Re: Where are we?

Description: American myopia confines our attention to what occurs here in the continental United States at the expense of what occurs around the world.

Transcript: I don’t say it’s the single most; but I say it’s as pressing an issue as protecting the unborn, or protecting traditional family. It’s . . . it’s surely as equal in our attention and our . . . our concern, and our action as those issues. So I’m not saying it’s the most single important issue. I’m saying amongst the variety of issues that we face today, it’s equal in importance at least. And I let people make their own minds up which is the most important. Because frankly, if you are a Christian living in North Africa impacted by desertification that comes from climate change, there – a Christian in North Africa – you might well say that I believe climate change is more important to me than, for example, the abortion issue. And that’s what millions upon hundreds of millions of evangelicals Christians around the globe do everyday. And you have to choose. And sometimes the threats that come from the environment are greater than the threats that come from, say, an abortionist. And Christians understand that overseas. I think it’s our American myopia that confines our attention to what occurs here in the continental United States at the expense of what (38:17) occurs around the world. And frankly what our people need . . . what evangelicals really need is a Christian world and life view that says what happens in Africa is important not just to African Muslims in Darfur who are victims of genocide; but what happens, for example, in Southeast Asia to those of Hindu faith in Bangladesh for example . . . Potentially a human catastrophe unlike has been visited upon this globe in human history if climate change were, for example, to drive ten and hundreds of millions of Bangladeshis either south of India or north of China. Where would they go if climate change raises the ocean levels? What are we to say to them? Are we to say, “Well those things don’t matter because they don’t impact me”? No, no, no, no. This . . . this is a denial of Christianity to say that these things don’t matter, or that they don’t matter to God. That’s a denial of the faith that we proclaim. That’s how serious this is.

Question: What should be the big issues of the 2008 presidential election?

Transcript: Well the environment has never had “political salience”. It’s never risen above single digits in terms of its political saliency, but it is already. Climate change is considered by some polls to be one of the top tier domestic issues in the ’08 election. And so for those candidates who are – let’s put it this way – climate deniers, I think they face political extinction. And for those that do reach out across aisles, across religious beliefs, across, you see, the cultural divides that exist in America to say that this is something together we can do; that green is the new red, white and blue; and that this generation, my generation, can only be the greatest generation if we are the greenest generation . . . Now that, I say . . . That’s a vision that we can live up to. We can live up to it. So I’m an optimist, absolutely. We don’t have any choice.

Recorded on: 6/25/07