Count me among those Southern Baptists who aren't wild about some in the denomination issuing a declaration on climate change earlier this month.

While the activists at the self-styled Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative have every right to their opinions, I believe they are overreaching in trying to transform a political question into one of morality.

In fact, with all due respect, I think these folks have a lot of nerve, telling their fellow Baptists to jump on the global-warming bandwagon and take action in what may well prove to be this century's equivalent of tilting at windmills, only with a host of potentially devastating consequences.

The declaration, which was not endorsed by the denomination itself, boils down to this: "We resolve to engage this issue without any further lingering over the basic reality of the problem or our responsibility to address it." In other words: The debate is over, global warming is here, and we must, as good Baptists, rise up to fight it.

But merely declaring a debate over doesn't make it so. While plenty of scientists buy into global warming, many others don't. Temperature shifts can reflect any number of factors unrelated to human activity. And a healthy skepticism makes sense: Just 30 years ago, some Chicken Little scientists were frightening people with predictions of a new ice age.

While the declaration intentionally avoids listing specific actions Baptists should take against global warming, resources recommended by the group's Web site are not so coy. There you find the typical laundry list of global warming admonitions. Conserve energy. Car pool. Buy efficient appliances. Blah, blah, blah.

But isn't it more than a little presumptuous for the declaration's authors to suggest that God wants me to drive a Prius? I mean, does the Almighty actually have a position on compact fluorescents? Could God really want me to drink less soda, choose showers over baths, reduce my dry cleaning and even "cut food before cooking" to save energy? I don't think so.

One of the group's primary arguments is that climate change could disproportionately harm the poor. I won't presume to speak for God on this, but, as a compassionate human being, I'm more concerned about the threat anti-global-warming efforts pose to workers and their families.

Over the past century, after all, fossil fuels have been a tremendous boon to the well-being of nearly all people, including the poor. Our modern world economy, powered largely by fossil fuels, has made more and better food more available to more people in more places than ever before. And that's just one of the benefits.

If you're tempted to think God favors alternatives like ethanol, consider how government fuel subsidies have sent the price of corn skyrocketing. That's great if you're Archer Daniels Midland, but it's not so good for the world's poorest people, who are already feeling the pinch.

Maybe God is concerned about global warming and maybe He isn't. In His omniscience, God may well know that global warming isn't happening. Or God may know that people aren't causing it. Or perhaps He has the Second Coming slated for next Thursday, rendering all of this moot.

I don't know God's position on global warming and neither do the evangelical activists speaking for Him. But instead of straining to turn a political question into a moral one, we might do well, as Southern Baptists, to stay focused on the instructions Jesus gave all Christians as He departed this world, the part about making disciples of all nations.

As a denomination, I think we can safely leave the global-warming crusade to secular activists and our friends at the more liberal main-line churches. There's more than enough hot air to go around already.

Luke Boggs is a writer living in Alpharetta.

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