Church to step up climate fight

[TechBear_Seattle]

Church to step up climate fight

Leaders of the influential Southern Baptist community in the US have declared their churches have a duty to stop climate change.

In a statement, senior figures in the movement said evidence of man-made global warming was "substantial". Southern Baptists are the largest protestant group in the country.

They follow other religious figures, including British bishops and leaders of US evangelical denominations, in backing action to curb climate change.

Southern Baptists are a loose confederation of churches grouped under the Southern Baptist Convention, and no-one speaks for the movement overall.

But the 40-odd signatories of the statement, A Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change, include several of its most influential figures.

The complete article can be read at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7287484.stm

I am posting this to R/T because this marks a profound change in the SBC's thinking. I remember quite well when, 20 and 25 years ago, American Talibangelicals were calling strip mining and blanket deforestation "good stewardship" because, after all, "God was coming back real soon" so there was absolutely no need to preserve anything for future generations. Does anyone else remember Reagan's first Secretary of the Interior, James Watt?

[kestrel91316]

1. The uber-fundies will break from the Southern Baptists over this.

They are SOOOO deeply in denial and SOOOO deeply into their belief that the earth was put here for us to USE UP, that they will fight this switch tooth and nail.

[cosmik debris]

4. Yep

The position is inconsistent with the idea that the Earth has an expiration date.

If it is not all used up by the end times we will have to face accusations of waste. Remember the parable of the talents??

[TCJ70]

2. This is something that The Salvation Army I go to...

...is trying to do. We've been thinking up simple things we can do to start lessening our impact. It's nothing official, just something we decided to do.

[moobu2]

3. This will amount to absolutely nothing until

They start to discourage human over breeding. The problem is that there are just to many people on the planet.

[mac2]

5. Do they not realize that they can't have it both ways?

If you are concerned over protecting the environment then you would be concerned about "over population". Their goal to have large families a ruse.

Over population is the reason for destruction of the environment (sometimes never returns). It is the reason for poverty. It is the reason for war and aggression for resources.

Guess they are looking for a "positive message of saving god's earth" to bring in another sector of society for their religious organization. This ain't it. "Tree huggers" are smarter than that.

[TCJ70]

6. Do you HAVE to believe that...

...overpopulation is part of the problem? I'm not sure the two always go hand in hand.