Talk to Action
the covert campaign against liberal chuches and the social justice tradition
[above: click on image for YouTube video trailer]"Renewal or Ruin": New Video Documentary By Steve D. Martin Spotlights Secretive Rightwing Effort To Destroy Mainstream Protestant Churches
Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy, by Frederick Clarkson
Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort
by Chip Berlet and Matthew N. Lyons
sample chapter
God's Profits: Faith, Fraud and the Republican Crusade For Values Voters
By Sarah Posner
Liars for Jesus: The Religious Right's Alternate Version of American History
By Chris Rodda
Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism
: by Michelle Goldberg
With God on Their Side: How Christian Fundamentalists Trampled Science, Policy, and Democracy in George W. Bush's White House.
by Esther Kaplan
Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement
Tanya Erzen
Attack on The United Churches of Christ
Attack on The United Methodist Church
"The Christian Right, Dominionism, and Theocracy", by Chip Berlet
"Taking Over The Republican Party", a four part series by Joan Bokaer
The Woman in A Mink CoatWhile We Were sleepingAngels On a PinheadUnder Cover of Night
The Indian River Incident : What You Can Do
link > The "Stop the ACLU Coalition" Shaming Project
How you can help stop "Stop The ACLU" just by sending a few emails
The Shaming Projectdoes the violence of "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" bother you ? If so, what can you do ? Well, to begin with you can email Jonathan Hutson's stories to people you know. That will help to bring more public scrutiny of the game. Public shaming really works ! Just click on the "email" icon and link at the top or bottom of the story and you'll be taken to a form that will allow you email the first story, The Purpose Driven Life Takers or the latest installment without leaving this site. Thanks.
Part Robertson's Sweaty Global Warming Epiphany Challenges American Environmental Movement |
| Sat Aug 05, 2006 at 12:38:17 PM EST |  print story | |
  I tell you stay in doors ladies and gentleman. Stay cool. Get fans or whatever. And the poor, they need emergency fans and ice to cool down -- the number of people dead. I have not been one who believed in the global warming. But I tell you, they are making a convert out of me as these blistering summers. They have broken heat records in a number of cities already this year and broken all-time records and it is getting hotter and the ice caps are melting and there is a build up of carbon dioxide in the air. We really need to address the burning of fossil fuels. If we are contributing to the destruction of the planet we need to do manage about it. [ see the video of Robertson's historic reversal at Alternet ] Some reaction from the left and the environmental movement, to Robertson's historic reversal, has inclined towards ridicule and Sierra Club director Carl Pope's sarcastic toss off, in an op-ed on the Huffington Post - was among the more restrained of the commentary ( "It's official. God believes in global warming. Or so says conservative religious commentator Pat Robertson" ). But, what of the political realignment underway as many American evangelicals come to see "Creation Care" as a religious and Biblical imperative ? 70% of American evangelicals see Global Warming as a threat to the planet. Judging by the starting absence of actual, hardheaded analysis on the significance of Robertson's shift - and especially from environmental groups and leaders - the environmental community has failed to exploit a rapidly opening wedge issue that could set off seismic shifts in the American political landscape.
But, the rare commentary ( see : WorldNet Daily article ) to be found mentioning the possible impact of Robertson's startling shift on evangelical politics points toward a yawning chasm of incomprehension on the part of the big inside-the -beltway environmental advocacy organizations which might seem to ask : "this religion stuff is relevant to us how ?" |
Robertson's recent Damascus moment has increased the political isolation of Inhofe and other Global Warming denialists. Had Robertson's conversion occured earlier in the year, it might well have tipped the balance - in a hard fought battle [ link to AU story, see midway down page ] among the US National Association of Evangelicals - towards a vote advocating US government action on Global Warming [ link - Christian Century story, March 2006 ].
Given the importance of evangelical support as part of the Bush administration and GOP political base, an NAE vote advocating action on Global Warming might well have forced the Bush Administration to back off rom it's mendacious mumblings on the issue and take action, however tentative, to curb greenhouse gasses. The process would have at least begun. Well, that was not to be.
Was the American environmental community even aware of, or paying more than passing attention to, the pitched battle, in the NAE in early 2006, over Global Warming ? Relatively small resources directed in precisely targeted ways could possibly have tipped the vote had environmentalists had some detailed knowledge of the politics of the Christian right. But, what could have been was not to be. The moment came and went, and - for the time being at least - the NAE has backed off advocating action on Global Warming.
Will the American environmental community start to pay more attention to how religion - for better or worse - influences the US government position on Global Warming and other environmental issues ? Will environmentalists build stronger, smarter strategic alliances with growing evangelical environmental movement ?
Will the leadership of big American environmental advocacy organizations undergo "Damascus moments" of their own and learn how they can influence internal politics among American religious constituencies to force meaningful US government action on Global Warming and related, gathering environmental crises ? Will they be equipped and prepared to lobby for their interests prior to the next NAE vote on Global Warming ?
Time will tell, but time grows short.
Blogs
Bartholomew's Notes On ReligionChip BerletMax BlumenthalThe Panda's ThumbFrederick Clarkson Chuck Currie DefCon father Jake Stops The World John Gorenfeld Religion Clause Chris Mooney Religious Right Watch The Revealer Jesus Politics Majority Report Radio Blog Mainstream Baptist Orcinus Dispatches from the Culture Wars Ex-Gay Watch The Wall of Separation Blog From The Capital:a blog on religious liberty issues and the separation of church and stateOrganizations
American Booksellers Foundation for Freedom of ExpressionACLUAnti-Defamation LeagueAmerican Library AssociationChristian Alliance for ProgressCitizens ProjectDefCon: Campaign to Defend The ConstitutionFaithful America People For the American wayInstitute For Democracy StudiesInterfaith AllianceJews On First: Defending the First AmendmentAmerican Fundamentalists Americans United for Separation of Church and StateBaptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty The Clergy and laity Network Political Research Associates Theocracy Watch Media Matters for AmericaMilitary Religious Freedom FoundationMontana Human Rights NetworkNational Center For Science EducationReligious Coalition for Reproductive ChoiceThe RevealerSouthern Poverty Law CenterTexas Freedom NetworkCrossLeft: Organizing the Christian LeftTheocracy WatchTruth Wins Out"
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Comments, posts, stories, and all other content are owned by the authors. Everything else © 2005 Talk to Action, LLC.