To learn moreRead the "A Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor 2014: The Case Against Harmful Climate Policies Gets Stronger" report at www.cornwallalliance.org.
How should the Christian confront climate change? The White House has an answer. Secretary of State John Kerry says Christianity compels him to fight climate change by curbing fossil fuel usage and limiting carbon dioxide emissions.
This view is overly simplistic. The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, an evangelical Christian group, just released a study titled "A Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor 2014," followed by "Protect the Poor: Ten Reasons to Oppose Harmful Climate Change Policies," a declaration signed by 150 pastors, economists, scientists and other leaders. The study lays out our shared conviction that environmental policies must be based on an accurate reading of Scripture as well as sound climate science.
We start with Scripture. It is true that the Bible calls us to steward the Earth. This is evident from its first two chapters, which discuss "cultivating" and "guarding" the Garden of Eden and "subduing" and "ruling" the whole Earth (Genesis 2:15; 1:28).
But Scripture also teaches that Christians must care for the poor. When the Apostle Paul visited the other apostles in Jerusalem, they urged him to "remember the poor, the very thing [he] was eager to do" (Galatians 2:10).
In light of these passages, we believe that policymakers who oppose use of fossil fuels oppress the poor. Fossil fuels are the most affordable energy sources, as demonstrated by data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Policies that shift electricity generation from them to renewables will raise prices on electricity, heating bills, groceries, and manufactured goods. The poor can least afford rising prices.
Such policies will also make it harder for the poor who lack electricity -- some 2.3 billion people in developing countries -- to gain access to electricity and thereby escape poverty.
The rest of the world understands this. China, India and other developing countries account for over 80 percent of carbon dioxide emissions because they use affordable fossil fuels to power their economic expansions.
These advances would be jeopardized -- perhaps even reversed -- under President Obama's climate policies.
To play devil's advocate, perhaps short-term economic pain is preferable to long-term climate catastrophe. True enough. Yet numerous climate scientists -- including those who authored and signed our declaration -- have raised concerns with the prevailing climate change orthodoxy.
This year, climate scientists have noted immense flaws in the climate models that guide the White House's policies. For example, the models falsely predicted that global average temperature would rise between 1995 and 2014. It did not.
The list of similar facts is growing by the day. We outline many more in our study. Importantly, these aren't the positions of fringe scientists. One of Obama's prominent climate advisers -- whom he appointed to the Department of Energy -- now argues that the White House is "misrepresenting the current state of climate science" and is doing "a great disservice to climate science itself."
For the Christian, this ought to bring some clarity to the climate change debate. More and more, the evidence indicates that the White House's anti-fossil fuel crusade will disproportionately harm the poor in the name of increasingly questionable scientific claims. It is neither loving nor just to support that agenda.
E. Calvin Beisner is national spokesman for the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation.