by Douglas Gregory
In his second inaugural address President Obama condemned climate skeptics, saying the devastating effects of increased floods, droughts, forest fires, and powerful storms were beyond denial, and climate change was to blame.
However, forest fires are down 15 percent since the 1950’s, cumulative cyclone energy is down, and droughts and floods are unchanged.
We would prefer a little more of an actual threat before we upend our whole economy.
But perhaps it doesn’t matter. President Obama’s thinking may just reflect that of leaders who have called us to fight global warming regardless whether it’s a real problem.
Former U.S. Senator Timothy Wirth (D-CO), addressing the Earth Summit in 1992, said, “We have got to ride the global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing in terms of economic policy and environmental policy.’”
At the same conference, Deputy Assistant of State Richard Benedick said, “A global warming treaty [Kyoto] must be implemented even if there is no scientific evidence to back the [enhanced] greenhouse effect.”
IPCC co-chairman Ottmar Edenhofer said just before the 2010 Climate Summit in Cancun, “… one has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. Instead, climate change policy is about how we redistribute de facto the world’s wealth. …”
The list goes on.
What’s so dangerous about this is the admission that climate change is not science informing policy, but policy dictating to science.
The Cornwall Alliance’s scientists, economists, theologians, and other experts promote a scientifically sound, Biblical Earth stewardship. Your prayers and tax-deductible donations help us continue educating the public and decision makers on this and many other issues. Thank you for your support!
Douglas Gregory is Research and Policy Analyst for the Cornwall Alliance.
Showing posts with label Cornwall Alliance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cornwall Alliance. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Biblical Environmentalism: Introducing the Cornwall Alliance
"Dear Friend,
When’s the last time you told friends about the Cornwall Alliance or forwarded this newsletter to them? We thought we’d give you the perfect opportunity to do that with today’s issue. It will introduce your friends to who we are, what we do, and why we do it. Please forward this to as many friends as possible, along with your encouragement for them to subscribe!
Our Mission
The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation seeks to magnify the glory of God in creation, the wisdom of His truth in environmental stewardship, the kindness of His mercy in lifting the needy out of poverty, and the wonders of His grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Our Identity
A coalition of theologians, pastors, ministry leaders, scientists, economists, policy experts, and committed laymen, the Cornwall Alliance is the world’s leading evangelical voice promoting environmental stewardship and economic development built on Biblical principles.
Our Biblical Foundation
Scripture addresses our stewardship of the Earth in many places, but the most fundamental is Genesis 1:26–28: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” These verses reveal
The essence of man: Man is a creature, the product of direct, intentional, divine action; he is the image of God; and he is male and female. From these truths flow all truths about man’s relationships with and duties toward God and other men.
The mission of man: to multiply and fill the Earth; and, filling it, to subdue and rule it—not abuse it, but rule it as God does, enhancing its fruitfulness, safety, and beauty, to the glory of God and the benefit of our neighbors, fulfilling the Two Great Commandments: to love God and to love our neighbor.
A Summary of Biblical Earth Stewardship
Biblical stewardship of God’s Earth happens when people, made in the image of God, reflecting God’s own creativity, work together to enhance the fruitfulness, beauty, and safety of the Earth, for the glory of God and the good of our neighbors, thus fulfilling the two Great Commandments to love God and love our neighbor.
The Challenge We Face
We carry out our mission in a world permeated by an environmental movement
whose worldview, theology, and ethics are overwhelmingly anti-Christian,
whose science and economics are often badly flawed,
whose policies therefore often are of little real benefit to the natural world but of significant harm to the world’s poor, and
whose doctrines of God, creation, humanity, sin, and salvation directly challenge the whole of the Christian faith, especially the gospel.
Environmentalism therefore—in distinction from Biblical stewardship of God’s Earth—threatens the people you care about both materially and spiritually.
The Current Situation
A hundred years ago, Darwinism robbed society of the blessings of Genesis 1:27. The result has been the tragic undermining of human dignity and the growing prevalence of all kinds of depravity. Today, the Christian church stands with regard to environmentalism where it stood a century ago with regard to Darwinism. At that time, some Christians strove valiantly, some were deceived, some were unaware, and some capitulated. We largely lost that battle, and the sad consequences are obvious all around us, with sexual confusion, abortion on demand, infanticide, and euthanasia, and general societal breakdown.
Our Response
Our response to environmentalism must be better than our forebears’ response to Darwinism. To restore the teaching and reclaim the blessings of Genesis 1:28, we must respond both critically and constructively:
Critically, we must exercise a wise, courageous, powerful, spiritual warfare, tearing down ideological strongholds, taking “every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4–5). The Cornwall Alliance is leading the battle to recover the blessings of Genesis 1:28, and we need and want you to stand in the gap with us. We want to help you—whether you’re a pastor or a businessman, lead a non-profit ministry or serve in government, or are a parent trying to raise your sons and daughters to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord—to guard those under your care and preserve that great treasure of the Church, the gospel of Christ, which alone is the power of God to salvation for all who believe.
Constructively, we must teach people to exercise a wise, loving stewardship of God’s Earth and everything in it. The Bible begins in a garden, the Garden of Eden, and ends in a garden city, the New Jerusalem. Mankind starts with the mandate to multiply, fill the Earth, subdue it, and have dominion over it—to spread out from the Garden of Eden to transform wilderness into garden city. Man’s Fall into sin and God’s judgment of man and curse on the Earth make fulfilling that mandate more difficult, but they never negate it. Rather, the redeeming work of Christ, through His death, resurrection, and ascension, reaches to all of creation, and the Great Commission of Mathew 28:19–20, “Go … and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them … and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you,” is the means of achieving it.
Are We Effective?
Our opponents say so. People for the American way says, “The Religious Right’s relatively new antipathy to environmentalism is largely the result of the hard work of … The Cornwall Alliance …. [which] has been extraordinarily successful in convincing the Religious Right that environmentalism presents a threat to Christianity ….”
As CBN News Anchor Lee Webb puts it, “When the Cornwall Alliance calls, we at CBN News pay attention. And, in fact, when it comes to sorting through the complicated issues regarding the environment, it’s this organization that I think of first. I want our viewers to have their perspective. I know that the experts the Alliance has put together will provide us with a biblical view of those issues and provide a reasoned, articulate response to some of the radical views advanced by secularists and the establishment media.”
Our History in Highlights
March, 2000: The Interfaith Council on Environmental Stewardship first published The Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship, which quickly gained endorsement by 1,500 religious leaders from around the world and many laymen.
August, 2005: We began as The Interfaith Stewardship Alliance, adopting The Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship as our founding document.
November, 2005: We published our first major study, An Examination of the Scientific, Ethical, and Theological Implications of Climate Change Policy.
May, 2006: We began publishing the Cornwall Newsletter.
July, 2006: We published our second major study, A Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Response to Global Warming.
May, 2007: We took on our present name to reflect better our founding document, The Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship.
July, 2008: We published our third major study, The Cornwall Stewardship Agenda, the work of 13 theologians, scientists, and economists, which is intended to grow with added chapters over the years.
October, 2010: During a one-hour program on Fox News, we released our 13-part video lecture series Resisting the Green Dragon.
December, 2010: We published our fourth major study, A Renewed Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Examination of the Theology, Science, and Economics of Global Warming, the work of 29 theologians, scientists, and economists.
December, 2010: We published An Evangelical Declaration on Global Warming, quickly endorsed by over 450 evangelical theologians, pastors, ministry leaders, scientists, economists, and other scholars, followed by a continually growing number of laymen.
January, 2011: We published our first book, James Wanliss’s Resisting the Green Dragon: Dominion, Net Death.
October, 2011: We published our fifth major study, The Cost of Good Intentions: The Ethics and Economics of the War on Conventional Energy, the work of 15 economists, scientists, and theologians.
July, 2012: We launched our most ambitious initiative to date, In His Image 2012, a multi-year effort to educate evangelicals about the integrally related threats, arising from the denial of the doctrines of Genesis 1:27–28, to the sanctity of human life; the dignity of human sexuality, marriage and the family; and the God-given mandate for human beings to exercise godly dominion over the Earth. Our goal is to help evangelicals fighting on many battlefronts to see the interconnections and begin laboring more strategically and, we pray, effectively to reshape how people think of human beings and our role on Earth—to reassert the sanctity of human life and sexuality, the beauty and centrality of marriage, the goodness of human multiplication, and the dignity of human work and godly dominion over the Earth.
Throughout this time, we have
published articles in newspapers, magazines, and online sites, and been frequent guests on radio and television talk shows across the United States and around the world;
provided helpful answers to individuals’ questions about the theology, ethics, science, and economics of environment and energy policy and economic development for the poor;
constantly done research to stay abreast of current developments.
Our Network of Scholars
The Cornwall Alliance has 22 Senior Fellows, Fellows, and Adjunct Scholars, 40 Contributing Writers, and 33 Advisors. See them listed at http://www.cornwallalliance.org/about/cornwall-alliance-scholars/ and http://www.cornwallalliance.org/about/cornwall-alliance-advisory-board/.
Subscribe to Our Newsletter, Follow Us on Facebook
www.CornwallAlliance.org/Newsletter
www.Facebook.com/Groups/CornwallAlliance
www.Facebook.com/InHisImage2012
www.Facebook.com/ResistingtheGreenDragon
Read Our Statement of Faith
http://www.cornwallalliance.org/about/statement-of-faith/
Schedule a Speaker for Your Church or School
Dr. Beisner and many of Fellows, Adjuncts, and Contributing Writers are available to lecture on many subjects for churches, seminaries, universities and colleges, schools, and other groups. To schedule a speaker, call 703-569-4653.
Support the Cornwall Alliance
The Cornwall Alliance is a ministry of The James Partnership, a 501(c)3 non-profit religious, educational, and charitable foundation. All gifts are tax deductible.
The Cornwall Alliance
9302-C Old Keene Mill Rd.
Burke, VA 22015
Phone 703-569-4653 | Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
www.CornwallAlliance.org www.InHisImage2012.org
www.ResistingtheGreenDragon.com
Beisner to Speak TONIGHT on Reclaiming the Blessings of Genesis 1:28 in Hollywood, FL
Cornwall National Spokesman Dr. E. Calvin Beisner will speak on “Creation Care and Godly Dominion: Reclaiming the Blessings of Genesis 1:28 in the Search for a Genuinely Biblical Earth Stewardship” at Sheridan Hills Baptist Church, 3751 Sheridan St., Hollywood, FL, at 7 p.m. tonight, Wednesday, January 16, 2013, in the main sanctuary.
Cornwall National Spokesman Dr. E. Calvin Beisner will speak Friday, January 25, at the Educational Policy Conference in St. Louis, MO, on how national and state science curriculum standards undermine the Christian worldview and so challenge the faith of Christian students attending public schools. Sen. Rick Santorum, Fox News commentator Monica Crowley, Eagle Forum President Phyllis Schlafly, Last Ounce of Courage star Marshall Teague, author and commentator Michelle Malkin, Summit Ministries President Jeff Myers, Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming author Christopher Horner, and more than a dozen other speakers will also address the conference. The conference theme is The Five Pillars of the First Amendment: Preserving our Freedoms from School to Society.” To register, go to http://www.epcconference.net/register.cfm and use Promo Code 24.
Information in this newsletter is for scholarly and educational use only and may not be copied or reproduced for any other purposes without prior permission of the copyright holders.
The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation seeks to magnify the glory of God in creation, the wisdom of His truth in environmental stewardship, the kindness of His mercy in lifting the needy out of poverty, and the wonders of His grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ. A coalition of theologians, pastors, ministry leaders, scientists, economists, policy experts, and committed laymen, the Cornwall Alliance is the world’s leading evangelical voice promoting environmental stewardship and economic development built on Biblical principles. The Cornwall Alliance is a non-profit religious, charitable, and educational organization. All gifts are tax deductible."
When’s the last time you told friends about the Cornwall Alliance or forwarded this newsletter to them? We thought we’d give you the perfect opportunity to do that with today’s issue. It will introduce your friends to who we are, what we do, and why we do it. Please forward this to as many friends as possible, along with your encouragement for them to subscribe!
Our Mission
The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation seeks to magnify the glory of God in creation, the wisdom of His truth in environmental stewardship, the kindness of His mercy in lifting the needy out of poverty, and the wonders of His grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Our Identity
A coalition of theologians, pastors, ministry leaders, scientists, economists, policy experts, and committed laymen, the Cornwall Alliance is the world’s leading evangelical voice promoting environmental stewardship and economic development built on Biblical principles.
Our Biblical Foundation
Scripture addresses our stewardship of the Earth in many places, but the most fundamental is Genesis 1:26–28: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” These verses reveal
The essence of man: Man is a creature, the product of direct, intentional, divine action; he is the image of God; and he is male and female. From these truths flow all truths about man’s relationships with and duties toward God and other men.
The mission of man: to multiply and fill the Earth; and, filling it, to subdue and rule it—not abuse it, but rule it as God does, enhancing its fruitfulness, safety, and beauty, to the glory of God and the benefit of our neighbors, fulfilling the Two Great Commandments: to love God and to love our neighbor.
A Summary of Biblical Earth Stewardship
Biblical stewardship of God’s Earth happens when people, made in the image of God, reflecting God’s own creativity, work together to enhance the fruitfulness, beauty, and safety of the Earth, for the glory of God and the good of our neighbors, thus fulfilling the two Great Commandments to love God and love our neighbor.
The Challenge We Face
We carry out our mission in a world permeated by an environmental movement
whose worldview, theology, and ethics are overwhelmingly anti-Christian,
whose science and economics are often badly flawed,
whose policies therefore often are of little real benefit to the natural world but of significant harm to the world’s poor, and
whose doctrines of God, creation, humanity, sin, and salvation directly challenge the whole of the Christian faith, especially the gospel.
Environmentalism therefore—in distinction from Biblical stewardship of God’s Earth—threatens the people you care about both materially and spiritually.
The Current Situation
A hundred years ago, Darwinism robbed society of the blessings of Genesis 1:27. The result has been the tragic undermining of human dignity and the growing prevalence of all kinds of depravity. Today, the Christian church stands with regard to environmentalism where it stood a century ago with regard to Darwinism. At that time, some Christians strove valiantly, some were deceived, some were unaware, and some capitulated. We largely lost that battle, and the sad consequences are obvious all around us, with sexual confusion, abortion on demand, infanticide, and euthanasia, and general societal breakdown.
Our Response
Our response to environmentalism must be better than our forebears’ response to Darwinism. To restore the teaching and reclaim the blessings of Genesis 1:28, we must respond both critically and constructively:
Critically, we must exercise a wise, courageous, powerful, spiritual warfare, tearing down ideological strongholds, taking “every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4–5). The Cornwall Alliance is leading the battle to recover the blessings of Genesis 1:28, and we need and want you to stand in the gap with us. We want to help you—whether you’re a pastor or a businessman, lead a non-profit ministry or serve in government, or are a parent trying to raise your sons and daughters to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord—to guard those under your care and preserve that great treasure of the Church, the gospel of Christ, which alone is the power of God to salvation for all who believe.
Constructively, we must teach people to exercise a wise, loving stewardship of God’s Earth and everything in it. The Bible begins in a garden, the Garden of Eden, and ends in a garden city, the New Jerusalem. Mankind starts with the mandate to multiply, fill the Earth, subdue it, and have dominion over it—to spread out from the Garden of Eden to transform wilderness into garden city. Man’s Fall into sin and God’s judgment of man and curse on the Earth make fulfilling that mandate more difficult, but they never negate it. Rather, the redeeming work of Christ, through His death, resurrection, and ascension, reaches to all of creation, and the Great Commission of Mathew 28:19–20, “Go … and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them … and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you,” is the means of achieving it.
Are We Effective?
Our opponents say so. People for the American way says, “The Religious Right’s relatively new antipathy to environmentalism is largely the result of the hard work of … The Cornwall Alliance …. [which] has been extraordinarily successful in convincing the Religious Right that environmentalism presents a threat to Christianity ….”
As CBN News Anchor Lee Webb puts it, “When the Cornwall Alliance calls, we at CBN News pay attention. And, in fact, when it comes to sorting through the complicated issues regarding the environment, it’s this organization that I think of first. I want our viewers to have their perspective. I know that the experts the Alliance has put together will provide us with a biblical view of those issues and provide a reasoned, articulate response to some of the radical views advanced by secularists and the establishment media.”
Our History in Highlights
March, 2000: The Interfaith Council on Environmental Stewardship first published The Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship, which quickly gained endorsement by 1,500 religious leaders from around the world and many laymen.
August, 2005: We began as The Interfaith Stewardship Alliance, adopting The Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship as our founding document.
November, 2005: We published our first major study, An Examination of the Scientific, Ethical, and Theological Implications of Climate Change Policy.
May, 2006: We began publishing the Cornwall Newsletter.
July, 2006: We published our second major study, A Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Response to Global Warming.
May, 2007: We took on our present name to reflect better our founding document, The Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship.
July, 2008: We published our third major study, The Cornwall Stewardship Agenda, the work of 13 theologians, scientists, and economists, which is intended to grow with added chapters over the years.
October, 2010: During a one-hour program on Fox News, we released our 13-part video lecture series Resisting the Green Dragon.
December, 2010: We published our fourth major study, A Renewed Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Examination of the Theology, Science, and Economics of Global Warming, the work of 29 theologians, scientists, and economists.
December, 2010: We published An Evangelical Declaration on Global Warming, quickly endorsed by over 450 evangelical theologians, pastors, ministry leaders, scientists, economists, and other scholars, followed by a continually growing number of laymen.
January, 2011: We published our first book, James Wanliss’s Resisting the Green Dragon: Dominion, Net Death.
October, 2011: We published our fifth major study, The Cost of Good Intentions: The Ethics and Economics of the War on Conventional Energy, the work of 15 economists, scientists, and theologians.
July, 2012: We launched our most ambitious initiative to date, In His Image 2012, a multi-year effort to educate evangelicals about the integrally related threats, arising from the denial of the doctrines of Genesis 1:27–28, to the sanctity of human life; the dignity of human sexuality, marriage and the family; and the God-given mandate for human beings to exercise godly dominion over the Earth. Our goal is to help evangelicals fighting on many battlefronts to see the interconnections and begin laboring more strategically and, we pray, effectively to reshape how people think of human beings and our role on Earth—to reassert the sanctity of human life and sexuality, the beauty and centrality of marriage, the goodness of human multiplication, and the dignity of human work and godly dominion over the Earth.
Throughout this time, we have
published articles in newspapers, magazines, and online sites, and been frequent guests on radio and television talk shows across the United States and around the world;
provided helpful answers to individuals’ questions about the theology, ethics, science, and economics of environment and energy policy and economic development for the poor;
constantly done research to stay abreast of current developments.
Our Network of Scholars
The Cornwall Alliance has 22 Senior Fellows, Fellows, and Adjunct Scholars, 40 Contributing Writers, and 33 Advisors. See them listed at http://www.cornwallalliance.org/about/cornwall-alliance-scholars/ and http://www.cornwallalliance.org/about/cornwall-alliance-advisory-board/.
Subscribe to Our Newsletter, Follow Us on Facebook
www.CornwallAlliance.org/Newsletter
www.Facebook.com/Groups/CornwallAlliance
www.Facebook.com/InHisImage2012
www.Facebook.com/ResistingtheGreenDragon
Read Our Statement of Faith
http://www.cornwallalliance.org/about/statement-of-faith/
Schedule a Speaker for Your Church or School
Dr. Beisner and many of Fellows, Adjuncts, and Contributing Writers are available to lecture on many subjects for churches, seminaries, universities and colleges, schools, and other groups. To schedule a speaker, call 703-569-4653.
Support the Cornwall Alliance
The Cornwall Alliance is a ministry of The James Partnership, a 501(c)3 non-profit religious, educational, and charitable foundation. All gifts are tax deductible.
The Cornwall Alliance
9302-C Old Keene Mill Rd.
Burke, VA 22015
Phone 703-569-4653 | Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
www.CornwallAlliance.org www.InHisImage2012.org
www.ResistingtheGreenDragon.com
Beisner to Speak TONIGHT on Reclaiming the Blessings of Genesis 1:28 in Hollywood, FL
Cornwall National Spokesman Dr. E. Calvin Beisner will speak on “Creation Care and Godly Dominion: Reclaiming the Blessings of Genesis 1:28 in the Search for a Genuinely Biblical Earth Stewardship” at Sheridan Hills Baptist Church, 3751 Sheridan St., Hollywood, FL, at 7 p.m. tonight, Wednesday, January 16, 2013, in the main sanctuary.
Cornwall National Spokesman Dr. E. Calvin Beisner will speak Friday, January 25, at the Educational Policy Conference in St. Louis, MO, on how national and state science curriculum standards undermine the Christian worldview and so challenge the faith of Christian students attending public schools. Sen. Rick Santorum, Fox News commentator Monica Crowley, Eagle Forum President Phyllis Schlafly, Last Ounce of Courage star Marshall Teague, author and commentator Michelle Malkin, Summit Ministries President Jeff Myers, Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming author Christopher Horner, and more than a dozen other speakers will also address the conference. The conference theme is The Five Pillars of the First Amendment: Preserving our Freedoms from School to Society.” To register, go to http://www.epcconference.net/register.cfm and use Promo Code 24.
Information in this newsletter is for scholarly and educational use only and may not be copied or reproduced for any other purposes without prior permission of the copyright holders.
The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation seeks to magnify the glory of God in creation, the wisdom of His truth in environmental stewardship, the kindness of His mercy in lifting the needy out of poverty, and the wonders of His grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ. A coalition of theologians, pastors, ministry leaders, scientists, economists, policy experts, and committed laymen, the Cornwall Alliance is the world’s leading evangelical voice promoting environmental stewardship and economic development built on Biblical principles. The Cornwall Alliance is a non-profit religious, charitable, and educational organization. All gifts are tax deductible."
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