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Like many of you, I’d just as soon replace the word, “evangelical” with something else.  Not because it isn’t a perfectly fine word, but for the response it evokes, thanks to the culture war tactics of so many American evangelicals in the last thirty years.  But the fact is, labels are difficult to shed, and the labeled are not consulted about their moniker preferences. (My parents didn’t seek my permission to name me and “Christians” were so named by the people of Antioch who were not believers.)  And I wonder if the hand of God isn’t behind this label’s stickiness.  Like God himself may be holding it in place on us until we understand what it means.
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If you’re a young pastor in the United States, you’ve grown up with the culture wars.  You may be sick to death of them, but you may also find them hard to shake.  In the middle of the noise, let me offer this counsel: don’t let the loudest voices intimidate you.  Do the work of an evangelist.  Keep your heart open to the heart of God for those who are the outside of faith looking in.  Like Billy Graham, in fact, who in his later years has had some pretty surprising things to say.
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Climate change is testing us–the global human family, that is.  That’s what I think. Obviously, you don’t have to agree with me.  But climate change is also testing the American church, in particular.  Tests on a global scale are promised in Scripture.  ” I will keep you safe in the time of trial coming on the whole world, to put the people of the world to the test.”  (Rev. 3:10)
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It’s truly amazing how the mere mention of climate change in a blog post stirs up objections from believers. I’m guessing that three-quarters of those who read this blog think climate change is a hoax. 
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My tribe on the Christian landscape, Vineyard, came to be through poetry.  A group of burned out believers gathered in a living room week after week to sing love songs to Jesus.  One of the early songs of those early days was titled, “More Love, More Power.”  It was  prophetic, because what the world needs now, and what the church has too little of, is love sweet love.
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Today marks the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, a man whose name has been much maligned by many in my own American evangelical tribe.

My friend, Carl Safina, an ocean conservationist and author of the acclaimed Song for the Blue Ocean told me that his two heroes are Charles Darwin and Jesus; Darwin for revealing the unity of all living things, and Jesus for teaching us to love our enemies. Would that my fellow believers understood as well the rule of Jesus, a rule which demands that we bother to understand each other.
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Nine years ago today we were all breathing a sigh of relief about the Y2K disaster that didn’t materialize. Evangelicals more than most. Because for some reason many evangelicals and fundamentalists bought the idea that the world was headed for a techno-cataclysm.  Why would we be so alarmed by Y2K and so apathetic about the environmental crisis we are facing, including climate change?
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Time arrived with this cover copy a while back: How to Win the War on Global Warming. Shall we confront a brutal fact in evangelical perspective? The thoughtful person on the outside of American Christianity looking in at its dominant form (evangelicalism) has every right to think: Evangelicals have been among the most dismissive of the effort to address global warming. If I am considering the Christian message, I should take this into account. If I support efforts to address climate change now for the sake of the vulnerable poor and future generations, I will be viewed as one of those environmental whackos by evangelicals. Life is stressful enough. I think I’ll get my spirituality on the golf course instead.
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