For God So Loved the World

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How Noah’s Ark Was Nearly Scuttled

If anti-environmental conservatives are inclined to underestimate the potential clout of the new wave of religious greens, they would do well to recall what happened during the last attempt to demolish America’s conservation ethic.

In 1995, Newt Gingrich was flush from his victory in the 1994 midterm elections and ready to flex his power. Meanwhile, a cadre in the so-called Republican Revolution declared the Endangered Species Act one of the nation’s 'Top Ten Worst-Case Regulations' and vowed to gut it like a 12-point buck. That autumn, as House Republicans prepared to perform radical surgery on the act, about 70 evangelical Christian clergy and lay leaders gathered at Bear Trap Ranch, a Christian retreat nestled in a subalpine valley in Colorado’s Pike National Forest. This was one of the early gatherings of the Christian Environmental Council, an offshoot of the Evangelical Environmental Network. After three days of discussion, prayer, and long walks amid the flame-yellow aspens, the emboldened Christians decided to mobilize: If God’s species were imperiled, they were duty-bound to mount a rescue. 'It was a no-brainer,' recalls Stan LeQuire, a Baptist minister and former EEN director. 'This was something that resonated wonderfully with our biblical faith.'

LeQuire’s political neophytes—a band of small-town preachers, Sunday-school teachers, and Christian college professors—took a crash course in modern media techniques. EEN co-founder Calvin DeWitt, a University of Wisconsin professor of environmental studies and the dean of modern Christian environmentalism, quickly proved himself a master of the sound bite by framing the Endangered Species Act as 'the Noah’s ark of our day' and charging that 'Congress and special interests are trying to sink it.' At a 1996 Washington press conference, DeWitt showed up with a live endangered Florida panther in tow. The press ate it up, and Republicans went ballistic.

When EEN lobbyists went to House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s office, a Gingrich staff member heaped scorn on their efforts. 'We were told we didn’t know what we were talking about,' says LeQuire, who now teaches at Eastern College in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. 'The Christian Coalition had just helped some Republicans get elected, and they thought they had everything sewed up. We said, ‘Hold on, some Christians are not of this ilk.’ '

Outside the Beltway, the assault on the Endangered Species Act moved faith-based environmentalists to enter the political fray. Peter Illyn began writing to local newspapers in Washington, proclaiming himself a conservative Christian who thought wiping out God’s species wasn’t such a bang-up idea. 'My Christian peers smugly assumed the environmentalists were wrong,' recalls Illyn. 'I went in there and said, ‘Hey! Quit thumping your Bible and start reading it! Look at Psalms 104:24: 'How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.’ ' The evangelical campaign got its point across loud and clear. The Republicans’ Endangered Species Act reauthorization never made it to the floor of the House, mainly because Republican moderates declined to sign on to a bill that had suddenly become a political loser. 'The EEN came in and showed that people who wanted to protect endangered species weren’t a bunch of total left-wing wacko hippies out there hugging trees,' recalls Karen Steuer, who worked on endangered-species issues for California’s Congressman George Miller, the liberal Democratic environmental leader. 'This was mainstream America.'

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