Religious Right scuttles group's plan to address global warming.

Officials at the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) have just learned a hard lesson: It's not easy being green when Dr. James Dobson doesn't want you to be.

In 2004, NAE leaders approved a policy statement on civic responsibility, which included a section dealing with the environment. Some Religious Right leaders interpreted the statement as endorsing the global warming thesis and went on the warpath.

After months of controversy and internal wrangling, the NAE now says it will not take a stand on the issue.

NAE President the Rev. Ted Haggard of Colorado Springs sounded a full retreat in a statement issued Feb. 1. "Allow me to confirm at the outset that the NAE is not circulating any official document on the environment," it read. "We are not considering a position on global warming. We are not advocating for specific legislation or government mandates."

The 2004 statement that started all of the fuss was rather tepid, reading in part, "Human beings have responsibility for creation in a variety of ways. We urge Christians to shape their personal lives in creation-friendly ways: practicing effective recycling, conserving resources, and experiencing the joy of contact with nature. We urge government to encourage fuel efficiency, reduce pollution, encourage sustainable use of natural resources, and provide for the proper care of wildlife and their natural habitats."

At that time, Haggard seemed eager to be more vocal on environmental issues, telling The New York Times that evangelicals feel a special need to tend to God's creation.

"The question is, will evangelicals make a difference, and the answer is, the Senate thinks so," said Haggard. "We do represent 30 million people, and we can mobilize them if we have to."

Not long after that, The New York Times Magazine profiled the Rev. Rich Cizik, vice president of governmental affairs for the NAE, who proudly explained that he drives a Toyota Prius, a gas-electric hybrid vehicle lauded by environmentalists for its fuel efficiency.

All of this did not sit well with Dobson of Focus on the Family. "Our friends at the National Association of Evangelicals, with whom we agree on these and so many other issues, have now staked out a position in the very controversial area of global warming," read an FOF statement. "This is despite the fact that significant disagreement exists within the scientific community regarding the validity of this theory."

U.S. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) also weighed in. During an April 2005 interview on TV preacher Pat Robertson's "700 Club," Inhofe said he had contacted the NAE and made it clear that he did not appreciate the group working with liberal environmental organizations. Inhofe assured Robertson that the greening of the NAE was brought to a screeching halt.

Said Inhofe, "In the first article I saw, they mentioned the National Association of Evangelicals and I called up Ted Haggard, and he said, quite frankly, 'Well, I don't want to be a part of a group like that.' They also mentioned Chuck Colson and Jim Dobson. I called both of them up and they said, 'No, they are lying. We are not a part of that, we are not for the global warming agenda, and that's the poster child of the far left; in fact, we know better, we preach against it.'"

Religious Right leaders kept the pressure on Haggard. In January, more than 20 evangelical leaders wrote to the NAE head and insisted that the group not adopt "any official position" on global warming. The letter asserted that "Bible-believing evangelicals ... disagree about the cause, severity and solutions to the global warming issue."

The Washington Post reported, "The letter's signers amounted to a Who's Who of politically powerful evangelicals, including Charles W. Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries; James C. Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family; the Rev. D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries; the Rev. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention; Richard Roberts, president of Oral Roberts University; Donald E. Wildmon, chairman of the American Family Association; and the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition."

Some evangelicals were disappointed that the NAE decided to drop the issue. Calvin DeWitt, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin whom The Post described as "a leading evangelical supporter of environmental causes," called the statement "a retreat and a defeat."

Observed DeWitt, "A year ago, it looked as though evangelicals would become a strong, collective voice for what we call 'creation care' and others may call environmentalism. This will have negative consequences for the ability of evangelicals to influence the White House, unfortunately and sadly."