Evangelicals Support Species Act

Pointing to the Bible and the story of Noah’s ark, a group of evangelical environmentalists launched a $1 million education and advertising campaign last week in support of the Endangered Species Act.

“People in their arrogance are destroying God’s creation, yet Congress and special interests are trying to sink the Noah’s ark of our day - the Endangered Species Act,” said Calvin DeWitt, co-founder of the Evangelical Environmental Network.

“Few legislative issues ought to be as clear for Christians as this one. Christian faith teaches respect for the works of God and the Endangered Species Act offers real and fair protection for all of his creation,” said DeWitt, a zoologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and president of the Christian Environmental Council.

Leaders of Baptist, Methodist and Evangelical Lutheran churches among others joined in kicking off the campaign at a news conference with a 120-pound cougar named “Maverick” on loan from the zoo in Columbus, Ohio.

Evangelical Christians interpret the Bible literally as God’s word and are more conservative than some main-line Christian denominations. The conservative Christian Coalition has been a strong backer of the Republican agenda in Congress and the GOP “Contract with America,” which includes a plank intended to help protect private property rights against environmental regulation.

“There’s a difference between being theologically conservative and socially conservative,” said Clyde D. Taylor, a former U.S. ambassador to Paraguay in the Reagan administration whose father of the same name founded the National Association of Evangelicals.

“The religious right are our sisters and brothers … Our plea to them is to go back and reread the scriptures,” said Ron Sider of Wynnewood, Pa., president of Evangelicals for Social Action.

“We’re here to say if they think a majority of evangelicals want the Endangered Species Act gutted, they are wrong.”

The Evangelical Environmental Network’s radio and television ads will begin running soon in 18 states yet to be determined.

“In the book of Genesis, Noah builds an ark and saves all living species from destruction,” one 60-second radio ad begins.

“Well, today, God’s creatures are threatened by our own great flood - of pollution or habitat destruction. And that’s why America has built an ark - the Endangered Species Act …”

In addition to the ads, the group is sending 30,000 “Creation Care” packets to churches across the country and creating a network of “Noah Congregations” that sign up for activities to preserve nature.

Sider said members of the group were coming forward “as ambassadors of the Creator.

“Our faith in Jesus Christ requires us to speak out. Human beings are called to be stewards of God’s beautiful garden. For years, the Endangered Species Act has served to protect this handiwork of God,” he said.

The Rev. Vic Gordon, senior pastor of the First Baptist Church in Wichita, Kan., said he finds the Bible “quite convincing in support of the Endangered Species Act.

“The Bible teaches we humans are to care for creation,” Gordon said.

The group met with Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt earlier Wednesday and had a private meeting scheduled late in the day with House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.

“These evangelical leaders … are reminding us all that those religious values are at the very core of the 1973 Endangered Species Act,” Babbitt said. “Unfortunately, extremists in the new Congress, driven by an extinction lobby of special interests, are trying to suffocate this act.”