Southern Baptist Leaders Urge Action On Environment Issues, Climate Change

New York, NY (AHN)-In a dramatic shift of policy, Southern Baptist Church leaders declared their denomination has a responsibility to confront and combat global warming, a sharp departure from their earlier stance questioning humanity's contribution to climate change.

The conservative Protestant organization, which has over 16 million members, held a conference on Monday called "A Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change," in which leaders signed a resolution urging more action on pressing environment issues.

In a statement signed by some forty-six influential members of the Southern Baptist Convention, including three of its past four presidents, and released on Monday, church leaders criticized the group for being "too timid" on certain environmental issues such as global climate change.

Although the resolution did urge Baptists to "proceed cautiously in the human-induced global warming debate in light of conflicting scientific research," convention leaders still urged the community to "be proactive and take responsibility for our contributions to climate change -- big and small."

"Our cautious response to these issues in the face of mounting evidence may be seen by the world as uncaring, reckless and ill-informed," the statement said. "We can do better."