March (Web-only) 2007

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Today's Top Five

1. National Association of Evangelicals gets attention, but doesn't address critical letter
At its board meeting late last week, the National Association of Evangelicals did not directly address a letter from non-member Christian leaders criticizing NAE vice president Richard Cizik's work against global warming. The board did, however, reaffirm its 2004 document on political engagement, "For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility." Among that document's seven emphases is "stewardship of creation," but it does not specifically call for action on global warming.

There are a few updates since Focus on the Family released the critical letter on its CitizenLink website March 1. Newsweek reported that Richard Land had been asked to sign the letter but refused. "I didn't feel that it was the most productive, most redemptive way to address the problem," he said.

A Saturday New York Times editorial criticizes those who did sign the letter for limiting "the definition of morality to the way humans behave among humans. … The greatest moral issue of our time is our responsibility to the planet and to all its inhabitants." That resonates with one of the thrusts of the NAE statement on creation care (e.g. "The Bible teaches us that God is not only redeeming his people, but is also restoring the whole creation. Just as we show our love for the Savior by reaching out to the lost, we believe that we show our love for the Creator by caring for his creation.") At the same time, one of the interesting aspects of Cizik's work, as well as the work of those behind the Evangelical Climate Initiative (from which Cizik withdrew his signature due to earlier pressure) is that they frame the global warming ...