WASHINGTON — A coalition of evangelical religious leaders has launched an education campaign that will try to persuade pastors and churchgoers that dire predictions about global warming are overblown. The Interfaith Stewardship Alliance is supported by Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and others. Its Cornwall Network will provide information that can be distributed to influence sermons.
It’s the latest salvo in an escalating political battle among evangelicals over the environment and global warming.
In February, another evangelical group, the Evangelical Climate Initiative, was launched. It advocates personal, religious and commercial action to combat global warming, which it says could result in the deaths of millions of people.
The Dobson-backed Interfaith Stewardship Alliance bases its beliefs on the 2000 Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship. The document, signed by more than 1,500 people — including clergy, theologians, scientists and economists — states that concerns about global warming, overpopulation and rampant species loss are unfounded.
Group founder E. Calvin Beisner said that while his group shares an evangelical Christian faith with the Evangelical Climate Initiative, the Warren-backed group “ignores biblical teaching about prudence.”
Evangelical Climate Initiative spokesman Jim Ball said, “We’ve taken this very seriously, and prudence does require us to act now. The science is telling us that there is going to be serious consequences, and those consequences will especially fall on the poor.”
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