The New Moral Issue
by TChris
The Republican Senate has exhausted itself with fierce debates about gay marriage, the protection of stem cells, and flag burning amendments, while showing little interest in legislation that might benefit the public. As Republican leaders waste their time ranting about "moral issues," Al Gore unveiled a plan yesterday to combat global warming. Gore recognizes that avoiding the destruction of life on the planet is a greater moral issue than those that motivate the religious right.
"This is not a political issue. This is a moral issue -- it affects the survival of human civilization," Gore said in an hour-long speech at the New York University School of Law. "Put simply, it is wrong to destroy the habitability of our planet and ruin the prospects of every generation that follows ours."
Gore isn't alone. Religious groups are increasingly focusing on stewardship of the environment as a moral issue.
"This movement in the last six to nine months has mushroomed," said Chuck Gillam, a one-time Republican who is a representative to the Sustainable Sanctuary Coalition, an interfaith group that meets monthly in Prairie Village. "Global warming could be the one thing where you can get a united front between the secular and religious." ...
Backers of this so-called Evangelical Climate Initiative include Rick Warren, author of the best-selling book The Purpose-Driven Life, and leaders of the National Association of Evangelicals -- a group comprising 60 denominations representing 45,000 churches.
The changing focus of the debate mirrors the growing realization that global warming is real, and is more likely to have an impact on everyday life than what the gay couple down the street does for fun in the privacy of their home. Public sentiment is so strong that the president is rumored to be plotting a policy flip-flop by recognizing the problem of global warming (although his willingness to do anything about it remains suspect).
Update: War is obviously a moral issue (particularly when the war is immoral), and this article reminds us that people of faith can play a critical role in opposing needless killing:
"It is the silent, the indifferent, the 'good' churchgoing people and those who delight in reading the Torah; all of us who sit back in our pews and sing gospel melodies and Gregorian chants while villages are bombed and cluster bombs explode and parents anguish over the loss of their children and children scream at the terror that their innocent eyes have endured. We have helped lay the 'bricks.' "
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