Christian churches speaking out on Northern Gateway- Why are evangelicals silent?

Some of Canada's Christian churches are giving voice to concerns over the Northern Gateway pipeline, in particular to the potential hazards it poses with respect to aboriginal peoples and wildlife. 

Kairos Canada has put out a primer for its member churches called: Ethical Reflections on the Northern Gateway Pipeline 

Kairos is a interdenominational organization with a mission statement that calls on Canadian churches to work for justice and peace. 

Member churches include: The Anglican Church of Canada, the Christian Reformed Church in North America, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Mennonite Central Committee of Canada, the Presbyterian Church in Canada and the United Church of Canada. 

United, Anglican, Lutherans, Catholics, Presbyterians....Where are the fundamentalist and/or born again evangelicals? You know, like Baptists, and Pentecostals, the churches that proclaim to be gospel and faith based. I don't know why they're not speaking out, (if they are please comment and link it up) but I have some thoughts as to a possible reason. 

I've written before about the marriage of the neo-conservative ultra pro-business lobby with evangelical Christianity, and I think that's why I haven't been reading about prominent fundamentalist Christians voicing concerns over this pipeline.

One such post was: Is Evangelical Chrisitanity the Trojan horse of neo-conservatism. And another was the review of a book by Yale graduate Jonathan Dudley:  "Broken Words" Understanding the grip Neo-Cons have on evangelicals. 

I'm not expecting evangelical Christians to lend their voice to those taking issue with the Northern Gateway pipeline, because that would mean breaking ranks with their neo-conservative and very pro-business masters. 

Perhaps there's nothing to be concerned about anyway.I mean its not like pipeline leaks and breakages occur very often. Okay, a couple happened back in June of this year in Alberta, and you can read about Enbridge's leaking pipelines in the Financial Post -HERE-.

But that's still only six in about a two year time span, which means only one every four months. In other words, NO LEAKS three months out of every four for the past two years. Hey, with a batting average like that you get a ticket to Cooperstown!!! 

After all, the Bible tells us to conquer or subdue the Earth. While we're at it why not cover it with black ooze? If you'd like to read the Kairos report: CLICK HERE. 

I'm betting many evangelicals don't consider Kairos member churches really Christian anyway. If you're a real Christian you sit down and obey authority and power, just like Jesus did.

Debate on global warming heats up - And misses the point

The global warming debate has been raging for a while now, with many arguing over the impact man made carbon emissions are having on the planet and climate. Those in the Al Gore camp contend we humans need to drastically cut our carbon footprint or face an environmental catastrophe. Others say the science is flawed and that any changes in climate are the result of normal cycles, periods of cooling and warming that this planet has undergone for aeons.

So which is it? I for one don't really care, I just want to see a cleaner environment for my children.

Has the planet's climate changed during my lifetime? There's no doubt in my mind. Growing up in the seventies my mother never worried about covering me from head to toe in sun screen when I was outside for fifteen minutes. Sunburns were de rigeur during my childhood summers. Newscasts were about fires and murders, not the shrinking polar ice cap.

Oh we were concerned about the environment back in the day, but not globally. We had more simple worries back then. You know, things like smog polluting our air, clean water, endangered species and contaminated soil. There were plenty of tree-huggers around reminding us about what we were doing to the planet, but they had trouble holding our attention. In our consumer driven society new cars and newer toys were a lot sexier than saving whales or pandas.

That all changed when the threat of global warming took hold. Suddenly words like 'clean energy' seeped into the collective vocabulary. People started worrying about going green, recycling and composting became the norm. Almost everyone was willing to do their part to stop us from frying ourselves and destroying the planet that is our home.

Now some are suggesting that our efforts may be useless, that this big green movement has been a hoax. Efforts to cut the amount of carbon being released into the atmosphere are openly questioned, with many worrying about the effects on our economy.

And that's a shame.

Even if global warming is not man made, concern over its effects had people engaging in efforts that were reducing smog, cleaning up the water supply and eliminating contamination from our soil. I know I'd much rather live in a world with clean soil, air and water, even if there has to be a period of negative impact on our economy.

If Canada's woodland caribou had a voice in the matter I'm sure they'd be hoping for continued concern on the environmental front. I'll be writing later about the debate over allowing logging in Ontario's northern boreal forest, logging which could severely impact the 5,000 animals still living there.

Canadian Soapbox is now listed in the Top 3 at Canadian Blogosphere. To help this blog climb even higher click on their icon, then hit the green button to vote - limit 1 vote per day per IP - thank you.