Bartholomew's Notes

Over at WorldNetDaily, Joseph Farah gives a typically thoughtful response to the news that a number of high-profile evangelical leaders have decided to work to oppose global warming (link added):

…some significant church leaders are attempting to make the global, pagan, socialistic agenda behind the conspiracy a matter of faith…They all signed on to the “Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action” – and climbed into bed with funding sources that hate God, hate Christianity and hate freedom.

What’s more, this is a sign of the Last Days:

…Have you ever wondered what Jesus was talking about – who He was talking about – in Matthew 7:22-23 in the context of turning people away on Judgment Day? These are people who seem to believe they are Christians…I would suggest to those signing on to the lies of global warming, to the coercive government and supra-government plans to tackle it, to the confiscation of wealth and the destruction of private property that this fake crisis portends to give those verses some serious consideration.

Farah’s screed comes in the wake of a highly publicised letter that asked the National Association of Evangelicals not to take a position on global warming (I blogged on that here). However, in his specific allegations of a secret conspiracy, Farah is taking his lead from Senator James Inhofe; several months ago I blogged on his charge (reported on Agape Press) that

…liberals are “trying to suck up some of the evangelical crowd and put them into the issue of global warming. And when they do that, they give up their litmus tests. They give up their positions on abortion, their positions on gay marriage, and all that.”

But as I noted then, evangelical concern over global warming is hardly mysterious, and is far from being a “conspiracy” of pagan socialists. The New York Times reported a year ago:

…Over the last three years, evangelical leaders like Mr. [Rich] Cizik [vice president of governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals] have begun to reconsider their silence on environmental questions. Some evangelicals have spoken out, but not many. Among them is the Rev. Jim Ball of the Evangelical Environmental Network, who in 2002 began a “What Would Jesus Drive?” campaign and drove a hybrid vehicle across the country.

Mr. Cizik said that Mr. Ball “dragged” him to a conference on climate change in 2002 in Oxford, England. Among the speakers were evangelical scientists, including Sir John Houghton, a retired Oxford professor of atmospheric physics who was on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a committee that issued international reports.

Sir John said in an interview that he had told the group that science and faith together provided proof that climate change should be a Christian concern.

Sir John Houghton is a very distinguished scientist. I’ve given his profile before, but it’s worth repeating:

Sir John Houghton

is chairman of the John Ray Initiative. He has held positions as chairman or co-chairman of Scientific Assessment for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 1988-2002, Professor of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Oxford, 1976-1983, Director General and Chief Executive of the UK Meteorological Office, 1983-1991, Chairman of the UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, 1992-1998, member of the UK Government Panel on Sustainable Development, 1994-2000. He has received numerous awards including Fellowship of the Royal Society of London and the International Meteorological Organisation Prize. His publications include The Physics of Atmospheres (3rd edn. CUP [i.e. Cambridge University Press], 2002), Global Warming: the Complete Briefing (2nd ed CUP 1997) and The search of God, can science help? (Lion, 1994).

If Farah really wants to prove that Christian concern over global warming is the result of a “conspiracy”, he should provide an in-depth critique of Houghton’s books to prove his case. Otherwise we’ll just to assume that Farah is a know-nothing demagogue.

Meanwhile, ConWebWatch catches WND misrepresenting the validity of an anti-evolutionist petition.

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