What Are Baptists Up To?
The front page of the Tennessean ran a story today, as did the NYTimes, on a declaration signed by several Southern Baptist bigwigs - including the current President of the fundamentalist convention - which says essentially this: global warming is likely real and likely a problem and so we should address it as a moral imperative. Since the religious right has pretty well been front and center of the global warming denier's caucus, this could be a significant development. The signers here include not just high ranking officials but influential poobahs as well.

I have to assume, frankly, that they are up to something, but what's the angle? The NAE's Richard Cizik has been trying to move conservative Christian groups in the direction of, well, conservation, for a while now and has been practically drummed out of the club for it. What's changed?

Reasonable Baptist Robert Parham seems to think they are inserting wiggle room by refusing to acknowledge that global warming is a man-made phenomenon. Yes, that's a problem of logic (how are we supposed to address it if we aren't the ones that have been contributing to it?), but I don't see a real strategy there. I can think of 3 possibilities:

1) They sense drift in their membership, especially young people. Are member churches letting leadership know that their congregations want to see action on global warming? Honestly, I don't think that's it. Without being too insulting about it, the Southern Baptist churches that have clung to fundamentalist rule aren't exactly ones for stepping out against the leadership and forming a grassroots push-back.

2) Trying to bigfoot the New Baptist Covenant meeting on Wednesday? The leaders of the recent New Baptist Covenant meeting in Atlanta are getting together Wednesday to discuss next steps. It wouldn't shock me if they are intending to come out in full support of policies aimed at the climate crisis. By releasing this declaration today, the SBC can claim to be leaders and not look like followers here.

3) The McCain Factor. This is where I'm leaning. Whichever President we have after the November election will not be a global warming denier. McCain's not as good on the issue as Obama or Clinton, but he's not completely anti-science about it, and ackownledges it is a problem to be dealt with. So, I'm thinking the SBC sees the writing on the wall. As (even crazier) nutjob John Hagee is endorsing him, it could be that Convention strategists, keen on maintaining a high level of political sway, want to get ahead of the curve and move in a way that will help McCain embrace them back. Together, fundamentalist Christians and reasonable Republicans may believe they can shape policy and make the defeat of global warming a conservative triumph (surely, looking to addressing the issue in a way that keeps oil companies happy as well) rather than fighting the wave of public sentiment.

They support him on global warming and he will support them on, what, judicial appointments? gay rights? And the SBC jumps ahead of some other perennial Religious Right powerhouses like James Dobson, the Family Research Council, etc. in White House influence?