And worse yet, from the perspective of the Bush administration, the Evangelical Climate Initiative specifically calls for federal legislation to establish a carbon cap-and-trade system.

And it won't stop with the press conference: The Initiative will continue with television and radio ads in states with lawmakers influential on energy issues, along with educational events in churches and Christian colleges.

The television spot links images of drought, starvation and Hurricane Katrina to global warming. In it, the Rev. Joel Hunter, pastor of a megachurch in Longwood, Fla., says: "As Christians, our faith in Jesus Christ compels us to love our neighbors and to be stewards of God's creation. The good news is that with God's help, we can stop global warming, for our kids, our world and for the Lord."

Yowza.

Those in the evangelical community particularly friendly toward the administration are already in full damage-control mode, of course. In this brief but informative NPR story, we hear this:

"I don't see James Dobson. Is there a more influential evangelical than James Dobson?" observes Richard Land, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. "I don't see Chuck Colson. I don't see Franklin Graham. So these are obviously prominent evangelicals and I -- please don't in any way think that I am denigrating anyone who's on this list -- but it is not an exhaustive list of evangelical leaders, let's put it that way."

That's how they'll try to spin it: This is some kind of addled splinter group. But I doubt it will fly. Back to the NYT piece:

Of those who did sign, said the Rev. Jim Ball, executive director of the Evangelical Environmental Network: "It's a very centrist evangelical list, and that was intentional. When people look at the names, they're going to say, this is a real solid group here. These leaders are not flighty, going after the latest cause. And they know they're probably going to take a little flak."

To see the kind of mindset that these forward-thinking evangelicals are up against, I conclude with some mind-bogglingly backward thoughts from Richard Land:

Land says the Bible makes clear that God expects human beings to take care of the earth. But "human beings come first in God's created order," he adds. "And that primacy must be given to human beings and for human betterment. If that means that other parts of nature take a back seat, well, then they take a back seat." Land argues that slowing economic growth and development by overly strict environmental controls will harm human beings.

Good thing Noah didn't think like that.