Last Monday, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a statement (full text) marking Earth Day. It said in part: "The Bible tells us in the Old Testament, 'To minister to the needs of God's creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us.'" Now, according to Wednesday's CNS News, Biblical scholars say that this quotation does not come from the Bible. Apparently Pelosi has used the same quote a number of other times. Claude Mariottini, a professor of Old Testament at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary near Chicago, said this "is one of those texts that you fabricate in order to support what you want to say."
UPDATE: Get Religion on Friday commented on CNS's coverage of Pelosi's remarks, quibbling primarily about the story's failure to emphasize tbe Biblical motivation of many environmentalists.
