Evangelical and environmental?

[Kevin Spidel]

Matt Frei's diary: Evangelical and environmental?

If the green movement truly wants to convert America it needs to convert more evangelical Christians. Let me explain.

This week, I spoke to Pastor Tri Robinson from the Vineyard Church in Boise, Idaho, who described to me his journey from scepticism to conviction about the need to tackle climate change via the Bible.

This is a growing trend inside the evangelical movement.

Pastor Tri described himself as both a "tree-hugger and a social conservative".

He is against abortion and for caps on carbon emissions. And he prays that he won't have to choose between the two at the next election.

But that is exactly what awaits him because for now there is no prominent conservative politician on the horizon who is, to put it bluntly, both pro-life and pro-planet.

Remember how the last Republican convention was electrified by the call to "drill baby drill"?

Pastor Tri and his flock are looking for a political home.

The candidate who is able to give them one, who can straddle the divide between social conservatism and environmental activism, who can recruit God in the service of the planet, is onto a winner.

Original article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8405108.stm

There is a Democratic Congressional candidate who is an evangelical environmental who is running on this issue. His name is Ben Lowe and he is running in IL06: http://www.loweforcongress.com/2009/10/welcome.html

There has been a lot of commentary on his candidacy and if the evangelical movement belongs in the Democratic Party. See this blog post from Sojourner RE: "does the evangelical movement belong in the Democratic Party?" http://blog.sojo.net/2009/11/13/what-happens-when-a-wheaton-grad-runs-for-congress-as-a-democrat/

The local Democratic party activists (many who are friends of mine) are concerned that his stance on life will hurt the down ballot races. He is running as the ONLY Democrat against Roskam (http://rubberstamproskam.com/) yet still getting flack from local Democrats on his stand on abortion.

The questions I ask here today... do you feel the above assessment of the evangelical movement around environmental issues? If so, do you feel the Democratic Party should be a home for such activism?

Ben is a talented man and has already done so much. Listen to his story here in a video: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xa2pb0_thinkfwd-ep016-ben-lowe-sustainable_shortfilms

What are your thoughts?

Consider supporting Ben Lowe and his message today: https://www.completecampaigns.com/public.asp?name=LoweBen&page=1

[HillbillyBob]

1. Maybe the evangelicals can be distracted and go after the Sinners

that kill and maim our environment for profit instead of us mostly harmless quars.

[Kevin Spidel]

2. i cross posted this on kos

and wow... a lot of hater-aid. really? http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/10/812892/-Evangelical-and-environmental