Right Wing, Wrong Bird: Part 1
May 26, 2008
The Rev. Dr. Joel Hunter is Senior Pastor of Northland Church in Lakewood FL and a spokesperson for the Evangelical Climate Initiative. This excerpt, used with permission, is found on pages 78-83 of Right Wing, Wrong Bird: Why the Tactics of the Religious Right Won’t Fly with Most Conservative Christians published in 2006 by Distributed Church Press (Longwood, FL). See www.rightwingwrongbird.com.
This post originally appeared in Creation Care Magazine.
We need to reverse the established trends of the religious right to attack opponents. Even well respected and usually thoughtful leaders of the religious right vilify other Christians when they disagree with them, without first getting their facts straight. We have adopted the methods of talk radio and cross-fire TV, and diminished the art of debate so that we are fighting only our version of their side.
For example, in a May 2006 radio broadcast, a nationally known Christian leader mischaracterized and misquoted a well-respected evangelical leader about global warming. Richard Cizik, the Vice President of the National Association of Evangelicals (a 30-million member organization) was attacked for his stance – only it wasn’t his stance. The Christian leader quoted Richard as saying things than none of us (including Richard) would ever agree with, including, “global warming is the most important social issue of our day”; “those who are skeptical of global warming are immoral”; “he and his associates want to roll back the use of fossil fuels, oil, to the 1998 levels or even earlier, which would paralyze industry and put millions of people out of work … the net effect is anti-capitalistic and underlying hatred for America.”
Wow! Does that sound like what any of us would be for? Putting concern about global warming above the sanctity of life instead of being another expression of it? Putting millions of people out of work? Hating America? What? No!
I use this example not only because I was one of the original signers of the Evangelical Climate Initiative along with Richard (and therefore know what we are recommending and what we are not), but also because this kind of rebuttal is such a clear example of what so many debaters are doing in the media: radicalizing someone’s position so that they can knock it down more easily. The leader did not contact Richard to verify his facts, and then he accused Richard and his associates of trying to divide evangelicals … Global warming is certainly a complex issue. Those who do not believe it is happening, or that humans do not contribute to it and can’t fix it, or that there are no impending dangers connected with it, believe that because there is some evidence to support their argument. Those who do believe that global warming is real, that humans can be helpful in addressing the problem, and that it might well have some effects that are not gradual but currently volatile, also have evidence. Let’s encourage the debate!
But first let me ask, is debate a prerequisite to doing everything we can to be good stewards of creation? Do we really need to settle the scientific debate before we stop accepting pollution as a necessary evil and diligently work to devise better forms of energy usage? The issue to evangelical Christians isn’t global warming; the issue is whether or not we will exercise a moral and biblical obedience to a direct command of God (Genesis 2:15). How we do that, personally and policy wise, is something we can all work on together. We just need to keep working on it together, and that will require seeing our differences as informing instead of inflaming.
Conservative Christians need to be more ambidextrous rather than just “Right” or “Left” oriented. The Bible is more holistic, more fulfilling to all of life’s needs rather than heavy-handed on what is morally right or compassionately left. We need to expand our repertoire. Before we expand, though, let’s sing some praises for the foundation that has been laid.
The issues that have defined evangelical voters up to this time are biblical and moral ones that will always be primary for us. The protection of all life, especially the most vulnerable, the protection of the biblical definition (Genesis 2:18- 24) of marriage as between one man and one woman, the nurture of the family, the advocacy of religious liberty, and the advocacy of sex only within marriage are crucial issues for the Christian in addressing his or her culture.
There is another constituency, though, that is looking for leadership on other important issues in order to be a blessing to all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:3). These are usually younger Christians, or more liberal ones who have learned that in order to effectively deepen our impact on society we must broaden our team. What are these other areas addressed in the Bible that are also important to God?
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[…] This post originally appeared in Creation Care Magazine. Part 1 appeared yesterday. […]