http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/news/050429a.asp
CBN.com – (CBN News) - United States Senator James Inhofe is one of the leading conservative voices in the Senate. Inhofe is a strong advocate of common-sense Oklahoma values, including less government, less regulation, lower taxes, fiscal responsibility, and a strong national defense.Pat Robertson recently spoke with Inhofe about far-Left environmentalist groups and their growing push to enlist conservative evangelicals in their cause.
PAT ROBERTSON: Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe is with us, and he has been a strong critic of the excesses of the environmentalist movement. Senator, it’s a great pleasure to have you with us on The 700 Club.
SEN. JAMES INHOFE: Pat, always good to be with you, brother.
ROBERTSON: Tell me, what do the environmentalists believe? Do they worship the God of the Bible or something else?
INHOFE: Well, let’s talk about the environmentalists. I call the far-Left environmental extremists the ones like the NRDC (National Resources Defense Council), like the Environmental Liberation Front. The Environmental Liberation Front bombs buildings and burns down construction, and they’re actually considered by the State Department as a terrorist group. The environmentalist Left is the largest group in terms of funding Left-wing, liberal candidates for office. Now I chair the committee, as you well know, called Environment and Public Works in the United States Senate. I deal with these people every day. I’ll tell you, Pat as I told you when you were here in Washington, when I read in the Washington Post about two months ago, that the National Association of Evangelicals was embracing some of these far-Left environmentalists, I called up Reverend Haggard, and I called up the guy who’s responsible for it. I think its a stroke of genius for the environmentalists to come in and try to capture the Christians or the fundamental Christians. You know, the first thing, there was a meeting in Washington where a Barbara Williams Skinner spoke -- this meeting was by the National Association of Evangelicals -- and she got a standing ovation. She is one who is from the far Left, she is with Jesse Jackson’s group and ACLU, and all these. And I will read you one thing she said, if you’ll let me do this, Pat.
She was giving a speech down at Baylor (University). She said, ‘I know I am in Bush country. But you all can go to sleep for a minute and I will be gone. You don't have a problem. I had a problem. I once had to pray for Ronald Reagan, and I had to get through it, so you can get through this.’ This is the kind of person, and she got a standing ovation. But her whole message was, you have to give up your core values. You can’t have a litmus test on gay marriage, you can’t have a litmus test on abortion on demand, you can’t have a litmus test on the Pledge of Allegiance, and all of these things that have actually propelled conservatives into the leadership and have won elections. You know, I was so excited that we were winning all of these things, and now we have this far-Left group coming in trying to capture the evangelical Christians. We can’t let it happen, Pat.
ROBERTSON: Do you think Ted Haggard is a little naïve? Do you think he understands what he is getting into?
INHOFE: Well, I called him up. In the first article I saw, they mentioned the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and I called up Ted Haggard, and he said quite frankly, well, I don’t want to be part of a group like that. They also mentioned Chuck Colson and Jim Dobson. I called both of them up and they said, no, they are lying. We are not a part of that – we are not for the global warming agenda – that’s the poster child of the far Left – in fact, we know better, we preach against it.
But they use their names, and how many people are out there who saw the names of Chuck Colson, Jim Dobson and Ted Haggard who thought, well that must be the team to join?
ROBERTSON: What is the agenda of the radical Left? They talk about – aren’t environmental concerns sort of like a god to them?
INHOFE: It is. Look, Pat, I don't have to tell you about reading the Scriptures, but one of mine that I’ve always enjoyed is Romans 1, 22 and 23. You quit worshipping God and start worshipping the creation -- the creeping things, the four-legged beasts, the birds and all that. That’s their god. That’s what they worship. If you read Romans 1:25, it says, ‘and they gave up their God and started worshipping the creation.’ That's what we are looking at now, that’s what’s going on. And we can’t let it happen. They say we don't want a litmus test on all these issues, but these issues are not just Republican issues, or conservative issues, or Christian issues, these are issues that resonate in the minds of the vast majority of the people in this country. That's what we are engaged in. We want to have a spiritual country and I would hate to think that we give in, and particularly organizations like the NAE, to a bunch of far-Left-wing environmentalists.
ROBERTSON: Let me ask you about this global warming. I’ve seen movies, you know, where the whole Earth turns into a ice flow, the polar cap melts, and we are starting into either an era of a new ice age, or everybody finds themselves in the wilderness. Are these concerns accurate in terms of the science you understand?
INHOFE: No, no. Pat, I wished you had watched yesterday. I gave a one-hour speech on this, on the Senate floor. All of the science since 1999 has repudiated the idea that global warming caused by man-made gases -- that’s methane and Co2- - is causing a global warming, and the end of the world is coming, and the icecap is going to melt and all these things. But what they don’t realize-- and what they won’t tell you -- is that it was far warmer on the icecap in the 1930s and 1940s than it is today. We have trend lines that go up and down. And God is still up there and weather does change, but the same people who are yelling and screaming, and the authors of doom about global warming, were the ones in the late ‘70s who were talking about a new ice age coming, and we are all going to die. They have to be hysterical about something. I recommend, except for the dirty words, a great book written by Michael Crichton. I think we talked about that. It’s called State of Fear. He is an author, a medical doctor, and scientist. He was going to write a novel about global warming and all the horrible things, so he researched it and he thought, wait a minute, this thing’s a hoax. So he wrote a book about the fact that it is a hoax, and while it’s a fiction book and a novel, the footnotes are incontrovertible in terms of science. Now, you might say, wait a moment, no science to it? And if we know, according to the Wharton School of Economics, that it costs the average family of four $2,715 a year if we were to buy onto the Kyoto treaty (commits industrialized nations to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by around 5.2 percent below their 1990 levels, over the next decade), then what would be the motivation? I think you can find that in a couple of statements that were made, one by Jacques Chirac, who said this is the first step toward international governance. And Margo Walstrom of the European Union -- she is the environmentalist over there -- she said it is not about climate change, but it’s about leveling the playing field for business, worldwide. Those are the liberals who were behind it, and I think it is a wake-up call. And I am glad you talk about it now and then.
ROBERTSON: We appreciate you being on to talk about it. Thanks for being with us.
INHOFE: Pat, it’s always great to see you.
ROBERTSON: My pleasure. Senator Jim Inhofe, a great senator from the state of Oklahoma. We appreciate him, and he chairs a vital committee on this matter, and I’m glad he’s standing for some very important principles.
