Friday, April 03, 2009

Our Bishop's Testimony doesn't reflect that of many Christians

Callon Holloway, Bishop of the Southern Ohio Synod for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), testified before Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce committee.
    "I am here today representing both the ELCA, the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States representing nearly 5 million people, and the National Council of Churches (NCC), an organization that represents 35 Christian denominations, 100,000 congregations and approximately 45 million people in the United States."
In my opinion the NCC is a "just us" social justice organization that couldn't find the great commission if someone opened a Bible to it. Even in the 1970s when I was a Democrat (although an evangelical Christian recently converted from humanism), I had no use for the NCC's no-cross, no-salvation gospel. Furthermore, the ELCA for 7 years has been struggling to fight off the gay-marriage, gay-ordination cult, and so far has been unsuccessful. Rather than look at what Scripture says about marriage, it has reinterpreted numerous verses, proof texting to fit a different agenda. So I'm not surprised some in our leadership have fallen for this "Gospel is greener on the other side" with the unbelievers. So Cal doesn't speak for me, or many Lutherans. Nor do I approve of his being part of the testimony (NCC and NWF) of organizations that are falling for this.

I would prefer he fell in with the Evangelicals of the Cornwall Alliance and the Science and Public Policy group (see its journal here), neither of which are a denomination, but both of which have a far stronger Biblical view than the ELCA/NCC representative, Cal Holloway, a man I personally like and admire. Speakers at this March 25 event:
    * Tom Karl, Director of the National Climatic Data Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
    * John Stephenson, Director of Natural Resources and Environment, Government Accountability Office
    * Bishop Callon Holloway, Evangelical Lutheran Church in American, On Behalf of the National Council of Churches
    * Larry Schweiger, President and CEO, National Wildlife Federation
    * David Waskow, Climate Change Program Director, Oxfam American
    * E. Calvin Beisner, Ph.D., National Spokesman, The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation
    * Lord Christopher Monckton, Chief Policy Adviser, Science and Public Policy Institute
"The second International Conference on Climate Change concluded its 2-1/2 -day run March 10, 2009 in New York City after confronting the theme "Global warming: Was it ever really a crisis?"

The answer was a resounding "No." Check the link for presentations.

More than 75 papers and keynote addresses were presented by some of the world's leading climatologists, economists, policy makers, and opinion leaders. You can access videos of many of the presentations here. New videos and audio versions will be added as they become available."

Unfortunately, Bishop Holloway didn't attend this one.

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