The Southern Baptist Convention last year passed a resolution cautioning against government limits on greenhouse gases because the group believes the evidence is inconclusive as to whether industry is causing global warming.
"What we don't agree on is whether human emissions of carbon dioxide are a danger," said Barrett Duke, a vice president of an ethics commission at the Baptist organization, which has 44,000 churches with 16.3 million members nationally. "Most Baptists don't want the government to impose limits on CO2 emissions at this time." But this month, a splinter group of 44 Southern Baptist leaders signed a declaration criticizing the "timid" position of the church, saying it "may be seen by the world as uncaring, reckless and ill-informed."
In Maryland, pastors and rabbis have spoken out in legislative hearings and at rallies outside the State House to endorse the global warming bill. And they have used their pulpits and e-mail lists to urge their congregants to call lawmakers.
The legislation would require the state's environmental agency to issue a series of regulations to gradually reduce carbon dioxide emissions from all sectors of the economy by an average of 25 percent by 2020, with a nonbonding goal of a 90 percent reduction by 2050. Some of the cuts would come from pollution credit trading programs that would impose penalties on businesses that use high-pollution fuels such as coal and oil.
Julie Erickson, an ordained elder with the Presbyterian Church USA who lobbies for 74 parishes in the Baltimore region, this week chased down state Sen. Catherine Pugh, a Baltimore Democrat, as she strode out of the State House and asked for her support on the global warming bill. Pugh seemed noncommittal, but voted in favor of it the next day.
"We are the guardians of the garden of Eden, and we must tend to it tenderly and carefully," Erickson said.
Some opponents of greenhouse gas limits - such as the U.S. Steelworkers union - argue that there is another side to the moral argument. They say government regulations could raise the price of coal and oil, bankrupting steel factories, paper mills and brick manufacturers, hurting workers.
But Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb, leader of the Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda, finds implied moral authority for the Maryland bill in Exodus. "Religions urge us to take the long view. For example, in Exodus 20:34 we learn that God is concerned to the 1,000th generation. So we who are created in God's image should likewise be concerned about sustainability far down the line," Dobb said.
Mike Tidwell, an author and founder of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said the recent call by some Southern Baptist leaders for action to reduce greenhouse gases shows that conservative religious people are now embracing the need to protect the climate. It's not just "liberal Unitarians and Lutherans," he said.
Tidwell said that more than 60 local church leaders in Virginia recently signed a letter asking that state's governor to oppose the construction of a coal-fired power plant in Southwest Virginia. "Even in the cradle of the confederacy in Virginia, the faith community not only is expressing concern about global warming, they are taking active and very public steps to addresses greenhouse gases," he said.
Tom.pelton@baltsun.com
