Green evangelicals on page one (surprise)

 
 
[From Terry Mattingly's posts at GetReligion.org ]
 
 
 
At
some point, the whole “moderate evangelicals are starting to care about
Creation” story is going to get old, but it sure does not seem that
this will happen anytime soon.
 
 
Don’t get me wrong. This is an important story. However, it is also
an example of an old truth: The quickest way for a conservative to get
on page one of a major newspaper is by saying something critical of
powerful conservative leaders or groups.
 
 
The Green evangelicals stories are also linked to coverage of the
rising Christian left, and that’s another important story. And there
are many, many doctrinally traditionalist Christians (Can I see some
hands raised?) who are tired of seeing journalists link conservative
moral stands with GOP position papers on every issue under the hot sun.
 
 
However, the best mainstream stories on these trends tend to note
that these pro-Green evangelicals (What does one need to believe to be
an anti-Green evangelical?) rarely forsake their conservative stands on
other moral issues. They are broadening their agenda, not editing it.
 
 
However, the hook that some evangelicals are embracing a position
advocated by the mainstream press is simply catnip for journalists.
That story is heading to page one. Pronto.
 
 
This brings us to the latest high-profile Washington Post report on this hot story:
“Warming Draws Evangelicals Into Environmentalist Fold.” It really
helps that reporter Juliet Eilperin has a story hook with a church that
is clearly, under anyone’s definition, an “evangelical” stronghold. We
are talking about Northland Church in Longwood, Fla.
 
 
A key question, however, is this: Where did this trend come from? We are told about an activist named Denise Kirsop: