The Prophet

In the summer of 2003, the Rev. Jim Ball took a road trip through the Bible Belt. Driving a dark-blue Prius from Texas to the nation's capital, he stopped at evangelical churches to talk about the moral and ethical implications of burning fossil fuel, sparking debate over global warming with a simple question: "What would Jesus drive?"

As executive director of the Evangelical Environmental Network, Ball continues to inject the language of Scripture into the debate over climate change, calling on Christians to trade in their SUVs for more fuel-efficient cars. "Is it loving your neighbor to put them at risk of all these threats of climate change?" he asks. "Is it doing unto others as you would have them do unto you? I don't think so." Under his leadership, thirty prominent evangelical leaders -- representing 45 million congregants -- held a three-day retreat last year to discuss global warming and are preparing to issue a landmark statement on the issue.

"Jim is like one of the Old Testament prophets warning the people," says the Rev. Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals. "I'm sure he has wondered if he was ever going to see the day when the evangelical world was going to wake up. But he's a patient servant of the Lord, and I think that day has come."

By speaking directly to evangelicals -- the base of President Bush's support -- Ball is working to dismantle the divide that has long separated churchgoers and tree- huggers. Last January, he attended a pro-life rally carrying a provocative placard that read, "Stop Mercury Poisoning of the Unborn."

Ball, 44, grew up in Texas and engages in what he calls "spiritual jogging," praying on his eight-mile runs. He became interested in climate change while getting a doctorate in theological ethics. "Climate change isn't just an environmental problem -- that's low-balling it," he says. "Millions of poor people could die in this century because of global warming, and millions of others are at risk of hunger and malnutrition. The poster child of global warming is a poor child. And Christians are supposed to look out for the poor, because God loves them."

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