Colin's Blog My thoughts on everything.

Is God Green?

In my hotel room this eveing, I came in half-way through a PBS documentary about the relationship & conflict between evangelical Christians in the United States and environmentalism. Apparently one of the leaders of the NAE (National Association of Evangelicals), Richard Cizik, has had a green conversion to go along with his conversion to Jesus Christ.

A couple things stood out for me. First was a quote from Cizik: "Sometimes to be biblically consistent, you must be politically inconsistent." Amen. Why is this so hard to understand for some? The other, related, thing that caught my attention was passing reference to the fact the Republican Party had 'co-opted' the NAE.

This was particularly interesting to me because I'm currently reading "God's Politics" by Jim Wallis. Wallis, too, believes that religion (not just evangelicals) has been co-opted by the political right. So much so that the 'religious right' is indistinguishable from the politcal right and that in political conversation the word 'religious' and only be followed by the word 'right'. A double-whammy.

I am a Christian. I am Green. Politically, I am neither left nor right. I thank both Mr. Cizik and Mr. Wallis for the affirmation that that's OK.

Edit: Tod Bolsinger has a preview, and a review is forth-coming.

Update: Tod has posted his thoughts on the program - and provided some good links to find out more.