Evangelical Christians and the Environment

Are envangelical Christians jumping onboard with the environmental movement? An article in this week's Newsweek says that some are:

In a town where access is everything, the Rev. Richard Cizik's calendar would be the envy of even the hardest-hitting Washington player. One day last week his schedule included the National Prayer Breakfast with President George W. Bush, a luncheon with King Abdullah II of Jordan and a cozy evening reception at the home of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Between meetings, Cizik hobnobbed with U2 lead singer Bono, in town to advocate for Third World debt relief. Shaking the rock star's hand as eager senators circled for their photo op, Cizik managed to swiftly preach his own gospel. "Global hunger and global warming are inescapably linked. You know that," Cizik said. "Absolutely," replied Bono.

Cizik, who first arrived in Washington in 1980 as a foot soldier for the Moral Majority, is a self-described "Reagan movement conservative" and Bush supporter, who opposes abortion, gay marriage and embryonic-stem-cell research. He promotes those positions as vice president of governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), the lobbying group that represents 30 mil-lion American Christians and more than 50 denominations. But in recent years, Cizik, 54, has also been at the forefront of a Biblically inspired environmental movement known as Creation Care, which holds that Christians have an obligation, described in the Book of Genesis, to "replenish the Earth" as God's stewards. "This is not a Red State issue or a Blue State issue or a green issue," Cizik says. "It's a spiritual issue."

That's a pretty surprising development, at least to me. As you may or may not be aware, evangelicals are not known for their support for environmental causes. And as you can imagine, not all evangelicals are on board with this new trend:

Conservative critics...including the Rev. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, say the global-warming science is inconclusive and the issue doesn't belong on the evangelists' agenda. "It's a distraction when families are falling apart and abortion continues as a great evil," says Tom Minnery, director of Dobson's political-action group. But the "Call to Action" has been endorsed by dozens of Chris-tian heavy hitters, including the country's leading megachurch pastor, the Rev. Rick Warren, as well as the presidents of major Christian colleges and denominations.

Christian support of environmentalism is not as counter-intuitive as it first seems, at least not to the likes of Cizik:

Cizik, who came to believe the global-warming science only in recent years, says stirring the debate is his Christian duty. "Isn't it the task of the Biblical believer to warn society, not just about sin, but about mortal threats to our very being?" If it is, he's up to the job.

I don't see how this can be anything but a positive development. Environmentalists could use allies and if they happen to come from a camp that splits with liberals on almost every other issue, then so much the better I say.