Richard Anderson: Don’t misconstrue God’s words to justify your denial of climate change

Re “We impact climate?” (Letters, Sept. 6): The letter writer makes a good point – how can we in control of the climate if God created this great and vast nature? She cites the Old Testament’s Job 37-38, but it does not mention global climate change.

Sen. James Inhofe, Okla., makes a similar mistake. He cites Genesis 8:22: “As long as the earth remains, there will be springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night” as God telling Noah we can’t cause climate change. We will still have seasons with climate change, but increasingly we will see less cold and more heat, less winter and more summer. We will still have day and night as before.

The good news is that many evangelicals are working to be good stewards of the planet that God gave us and are not opposed to carefully worked-out climate science. The science/Christian synthesis by evangelicals Katherine Hayhoe and Andrew Farley in their “A Climate for Change” is inspiring.

And check out the work of Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, who are working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions so that we honor the great gift of this planet amid the vastness of the universe.

This story was originally published September 11, 2017 at 3:14 PM with the headline "Richard Anderson: Don’t misconstrue God’s words to justify your denial of climate change."