On May 15 a number of evangelical and self-identified pro-family groups, headed by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, launched a new campaign entitled “We Get It!” The campaign’s goal is to gather over one million signatures from Christians in the United States an a petition suggesting that the federal government reconsider their policies on carbon emissions and the science of global warming.
In an description of the project and its goals on The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission’s website, leaders of the movement insist that they are not anti-environment, but rather advocate “a biblically-based, scientifically-backed view of care for creation and the poor.” The headlong rush to restrict energy use, they argue, will hurt the poor by preventing further development in poorer countries and by raising food prices.
The “We Get It!” project was partially conceived as a response to the growing influence of the “Green Evangleicals” movment. In 2006 the Evangelical Climate Innitiative launched a campaing to bring evagelical Christians to a greater awareness of the pressing issue of climate change. This innitiative was designed to redress a long tradition of ignoreing environmental issues among evangelicals.
As energy prices rise in America and abroad, pushing food prices upward as well, the debate among evangelicals and other Christian groups about how best to respond to poverty, energy prices, and climate issues in a manner that is both just and balanced is sure to continue. LiberalEvangelical.org will continue to track developments in the dabate as both sides lobby the government.
Read the Associated Press article on at Worldwide Religious News athttp://www.wwrn.org/article.php?idd=28671&sec=20&con=4
Read The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission’s article on their new campaign at http://erlc.com/article/evangelicals-seek-million-supporters-of-we-get-it-campaign
Visit the site of “We Get It!” at http://www.we-get-it.org/
Visit the site of The Evangelical Climate Initiative at http://christiansandclimate.org/
