Evangelical Environmental Network: Gulf Oil Spill Raises Moral Issues

Leaders of a group that encourages evangelical Christians to care for the environment say the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico raises moral challenges for the country.

The Revs. Jim Ball and Mitchell Hescox, leaders of the Evangelical Environmental Network, are visiting southern Louisiana to pray with people who have lost jobs because of the spill.

Joining them is the Rev. Galen Carey of the National Association of Evangelicals.

Ball says they took a boat ride off the coast Thursday and were saddened by sights of oil-spattered marshes where birds were nesting.

He says the oil spill is a stain on the nation's stewardship of God's creation, and should inspire people of faith to embrace cleaner energy sources. Ball says how the nation responds to the disaster is a matter of values.

Comments

[Hokeysmokes]

10:25 PM on 06/20/2010

Rev.Ball says how the nation responds to the disaster is a matter of values. So the Tea Party announced a boycott on Dawn detergent used to clean oiled wildlife. Onward Christian soldiers.

[Karelle Scharff]

11:29 AM on 07/12/2010

In point of fact, they declared the boycott over Chris Matthews documentary about the Tea Party.

That said, when I found out about their little tantrum - I went out and bought 6 small bottles of Dawn detergent, made a little sticker that says, "Boycotted by the Tea Baggers," added that to the label and am giving them to 6 friends, with a verbal explanation, and an exhortation to do the same, in support of Dawn's contributions to wildlife recovery from oil spills.

I then called Dawn customer service and told them what I'm doing - the agent said she'd pass it on and got a good laugh.

Do something similar!

Here is the contact info:

Make phone calls to:

Dawn customer service, [phone]

Go to the P&G website for the contact form to email.

Send letters to:

Corporate Headquarters
The Procter & Gamble Company
P.O. Box 599
Cincinnati, OH 45201-0599

[JonnyTruant]

02:07 PM on 06/20/2010

Hey Evangelicals! I know some of you are good folks who consider it our responsibility to watch over and protect "god's creation." However, the grand majority of you preach that god gave us this earth to do with as we pleased, that resources are infinite because god will always provide (oil, etc.) and that it goes against god to recycle, conserve, and protect nature. Until you reign in those horribly delusional people, your words mean nothing. It's like a troll saying sorry then continuing to troll.

[yemaya]

11:27 AM on 06/20/2010

Why would evangelicals need encouragement to protect the environment?

[Van Carter]

01:34 AM on 06/20/2010

I will preface my statements by stating that I am an atheist, was raised in a completely non-Judaeo-Christian environment, and didn't encounter the Bible or monotheistic religion in any meaningful depth until I was in High School.

My impression of Evangelical Christianity is that for the most part there exists in it a thread of predestination? That the world will come to an end in God's time and that humans cannot do anything that harms what God has made until such time as he is ready to bring about the end of the world, i.e. Judgment Day or the Reckoning.

Religion is also a creation of man (regardless of theistic belief), a tool of enculturation that functions to promote stability and conformity. Religions prosper by controlling access to information and promoting a specific worldview, enhancing their status and reaffirming their importance in a culture's structure.

The reason I bring this up is that in many respects, Evangelism and Christianity are largely responsible for the anti-science, anti-intellectual attitude that is so prominent in modern America. Spend any time observing Evangelicals and it becomes clear very quickly that science is viewed as an other, an enemy that seeks to destroy the Evangelical model of the world.

I do not see how the views of mainstream Evangelism and its beliefs can be squared with the positions of environmentalists and environmental scientists. Perhaps someone of religion can explain it to me?

[livesimply]

12:43 AM on 06/20/2010

Just as I don't like being painted with a wide "liberal" brush, I think it a bit thoughtless to paint evangelicals with a wide brush as well. We need to come together on this. We need to honor mother earth and repair the damage we have done as best we can and we need to do it together. Each of us with whatever we have to contribute. Even if it is just being kind to people you disagree with and living as lightly on the planet as you can.

[Erzsebet Gilbert]

01:11 AM on 06/20/2010

You know, you're right, and I really appreciate that consciousness you've shown. It's easy, particularly when expressing one's opinion, to stereotype or pigeonhole the opposite group. Thanks!

[livesimply]

12:24 PM on 06/20/2010

Peace.

[RedDogBear]

08:51 PM on 06/20/2010

Well said, I agree.

[yemaya]

11:29 AM on 06/20/2010

Modern evangelicals don't fit the environmental profile. sorry, but that's the truth. They preach that jesus wants them to be successful and encourage their flock to give generously. It's a con job, nothing more.

[livesimply]

12:23 PM on 06/20/2010

Well I don't intend to fit anyone's "profile" and yet I'm sure there are people that would profile me in one way or another. I have known many of these people. I work with all kinds of people; some who identify themselves as quite Christian. And there are many evangelical preachers who truly believe what they are preaching. I don't believe in the same way, but they have every right to believe as they do. Surely there are some with more cynical motives, but I don't know any and I expect there are few.

[RedDogBear]

08:51 PM on 06/20/2010

If you read the article and livesimply's comment its clear that not ALL evangelicals are just interested in getting rich. Some do care for the environment. Of course its easier for some people to live in a world of black and white, good guys and bad guys and for you the evangelicals are all the bad guys, just like religious fundamentalists.

[Netflyer]

11:16 PM on 06/19/2010

They are only an abortion away from voting for us liberals. The right has them wrapped up on right to life and it just causes major inconsistencies with the churches values... take another point this year from Glenn Beck where he likened a social contract that the church has with society/community to communism... said if your church leader mentions social contracts or obligations you should 'Run for the hills!' That is another example of a contrary to Christianity stance the right takes that Christians should run from the hills from.

[Chhana Hen]

10:17 PM on 06/19/2010

wow, now people , what are you doing in your country? They can not help their environment or not and also can not help their animal's life survive from this dangerous. O ! people !

[So-called-bob]

08:38 PM on 06/19/2010

Pray? Okay if you think that will help. What would help is a one time out lay of $10,000.00 per person to generate 300 khr per month. Or to put a city of 100,000 people into a sustainable energy economy would cost about 2 billion dollars.

[bwenston42]

12:05 PM on 06/20/2010

Which one of these will get the oil cleaned up? Turn around three times then click your heels together or sending a letter to Sants Clause or prayer?

[seal62]

05:10 PM on 06/19/2010

Wheres your God?...Where?Just keep praying while you voted for exactly this red states.Lets change sides..we need a tax payer bail out for our greed.No tax money for clean up.Get the gov out of our lives....well...there you go...enjoy.

[TanMan]

06:24 PM on 06/19/2010

I wonder how many of the Red voters will take the government money and then turn around and yell for the government to get out of their lives. Religions really like that, because they can then convert civic duty into charity. And woe betide any one who doesn't have the same ideology because then they do not deserve the charity. The recent health care debate is a shining example. I wonder if the outcome would have been different if the choices were:
- Single payer
- No govt health care (that includes medicare)

[lynettema]

03:52 PM on 06/19/2010

These same religious Evangelicals will get up off their knees after prayer and go vote for the same people who got us into this mess and think the Obama administration is being too hard on BP.

[yemaya]

11:29 AM on 06/20/2010

yup

[alfredo 1]

03:28 PM on 06/19/2010

Of course that's all the oil and gas companies want evangelicals to do. Pray! All the while the companies connive in every possible way to avoid regulations, taxes and cut corners off corners that have already been cut.
An ExxonMobil exec. testified that "they would not have drilled like BP did". How do we know that that is a fact when their blow out prevention and disaster plan is word for word identical to BPs? In fact all the oil companies are very concerned about what might happen to the walruses, where ever they drill, and little else.
We should not forget that Exxon is the only oil company to have been caught with a drunken captain in charge of a super tanker.
Which reminds me of a commercial that they used to run, years ago, (before remotes) where their supertanker captains in training were trained on "toy tankers", or something like that, so that when they "moved up to super tankers they would be ready". I haven't seen that commercial lately. Neither have I seen the one with cows grazing in the vicinity of a refinery with udders bulging. Nor the one about where they "don't take credit for the good scrimping in the waters off Louisiana". With the punchline: "but we don't seem to have done it any harm either".

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men, for the nastiest of reasons, will somehow work for the benefit of us all.
- John Maynard Keynes

[CubanVoice]

03:22 PM on 06/19/2010

Never thought I'd ever see the words evangelical and environmental together.

[Erzsebet Gilbert]

01:12 AM on 06/20/2010

Evanronmentical?

[Ranta]

02:16 PM on 06/19/2010

If corporations are allowed "personhood", why are they allowed to have no morals? The fiduciary duty of making as much money as possible is given to them with no responsibility.
We non-corporations should be allowed to have off shore accounts and avoid taxes too.

[yemaya]

11:30 AM on 06/20/2010

good point.

[TanMan]

12:41 PM on 06/19/2010

Must be quite an opinion poll.
OK now boys we wont be burning books, we gots ta go after them oil leakers.

Hello dear beach resident. Can I say a prayer for the beautiful beach that has been leaked all over. Would you like some eternal salvation.
Ha...

[dogisgreat]

12:39 PM on 06/19/2010

If the "christians" would take a break from their non-stop h8ful venom against gays they might come to the realization that there are bigger threats to human future than same-sex marriage. It's times like these that we see how utterly useless this 2,000-year-old fairy tale is to the true moral questions of the modern world. No doubt many regular Sunday church worshipers will be implicated in the immoral conduct of BP and other companies that caused this catastrophe, the root of which, no doubt, is the love of money.