"While we cannot here review the full range of relevant biblical convictions related to care of the creation, we emphasize the following points:
Christians must care about climate change because we love God the Creator and Jesus our Lord, through whom and for whom the creation was made. This is God's world, and any damage that we do to God's world is an offense against God Himself (Gen. 1; Ps. 24; Col. 1:16).
Christians must care about climate change because we are called to love our neighbors, to do unto others as we would have them do unto us, and to protect and care for the least of these as though each was Jesus Christ himself (Mt. 22:34-40; Mt. 7:12; Mt. 25:31-46).
Christians, noting the fact that most of the climate change problem is human induced, are reminded that when God made humanity he commissioned us to exercise stewardship over the earth and its creatures. Climate change is the latest evidence of our failure to exercise proper stewardship, and constitutes a critical opportunity for us to do better (Gen. 1:26-28).
Love of God, love of neighbor, and the demands of stewardship are more than enough reason for evangelical Christians to respond to the climate change problem with moral passion and concrete action."
I'm not sure I understand some of this. Consider the idea that Christians MUST care about climate change because we love God. I think I don't react well to this suggestion because it seems to tell me how I am supposed to love God, and I suspect love is a rather personal matter. I wonder if I would react more openly to concern for climate change if the idea was expressed in a different way? What if the idea here sounded like the following: "As Christians, the undersigned express some part of our love for God by a personal commitment to work for government policy that can reduce the extent to which economic activities in our country increase global climate change." Perhaps I would be more open to consider choosing to see such political action as an expression of my love for God. I know I do not react openly to a statement that seems to choose for me how I will love God.
It is suggested that Christians should see sufficient reason to respond with moral passion and concrete action. Perhaps so. But, what concrete action is promoted by this group? Is it concrete action to encourage elected representatives to use government to force others to respond with concrete action? Or is it concrete action to get others to join voluntarily with their own personal and organized efforts to be good stewards of specific parts of this world?
UPDATE: I posted on another site about politics and global warming science. It seems to me that one of the things we should consider when choosing a policy position on global warming is the way in which science interacts with politics. I suspect that when science becomes part of politics, it becomes very difficult for us to know what is true and what is false regarding what science knows. If this is the case, then how should we account for this when choosing a personal policy position regarding global warming?
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