December 17, 2004

Evangelical Christianity and the environment

This article raises the question whether pro-life evangelicals can overcome "a deep-rooted prejudice that associates environmentalism with paganism, pantheism and the Counterculture and New Left revolts of the 1960s-all Godzilla-sized bogeymen in the evangelical worldview. (It's worth noting here that the distrust is mutual.)"

While the director of the Evangelical Environmental Network thinks that pro-life views and environmental protection are compatible, there is also the group that associates environmental catastrophe with the awaited arrival of the Messiah. Some of them even try to quantify catastrophes, wars, and disasters in a "Rapture speedometer."

The journalist Bill Moyers, who writes frequently on issues of American culture and religion, was gloomier about the anti-environmental form of Christianity in his acceptance speech in a recent awards ceremony.

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