Southern Baptists Fall For The Lie of Global Warming

This is a sad story:

New York – In a major shift, a group of Southern Baptist leaders said their denomination has been "too timid" on environmental issues and has a biblical duty to stop global warming.

The declaration, signed by the president of the Southern Baptist Convention among others and released Monday, shows a growing urgency about climate change even within groups that once dismissed claims of an overheating planet as a liberal ruse. The conservative denomination has 16.3 million members and is the largest Protestant group in the U.S.

The signers of "A Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change" acknowledged that not all Christians accept the science behind global warming. They said they do not expect fellow believers to back any proposed solutions that would violate Scripture, such as advocating population control through abortion.

However, the leaders said that current evidence of global warming is "substantial," and that the threat is too grave to wait for perfect knowledge about whether, or how much, people contribute to the trend.

Source: Asheville Citizen-Times

The Southern Baptists have been one of the few denominations left who have resisted the leftward march to moral relativism engaged in by the secular elements of our society (recently joined by an increasing number of lefty denominations).

They have stood on the Word of God as Immutable.

Now, they have fallen for The Big Lie of Global Warming, perhaps to the point of buying the lie that Socialism is the Answer to Global Warming.


In response to the article, I visited the website of the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative and found a series of statements and a conclusion:

A portion of the Preamble

We have recently engaged in study, reflection and prayer related to the challenges presented by environmental and climate change issues. These things have not always been treated with pressing concern as major issues. Indeed, some of us have required considerable convincing before becoming persuaded that these are real problems that deserve our attention. But now we have seen and heard enough to be persuaded that these issues are among the current era’s challenges that require a unified moral voice.

We believe our current denominational engagement with these issues have often been too timid, failing to produce a unified moral voice. Our cautious response to these issues in the face of mounting evidence may be seen by the world as uncaring, reckless and ill-informed. We can do better. To abandon these issues to the secular world is to shirk from our responsibility to be salt and light. The time for timidity regarding God’s creation is no more.

Therefore, we offer these four statements for consideration, beginning with our fellow Southern Baptists, and urge all to follow by taking appropriate actions. May we find ourselves united as we contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all. Laus Deo!

Here are the statements (in bold) and my responses:

Statement 1

Humans Must Care for Creation and Take Responsibility for Our Contributions to Environmental Degradation.

The Southern Baptists need to consider that the best thing for our environment is Capitalism. They need to consider that the USA has the cleanest environment in the world, and that nations who have lived under Socialism have had catastrophic effects on their environments, polluting their water, their soil, and their air.


Statement 2

It Is Prudent to Address Global Climate Change.

Addressing Climate Change involves more government regulation, more socialism, more theft of property and rights from the individual, and decreases freedom and capitalism...and will not result in any change to the Global Warming and Cooling Cycles.

Statement 3

Christian Moral Convictions and Our Southern Baptist Doctrines Demand Our Environmental Stewardship.

Again, the Southern Baptists have fallen for the lie that we are responsible for global climate change, and insist in the statement that the poorest among us are hardest hit. The poorest among us are hardest hit by socialism, and helped in the greatest amount by capitalism, and voluntary Christianity Charity...for forced charity is another name for theft.

Statement 4

It Is Time for Individuals, Churches, Communities and Governments to Act.

Further in the statement:

We realize that the primary impetus for prudent action must come from the will of the people, families and those in the private sector. Held to this standard of common good, action by government is often needed to assure the health and well-being of all people. We pledge, therefore, to give serious consideration to responsible policies that acceptably address the conditions set forth in this declaration.

Here they fall for the lie of Socialism that government action in the "common good" to "assure the health and well-being of all people." That is a lie...the best example of the proper philosophy of government is provided in the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence:


We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

The institution, and calling for, of new laws and regulations in support of a fictitious "Global Warming" is a crime against God, Humanity, and will result in the further loss of freedom. It is wrong.


Conclusion

We the undersigned, in accordance with our Christian moral convictions and Southern Baptist doctrines, pledge to act on the basis of the claims made in this document. We will not only teach the truths communicated here but also seek ways to implement the actions that follow from them. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, we urge all who read this declaration to join us in this effort. Laus Deo!

The claims made in this document are built upon a foundation of sand, and will be washed away in the next few years of cooler temperatures.

If you are a Southern Baptist, please forward this to your church leaders.

The people involved in this project need to prayerfully reconsider their position in the light of the information provided in this post, and the links below to voices who speak more eloquently than I do about the lie of Global Warming:

Timothy Birdnow: The Slowing Sun and Global Cooling

EtherZone

Gateway Pundit: Brrrr Series of Posts

The Vanguard

Glowarming Skeptics

Al Fin: Politics, Science, Loot

Al Fin: Global Warming, State Religion

Daily Tech: Monitors report Wide Scale Global Cooling

Carnival of Climate Change

Solar Cycle 24: Amateur Radio Operators Discuss Global Warming

Heartland Institute: 2008 International Conference on Climate Change