At face value, it seems harmless enough. According to ABC "Good Morning America" co-host Robin Roberts, every Christmas the show features various "spiritual leaders" to talk about the role of faith in their lives. And this year's Christmas Day broadcast was no exception.
"And now, it is a ‘GMA' tradition on Christmas Day, to talk about the role of faith in all of our lives," Roberts said. "We gathered a group of spiritual leaders from different traditions to talk about the importance of belief, in good times and belief in bad times, too."
Roberts' panel featured Father Edward Beck, an ABC News contributor and author of "Soul Provider: Spiritual Steps to Limitless Love," Francine Rivers, author of "A Lineage of Grace," Pastor Max Lucado of Oak Hill Church in San Antonio and author of "Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear" and Pastor Miles McPherson, of San Diego's Rock Church and author "DO Something!: Make Your Life Count."
Roberts assessed the current climate of Christmas 2009 to be almost hopeless, with war and a bad economy.
"This is something so important, I think, especially on this day. And it is a very difficult time, when you look at us at war," Roberts said. "Is this the eighth Christmas we're waking up and we're at war? And the economy at such."
But later in the segment, Roberts asked Lucado what his congregation at Oak Hill Church was asking about, primarily what their concerns were. But Lucado's response, assuming it wasn't contrived, was a sad indication of the power of the anthropogenic global warming alarmism movement's ability to manipulate the media - by spreading a message that has heightened the fears about global warming (emphasis added).
"They're frightened," Lucado said. "They're talking layoffs at work and slowdowns in the economy, upswings in global warming. You know, people are nervous. They're just kind of nervous."
And to overcome these "nervous emotions" induced by things like "upswings in global warming," Lucado offered the following advice.
"And I think what they need to be reminded of is that God uses difficult times to make better people," Lucado said. "He'll take the challenges of our lives to strengthen us and to help us."
Merging global warming and/or climate change with spiritual faith is something that isn't uncommon. In 2008, then-Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean suggested using the issue of climate change to lure the support of Christian evangelicals. That is ironic for an issue, as "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace pointed out, ascribes a "religious certainty" with the language alarmists have used to describe those skeptical of the phenomenon.
