As various factions of Christianity begin to embrace global climate change and mankind's responsibility for both causing it and fixing it, it will be interesting to see how the Republican presidential candidates respond to questions about the state of the environment and what America should do about it.
Traditionally, one of the hallmarks of a successful presidential candidacy has been a high-profile devotion to religious faith, so not surprisingly, every Republican in the running for 2012 claims to be a true believer. Religion is highly personal and private, so their level of sincerity is something we'll never really know for certain. What we do know is that the environmental wakeup call currently being heard and heeded within Christian communities could create some murkiness for Republican presidential candidates.
On May 2, the Vatican Council issued a report produced by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences after the Council convened in April, which states unequivocally the Catholic Church's stance on climate change: "We call on all people and nations to recognize the serious and potentially irreversible impacts of global warming caused by the anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, and by changes in forests, wetlands, grasslands, and other land uses."
This 15-page report, titled "Fate of Mountain Glaciers in the Anthropocene," further claims that: "The business-as-usual mode will not be possible because of both resource depletion and environmental damages," and air quality has gotten worse due to these gases and will "result in more than 2 million premature deaths worldwide every year and threaten water and food security." The report, which was signed by 23 internationally renowned scientists, mountaineers, and lawyers, and the Pontifical Academy's chancellor, Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, came about in an effort to determine the effect of human beings on climate change.
The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), a group representing 40 different denominations and over 45,000 congregations, has been an active proponent of human causation for planetary climate changes for many years. The NAE embraces the principle of sustainability in its belief that our uses of the Earth must be designed to conserve and renew the Earth rather than to deplete or destroy it. The NAE's website states: "We affirm that God-given dominion is a sacred responsibility to steward the earth and not a license to abuse the creation of which we are a part. We are not the owners of creation, but its stewards, summoned by God to "watch over and care for it" (Gen. 2:15).
It's pretty clear that Christian institutions are not only making statements in favor of the acceptance of global climate change but also regarding the need to address it. So how does the fact that conservative Christianity is coming out in favor of manmade climate change and environmental concerns match up with the current slate of potential Republican Presidential candidates? Not very well, actually.
Almost each announced and potential G.O.P. candidate at one point in his or her political career has been clearly vocal about the need for addressing climate change, but by the same token, each one of them has made it a point to advertise their strong religious convictions. When those of such conviction feel the need to use their personal religious values to drive the nation's political agenda, how can the concerns of major religious institutions be ignored? It's becoming clear that Romney, Pawlenty, Huntsman, Palin, Bachmann, et al are going to find themselves in the uncomfortable position of having to balance the needs of their party and the desires of their religious leaders. How they will bridge the gap between their own personal convictions and those of their own religious leaders will certainly be worth watching.
Jonathan A. Schein, Founder/ScheinMedia and publisher of GreenRealEstateDaily.com