Coalition Raps Bush on Global Warming

By Eric Pianin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 30, 2001; Page A11  

A broad coalition of U.S. religious groups alarmed by President Bush's decision to abandon a treaty to combat global warming urged Bush yesterday to reconsider his approach or risk alienating a growing faith-based movement committed to protecting the environment.  

Leaders of the inter-denominational groups challenged Bush's decision on religious and moral grounds as well as on scientific evidence that Earth's temperature is rising and could trigger catastrophic climate and weather changes.  

"If credible evidence exists to indicate our present course could threaten the quality of life for God's creation and God's children, this becomes an issue of paramount moral concern," the leaders said in a letter to Bush. The letter from seven religious leaders is significant because of the influence faith-based groups are exercising on the Bush administration and on Republican congressional leaders. Last year, for example, GOP leaders dropped their opposition to a Clinton administration plan to write off loans to 30 of the world's poorest countries under pressure from Pope John Paul II and an international network of religious groups.

In a March 6 memorandum to Bush after returning from a meeting in Italy with European environmental ministers, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman noted: "For the first time, the world's religious communities have started to engage in the issue. Their solutions vary widely, but the fervor of the focus was clear."

The letter to Bush was signed by leaders of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, the Presbyterian Church, the United Methodist Church, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Orthodox Church in America and the Jewish Theological Seminary. The Jewish Council for Public Affairs wrote separately voicing its concerns.

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