Things Fall Apart: Currently Reading…

More properly, I would be reading if free of Murphy’s law: refrigerator death (SEARS repair on its way; a flat tire in the rain (pumped up w portable compressor, could NOT get the tire off once lugs were removed so hope it will hold: irony: appointment prior for new tires this afternoon; and now the Comtrends modem is alternately failing and operating normally. Oy!

Excerpts annotated via diigo chrome extension. This is an issue that looms large on my personal radar, so perhaps more about the topic when Mr. Murphy goes back into hiding.

Preachable Moments: Evangelical Christians and Climate Change | The Yale Forum on Climate Change & The Media
http://www.yaleclimatemediaforum.org/2012/06/preachable-moments-evangelical-christians-and-climate-change/

  • In a recently published 56-page document, “Loving the Least of These,” NAE describes “how changes to the environment affect the most vulnerable,” and explores “the biblical basis for Christian engagement, the science of a changing environment, how climate affects the poor, and practical ways to move forward,” according to a press release.
  • In 2006, Cizik formed the Evangelical Climate Initiative to urge action on addressing climate change. Its mission is to support evangelical belief in “Jesus Christ and his commands to love our neighbors, care for the least of these, and be proper stewards of His creation.” Today 300 leaders have signed on to the initiative.

    Mary Evelyn Tucker, co-director of the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University, said in an interview that evangelical Christians are now taking science seriously, shifting their position, and making important inroads on climate change. Among the most effective is the Evangelical Environmental Network, she said.

  • The evangelical church in America looks to their politicians to inform their beliefs rather than looking to their beliefs to inform their politics. It is no accident that every single GOP candidate in the recent primaries one by one openly denied the realities of this issue. There is a vacuum of leadership, and the evangelical community has looked elsewhere. It explains why, if you look at mainline denominations, their perspective on climate change is much different than evangelicals.”
  • Hayhoe, also the author of the 2009 book A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith Based Decisions, with her husband Andrew Farley, an evangelical pastor, said that some groups have fed into this divide by making it an all-or-nothing issue: evangelicals have to agree with all divisive issues – with evolution, stem cell research – in order to believe in climate change. “That’s a completely false argument,” Hayhoe said.
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fred
fred

Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

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  1. In your annotating, you missed a quote that “40% of Evangelicals believe climate change is a problem.” That is one encouraging fact, thank goodness.

  2. “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” – Samuel Johnson

    The question is: how many evangelicals (and everyone else) know that they are scheduled to be hanged in the near future? Not enough, I think. But maybe all these days of 108 degree temperatures and rising food prices due to a failed corn crop will make a dent in the abysmal ignorance of the inhabitants of this country – the most entertained and least educated people in the world.