When Self-Help Can Help
Last week bestselling self-help author and pastor Rick Warren joined with other evangelical leaders in signing an Evangelical Climate Initiative calling for federal legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions.Warren's influence counts. He's the head of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, a mega-church with some 22,000 weekly congregants, and the author of The Purpose-Driven Life, with 25 million copies sold, a mega-seller among bestselling self-help books. In fact, Warren and the other evangelicals may well sway the stalwart Bush administration, which has denied the relevance of green house gases in global warming.
Here's a moment when a self-help author recognizes that individual bootstrapping (buying green, driving hybrids, and so on) just isn't going to do the trick. Hallelujah.
Keywords: self-help • global warming • Rick Warren
posted by Micki McGee at 11:47 AM
2 Comments:
People like Rick Warren earn widespread public respect and credibility in their field, and then, are effective in influencing individuals to reflect on the meaning of 'the right choices for the right reasons.' Celebrities seize the listener's undivided attention. They harness power to persuade people to adopt their point of view on matters such as the environment. If you have faith in someone's talent or respect the person for some quality or skill, then you're more likely to adopt their position.
The respect and credibility that Rick Warren has earned will make people sit up and take notice. He should be able to influence more people to think about environmental issues. We always seem to pay more attention to someone that we feel is truly doing "the right thing." Hopefully more people will at least consider what we can all do to help the cause.
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