Al Gore, pictured here from "An Inconvenient Truth," is EthicsDaily.com's 2007 Baptist of the Year.
Posted on 12/30/2007 6:08:54 AM PST by Libloather
Baptist of the Year: Al Gore
Robert Parham
12-28-07
Al Gore, pictured here from "An Inconvenient Truth," is EthicsDaily.com's 2007 Baptist of the Year.
Al Gore is EthicsDaily.com's pick as Baptist of the Year for 2007. He has pressed for the global good with a compelling message about the danger of climate change and a clear call for moral responsibility, knitting together science and faith, reason and passion. He has refused to be distracted by the character-assassins, the fear-mongers, the science-deniers and the merchants of short-term gain. He has remained faithful to his mission of protecting the earth and its inhabitants.
In the opening paragraphs of his Nobel Peace Prize lecture, Gore said, "I have a purpose here today. It is a purpose I have tried to serve for many years. I have prayed that God would show me a way to accomplish it."
With an acknowledgment of Providence, Gore tethered his speech to his moral vision. He quoted the Bible, refused to make God responsible for human inaction, called squarely for an ethic of love for neighbor, confessed human failure and placed moral authority at the tip of the needed plan for planetary redemption. His address was profoundly Christian without being offensively so.
"The earth has a fever. And the fever is rising. The experts have told us it is not a passing affliction that will heal by itself. We asked for a second opinion. And a third. And a fourth. And the consistent conclusion, restated with increasing alarm, is that something basic is wrong," he said. "We are what is wrong, and we must make it right."
Gore appraised realistically one of the major obstacles to making things right—the deficit of leadership. Quoting from Winston Churchill about those who ignored the threat of Adolf Hitler, Gore spoke about the character of too many world leaders: "They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent."
Gore has challenged that leadership deficit with a decisive doggedness that surely comes from the depths of the prophetic vision.
Regrettably no Baptist has received less applause from Baptists than Gore, a shameful but not unexpected reality from a people snarled in religious fear, suspicious of science and stuck in the rut of spiritualized reading of the Bible.
"No prophet is accepted in his own country" (Luke 4:24, KJV), remarked Jesus after he issued his moral mission statement in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:18-19), which concluded with a pro-environmental vision. That vision proclaimed "the year of the Lord's favor," a time that protected the land, its livestock and laborers from exhaustion.
From that day to our day, people of faith have too often pushed aside the prophetic imagination that beckons us to shelter the earth, the powerless and the poor.
Yet our own well-being depends on remembering that God-given obligation to guard the garden and our neighbors from harm. If we fail to honor the prophetic witness, we abandon our reason for being and risk our own impoverishment.
Honoring Al Gore is one way to stir that moral memory with the hope of a renewed faithfulness among goodwill Baptists.
EthicsDaily.com acknowledges that our recognition is a modest one. It all but disappears in comparison with the long line of globally prestigious awards for the former vice president—the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, the third annual Quill Award, the Founders Award at the International Emmy Awards and an Oscar. Nonetheless, we offer a small Baptist voice of thanks to a faithful servant of the global good.
Tennessee's Nobel Peace Laureate becomes the first individual North American Baptist to receive EthicsDaily.com's Baptist of the Year recognition.
Lebanese Baptists were EthicsDaily.com's pick as the Baptists of the Year in 2006. They weathered a withering war. They showed physical courage and spiritual grace under unspeakable pressure. They used the best of technology to share their story. They shared their limited resources to house and care for a flood of Shiite refugees. They spoke with a compelling theological clarity about the Middle East that was long overdue, challenging the misreading of the Bible that mingles bad theology with bad politics.
Brit Paul Montacute was EthicsDaily.com's Baptist of the Year in 2005 for being a global Good Samaritan, who directed Baptist aid initiatives in response to two major natural disasters: the tsunami and the earthquake in Pakistan.
In 2004, EthicsDaily.com closed the year with a list of proactive Baptists who had exercised constructive influence for the common good and/or deserved to be watched in the year ahead. At the top of the list were three British Baptists: Doug Balfour, David Coffey and Tony Peck.
Robert Parham is executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics.
Exactly.
I’m a Southern Baptist, so I have no idea who this group even represents. Who are Lebanese Baptists?
Mommy, please make it stop.
And the Dem circus continues with the cons at the whip...
LOL!
Brought to you by the same people who gave America Mike Huckabee.
How large is that paint brush?
It must be huge to be able to paint such a broad statement.
I’ve always believed Rev. Lovejoy on the ‘Simpsons’ was a character based on Al Gore.
In 2004 Gore was particularly vocal in his message that “global warming” was more dangerous than international terrorism. Bill Clinton supported this idea in a couple of key speeches that year. Since Republicans were seen as strong on national security the Democrats needed to come up with a boogie man that would give kids worse nightmares than 9/11 and Bin Laden.
“Global warming” serves the cabal of crooks at the United Nations as a way of relieving Third World potentates of their responsibility for the poverty and misery of their citizens. “Global warming” puts all the blame on the industrialized countries. This all works to the financial advantage of Gore and his cronies.
I find it troubling that the author would Quote Luke4:24 when refering to Al Gore.Gore’s certainly no prophet in the Biblical sense.He’s a huckster and a thief,a snake oil saleman getting rich off of false science.
Troubling but not surprising. These people will do anything to advance their agenda...that includes infiltrating the church...most definitely infiltrating the church would be a priority if you want to bring it down.
Is the ‘Baptist Center for Ethics’ like “Catholics for a Free Choice’ - three apostates with a fax machine?
Well, he seems to be a typical southern baptist in the mold of jimmy carter and bill clinton.
If Algore is a Baptist, then I’m Herbert freakin’ Hoover!!
That Gaia-worshipping piece of elitist slime is going to be sitting in the Smoking (and burning, and screaming) section when he shuffles off this mortal coil.
Yes, however you recall in Scripture the warning about “wolves in sheep’s clothing” right?? When folks do not READ AND STUDY Scripture they are willing dupes for just about anything. In today’s society no one wants to take time to do something (like study and read) it’s like they expect to absorb or learn information by osmosis.
'Seems to be' being the key words?
After a trip to Ireland, I wore a Celtic cross to a family get together for a family member that attends a southern Baptist church and I got 'glares' from their pastor, so I'm no favorite of our local Southern Baptists. But even I can tell that Gore is a fake Christian. It's not that hard to tell...he's part of the world commie party that wants to eliminate all religion. How stupid can people be?
Actually, Bill Clinton went the Methodist church... a big difference.
On Sept 25, 2005 he wrote, "If President Bush had only listened to America's real Christian leaders, then our nation would not have had 1,923 military fatalities and 14,265 soldiers wounded in action. The nation would not have wasted over $200 billion in Iraq. Iraq would not have an upward estimate of 30,000 civilian deaths. The world would not suffer the consequences of the American-created terrorist training camp in Iraq."
On January 2, 2007 he wrote, "The war in Iraq is the preeminent moral issue of our time. Make no mistake. The American public opposes the war for pragmatic reasons. It isn't working. The reasons given for it were false. The promised progress was a lie. No victory is near. The public doesn't need more understanding of the issue. The public doesn't need to be more patient. The public does need moral clarity that informs their growing opposition to the war."
On January 11, 2007 he wrote, "The Republican Party's domestic policy... favors the rich but opposes a living wage for the poor and affordable, accessible health care to all."
He also shared what he thinks of his denomination, writing, "Baptists are much more than Southern Baptists, who are more southern than Baptist, more exclusive than inclusive, more theocratic than democratic and more negative than positive."
On Feb 5, 2007 he wrote, "Will Christians hear the experts and heed the scriptures? Or will Christians listen to the know-nothing hosts of hate radio and be intimidated by semi-literate, global-warming-denying fellow congregants? Will Christian leaders avoid offending the corporate chieftains concerned only with immediate profit? Or will Christians recognize that global warming will harm the poor more than the rich?"
He's a fan of the Dixie Chicks, writing on June 5, 2006 that, "The Dixie Chicks deserve applause from America's new moral majority--those who said the war against Iraq failed to pass the time-honored code of just war theory and those 56 percent who now say the war was the wrong thing to do."
He led a purportedly Christian based attack on Wal-Mart on behalf of unions...
This is a loonie leftist giving an award to another loonie leftist.
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.
Now the question for my fried brain today is where did I steal that line? Was it PT Barnum or WC Fields?
Based on this item and my own experience with watching the Methodist Church’s slide.
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