Weapons of Mass Devotion

The Republican War on Science has a new weapon: God. A cabal of conservative evangelical institutions have teamed up to produce the "We Get It" declaration [1] — a manifesto for divinely-inspired Global Warming denial. Check out the declaration itself below the break.

God Said It
God created everything. He made us in His own image, and commanded us to be fruitful and multiply and watch over His creation. Although separated from God by our sin, we are lovingly restored through Jesus Christ, and take responsibility for being good stewards.
We Get It
Our stewardship of creation must be based on Biblical principles and factual evidence. We face important environmental challenges, but must be cautious of claims that our planet is in peril from speculative dangers like man-made global warming.
They Need It
With billions suffering in poverty, environmental policies must not further oppress the world’s poor by denying them basic needs. Instead, we must help people fulfill their God-given potential as producers and stewards.
Let’s Do It
We will follow our Lord Jesus Christ and honor God as we use and share the principles of His Word to care for the poor and tend His creation.

There are a lot of war-on-science cliches here --- the manufactured uncertainty, the claim that environmentalism is bad for the poor. But it's the divine gloss that's new. Piety and faith command us to do nothing about global warming.

It's too early to know if the tactic will work. A faction of evangelicals lead by the good Reverend Richard Cizik [2] have shown genuine concern about global warming. But some of the same hard-line hot-shots (esp. James "Gay Marriage Will Destroy the World [3]" Dobson)" behind "We Get It" have tried to quash Cizik and stamp out the budding green evangelicism [4]. We'll see which side the ever-important evangelical electorate takes...

Coming Monday: An investigation into the motley crew behind "We Get It" [5].

(Mad blog props to Grist [6]for pointing out [7] "We Get It")