First up from the God Machine this week is an internal squabble among leading evangelical Christians, many of whom are upset about global warming — for very different reasons.
Focus on the Family founder James C. Dobson and other conservative Christian leaders are calling for the National Association of Evangelicals to silence or fire an official who has urged evangelicals to take global warming seriously.
In a letter this week to the board of the NAE, which claims 30 million members, Dobson and his two dozen co-signers said the Rev. Richard Cizik, the NAE’s vice president for government relations, has waged a “relentless campaign” that is “dividing and demoralizing” evangelicals.
Cizik has been a leader in efforts to broaden evangelicals’ political agenda beyond abortion and same-sex marriage. He says Christians have a biblical imperative to protect the environment, which he calls “creation care.”
“I speak with a voice that is authentically evangelical on all the issues, from religious freedom around the world, to compassion for the poor, ending oppression in Darfur — and yes, creation care is one of those issues,” Cizik said yesterday.
Dobson and his cohorts have an odd approach, not just because they reject the scientific consensus and are unconcerned about the consequences of climate change, but because they need to silence a voice of dissent among their ranks. Cizik, they say, isn’t just wrong for taking global warming seriously, he’s also dangerous.
And they don’t want to debate him, they want to silence him. An evangelical leader has the nerve to sound the alarm over global warming, so Dobson — and Gary Bauer, Tony Perkins, Paul Weyrich, et al — believe it’s only reasonable that Cizik lose his job.
The NAE’s board is scheduled to meet next week in Minnesota. I’ll let you know what happens.
Next up is an update on the ongoing religious controversy at College of William and Mary.
As I’ve noted on a couple of occasions, William and Mary, one of the nation’s oldest public universities, recently decided to remove an 18-inch brass cross that had been displayed on the altar of an on-campus chapel. As we’ve talked about before, the public university wanted to make the chapel less faith-specific, so that all religious students in a diverse student population would feel equally welcome.
Some evangelical activists on campus and among alumni are offended, insisting that the chapel endorse their religion, even if it’s a public school and even if it excludes minorities on a diverse campus. This week, the controversy started hurting the college financially. (thanks to SKNM for the tip)
A longtime donor to the College of William and Mary is withholding a $12 million pledge because of the decision to remove a cross from a campus chapel, the school said.
The donor, who was not identified, changed his mind after school President Gene Nichol decided in October that the cross should be stored in a sacristy to make the chapel welcoming to students of all faiths, Nichol spokesman Mike Connolly said.
The loss of the funds “represents a serious setback to the college,” Nichol wrote in an e-mailed statement Tuesday. “While I know it is intended to make a policy statement, ultimately it only hurts our students.”
Apparently, the donor cares more about the school endorsing his or her faith symbol than the future of the university. What a shame.
Next up is an interesting poll about religion and the war in Iraq.
Jewish Americans are more strongly opposed to the Iraq war than any other major religious group in the United States, a new Gallup Poll found.
The Gallup Organization combined data from the last two-plus years measuring the support or lack thereof for the Iraq war. Overall, 52 percent of Americans say the United States made a mistake to invade Iraq and 46 percent favored the war by saying it did not make a mistake.
Broken down into religious groups, 77 percent of Jews say the war is a mistake and 21 percent say it is not. Behind Jews, 53 percent of Catholics showed opposition to the war and 46 percent showed favor. Among Protestants, 48 percent oppose and 49 percent do not oppose. More specifically, more non-black Protestants were for the war than against it (55 to 43 percent).
Mormons were found to be the most likely religious group to favor the Iraq war with 72 percent saying it was not a mistake to send troops and 27 percent saying it was.
Black Protestants, however, showed strong opposition to the war. The poll showed that 78 percent of black Protestants say it was a mistake to send troops to Iraq while only 18 percent say it was not a mistake.
Among Americans without a religious preference, 66 percent oppose the war and 33 percent favor it.
And, finally, I hate to end This Week in God on such an dejecting note, but this is a story worth remembering.
Catholic school students who shouted “We love Jesus” during a basketball game against a school with Jewish students will have to get some sensitivity training.
“Jew” also was painted on a gym wall behind the seats of Bishop Sullivan Catholic High School students attending the Feb. 2 game at Norfolk Academy, said Sullivan principal Dennis Price.
Price said the “We love Jesus” chants were “obviously in reference to the Jewish population of Norfolk Academy.”
Price said he sent an apology to Norfolk and arranged for sensitivity training for Sullivan students.
Bishop Sullivan Catholic High is in Pat Robertson’s hometown of Virginia Beach.