US Christian Group Asks 'What Would Jesus Drive?'

The US-based Evangelical Environmental Network has recently made available a bumper sticker that asks 'What would Jesus drive?'.

The network, based in Washington DC, centres its fight against global warming on the Bible and is one of many religious groups trying to slow climate change by getting its followers to reduce the amount they pollute.

In 2005, televangelist Pat Robertson accused the National Association of Evangelicals of conspiring with "left-wing environmentalists" because the group said global warming needed to be slowed.

But Robertson said he became a "convert" on climate change after a heat wave in the summer of 2006. He told the audience on his 700 Club television show: "It is getting hotter, and the icecaps are melting and there is a build-up of carbon dioxide in the air."

Meanwhile, the Rev Jim Ball of the Evangelical Environmental Network said many Christians come from a "libertarian-free market" perspective. He said they are sceptical of government-sponsored programmes.

"They are afraid solutions will harm the economy and harm the poor," Ball said. There is also a small group of Christians who see global warming as a sign of the end of the world, Ball said.

Still, the movement is gaining momentum, not only among evangelical Christians but people of all faiths.

According to Sheila Hopkins, the Florida Catholic Conference's associate director for social concerns, representatives of the state's Catholic dioceses will meet this month in Orlando to talk about what their parishes can do.