Not all evangelicals are eager to join the newly formed coalition of evangelicals and scientists that says it is committed to reducing "human-caused" environmental threats to the planet. One of those individuals, a social ethics professor at Knox Theological Seminary in Florida, explains why he is distancing himself from the group.
On Wednesday a group of 28 evangelicals and scientists announced they were uniting to protect the global environment against global warming, habitat destruction, pollution, and species extinction. The coalition is the brainchild of Dr. Eric Chivian of Harvard University and Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE).
Dr. E. Calvin Beisner is the national spokesman for the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance, a group formed in opposition to last year's "Evangelical Climate Change Initiative" and that stands in support of the principles espoused in the Cornwall Declaration on environmental stewardship. Beisner, too, advocates protecting the environment, but notes there is no consensus among evangelicals regarding "global warming" -- one of the issues paramount to the coalition.
"The coalition that is being formed at this point may very well be able to do some good things," Beisner acknowledges. "I have been concerned, though, about the fact that a media advisory sent out for this in advance said that it was being spearheaded by the National Associations of Evangelicals." And the social ethics professor says he is concerned about that because, according to information he received directly from an NAE board member, that board has not taken any official action on the matter.
Beisner says there is little solid scientific evidence to back up what he calls the "extremist" claims being cited by the new coalition.
"The climate change that we've experienced over the last 150 years or so -- and indeed, over the last 30 years or so that has led some people to sound an alarm about 'global warming' -- is well within the range of natural variability," he explains. "It is largely, if not entirely, caused by natural factors, especially changes in solar energy and solar wind output."
Beisner says the attempt to mitigate future warming by reducing carbon dioxide output would require a "tremendous reduction in fossil fuels," which would in turn drive up the price of energy and lengthen the time poor people around the world are without electricity.
Beisner says evangelicals who ally themselves with non-Christian scientists who advocate a naturalistic worldview run the risk of compromising their ability to "forthrightly speak the truths of the gospel." On its website, the NAE quotes one pastor whose comments suggest Beisner's concern about the influence of a naturalistic worldview may be justified.
Speaking on behalf of the newly formed coalition of evangelicals and scientists, Dr. Joel Hunter of Northland Church in Orlando says those in the scientific community "have the facts we need to present to our congregations [and] we have the numbers of activists that will work through churches, government, and the business community to make a significant impact."
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