Updated Friday, March 14, 2008

Prominent Baptists sign climate change declaration

By Norman Jameson

BR Editor

A declaration urging Southern Baptists to action in the climate change debate has been endorsed by some prominent Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) leaders - and dismissed by others.

SBC President Frank Page and presidents of several seminaries and colleges, as well as several state convention executives have endorsed the "Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change" released March 10.

Initiated by Jonathan Merritt, senior editor of PastorsEdge.com and student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, the declaration offers a "biblically based moral witness that can help shape public policy," according to its preamble.

The declaration opposes the position of many evangelicals who say there is not enough credible evidence to believe the earth is warming or that, if it is, human activity has caused any of it.

"There is undeniable evidence that the earth - wild life, water, land and air - can be damaged by human activity, and that people suffer as a result," the declaration says.

In the face of that "undeniable evidence," Merritt's declaration urges Christians to "engage this issue without any further lingering over the basic reality of the problem, or our responsibility to address it."

The declaration says Southern Baptist efforts to date have "been too timid." The danger of such cautious response, it says, is that "the world" may see Christians as "uncaring, reckless, and ill-informed." That perception would severely limit the willingness of those who are environmentally conscious to hear a gospel message.

"Our motivation for facing failures to exercise proper stewardship is not primarily political, social or economical - it is primarily biblical," it says.

The declaration makes four statements:

1. Humans must care for creation and take responsibility of our contributions to environmental degradation;

2. It is prudent to address the likely causes of global climate change;

3. Christian moral convictions and our Southern Baptist doctrines demand our environmental stewardship;

4. It is time for individuals, churches, communities and governments to act.

While recognizing that opinions on neither the science nor the theology of climate change are unanimous, the declaration says, "we have to make decisions about the future."

"We do not believe unanimity is necessary for prudent action," it says. "We can make wise decisions even in the absence of infallible evidence."

The SBC passed resolutions in 2006 and 2007 addressing the environment, but "simply affirming our God-given responsibility to care for the earth will likely produce no tangible or effective results," the declaration says.

Signers pledged "to find ways to curb ecological degradation through promoting better stewardship habits and increasing awareness in our homes, businesses where we find influence, relationships with others and in our local churches."

Initial signers include SBC President Frank Page, and former SBC presidents Jack Graham and James Merritt; the presidents of Union, Southwest Baptist and Palm Beach Atlantic universities; the presidents of Southeastern Seminary and Beeson Divinity School and the executives of the Colorado, Oklahoma and West Virginia Baptist state conventions. In North Carolina, pastors Stephen Rummage in Charlotte and J.D. Greear in Durham signed. Greear is a member of the Baptist State Convention board of directors. Rummage is a board member of the Biblical Recorder.

Nationally prominent pastors who signed include Ronnie Floyd, Springdale, Ark.; Johnny Hunt, Woodstock, Ga.; and Dwight "Ike" Reighard, Marietta, Ga.

A 2007 resolution from the SBC included a resolve to "continually reaffirm our God-given responsibility to care for the earth by remaining environmentally conscious and taking individual and collective efforts to reduce pollution, decrease waste, and improve the environment in tangible and effective ways." But SBC leadership has distanced itself from the Merritt declaration.