Several Iowa religious leaders are urging Iowa Senators Charles Grassley and Tom Harkin to support a bill that limits greenhouse gas emissions in order to curb global warming. Ray Heinicke of Indianola focuses on environmental stewardship issues for the Evangelical Lutheran Church’s Southeast Iowa synod. Heinicke says “we do not have free license to do whatever we want to the environment and make it uninhabitable for God’s creation.” Heinicke, who has worked as a biochemist, says church folk have a “moral obligation” to seek a reduction in so-called greenhouse gas emissions, like car exhaust fumes. Heinicke says there are a lot of “environmental crises” in the world, but “global warming is probably the most imminent” according to Heinicke. About 20 Iowa religious leaders of the Catholic, evangelical Christian, mainline Protestant and Jewish faiths asked Iowa’s Senators to help ensure there’s at least debate of the “Climate Stewardship Act.” Religious leaders in 45 other states launched similar lobbying efforts of other U.S. Senators. Heinicke says it’s all about religious folks using their faith to guide their lives. Heinicke says if people are “living out their faith” they “just don’t go out and buy the most-polluting automobile” they can find. Heinicke, for example, says he wonders about the Lutheran church member in Clive who drives his Hummer to church. The Evangelical Environmental Network, for example, has launched a campaign called “What Would Jesus Drive?” — a play on the popular W-W-J-D bracelets that remind some Christians to think “What Would Jesus Do?”
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