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'EARTHY EVANGELIST' CHANGES US CLIMATE
By Alec Russell in Washington
The Telegraph
June 23, 2005

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/06/23/wcizik23.xml
&sSheet=/news/2005/06/23/ixnewstop.html

Europe's environmental activists are not renowned for their faith in the
power of prayer. But in the run-up to the G8 summit they should put their
hands together for the Rev Richard Cizik.

One of America's senior evangelical leaders, the lanky Virginian preacher is
an unlikely ally of the Greens given the Christian Right's reputation for
being in lockstep with the White House.

The Bush administration is famously sceptical over global warming and
greenhouse gas emissions and notoriously cosy with big business, especially
the oil companies.

Mr Cizik is, however, in the vanguard of a striking new movement:
evangelicals prodding President George W Bush to take action on global
warming. And his stance cannot easily be dismissed as radical nonsense, as
the Green cause is traditionally mocked by the Right.

He is the Washington representative for the National Association of
Evangelicals, America's largest evangelical group. With 30 million members,
the NAE is possibly the most powerful voting bloc in the country.

"It is," Mr Cizik concedes, "a head-turner." But, he points out, there are
two pressing reasons for evangelicals to lobby for the environment: first,
the Bible enjoins man to look after what God created; second, the poor may
be the first to suffer from climate change.

"When we die and each one of us meets our maker, He is not going to say,
'How did I create the world?' He is going to say, 'What did you do with what
I created?' And why do I know that? Because Genesis 2:15 says we are
stewards in charge of creation 'to watch over it carefully'.

"How can you 'love your neighbour as yourself' if you are willing to let
millions be subject to flooding and droughts caused by greenhouse gases
which we, Americans, are responsible for?"

Nicknamed the "earthy evangelist", Mr Cizik has to tread carefully. His
comments have provoked outrage from some Right-wing congressmen and church
leaders.

The NAE position is heresy to many in the White House, which has close links
to major corporations.

A senior aide, who previously worked as a lobbyist for the oil industry,
recently resigned after rewriting government papers to play down the threat
of global warming.

Inevitably he went to work for Exxon Mobil, the oil company.

Ted Haggard, the NAE president and senior pastor of the giant New Life
Church, in Colorado Springs, the evangelical capital of America, takes part
in a telephone conference call with the White House every Monday, but he
does not force his views on the presidency.

"I've never brought it up. . . I think they've read about it. . . and they
are very respectful."

He also distances himself from environmentalists. "I do not return their
calls. We are not their allies."

Mr Cizik, who now drives a hybrid Toyota Prius car, is more critical about
the role of the oil companies.

After years of reflection he decided at a conference in Oxford in 2002 that
the science linking global warming to greenhouse gases was incontrovertible.
He says only "genuine contrarians" and "those on the payroll of
multi-billion-dollar corporations who have vested interest in taking no
action" dispute it now.

After persuading prominent evangelicals to endorse a sweeping document, For
the Health of the Nations, that talks ambiguously of the need to "protect
God's creation" he is trying to gain support for a statement on global
warming.

The new environmental drive is prompting a reappraisal of the Christian
Right, as it becomes clear that the stereotype of them as a unified army is
inaccurate.

Mr Cizik is confident that the mood in the pews is far more "green" than in
the pulpits.

Senior officials in Brussels see the conversion of some of the American
religious Right to the cause of fighting climate change as one of several
indications that public opinion in America is changing rapidly.

EU officials admit that the Kyoto protocol is dead, as far as America is
concerned. But they are increasingly optimistic that talks could begin on
some form of post-2012 global climate treaty arrangement that would include
America, and possibly China and India, within a year or two.

------------

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Published by David Sunfellow
NewHeavenNewEarth (NHNE)
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