Liberal pantheist environmentalists or right-wing Christian evangelicals? Maybe one and the same?
The Greening of Evangelicals
Christian Right Turns, Sometimes Warily, to Environmentalism
The article notes the growing interest in ecolgocial issues among evangelical Christians. What stands out is the way they frame the language. They won't call it environmentalist because that word is forever associated with radical hippie treehuggers. So they talk about "creation care," to distinguish themselves from environmentalists who are "pretty weird -- with strange liberal, pantheist views." They also make it a point to draw connections between concern for the earth and their ongoing battle for "values". After reading that I was surprised to read this, from the Reverend Leroy Hedman at the end of the article:
"The Earth is God's body," Hedman said in a recent sermon. "God wants us to look after it."
Well friends, the earth as God's body is, as most any seminary student could tell you, liberal pantheist theology.
It would seem the evangelicals aren't all on the same page just yet. And perhaps that is not too much of a surprise as they do come in all different shapes and sizes. But they are good, very good indeed, at providing a unified front that enables them to wield undue influence in contemporary politics. So we shall see how this develops--some of them express ambivalence at contradicting the president's official line on the environment. Which marching orders to follow?
