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Ned Potter is the science correspondent for ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson." He has reported on such topics as space exploration, the human genome and climate change.
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‘Green’ Bible Stirs Controversy Among Evangelicals
December 31, 2008 10:05 AM
ABC News' Ki Mae Heussner reports:
The Bible has gone green. But some in the evangelical community object to spreading the “good news” through an eco-friendly Good Book.
Released by HarperCollins Publishers this fall, the Green Bible emphasizes environmental messages laced throughout the pages (the book's Web site says it includes 1,000 references to Earth in the Bible, compared to 490 to Heaven and 530 to love). In addition to highlighting Earth-related passages in light green, the book is printed on recycled paper with soy-based ink.
Supporters of the new book, including those in the creation care movement who believe that their biblical faith is crucial to solving ecological problems, hope it will encourage others to take environmental action.
"In every book of the Bible, there are references to the world and how we should take care of it," Rusty Pritchard, editor of the eco-friendly evangelical publication Creation Care Magazine, told the Arizona Republic newspaper. "When you look at it through that lens, it really jumps out at you … that God is calling us to care for the world around us."
But some evangelical Christians argue that the new Bible distorts and cheapens the meaning of the scripture.
“As an evangelical Christian, it’s my belief and the belief of many people like me that the central message of the Christian Bible is the redemption of fallen man through Jesus Christ, not the redemption of the polluted Earth through creation care advocates,” James M. Taylor, a founding elder and Sunday school teacher at Living Water Christian Fellowship in Palmetto, Fla., told ABCNews.com.
Taylor is also a senior fellow of environmental policy at the Heartland Institute, a conservative Chicago-based think tank, but he said he was speaking for himself and not his organization.
But it’s not just the Green Bible that some evangelicals contest. It’s the greater creation care movement that stakes positions on the environment – particularly global warming – that mainstream evangelicals say the Bible is largely silent on.
Some recent surveys and initiatives between evangelicals and the scientific community have suggested that more members of the community are retreating from their skeptical stance on global warming.
But mainstream evangelicals say that those members are in the minority, pointing to the National Association of Evangelicals’ assertion that it does not have a specific position on global warming.
“When we interject religion into environmental debates, we are taking the focus of the church away from God and, instead, placing it on a hotly disputed social values issue,” Taylor said.
Still, the Green Bible has received a significant amount of praise from those within and outside the evangelical community.
The new Bible includes a foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and has been endorsed by the Sierra Club, the Humane Society and the Eco-Justice Program of the National Council of Churches USA.
More than 37,000 copies have been printed and the first 25,000 sold out within just a few weeks, according to the Arizona Republic.
December 31, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (230)
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Evangelicals, GOP, Just go away.
Posted by: Thinking | Dec 31, 2008 10:16:32 AM
They can have Tennessee. The state has been well-cared for!
Posted by: Emily | Dec 31, 2008 10:22:34 AM
It is still the Bible. Nothing has been changed from what I read in the srticle. The environmental passages are just highlighted. What is the big deal? God made the earth and we should take care of it and ourselves as well.
Posted by: Jenny Rome Ga | Dec 31, 2008 10:22:59 AM
Mixed nuts
Posted by: surfobx31 | Dec 31, 2008 10:23:15 AM
"“When we interject religion into environmental debates, we are taking the focus of the church away from God and, instead, placing it on a hotly disputed social values issue,” Taylor said."
But it's is perfectly fine to use the bible to fight against gay marriage... why?
Posted by: Calis | Dec 31, 2008 10:25:47 AM
"“When we interject religion into environmental debates, we are taking the focus of the church away from God and, instead, placing it on a hotly disputed social values issue,” Horse hocky. God created the world and we as Gods children should be taking care of it. Theere are many who feel that the greatest cathedrials in the world cannot compare to natures cathedrial.
Posted by: Jenny Rome Ga | Dec 31, 2008 10:31:14 AM
The earth belongs to God. We are just temporary tenants. Those that treat this planet like rock stars trashing a hotel room show their true Christian colors. Someday their security deposit will come due.
Posted by: Tracie | Dec 31, 2008 10:32:22 AM
To the person who wrote: "Evangelicals, GOP, Just go away." You are not confident enough to put a name with your opinion. They are just empty words.
Posted by: dugan442200 | Dec 31, 2008 10:33:24 AM
I am so tired of this holy rolling sike job, It's just a book , a book written by man for man nothing else get over yourselfs,there are plenty other books in the world just as valid, IT'S A BOOK, ONLY A BOOK. READ IT AND SHUT UP ABOUT IT ALREADY. IT'S A BOOK , ONLY A BOOK.
Posted by: KWOLF443 | Dec 31, 2008 10:35:43 AM
All of you evangelicals have you heard the hymn "Tthis is my Fathers World"? If you look at the words they sound pretty "green" to me.
Posted by: Jenny Rome Ga | Dec 31, 2008 10:37:08 AM
It is true God tells us is His word to take care of the earth He made for us. BUT excepting His Son who came to save us is what is most important. If we live by the commandments God gave us & except His Son then the rest should fall into place... Love the Lord & love what He has made for us. Do you respect the home of your parents? Respect the earth He made for us... saying that Global warming is bull. The earth has changed many times since it was created & it will continue. It is Gods will. Read His word He gives us plenty of warning.
Posted by: Cindy | Dec 31, 2008 10:44:14 AM
Here's the first and most important lesson of the day: There is no God, never has been and never will be.
Posted by: magoo2u | Dec 31, 2008 10:45:57 AM
'Niche Bibles' are nothing new among Evangelicals and other Christian groups. No Bible focusing on particular topics or targeting towards particular sub-groups can satisfy everyone's taste. Even though I support the cause of Environmentalists I do admit that it would be difficult to get a 2000+ year old text to address the issues as they exist in the 21st century. The best one can do is to take statements from scripture and re-apply their general principle to our time.
Posted by: Robert | Dec 31, 2008 10:48:05 AM
Wow, the Greenies have past the point of really creepy things.
This 'Green Bible' reminds me of another sci-fi book "Fallen Angels" a Prometheus Award-winning novel by science fiction authors Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Michael Flynn published by Jim Baen.
The story features a future in which the environmentalist movement, joined with the religious right, has gained control of the earth's governments, imposing draconian luddite laws which, in an ironic effort to end global warming, bring about the greatest environmental catastrophe in recorded history - an ice age which may eventually escalate into a Snowball Earth.
It appears the Greenies are now the 'fundamental religious' only they worship fraud.
Posted by: syn | Dec 31, 2008 10:53:33 AM
Oh Cindy, as much as you want to believe you can cost through life in the belief that if you just do and think what your pastor tells you to, that's fine, but don't expect God to look kindly on it. The Earth is a gift created by God as is our own ability to think and act upon what we decide. By ignoring the ability to judge information yourself and leaving those decisions to other, you are effectively spitting in the face of God say "You may have given me the ability to decide for myself, but I'm to lazy to do so, I'll left someone else make decisions for me."
As for the "earth is constantly changing" argument, it is a very weak one when there is a heavy correlation between the beginning of the industrial revolution and the start of the current heating trend. If you decide to look into the issue, you will find that good, solid, science points much more heavily to global warming being an even caused by human activity rather than 'a warming cycle.'
In short: Starting thinking for yourself and not just passively agreeing with what is convenient for you to believe in. The best way to strengthen your beliefs is to question them and why you believe in them, not to just repeat them louder and more often.
Posted by: Calis | Dec 31, 2008 10:56:54 AM
Hillarious.........Two of my favorite fictional belief systems duking it out. Global warming is nonsense. And in fact, we are entering a cooling phase of the earth cycles.
Posted by: chattyway | Dec 31, 2008 11:03:09 AM
"Tthis is my Fathers World"? If you look at the words they sound pretty "green" to me. "
That's interesting, so I am suppose to believe God said to worship Greenie's scientific fraud?
For whatever it is worth, I believe Science as gone completely insane through its irrational emotionalism; the paranoid attempt to constantly prove fraudulent science is what is killing reason.
Posted by: syn | Dec 31, 2008 11:04:17 AM
I love how people can have a "position" on global warming.
Maybe people should also have a "position" on gravity or have a "position" on whether microwave energy exists.
Posted by: Reason | Dec 31, 2008 11:06:41 AM
"Hillarious.........Two of my favorite fictional belief systems duking it out. Global warming is nonsense. And in fact, we are entering a cooling phase of the earth cycles."
Please show your scientific credentials. You sound like an expert.
Posted by: Reason | Dec 31, 2008 11:08:02 AM
"... ironic effort to end global warming, bring about the greatest environmental catastrophe in recorded history - an ice age which may eventually escalate into a Snowball Earth."
Bush, is that you?
Posted by: Reason | Dec 31, 2008 11:09:45 AM
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