Unless a 21st-century Moses comes down from Stone Mountain with a new commandment about global warming, don't expect the majority of Southern Baptist clergy to tackle the issue of human-induced climate change anytime soon.

Scientific consensus simply isn't enough to trigger responsible moral action for those who demand the absolute certainty of divine revelation.

This will become apparent Friday, when Southern Baptist Convention leaders will reportedly release "A Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change," advanced by Jonathan Merritt, the earnest 25-year-old son of former SBC President James Merritt. James Merritt pastors Cross Pointe Church in Gwinnett County.

Last year, the SBC adopted a resolution questioning whether human activity significantly affects global warming. Wiley Drake, then the SBC's second vice president, interpreted the resolution as meaning, "We don't believe in global warming." The new statement calls previous denominational resolutions and actions on global warming "too timid" and proclaims with bravado that "the time for timidity regarding God's creation is no more."

Yet the new declaration itself discloses too much timidity for one lamentable theological reason — "special revelation."

"We recognize that we do not have any special revelation to guide us about whether global warming is occurring and, if it's occurring, whether people are causing it," the statement says. "[T]here is not a consensus regarding the anthropocentric nature of climate change or the severity of the problem."

For those without a theological dictionary, "special revelation" is a code word for the Bible, the supernaturally revealed, inerrant and literal message of truth from God.

Baptists often express their moral absolutism on every matter under the sun with the statement, "The Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it."

What these prominent Southern Baptists are saying is that since the Bible doesn't speak about climate change and human beings causing global warming, they can't definitively say if the Earth is heating up due to human-induced actions.

Nonetheless, they say that while "the claims of science are neither infallible nor unanimous," scientific claims are "substantial and cannot be dismissed."

They see what others are seeing. But they don't have any special revelation from God to confirm what they are seeing, leaving them trapped in a canyon of no escape.

If they backtrack on their convictions about the Bible's special revelation, then they place at risk other issues upon which they have pontificated with uncompromising certainty, such as abortion and the role of women. If they stay in the ravine, they become even more irrelevant, especially to a younger generation.

With no resolution to the riddle of competing sources of knowledge, these clergy Texas two-step. They rightly acknowledge that the Christian teachings of love for God, love for neighbor and care for creation necessitate environmental stewardship. They urge prudent actions despite the "absence of perfect knowledge."

Then their so-called "wise decisions ... in the absence of infallible evidence" amount to this: Let's keep talking about global warming and keep real action locked away in personalized initiatives and the private sector.

When Southern Baptist college presidents, a divinity school dean and a former SBC president make such a fainthearted statement about such a pressing issue, one wonders how they can ever challenge their students and congregants to live courageously and meaningfully in the real world.

• Robert Parham, an ordained Baptist minister, is executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics in Nashville.