Tonight on PBS Bill Moyers will explore the raging debate of evangelical churches and their position on the environment.
In an hour-long documentary, "Is God Green?" Moyers reveals how caring for the earth has been on the agenda of progressive Christians for more than a decade. However, more conservative brethren have recently taken an interest and are being met with head-on opposition from some mighty pillars in the religious right.
The documentary explores the conservative evangelical community, a very powerful political group who, according to Moyers, "has guided policy in Washington on every major social issue. This debate could be signaling an important change in the way the U.S. will address the environmental crises facing the globe."
Moyers also points out that three out of every four self-identified white evangelical voters cast their ballots for George W. Bush in 2004.
Bringing this important issue closer to home, Moyers visits with Tri Robinson, a pastor at the Vineyard Boise Church in Boise, Idaho, who has been preaching environmental stewardship based upon his findings in the Bible.
Robinson explained, "I wanted to present this to them straight from the Bible because I knew that if they could see it through the Bible, being primarily a solid evangelical church, that they would recognize the credibility at that point."
Idaho has a history of hostility toward environmentalism, which echoes much of the current Bush policy, but green evangelicals who become activists on environmental issues, much like those who voted on abortion and pro-life, could change things dramatically. Moyers visits other evangelicals across the country such as Christians for the Mountains in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia who are battling widespread pollution due to mountaintop coal mining. Evangelicals are relying on scripture to battle big coal companies in hopes that maybe one day they could have clean drinking water and a few less kidney stones.
The opponents to green evangelicals, such as Dr. E. Calvin Beisner, believe they are not morally obligated to take positions on issues such as global warming.
"God has a hand in bringing about both improvement and harm to our environment," he said.
Beisner is affiliated with the Acton Institute, which tries to discredit the science of global warming and happens to receive funding from ExxonMobil.
Moyers also probes this debate on the environment with Reverend Richard Cizik, a national leader in the evangelical environmental movement, as well as a conservative Republican.
"We've adopted the agenda of the Republican Party, which is largely serving the interests of the oil and gas and utility industries," said Cizik.
"Is God Green?" presents the issue on handling the environment in a very unique light. Whether it is a parish such as the Vineyard Boise Church planting trees in Idaho's national forests or battling for clean water in West Virginia, green evangelicals are not the only "holy" stewards to the planet.
When asking spiritual leaders in the valley about what it means to be green, the response was no surprise. At Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church in Sun Valley, Parish Life Director Teresa Gregory remarked, "As far as Catholic teachings go, all that we have is what God wants us to be and who we are as human beings ... Parents and grandparents had no idea the effect they had on the world. We have to take care, and as we become closer to the earth we have to be accountable."
Living and thinking green is a hot topic, but its practice is not cheap. If the religious right gains momentum in its belief as stewards to the earth, their impact could have significant results on many levels because it's never too late to save the environment for the future.
