Letter from Jim Wallis

Part of this makes me really happy, and the other part makes me really sad.
Why in the hell do we need to debate this?  So ridiculous.


Hearts & Minds by Jim Wallis


Jim Wallis: Dr. Dobson, Let's Have a Real Debate

Last week, James Dobson and a number of other Religious Right
leaders wrote a letter to the National Association of
Evangelicals, claiming that work on climate change was a
distraction from "the great moral issues of our time." I
responded on our God's Politics blog on Friday, with the piece
"Dobson and Friends, Outside the Mainstream." So far this week,
we've had several other good responses from Brian McLaren, Bill
McKibben, and Lyndsay Moseley. And, I've invited James Dobson to
a debate on the question, "What are the great moral issues of
our time for evangelical Christians?"

James Dobson's letter attacking Rich Cizik of the National
Association of Evangelicals has caused a firestorm, and maybe
the beginning of a really good dialogue. Brian McLaren's post
yesterday pointed out that the letter from Dobson and friends
actually acknowledged that there is a real debate among
evangelicals about the seriousness of climate change and the
reasons for it. So instead of calling for Cizik's resignation
for saying global warming should be a moral issue for
evangelical Christians, why don't Dobson and his friends accept
a real debate on whether climate change is, indeed, one of the
great moral issues of our time? A major evangelical Christian
university should host just such a debate.

But I want to focus on the following very clear statement from
Dobson's letter:

"More importantly, we have observed that Cizik and others are
using the global warming controversy to shift the emphasis away
from the great moral issues of our time, notably the sanctity of
human life, the integrity of marriage and the teaching of sexual
abstinence and morality to our children."

That is indeed the key criticism, and the foundation for the
real debate. Is the fact that 30,000 children will die globally
today, and everyday, from needless hunger and disease a great
moral issue for evangelical Christians? How about the reality of
3 billion of God's children living on less than $2 per day? And
isn't the still-widespread and needless poverty in our own
country, the richest nation in the world, a moral scandal? What
about pandemics like HIV/AIDS that wipe out whole generations
and countries, or the sex trafficking of massive numbers of
women and children? Should genocide in Darfur be a moral issue
for Christians? And what about disastrous wars like Iraq? And
then there is, of course, the issue that got Dobson and his
allies so agitated. If the scientific consensus is right -
climate change is real, is caused substantially by human
activity, and could result in hundreds of thousands of deaths -
then isn't that also a great moral issue? Could global warming
actually be alarming evidence of human tinkering with God's
creation?

Or, are the only really "great moral issues" those concerning
abortion, gay marriage, and the teaching of sexual abstinence? I
happen to believe that the sanctity of life, the health of
marriages, and teaching sexual morality to our children are,
indeed, among the great moral issues of our time. But I believe
they are not the only great moral issues, and Dobson says they
are.

So Jim, let's have that debate - the big debate. What are the
great moral issues of our time for evangelical Christians?
You're right, a new generation is embracing a wider and deeper
agenda than you want them to. I think that is a very good thing.
You think it is a bad thing, and want to get people fired for
raising broader issues than those connected to sexual morality.
So, today, I am inviting you to have that debate about what the
great moral issues of our time really are. Again, let's ask a
leading evangelical university to invite us both and host a
public debate, and perhaps ask a major evangelical publication
to co-sponsor it. Let's have that debate, Jim, and see what
America's evangelicals think the great moral issues of our time
really are. How about it?