US: The US National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) has said it has been unable to reach a consensus on global climate change and will not take a stand on the issue. Environmentalists had hoped that evangelical Christians would prod the Bush administration into softening its position on global warming.
Over the past four years, a growing number of evangelical groups have embraced environmental causes, urging Christians to engage in "creation care" and campaigning against SUVs and their high petrol consumption with advertisements that asked: "What would Jesus drive?"
In October 2004, the leadership of the NAE - which says it has 30 million members and is the US's largest evangelical organisation - declared mankind had "a sacred responsibility to steward the earth and not a licence to abuse the creation of which we are a part". At the same time, the umbrella group's president, the Rev Ted Haggard of Colorado Springs, called the environment "a values issue".
However, this fledgling movement - dubbed the "greening of evangelicals" by the Washington Post - has also met internal resistance.
In a letter to the Rev Haggard last month, more than 20 evangelical leaders urged the NAE not to adopt "any official position" on global climate change because "Bible-believing evangelicals . . . disagree about the cause, severity and solutions to the global warming issue". The signatories to the letter were a Who's Who of politically powerful evangelicals.
In a written statement on Wednesday, the Rev Haggard denied reports that the NAE had circulated a draft paper calling for the Bush administration to support mandatory limits on carbon dioxide emissions.
"Allow me to confirm at the outset that the NAE is not circulating any official document on the environment," he said. "We are not considering a position on global warming. We are not advocating for specific legislation or government mandates."
Calvin DeWitt, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin, who is a leading evangelical supporter of environmental causes, called the statement "a retreat and a defeat".
"This will have negative consequences for the ability of evangelicals to influence the White House, unfortunately and sadly." - (Los Angeles Times-Washington Post service)