This week, ABC News picked up on blog comments by Southern Baptist Seminary’s Russell Moore about the moral implications of the Gulf oil crisis.

ABC quoted Moore as saying, “We simply can’t be at the place where some evangelicals were prior to this of simply dismissing the whole idea of environmental protection as … Al Gore’s cause and the cause of hippies on their food co-op.”

A few years ago, I observed a new movement among conservative evangelicals to embrace environmental issues.

Perhaps Moore’s comments signal a breakthrough in conservative consciousness as he has a broad following among evangelical conservatives.

For 30 years now, religious conservatives have rallied with political conservatives which has encamped them with economic conservatives.  In the black-and-white world of politics, this has pitted them against environmental conservationists who for some reason tend to be painted as liberals.

Environmental issues are not exclusively liberal concerns.  Moore gives it a great perspective: “We’ve had an inadequate view of human sin.  Because we believe in free markets, we’ve acted as though this means we should trust corporations to protect the natural resources and habitats.”

Moore observes that the Gulf oil leak will perhaps awaken evangelicals to environmental concerns.  He points to the need to extend healthy skepticism to corporations.

Corporations are not our friends.  They are not looking out for our interests.  They are not looking out for the good of future generations.  They are not concerned about the environment.

But why should conservative evangelicals care?    Taking the Bible literally and wholly requires attention to the Old Testament.   It is there that God commanded us to be stewards of the earth he gave us.  Moore said that caring for God means caring for God’s creation.

God gave us a pretty good earth with lots of neat stuff to enjoy – not to mention the essentials elements for survival the earth provides.  We’re obligated to take care of it.  Moore says we need to hold the government, corporations and individuals accountable as part of our responsibility in caring for the earth.  Well said.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 1st, 2010 at 4:43 am and is filed under Business, Christianity, Church, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.