Another reformation
Vice President for Governmental Affairs the Rev. Rick Cizik at the National Association of Evangelicals, and the organization itself, are under fire from those within their own contingency for calling on Christians to fight against climate change spurring global warming.
You see, it’s deflecting attention from sanctity of life issues. I suspect that bad “L” word is being spoken of. In fact, I know so. But I digress.
According to this Washington Post report, Cizik is now primary apostate from the ranks which include the likes of Jim Dobson, Tony Perkins and Gary Bauer.
“Cizik and others,” they said, “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.”
Worse, they smeared Cizik because he had expressed concern about the size of world’s population in a speech last year at the World Bank. “We ask,” they wrote, “how is population control going to be achieved if not by promoting abortion, the distribution of condoms to the young, and, even by infanticide in China and elsewhere?”
They must have forgotten the children they encourage are going to need those unnecessary things like clean air and water along with dry land and a temperable climate. (You can read the whole letter here.)
The NAE has been a big player in the GOP victories of 2000 and 2004 and once again become a household name among liberalati and moderates since the release of the movie Jesus Camp, then again right before the 2006 midterms when ousted president Ted Haggard was outed paying for more than a massage with a Denver man in October.
On one side of the coin — the cynical side — I wonder how much the renewed interest in “return[ing] to being people who are known for [their] love and care for our fellow human beings and the Earth” is a calculated effort to climb back to good graces with the church-going public. But as a professional church worker experiencing the growing dissatisfaction with organized church and its political ties, the entire Christian community regardless of denomination, theology or polity are needing to reevaluate our standing within our gospel mandate to love and serve one another. On both sides, our motivation needs to hold up to Christ’s example of impoverished response to creation.
Having the weight of the NAE behind the fight to reverse the effects of global warming, no matter its motivation, demonstrates the notion of yet another reformation to go back to the core principles of our Christian faith: And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. -1 Corinthians 13:13 (NRSV)
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Daniel Ross-Jones serves as Minister for Youth & Young Adults at First Congregational Church of Palo Alto, United Church of Christ. Living in the San Francisco Bay Area for a time still measured in months, he is frequently getting lost and discovering treasures of a landscape very different from his Upper Midwestern roots. Green Jello Hotdish is a blog exploring the intersections of his days. 
