One of the best developments this electoral season has been the growing bi-partisan consensus (not to mention ecumenical consensus) over the importance of sustaining our environment. Americans, fueled by Al Gore's superman-like crusade, have come to see the Bush Administration's environmental policies as shortsighted. Republicans are starting to turn green and that is good for the planet. Those who aren't on board won't be around after November.
Over the last three decades mainline churches (the historical Protestant churches) have been addressing the environmental crisis through various ways. These days even some prominent conservative evangelical leaders are joining the movement.
A coalition of Green Democrats and Green Republicans alongside mainline churches and evangelicals concerned about the care of creation could be a force that literally changes the world.
That scares the Republican Party aligned-Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD). IRD spends a lot of time attacking mainline church leaders and "liberals" but now they have also turned their guns on conservative evangelical leaders who have broken from the White House over the state of the environment. IRD and their allies are so close to George W. Bush they routinely confuse his policies for the Gospel.
If pro-environmental candidates and ballot measures win across the U.S. this November the winners will be generations to come. The losers will be those finally unmasked who have tried to question the science behind global warming in an effort to pump up their struggling campaigns and fading electoral chances.
