Mark Moore's Blog

More on the Evangelical Climate Campaign

This morning Newsweek daily edition had another featured article on evangelicals and the climate. This time it was an interview called an Unlikely Alliance, which was referred to as Why Scientists Need Evangelicals on the MSNBC home page.

Technorati Tags: ecology

Climate Campaign

I think that one of the most fascinating things to watch over the next couple of years will be discussions related to Christians and the environment. This morning there was an interesting blurb on MSNBC called, Ministers, scientists start climate campaign. The short article looks at the new alliance that is now being formed between some evangelicals and scientists. I find it very ironic that the same two groups that have fought a bloody battle for decades over the earth--creationism vs. evolution, young earth vs. old earth, etc., etc.--are fighting together for the earth.

I believe that this spark of interest in environmentalism on the part of Christians is directly related to the influence of the emerging church. Fundamentalists have believed and taught that the earth would go up in a fiery ball of flames and we would all be whisked away to heaven for ever. There was no use for the earth in that paradigm.

As for global warming...here in Dallas the temperature has not gotten above freezing in nearly a week.

Technorati Tags: emerging church, ecology

An Inconvenient Truth

There is a new movie out and it is causing quite a buzz.  No, I am not talking about The Da Vinci Code.  I am talking about a movie entitled An Inconvenient Truth.  The leading man is not Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise, but Al Gore.  Al Gore?  Yes, that's right.  It is a documentary about global warming and the direction that our planet is heading if we do not begin to adjust our lifestyles to take better care of the environment.

Film critic Roger Ebert says, "In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to."

Let me state that I have not yet seen this film, but intend to.  I'm sure that if you are a conservative right-wing fundamentalist who hates the DNC than you are turning green.  After all, aren't all born-again Christians Republicans?  Why would a conservative pastor support an Al Gore film?  I mean come on, don't you know "that all those films have an agenda."  This is an attitude that Christians need to move beyond.  For the most part, I hear people say things like, "I won't go watch such and such.  They're not getting my money."  Cool.  Keep your $10.  I'm sure they'll go broke because of it.

The real inconvenient truth has been stated well by Dr. Roger Greenway, who was a Professor of World Missiology at Calvin Theological Seminary.  Dr. Greenway served as a missionary in Sri Lanka and Mexico.  He was a tenured Professor of Missions and Gospel Communication at Westminster Theological
Seminary and has written several works on urban missions.  He states:

"For decades [the church] have sung, 'This is my father's world,' while shrugging off the God-insulting misuse of air, water, soil, and space.  Largely due to pressure from secular forces there is now more concern for protecting the environment.  How sad that Christians were not in the forefront of the movement from the beginning!  And shame on those church planters who even now ignore the environmental questions when they choose new sites, design buildings, and pave parking lots.  We ought not to abuse our Father's world, even when pursuing the holy calling of planting churches."

This is an inconvenient truth.  Not only is it inconvenient, it is a disgrace.  Colossians 1:16 says, "For in Christ all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him."  How can earth having been created by Jesus and for Jesus and given to Christians to steward and take care of be something that, for the most part, people who don't even worship Jesus are more concerned with.  It is an inconvenient and disgraceful truth to think that non-Christians have a higher view of Jesus' planet than Christians.

I pray that the gospel, as it sanctifies us, will lead us to value our planet in a way that we haven't done so before.