Evangelicals, Environmentalists Unite

Groups Join Forces Over Shared Concerns On Protecting The Earth

(AP)  Tending to your soul at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Boise, Idaho, involves recycling old cell phones and printer cartridges in the church lobby, pulling noxious weeds in the backcountry and fixing worn-out hiking trails in the mountains.

This is part of the ministry of Tri Robinson, a former biology teacher whose rereading of the Bible led him to the belief that Christians focused on Scripture need to combat global warming and save the Earth.

"All of a sudden Boise Vineyard is one of the most important driving forces in our community for the environment," Robinson said. "People say, 'Why are you doing that?' Because God wants it."

Many evangelicals have dismissed environmentalists as liberals unconcerned about the economic impact of their policies to fight global warming. Long-standing distrust between the two camps over issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage has discouraged evangelicals from joining liberals on the environment.

But shared concerns over global warming and protecting the Earth are bringing together the two groups in ways that could make the Republican Party more eco-friendly and lead some evangelicals to vote Democratic.

In signs of change, Robinson had a Sierra Club representative at his environmental conference recently, and the Sierra Club invited Calvin DeWitt, a University of Wisconsin biology professor and a founder of the Evangelical Environmental Network, to its summit last year where it declared global warming the top issue for the coming decade.

"More and more evangelicals are coming to believe creation care is an integral part of their calling as Christians. It is becoming part of their faith," said Melanie Griffin, director of partnerships for the Sierra Club and an evangelical.

Dewitt said evangelicals will not call themselves environmentalists.

"They are going to call themselves pro-life," he said. "But pro-life means life in the Arctic, the life of the atmosphere, the life of all the people under the influence of climate change."

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As Dean Demarest from St. Michael%u2019s and All Angels in Boise recently commented, a quality of Christian community is that it be invitational. Nothing is more detrimental to authentic Christian community than when a group becomes exclusive. In Boise, the Episcopalian and Vineyard congregations are equally evangelistic and equally concerned with the environment. They form a mutual admiration society and exist along side the entire community in defense of God%u2019s creation without regard to specific religious belief. Religion in the Far West is unique to that east of the Great Divide as my years in the Midwest and the West Coast has revealed. God%u2019s creation is more obviously fragile here and establishes a unified community faithful to maintaining its beauty and its bounty. We are not mystified by the ties that bind us to the land from Tabernacle Square to Grace Cathedral, from Pastor Robinson to Cardinal Mahoney. Tri Robinson%u2019s Texan dad should be mighty proud of what his son is contributing to Idaho%u2019s isolated corner of God%u2019s kingdom!

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Well, Praise the Lord! Finally we are seeing a glimmer of light. Forget the true wedge issues, abortion, *** marriage, women in the ministry. Saving our beautiful earth and our precious civilization is what should galvanize Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, everyone with a soul. This is something we can all come together and agree on, WE DON'T NEED TO DESTROY OUR PLANET TO BE HAPPY! In saving our world, we will truly be saving each other and isn't that what Salvation is all about? The saint within us saving other saints, not because we agree or disagree, but because it is the right, the good thing to do.