, Cizik gives the impression in the press that evangelicals are divided in their priorities, an impression picked up with relish by the national media and disputed by some insiders. “Most evangelicals are concerned with the war on terror and with raising teenagers in an environment saturated with sex and drugs,” explains Michael Cromartie, vice president of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center. “It’s not so much that evangelicals are anti-green, it’s that green is not a priority for them.”
- Al Gore’s official website and his personal weblog.
- IMDB entry
- An Inconvenient Truth official website
- The Climate Project website
- Purchase DVD from Amazon.com or Amazon.ca
- Purchase book from Amazon.com or Amazon.ca (the book has many of the amazing images from the DVD in it.)
- An Inconvenient Truth on Wikipedia
- Republican Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman have said that we have reached a turning point on global warming. (yes I just called Joe Lieberman a Republican on purpose).
- The Washington Post’s David Ignatius is saying the same thing.
- The Evangelical Climate Initiative
So what are we doing about it? Well we replaced all of our lightbulbs with compact flourescent bulbs. We turn down our heat in winter and we don’t have an air conditioner in the summer and have low energy ceiling fans to partially cool our house in the summer but mostly we just complain. We have one large compost bin in our backyard and stopped bagging our grass clippings. We are replacing our van this year with a more fuel efficient car. While I am not allowed to walk home from work after a late evening shift, I have been walking when possible. The next couple of years will see some new windows in the house and better insultation upstairs. We aren’t there yet but we are getting closer. I have also been harassing my local MPs (those that can read anyways) about the issue.
Anyways, if you haven’t seen the movie, make a promise to see it and decide for yourself. If you are wondering what difference it can make, I think of the tremendous change in the political climate of Canada over global warming in the last year which no one saw.
Here is the trailer for An Inconvenient Truth.
Technorati Tags : An+Inconvenient+Truth, Al+Gore, environment, theology
Jordon, There was an article in the Washington Post this Sunday about this. It appears that Dobson and his friends would rather people not focus their attention on Global Warming b/c they think it will divert their focus from other “more important” issues, such as gay marriage and abortion.
It gets dirtier than that though, they are actually sending letters telling Christians in positions of influence to stop drawing attention to this issue.
You can read the Washington Post article HERE
Jordon, thanks for the great post. I read your blog every day and you do a great job of making me think through the issues.
I have to say that I disagree with you in a couple of ways on this issue. First, I am a Christian who believes that the global warming debate is pure political propaganda based on bad scientific evidence. Just because we are experiencing global warming doesn’t mean that it is the result of greenhouse gasses. Global warming is here with us, but I don’t believe it is a human-made phenomenon. I believe it is part of a natural cycle. I’ve noticed in the last month that more and more climatologists are coming out of the closet and agreeing with me. They are being severely persecuted for their beliefs. I have posted a couple of times over the last month or so on the subject at my blog at: http://gideonshorn.blogspot.com.
The second issue that I have to disagree with you on is that the religious right aren’t concerned with the environment. Maybe I’m not far enough to the right to be part of the environmental-bashing crowd, but alhough I don’t happen to believe that global warming is a result of human-made pollutants I still consider myself to be an environmental activist. God has charged each one of us to be the best stewards of the world he has trusted to us. That means the church should be on the front line of environmental activism. If we truely believe we are living in God’s Creation, then the Body of Christ should be doing everything possible to clean up the world.
I don’t like Al Gore’s agenda, not because it isn’t a worthy cause, or not because I am not a fanatical steward of my environment, but because I don’t feel Al Gore is believable.
Thanks for the post and I love your blog.
Rick,
You answered my question with your final comments on Al Gore.
I guess because I have lived in a place where the economy can be ravaged by drought, I have followed the debate for far longer than most and I haven’t relied on Al Gore to change my mind but the scientific evidence is overwhelming. Studies in peer reviewed journals show an overwhelming amount of support for global warming that is separated from politics. Sadly, the only country that doesn’t see it as a problem is the United States and China right now and they only produce 40% of the global problem.
Rick, I don’t know if you comment was supposed to be a parody of the religious right’s stance or not but if it was, well done!
Dobson is primarily a media organization with an annual budget of $150 million and a need to generate that sum every year. The market for child raising advice is much smaller, so Dobson needs to stir the pot with a political spoon.
Dobson is funded by large numbers of small contributions, so media events are what’s used. Whenever Dobson needs another million dollars, he writes a letter to his 6 million, and the money flows. Eventually, even politico-religious topics like abortion and homosexuality wear out the audience and new “enemies” are sought. Sensationalism drives the Dobson economy.
First of all, I am not interested in getting into an argument.
I do think we should be good stewards of the earth that God has given us. For that reason, I am all for using alternative energy sources, recycling, etc.
However, this issue has developed into a political issue rather than a truth issue. Some on the far right could care less about the issue at all. They take that view point because of politics. Those on the far left think everything from cows farting to McDonald’s cups are the harbinger of doom. They are also not interested in truth, but rather are in it for the political factors.
The fact is that there is vast scientific data from both sides that is intentionally ignored by the opposition. But that is why you will find many people not that overworked about the issue. They simply don’t believe it is as bad as folks like Gore (and others) make out. Honestly, I tend to agree.
But it isn’t that they (or should I say we) have our heads in the sand. As I mentioned there is a large body of scientific data (more and more becoming visible and mainstream) that suggests Gore is off base a bit (along with the whole “world destruction is imminent” crowd). We simply choose to believe those particular scientists.
But as I started out, that doesn’t mean we are all draining our vehicular oil pans into the water supply or anything.
Jordon, be sure to check out Jim Wallis’ challenge to James Dobson to debate the environment as a moral issue, over on Beleifnet’s “God’s Politics” blog.
these folks are not religious conservatives, but they don’t think global warming is what many believe it is:
http://newsbusters.org/node/11330
Rudy, I am not trying to be flippant here but it seems like only Canada and the U.S. are the only western countries that dismiss global warming. I wonder why that it is?
Jordon, you listed some things you and your wife are doing to be greener. i remember reading a link on your blog a couple (or few) years ago about how good it can be just to not use your clothes dryer and just hang clothes on a line, so I started doing that more often, when I could. It was such a simple idea, but I think simple things really can add up.
An environmental site that I have been reading a lot lately is http://www.worldchanging.com/
have you seen it?
in some ways it’s a really hopeful site. there are sooo many ideas and so much brain power out there that i think there are solutions….if people are willing to go to the hard work of learning, doing and thinking about these things…
but I haven’t seen Al Gore’s movie yet. i will have to watch it.
btw, Happy Birthday!!!!
In response to your post about environmental/ moral issues I want to post a part from my article which examines the impact of industrialization on our minds and environment. Please read.
The link between Mind and Social / Environmental-Issues.
The fast-paced, consumerist lifestyle of Industrial Society is causing exponential rise in psychological problems besides destroying the environment. All issues are interlinked. Our Minds cannot be peaceful when attention-spans are down to nanoseconds, microseconds and milliseconds. Our Minds cannot be peaceful if we destroy Nature.
Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment.
Subject : In a fast society slow emotions become extinct.
Subject : A thinking mind cannot feel.
Subject : Scientific/ Industrial/ Financial thinking destroys the planet.
Emotion is what we experience during gaps in our thinking.
If there are no gaps there is no emotion.
Today people are thinking all the time and are mistaking thought (words/ language) for emotion.
When society switches-over from physical work (agriculture) to mental work (scientific/ industrial/ financial/ fast visuals/ fast words ) the speed of thinking keeps on accelerating and the gaps between thinking go on decreasing.
There comes a time when there are almost no gaps.
People become incapable of experiencing/ tolerating gaps.
Emotion ends.
Man becomes machine.
A society that speeds up mentally experiences every mental slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.
A ( travelling )society that speeds up physically experiences every physical slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.
A society that entertains itself daily experiences every non-entertaining moment as Depression / Anxiety.
Fast visuals/ words make slow emotions extinct.
Scientific/ Industrial/ Financial thinking destroys emotional circuits.
A fast (large) society cannot feel pain / remorse / empathy.
A fast (large) society will always be cruel to Animals/ Trees/ Air/ Water/ Land and to Itself.
To read the complete article please follow either of these links :
PlanetSave
TheHolisticWheel
sushil_yadav
You should spend some time looking at the dissenting opinions shown in the Channel 4 documentary “The Great Global Warming Swindle”.
http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/G/great_global_warming_swindle/index.html
You can watch it here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4520665474899458831&q=The+great+global+warming+swindle
Jordon, as I said in my earlier comment, thanks for posting on this subject. I have been thinking about your post the last few days and have come to the conclusion that it was a wake up call for me as a moderate Christian (I don’t consider myself a right-winger, but somewhere balanced in the middle). Although I disagree with your views on Al Gore and global warming, I do agree with your views on environmentalism and the problems with the conservative Christian church. There is a big, glaring disconnect between environmental preservation, conservation, and activism and the Christian church. God clearly commands us to be the best stewards of His Creation, and we are doing a miserable job. So, I am beginning to take on the task of educating conservative Christians in how to make environmentally conscious decisions. I own a consulting firm called Vertical Geosolutions (www.verticalgeo.com) that works with geographic information systems (GIS) and creating geospatial databases. As I have thought about your post the last couple of days I believe it is time for VerticalGeo to step up and start an environmental education branch that works with Christian churches to help spread the news that Christians should be on the front lines of environmental preservation, conservation, and activism. I’ll let you know how this proceeds.
For the record, I don’t think Dobson and his gang of hit men are any more believable than Al Gore. That is one of the benefits of being a moderate!
I have changed my mind several times about the conclusions drawn from the evidence and remain agnostic about the science (I take the bus, in part because I fear I may be mistaken). I was asked to watch this video the other day and thought I would pass it along.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4520665474899458831&q=%22The+Great+Global+Warming+Swindle%22
What bugs me most is the uninformed reaction of the man on the street. People in Ottawa have noticed that the winters are reducing in duration. So they suppose that anthropogenic global warming is the cause. Not having read the science, how do they know that a shortened winter cycle did not obtain, say, a million years ago in the same area? Their expecatation is that the climate system, in the absence of anthropogenic influence, would be in relative “equlibrium” in their neck of the woods.
I remember the comment of an environmentalist after the South Asian Tsunami. He pointed out that, had the Thai villagers in a certain area not cut down the trees that once lined the beach, the trees would have dampened the Tsunami wave. It was a bad idea to cut down the trees. Now it may be true that if the trees had still been standing, they would have mitigated the impact of the wave, but does it make sense to say that the earth grew the trees for that purpose? The earth is not a conscious agent, like you or I. It doesn’t place trees in a certain place to prevent human death.
This is the same kind of mistake a lot of other uninformed observers make – how do they know that we have disturbed an equilibrium if they don’t know what an equilibrium amounts to in the first place?
just stumbled upon this blog from another blog… my take on things – so we don’t really know if global warming is real or not based on the available evidence. or really how catastrophic it’s effects could be if it is “real”. i just wonder do we really want to take chances? are there any real downsides to heeding the warnings of so many scientists? at the least we know that air pollution is bad – in some cities so bad that it increases the instances of asthma in children – not catastrophic but debilitating for those children. so if we can do something good – have more surety that the planet is not doomed for our children and grandchildren or at the very least know that many asthma sufferers can breathe easy because of our efforts and the efforts of others like us i think we can feel good about that.
As I have said before, this isn’t really about Al Gore but about the facts of global warming which there is near uninamity in the scientific community as well as the western politcal community outside of the conservative wing of the U.S.A.
As for the Al Gore farm, the fact that they don’t purchase electricity from turbines doesn’t really undermine his point that much although I do believe from reading a while ago that the majortiy of Tennessee power does come from that always toxic hydro power from the TVA and some emission free nuclear power plants. (yes some of that comes from coal plants but there are very low emission coal plants although I don’t know if they are low emission in Tennessee).
As for a big house? I have a small house, under 900 square feet over one and a half stories that is probably a bigger energy sieve than many mansions built today. I don’t know the details of the Gore ranch but as Bush’s Crawford ranch shows, one can have a large place with little environmental impact.