If misquotes and false information were skin sores, you might say that last Thursday's @issue page had chicken pox. That was the day Robert Parham's column appeared. It contained several false statements and an extra helping of bias ("A religious disconnect on warming," @issue March 6).

A declaration to be issued today by the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative only partially addresses climate change. It openly admits that humans are at least partially responsible for the Earth's heating up. It plainly says, "humans must be proactive and take responsibility for our contributions to climate change —- however great or small."

The fact is that no one, at least at the present, can quantify the exact amount humans are contributing to what we are seeing in the world around us. Although scientists are in general agreement that human contributions are significant, our statement doesn't rely on pinpoint estimates. Our declaration can be boiled down to this: We don't know exactly how much we are contributing to climate change, but in the face of conflicting evidence, we must be proactive and prudent.

Parham attempts to undermine an important document that calls for dialogue and action regarding environmental stewardship. The declaration states that we must take responsibility for the undeniable impact humans have on the environment, which is often "reckless, preventable and sinful."

Rather than keeping "real action locked away" and leaving Southern Baptists "trapped in a canyon of no escape," this document offers a courageous voice for "Southern Baptists and Christians everywhere to respond to these problems with moral passion and concrete action." Sadly, it seems there is a constituency out there who will criticize Southern Baptists no matter how far we step out on any issue.

Much of Parham's column was unconfirmed hearsay that was written without even attempting to confirm the truth. Had he attempted to contact someone involved with this project, he would have realized that much of his column was fallacious.

Even the more factual parts of Parham's column were slanted and biased, due in part to his selective cutting and pasting of quotes from the document. For example, he states that the signatories of this initiative "are saying that since the Bible doesn't speak about climate change . . . they can't definitively say if the Earth is heating up due to human-induced actions." He fails, however, to quote this part from the initiative itself: "We resolve to engage the issue without any further lingering over the basic reality of [climate change] or our responsibility to address it."

The Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative is a humble and honest declaration. Refreshingly, it calls us to take seriously our God-given responsibility to care for and protect the work of His hands. It calls for an awakening to the needs of our neighbors, especially those in the world's poorest regions. You would think those things would resonate with most followers of Christ —- not to mention ethicists like Parham.

> Jonathan Merritt is national spokesman for the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative (www.baptistcreationcare.org) and a freelance faith and culture writer.